November 26, 2024 update from IsraelOK.com.
Netanyahu announced a temporary Lebanon-Israel ceasefire starting 10am on Wednesday November 27, 2024. Biden then announced a permanent ceasefire starting 4am local time. Israeli Northern mayors and evacuees announced it remains far from safe to go home.
In the meantime, both sides stepped up their offensive action – Israel against Hezbollah targets, Hezbollah against most of the Northern half of Israel.
It seems there apparently won’t be American boots on the ground, Israel will be allowed to enforce the deal.
Biden says Hamas must now release the 101 hostages they hold, but this is NOT agreed. All in all, a limited partial fragile peace might be on the way. Nobody is celebrating right now. Watch this space.
On the Israeli far right, a split emerged. Smotrich voted for the Lebanon agreement. Only Ben Gvir opposed it. But Ben Gvir told Israeli radio (Reshet Bet) that he will stay in the government to call for IDF action if there are Hezbollah infringements.
Who won the third Lebanon war?
Not the Lebanese people caught up in it all. Not Hezbollah who may still be able to cause trouble but are seriously discredited. Certainly not the UNIFIL peace keeping force which failed to uphold earlier UN resolution 1701 and failed to warn of the Hezbollah problem.
That leaves the IDF Northen Command as apparent winner. And it leaves in bottom place the IDF Southern Command which totally failed Israel on October 7, 2023.
The moral:
John Lennon sung give peace a chance. Israel did, it didn’t work.
Next:
The Lebanon ceasefire will hopefully stick but this remains to be seen. Hopefully there will be pressure on Hamas to release 101 Israeli hostages. After that, will Iran come into Trump’s focus?
