“The President was shocked this morning when he learned of the new Israeli bombardment of west Beirut…” and ”expressed his outrage.”
No, of course we’re not talking about Trump and Netanyahu here.
The above description is of Ronald Reagan‘s reaction to the 1982 Israeli assault in Lebanon, as examined in this article from the time, which can be found in the New York Times archive.
See, there was actually a time when Israel didn’t simply have total carte blanche to do anything it wanted. There were some limits and pushbacks, even for the Israelis.
But that was 1982: in 2026, while all attention remains fixed on the US/Israeli war in Iran and its wider consequences, the Israelis have once again invaded Lebanon.
And this isn’t some small skirmish or sideshow. According to the United Nations humanitarian representative, Lebanon is facing “a moment of grave peril”.
Under the continuing pretext of trying to finish off Hezbollah, the Israeli attacks have already killed some 773 people, and as of five days ago included a reported 83 children. That number must be higher by now.
In events startlingly reminiscent of the early days of the operations in Gaza, the Israelis issued evacuation warnings to residents in multiple towns. Some half a million people are reported to have been displaced already.
As Al Jazeera reported, Israel issued forced displacement orders for all of southern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut: resulting in thousands of families fleeing their homes under threat of bombing.
This may indicate that the Lebanon operation is going to be a long one and may even end up unfolding along similar lines to the slaughter in Gaza.
Predictably incoherently, the US has told Lebanese authorities to dismantle Hezbollah and negotiate with Israel – yet it is also widely reported that Israel has rejected the Lebanese government’s request for cessation and talks, which were supposed to take place in Cyprus.
Reuters reports, for example, that both Israel and the US have essentially ignored all Lebanese government requests for dialogue.
Reporting on the Lebanon situation has been somewhat muted so far, but already one incident reminiscent of the early operation in Gaza has seen a Marionite Christian church attacked and a priest killed by Israeli tank fire.
There’s every reason to believe that Israeli forces are going to get bogged down in Lebanon the same way as in Gaza, only this time citing the need to destroy or dismantle Hezbollah and its infrastructure rather than Hamas.
But let’s remember that Lebanon is part of the Promised Land of Greater Israel: as previously discussed.
Indeed after the widely celebrated pager attacks that severely weakened Hezbollah, articles appeared in Israeli media openly asserting this claim.
As I covered here last year, The Jerusalem Post was embarrassed when it published an article claiming that Lebanon is part of Israel’s ‘Promised Land’. The article, which was timed to provide Biblical justification for Israel’s attacks in the neighbouring country, was very quickly deleted from the Jerusalem Post website when it drew too much attention – but the article has been archived here.
Further to this, the same news outlet published an article in November 2024 titled ‘Southern Lebanon is actually northern Israel’.
And again in the Jerusalem Post, a Chabad Rabbi calls for the conquering and settling of Lebanon.
So, regardless of whether Israel has a legitimate strategic need to dismantle Hezbollah or to subdue Lebanon as part of the perceived war against Iran, invading and controlling Lebanon just happens to fit perfectly with a pre-existing agenda based on scripture.
You can believe that’s a coincidence if you like.
The spectacle around the Iran war is providing the Israelis cover in Lebanon: not to mention in Gaza and whatever’s going on there right now.
The ruthless pursuit of ‘Greater Israel’ is therefore proceeding apace: in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Syria. Trumpstein and co did Netanyahu a big favour, not just in joining the Iran war, but in sucking up all the scrutiny and outrage while the Israelis continue trying to create their Promised Land in the Middle East.
Meanwhile all reporting on Gaza seems to have ceased, and no one knows what Trump’s ridiculous ‘Board of Peace‘ is doing since the attacks on Iran and Lebanon have begun.
With the Palestinian situation still unresolved and Israeli forces now at war inside Lebanon, the Iran conflict seems to be well timed to create massive distraction and chaos, allowing other actions to largely go unexamined.
And again, as I noted previously, Lebanon – just like Syria – remains a country without sovereignty and without recourse to international law.
Lebanon, unlike Gaza and the West Bank, isn’t part of Israel (however much they may think it falls into the Biblical Promised Land) – it is supposed to be a separate, independent nation. But the Israelis are treating it just like Palestinian territory: as somehow part of its own backyard that it has the right to operate freely in.
What’s the legal basis for Israeli forces being in Lebanon? I suppose the same basis for Israeli forces being in Syria: divine right, perhaps? Or ‘Biblical right’, to quote Mike Huckabee.
This of course isn’t the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon, by any means – which is why Hezbollah came into existence in the first place.
While some reports suggest public opinion in Lebanon is turning against Hezbollah – and certainly that the Lebanese government is blaming the militant group for the country’s crisis – it’s worth noting that Hezbollah’s increased rocket attacks on Israel, cited as the justification for Israel’s military incursion, was triggered by the assassination of the Ayatollah Khameini: itself an illegal act under international law.
Let’s also note that the new ‘president’ of Syria, the repackaged Al-Qaeda man Mohammed al-Sharaa (or al-Julani), has professed ‘absolute’ support for Israel’s Lebanon operation and the need to dismantle Hezbollah.
There is a possibility of Syrian forces being utilised to join the fighting: which would be a natural outgrowth of Israel’s role in sponsoring the collapse of the Assad government and its replacement by the Israel-friendly rebels.
As this March 11th article at The Cradle notes, since the start of the war in Iran, the Syrian military has been building up its presence along the Lebanese border.
Just to keep track of these confusing and ever changing equations in Netanyahu’s “new Middle East”, ‘Syrian military’ in the new/current context means the rebranded former Syrian rebel groups I think. It obviously doesn’t mean the Syrian military in the old sense.
It seems possible that Hezbollah might be nearing its end: but quite what unfolds in Lebanon in the long term is unclear. There’s also still questions about the UK’s presence in the country, strange requests that Britain made of the Lebanese government, and the British war planes that were sent into Lebanon from Cyprus: all of which I addressed here a while ago.
At any rate, however long this Iran War goes on for and whatever broader consequences there are, there is a parallel war in Lebanon that is barely being noticed by most people.
And no one in the US administration is saying a word: leading me to wonder if one of the reasons Trump and co joined Israel’s attacks in Iran was to keep Israeli forces free enough to pursue their plans in Lebanon.
Despite the fact that US policy has been to support Israel ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, there has never been a more subservient White House than that of Donald Trump’s. This has been obvious for a long time.
By contrast, the late Jimmy Carter condemned the 2006 Israeli incursion into Lebanon, calling it an “unjustified attack” that had no “legal or moral” justification.
And again, during the 1982 Israeli war in Lebanon, even Ronald Reagan condemned Israel’s bombing of Beirut, even calling it a “holocaust” and expressing outrage at Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Reagan had demanded an immediate stop to the attacks, and had actually gone as far as to warn that the US/Israel relationship was in jeopardy.
Can we imagine anyone in the current US government saying anything of the sort? Of course not: they’re too busy calling for Holy War and trying to fulfil the Book of Revelations.
Let’s also remember that Lebanon was on General Wesley Clark’s famous list of the seven countries that were going to be taken out after 9/11: all of which have already been done (Libya, Iraq, Syria) or are presently in progress (Iran and Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia).
I mean, at this stage, you almost just have to just admire the singleminded commitment to a vision.
