Israel doesn’t do actual ceasefires. It continues to kill indiscriminately in many ways, but may refrain from bombing civilians for a period of time. Israel regards Lebanon as part of its own territory, where it can act as it pleases. The Lebanese government is already firmly under its thumb, and has been so thoroughly disarmed that the army is incapable of defending its own territory. Only Hezbollah can do this, so naturally it is considered the enemy by both Israel and its Lebanese proxy government. Israel would really like to see civil war in Lebanon, in order to further destroy a state that it wishes to annex in its entirety into the Greater Israel project. Non-Jews are regarded by Israel as subhuman, possessing only 3/5 of a soul, while only Jews posses a full soul, and are therefore fully human and superior to all others. This is of course merely racist hubris, but this deeply held belief is driving Israel to commit countless atrocities against its neighbours. It believes that its only path to security is to render all other inhabitants of the region radically insecure. It has become a barbaric pariah state.
Israel could not do any of this without the full complicity of the US, which both bankrolls and arms it. While both American parties are fully bought and paid for by the Israeli lobby, only Trump was stupid enough to go to war with Iran on their behalf. All Israel has to do was tell him it would a quick in and out, like his criminal kidnapping of the Venzuelan president. Having convinced him to attack Iran, the Israelis now undermine any attempt to end the war, so Trump is trapped. Israel wants nothing less than the utter destruction of Iran, and won’t accept anything short of that. Meanwhile the IDF is sounding the alarm that it’s over-extended and beginning to collapse, and Hezbollah is inflicting substantial casualties on the troops invading Lebanon on a daily basis with fibre optic drones. Netanyahu is becoming increasingly unpopular due to his lack of success in achieving the full anihilation of it Israel’e perceived enemies, and will likely be replaced at the next election by someone even worse.
The US is paying an enormous price for its complicity. It’s international reputation is in tatters, as it’s now wildly perceived as the evil empire. It’s alienated all of its former allies by insulting, humiliating, and extorting them. It’s arms donations to both Ukraine and Israel, and its participation in the war, have substantially depleted its own stocks of weaponry. The US military is no longer the powerful force it once was. Its military industrial complex operates for profit, not victory, and much of its weaponry is obsolete in the age of drone warfare. The US has nothing resembling actual leadership. It has instead a bloviating pathological liar with zero understanding of any of the relevant issues, and seemingly has never heard of diplomacy. Diplomacy is relational, whereas everything with Trump is purely transactional. Trump does not believe in win-win scenarios. He must always win while the other side must lose, preferably humiliatingly. His profound narcissism is responsible for this behaviour. This approach is a recipe for disaster in global geopolitics.
Hezbollah is not a proxy of Iran, merely an ally. It only exists because of the earlier Israeli occupation of Lebanon (1978-2000), when Lebanon required the ability to defend itself. It ended that occuoation, and drove the Israelis out when they tried again in 2006. It is now working to drive them out again. Iran is including Lebanon in its demands for a full ceasefire because its goal is to secure peace across the region, and for that to happen, Israel, which is the cause of regional the destabilisation going back decades, must be reined in. Somfar the US, under its weak and fackless administration, refuses to do so. Israel is threatening to flatten an entire suburb of Beirut, but if it tries to do so, Iran will escalate against it. The farce of a ‘ceasefire’ is looking more fragile by the day. This war is by no means over, traffic through the strait of Hormuz remains greatly reduced, and the clock is ticking towards the inevitable global economic depression. The longer this continues, the more supply chains will fracture, and the deeper the depression will be.
