Why the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal falls short

Israeli soldiers stand near a tank as it is moving along the border with Lebanon.

The lesson of October 7 is that Israel must be uncompromising and proactive when it comes to protecting itself.

Underpinning the current temporary ceasefire arrangement with Hezbollah is the strong likelihood that Israel will be forced to return to another painful and costly round of fighting in Lebanon. A sustainable agreement must not only address the threat from Hezbollah and promise effective and reliable international involvement but it also must be clear about the source of regional instability: the Iranian regime.

In May 2000, I locked the gates between Israel and Lebanon. It was the Israel Defence Forces’ official withdrawal after 18 years and the end of an era for me. I entered Lebanon as a private in 1978. I left as a brigadier general.

In the quarter-century since I pulled those gates shut behind me, Lebanon has become Iran’s plaything. The fundamentalist regime in Tehran envisions using Hezbollah to destroy Israel and, ultimately, to dominate the region. This can never be allowed to happen.

Hamas launched the most lethal attack on Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 last year. The next day, Hezbollah, backed by its Iranian patrons, decided to join the war. Since then Israel and its people have endured nearly 20,000 rockets and hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Lebanon. Nearly 70,000 of Israel’s citizens have been displaced. Dozens have been murdered, among them 12 Druze children.

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem.

As a result, the IDF had to return to southern Lebanon to neutralise the same threat behind which I had personally shut the gates nearly a quarter of a century earlier. What Israel uncovered this time was another October 7-like attack poised for launch: terror tunnels within sight of Israeli towns ready to unleash hundreds of Radwan terrorists as well as missile silos and weapon caches embedded in Lebanese homes close to the border. All of it set for deployment on command.

Hezbollah has been holding the state and people of Lebanon hostage for decades. To change the reality in northern Israel and Lebanon, restore security and stability to Israel, enable Lebanon to wrest free of Iranian domination and continue building a prosperous future for the region, Israel must pursue a more long-term comprehensive plan.

Southern Lebanon must be stabilised. That stability must prove itself over time. The following steps are essential:

• Israel must have operational freedom to act not only against immediate threats posed by Hezbollah forces but against any force building far from the border. History has proved that only Israel can be entrusted to safeguard the security of Israelis.

• The UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL must be strengthened with an expanded mandate and designated a chapter seven UN peacekeeping force permitted to use force to fulfil its mission.

Benny Gantz.

• US Central Command must participate in the demilitarisation and deconfliction efforts in southern Lebanon and on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

• Israel must be permitted to conduct aerial monitoring of the potential build-up of Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon.

• The Lebanese Armed Forces must be strengthened under the government of Lebanon and tasked with overseeing the pass­ages across the Litani River into southern Lebanon.

• The UN Security Council must resolve to impose a weapons embargo and interdict financing of armed organisations in Lebanon other than the army and domestic police forces. Any member state found transferring weapons and funds to terrorists, or facilitating such transfers, must be sanctioned.

• Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, led by the US and facilitated by relevant stakeholders, must be initiated to resolve the delineation and demarcation dispute on the border.

Then, and only then, can Israel start forging a longer-term plan between Israel and Lebanon. In this new reality, Lebanon will be able to resuscitate its economy, grow sustainably and weaken the economic stranglehold of the Iranian regime. Lebanon can be integrated into the Abraham Accords and become part of wider regional normalisation processes, affording it access to valuable economic opportunity and strategic international initiatives free from Iranian meddling.

The Lebanese Armed Forces can be brought under Centcom’s security umbrella, facilitating military co-ordination and co-operation with regional allies.

US President Joe Biden.

None of this will be easy. Yet it’s all necessary to root out Iranian influence and pave the way towards a free and prosperous Lebanon. The free world, led by the US and President-elect Donald Trump, will need to deploy significant leverage to achieve these goals, but the prospect of Lebanese freedom and regional normalisation in the long term isn’t out of reach.

Unlike the Iranian regime, which seeks to subjugate Lebanon and exploit its people, Israel seeks to coexist with its neighbour to the north. Israel’s wars have always been waged against Hezbollah and other terror organisations – never against the people of Lebanon.

History ultimately remembers those brave enough to capitalise on opportunities – Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, King Hussein of Jordan, Emirati President Mohammed Bin Zayed, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. A new, moderate Middle East is developing with US leadership and Israeli economic and military strength. Lebanon can be a part of it.

Benny Gantz is chairman of the National Unity party and was Israel’s defence minister, 2020-22. This article first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.