National Unity Is Needed to Shift U.S. Policy on Lebanon, Column Argues
The article argues that Israel’s display of national unity after October 7 helped it manage relations with the Biden administration, but that this advantage has now disappeared under President Donald Trump. It says Biden, during a brief visit to Israel on October 18, was impressed by the unified war cabinet, and that repeated visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot included in expanded meetings, made it harder for Washington to restrain Israeli action in Gaza and later Lebanon.
According to the piece, even sharp disputes over conquering Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor did not spiral out of control because a broad government kept the confrontation contained. The U.S. insisted mainly on humanitarian arrangements, and when Biden delayed some weapons shipments for domestic political reasons, he still avoided a full break because Israeli security policy reflected a broad political consensus. The author says the same pattern held when the IDF expanded operations in Lebanon in September 2024 and carried out two unprecedented airstrikes in Iran in response to Iranian missile barrages in April and October 2024.
With Trump back in the White House, the writer says the dynamic has changed. Israel and Washington now have a growing gap of interests, especially over the fighting in the north, and some Trump advisers are sympathetic to Iran’s demand that Israeli attacks in Lebanon stop before talks with the U.S. move forward. The article says the United States is pinning its hopes on a political deal between Israel and the Lebanese government, but that such an agreement is unlikely to disarm Hezbollah soon.
The author warns Israel not to let its desire to preserve the Trump alliance push it into restraint and containment in Lebanon, which would burden northern residents and the IDF forces fighting south of the Litani River and beyond. Since elections prevent a new governing formula, the piece calls for a rare joint initiative by the coalition and opposition, including Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Gantz and Avigdor Liberman, to meet Trump urgently, in Washington or by secure video or phone, or through envoys such as Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The goal would be to show that Lebanon is not an ideological divide in Israel, but a national consensus issue, and to restore the unified front that shaped policy under Biden.
