Here we are once again. There is applause, and there are diplomatic statements. We hear talk of a “historic agreement.” Political leaders use the word “peace.”
This time, the celebration is due to a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
As someone who has served in the Israel Defense Forces for 31 years and continues to serve as a reserve officer, and as someone who lives in Kibbutz Dafna, less than a mile from the Lebanese border, I want very much to believe. I want to hope that this time something has truly changed.
But the experience of recent years, and especially the lived experience of those of us who raise our families along Israel’s northern border, forces me to say honestly: If this agreement once again rests on Lebanese promises and weak monitoring mechanisms, without determined Israeli enforcement from the very first day, it will share the fate of the agreements and understandings that came before it.
There are, of course, positive elements to the agreement.
The very fact that the Lebanese government is speaking openly about disarming Hezbollah is significant. The fact that Hezbollah is protesting the agreement suggests that the organization sees it as a genuine threat to its status. From Israel’s perspective, participation in negotiations makes clear to the world that Israel is not rejecting peace but seeking security for its citizens.
Still, for the residents of northern Israel, there is no reason to celebrate.
The problem is not the wording of the agreement. The problem is the long-standing gap between the declarations of the Lebanese government and the reality on the ground.
Time and again, we have heard promises about Lebanese sovereignty, the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in the south, the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and the distancing of Hezbollah from the border. Time and again, those promises have failed the test of reality.
As an IDF officer and resident of northern Israel, I know that only determined enforcement will change the situation.
Now, we are being asked to believe that the Lebanese Armed Forces will disarm Hezbollah, including in areas where for years it barely dared to operate. Yet we know that the Lebanese army is a weak institution operating within a complex sectarian and political system in which Hezbollah’s influence runs deep. Even if the political leadership in Beirut genuinely wants change, it is far from clear that it has the power to impose that change on an armed, organized, ideological, Iranian-backed terrorist organization like Hezbollah.
That is why the greatest danger is not simply that the agreement will fail. The real danger is that it will give Hezbollah time. Time to reorganize. Time to rebuild its infrastructure. Time to smuggle weapons. Time to restore its power under the soothing headline of a “diplomatic process.”
In the Middle East, time is a strategic asset. Hezbollah knows very well how to exploit it.
That is why the test of this agreement will not be the signing ceremony, statements from Washington or diplomatic applause. The test will be on the ground.
Will every violation be answered immediately and decisively? Will all attempted weapons smuggling be stopped? Will every new Hezbollah position be destroyed? Will every attempt by Hezbollah to return to the area near the border meet clear, continuous and uncompromising resistance?
Equally important: Will the Israeli government be able to withstand U.S. pressure, which will likely increase as IDF strikes expand in response to Hezbollah’s expected violations and the Lebanese army’s inability to enforce the agreement effectively?
We, the residents of northern Israel, are not opposed to peace. On the contrary, no one wants peace more than those who have raised their children under the threat of rockets, anti-tank missiles and cross-border infiltration.
But real peace is not measured by a document. It is measured by whether children in Dafna, Metula, Manara, Margaliot and Kiryat Shmona can walk to and from school without fearing that terrorist infrastructure is being rebuilt a very short distance from their homes.
As a resident of the north, I believe the Israel-Lebanon framework itself has no real security meaning unless it is enforced in practice. I cannot base the safety of my children on the assumption that the Lebanese government and its army will, on their own, dismantle Hezbollah’s military power.
Only independent, determined and unceasing Israeli enforcement, from the first moment, word by word and clause by clause, will allow us, the residents of Israel’s northern border communities, to live here in security.
