As Lebanese, Israeli, and American teams prepare for their first-ever trilateral leaders summit, it is time to reflect on this opportunity and lessons from the past.
Most Lebanese have yearned for decades for a restoration of state sovereignty and peace. There are a host of reasons why they have been deprived of what most people around the globe take as a birth right; in recent decades, Iranian intimidation and use of Hezbollah as a proxy to assert power in the Levant have been the primary impediments. Iranian and Hezbollah overreach, the degradation of Hezbollah’s leadership and power by the IDF, and the emergence of independence-minded leaders in Beirut have finally brought true sovereign control within reach. Lebanese state authorities, no longer under the shadow of Iranian intimidation, are prepared and able to have state-to-state talks with Israel. Their move is not a concession. It is an acknowledgement that a responsible state’s first task is to secure the lives and livelihoods of its people as well as control over its sovereign land — something Hezbollah, from its inception and on behalf of foreign interests, has prevented every previous government from doing.
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