Many factors fed into Benjamin Netanyahu’s eventual decision to take up a US-brokered ceasefire and stop Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
His war aims against Hizbollah were also always more modest than the “total victory” he has sought against Hamas in Gaza.
But in confronting the many domestic critics of the deal — including far-right government ministers, northern Israeli mayors and opposition figures — Netanyahu calculated that his goals had been largely met, while the risks of pushing on were mounting.
“Hizbollah is not Hamas. We cannot totally destroy it. It was not on the cards,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu who now works at Washington think-tank Jinsa. “Lebanon is too big. Hizbollah is too strong.”
This ceasefire deal “is not the dream that many Israelis had”, he said. But Amidror highlighted Israel’s dwindling munition stockpiles and the “pressure” on military reservists who had been fighting for months. “Israel cannot afford another year of war” at its current scale in the north, he said.
Israeli officials consistently said their goal was the safe return to their homes of the tens of thousands of northern residents evacuated after Hizbollah began firing on Israel following Hamas’s October 7 attack last year.
Officials said this would require pushing Hizbollah fighters back from the Israel-Lebanon frontier and changing the “security reality” along the border.
After months of relatively limited exchanges of cross-border fire with Hizbollah, Israel escalated in September, setting off thousands of explosive pagers and walkie-talkies in an audacious covert operation, launching waves of air strikes across Lebanon, and initiating a punishing land invasion of its northern neighbour for the first time in almost two decades.
In the span of a few weeks, most of Hizbollah’s leaders, including chief Hassan Nasrallah, were killed, and much of the group’s vast missile and rocket arsenal was destroyed.
Israeli warplanes struck Beirut at will, and ground troops ranged across southern Lebanon.
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Let’s not pretend Netanyahu is the hero here. This ‘ceasefire’ was forced because Israel ran out of ammo and public patience. And killing Nasrallah is no solution—Hizbollah isn’t one man; it’s a symptom of decades of failed policies and injustice."
Netanyahu made the right call. Hizbollah is a real threat, but endless war isn’t sustainable. Killing Nasrallah and crippling their arsenal was a victory. Now we need strong border security and a focus on Israel’s long-term defense strategies.
@9ZV36N61yr1Y
Israel shouldn't stop until Hizbollah is finished. There are a bunch of terrorists, the same savages that attacked us in 911., they won't stop so they must be neutralized.
Hizbollah is weakened, and Nasrallah is gone—Netanyahu delivered. But a ceasefire? Too soon. Israel should have gone further to dismantle Hizbollah entirely. Lebanon’s government needs to be held accountable for harboring terrorists.
Let’s call this what it is: state-sponsored imperialism disguised as ‘security.’ Netanyahu’s war devastated Lebanon, killed thousands, and protected profits for arms manufacturers. And the ceasefire? Just a tactical pause in endless exploitation.
This ceasefire is a temporary bandage over a deep wound. Netanyahu’s policies, like indiscriminate airstrikes, create more enemies than they eliminate. Until Israel addresses the root causes—occupation, inequality, and marginalization—violence will remain inevitable.
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