It is a total capitulation to Iran and the United States: why the ceasefire in Lebanon weakens the P

“Both parties want peace, and I believe it will happen quickly.” Donald Trump announced on Friday, April 17, a ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, after a month and a half of conflict between the Hebrew State and the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah movement. The President of the United States also promised that he was working to organize the very first meeting at the White House between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But this diplomatic breakthrough is not necessarily good news for the latter, criticized from all sides on the approach to the October elections and accused of corruption in three different cases, as Le Parisien points out.

Several officials from the northern regions of Israel, within missile and drone range of Hezbollah, criticized the cessation of hostilities. “This is not a victory, it is a humiliation, a total capitulation to Iran and the United States,” reacted Eitan Davidi, the president of Mochav Margaliot, a village located on the Lebanese border, as cited by Le Figaro. “We are not supposed to accept a sentence pronounced by the President of the United States as if we were his subjects,” also commented Moshe Davidovich, president of the Mateh Asher regional council, also quoted by the newspaper.

While polls predict the defeat of the ruling coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu in the October elections, the opposition sees this as an opportunity to criticize the Prime Minister’s strategy. “Once again, all the promises made by this government are shattered in the face of reality,” denounced the opposition leader, centrist Yair Lapid, as reported by Times of Israel. The previous week, Benjamin Netanyahu had stated in a press release that he would continue to “fight” the Hezbollah. “Israel will no longer bomb Lebanon. They are FORBIDDEN to do so by the United States. Enough!!!”, Donald Trump emphasized on his Truth Social network last Friday.

“It seems that a trend is emerging, where ceasefires are imposed on us: in Gaza, in Iran, and now in Lebanon,” commented Gadi Eisenkot, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli army and head of the Yashar party (center-right), as reported by Le Figaro. In early April, the opposition had already widely criticized the ceasefire with Iran as a bitter failure for “Bibi,” as noted by L’Orient-Le Jour. “Once again, Hezbollah is given time to regroup and strengthen. The war must not end without a clear victory and the elimination of Hezbollah,” also stated Avigdor Liberman, head of the far-right Israel Beytenou party, who accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of underestimating the Hamas threat.

Only Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats (left), considered that the ceasefire was “a step in the right direction,” while also noting that it was the result of “external pressures.” The Israeli public opinion was also largely in favor of continuing the conflict: 77% of those surveyed at the beginning of April said they wanted to continue the war against Hezbollah, according to a poll published by Maariv.

This blow is even harder for Benjamin Netanyahu as the Prime Minister had made his closeness to Donald Trump a campaign argument. However, the latest sequence suggests that the Israeli head of state was taken by surprise by the American decision. According to CNN, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army had approved new war plans for Iran and Lebanon the day before Donald Trump’s ceasefire announcement.

“At this stage of the war, in which he engaged largely under the influence of [Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Donald] Trump has become the ultimate arbiter, if not the sole one,” states the newspaper Haaretz in an editorial. “[Benjamin] Netanyahu influenced the outbreak of the war [but] he will have no influence on how it ends,” adds researcher Aaron David Miller in The New York Times.

For their part, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam discussed on Saturday the preparations for negotiations with Israel, on the second day of the ceasefire. In a televised speech on Friday, Joseph Aoun addressed the Lebanese and Hezbollah, without naming them, stating that Lebanon is working on “a permanent agreement” with Israel while denying that direct discussions with the neighbor are a “sign of weakness.”