U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire in Lebanon on June 1, but Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched more attacks against Israel three hours later. Hezbollah has continued firing rockets at northern Israel throughout this ceasefire and every one before it, leading some Israelis to call it the “ceasefire war.” The current talks between the United States and Iran that seek an end to war remain murky, with the details shifting by the hour. What is clear is that Iran arms, funds and trains Hezbollah, and then points at Israel as the obstacle to peace.
The Iranian regime recently used Israel’s resurgent campaign against Hezbollah as its excuse to halt communication with the U.S. negotiators. The regime’s foreign minister insisted that a ceasefire must cover “all fronts” and had already declared that Israeli attacks on its most important proxy group were a red line in any U.S.-Iran deal.
Since Oct. 8, 2023—one day after the Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel and the kidnapping of 251 others—Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and drones at Israel, killing dozens of Israelis and forcing thousands of families to live within a 15-second sprint to a bomb shelter. The Israeli Defense Forces have responded by attacking the group’s leaders, terrorist bases and weapons depots. Israel’s aim is not to gain territory, but to stop the rocket fire and let its citizens live safely at home.
Hezbollah controls Lebanon, not the elected government
Hezbollah does not answer to the country it fires from; it pledges loyalty to Iran. It is “the crown jewel of Iran’s proxy network” and has attacked Israel relentlessly since Oct. 8, 2023.
The Lebanese and Israeli governments have held several rounds of direct talks for the first time since 1983, agreeing to a U.S.-brokered truce in April. Hezbollah never signed on; it resumed its barrages of rockets and drones against northern Israeli communities. The Israeli military responded by recently issuing evacuation orders for seven villages in Southern Lebanon to protect civilians from the targeting of Hezbollah sites.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam recently condemned Hezbollah for dragging his country back into war, stating that “we did not choose this war” and calling negotiations the least costly path. Last September, the Lebanese Army presented the government with its Homeland Shield Plan to disarm militias, primarily Hezbollah. The terror group responded by branding both Salam and the country’s president, Joseph Aoun, “traitors” for negotiating with Israel and issuing threats against the government if it moved to disarm it.
The terrorist group has effectively ruled Lebanon and attacked Israel for decades, receiving billions of dollars from Iran, overruling and assassinating the country’s political leaders. Hezbollah assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive truck bombing in 2005 that used 2,200 pounds of explosives.
Hezbollah keeps northern Israel under fire
The strain on the north is heavy. Kiryat Shmona—Israel’s largest border city—was recently described by one resident as “dead.” A barber recalled how before the war, “this area was full of people,” and now no one goes out at night. About 60,000 residents of northern border communities were evacuated beginning in October 2023, and most returned only after the 2024 ceasefire.
Residents who returned are staying in their homes while under a barrage of rockets. The IDF operates inside Lebanon for one reason: to stop the attacks so Israelis can live peacefully in their homes. This is self-defense, not a fight for land.
Many Israelis in the north are resilient. Along the border, farmers return each morning to fields scorched by Hezbollah rockets, replanting orchards within sight of enemy positions. Volunteer paramedics—Druze, Christian and Jewish—race toward the impact sites the moment a barrage ends.
Ofer Moskovitz, 60, farms an avocado grove 100 yards from the Lebanese border: “It’s dangerous, and it’s stressful, but most of the residents are here; they came back. There’s an amazing community, and we go through everything together.”
Hezbollah’s war against Israel is part of Iran’s war against America
Iran and its proxies have been killing Americans for decades. Hezbollah carried out the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. service members. Iran’s precision missiles and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles remain a threat to U.S. troops and the American homeland.
Iran has carried out attacks against Americans for nearly 50 years, including attempts at political assassinations on U.S. soil. Recently, federal prosecutors charged the commander of an Iranian-backed militia with plotting to firebomb a Manhattan synagogue, in addition to Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz.
The terrorist who planned the attacks declared in court on June 1: “I am not guilty, and we are in a war situation.” He spoke on the first anniversary of a terrorist firebomb attack in Boulder, Colo., which claimed the life of 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Karen Diamond, an attack that 75% of Americans have never heard of or do not care about.
Points to consider:
1. Iran is the arsonist calling itself the firefighter.
The Iranian regime arms, funds and trains Hezbollah to the tune of billions of dollars and thousands of rockets—and then blames Israel for the fire its own proxy set. Iran has used the fighting in Lebanon as its excuse to stall the very talks with America that could end the war. The regime points at Israel as the obstacle to peace while its proxy keeps pulling the trigger. Iran is buying time and calling it principle.
2. The Iranian regime and Hezbollah are holding the Lebanese people hostage.
Hezbollah does not speak for Lebanon; it occupies it. For decades, the Iranian proxy has overruled the country’s elected leaders and murdered those who defied it, including a former prime minister killed by a massive truck bomb. When Lebanon’s leaders recently moved to disarm the group, Hezbollah branded them as “traitors.” The terrorist group launches its deadly attacks from Lebanese villages, stores weapons in homes and embeds its leaders in the capital. The Lebanese people did not choose this war any more than Israelis did.
3. The threat to Israelis is real, constant and deadly.
Hezbollah’s rockets and drones have killed dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers since the fighting resumed on Oct. 8, 2023, and the danger remains. Even after Israel destroyed much of its prewar arsenal, the terror group still holds an estimated 15,000 rockets, including precision-guided missiles that can reach Israel’s largest cities. Families in the north live within a 15-second sprint to a shelter. This is not a border skirmish. It is a sustained campaign to make life in northern Israel unbearable.
4. The false charge of “genocide” now follows Israel from Gaza to Lebanon.
Even before Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, anti-Israel activists wielded the word “genocide” as a weapon to attack supporters of the Jewish state. Now, the term is starting to be applied to Israel’s actions in Lebanon. Brad Lander, the Democratic frontrunner in New York for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, recently stood in an Islamic center and called Israel’s defense against Hezbollah terrorists a potential genocide. The accusation does not follow the evidence on the ground. It follows Israel wherever Israel defends itself.
