Lebanon’s Main Chance

How about this — a Nobel Prize in Peace for Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Jewish state? The idea glimmers in the wake of the confirmation that Hassan Nasrallah perished in the attack on Hezbollah’s headquarters at Beirut. It would mark how Israel under Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership has set the stage for the liberation of Lebanon, its restoration as a modern free market country, and the opening of the road to peace in the Levant.That moment of opportunity is the theme of a post on X.com by President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, an architect of the Abraham Accords. The opportunity has been only glancingly made in the wake of the attack that claimed Nasrallah’s life. Yet it was — one can see in hindsight — the key point in Mr. Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations, even as he knew Israeli F-15s were about to make their historic strike.What Mr. Netanyahu said was that he’d come to the UN “to speak for the truth — and here’s the truth: Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again.” That is the chance that has now been opened up after the smiting of Hezbollah’s chain of command and the decimation of Hamas’s. Mr. Kushner calls September 27 “the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough.”Mr. Kushner quotes the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy as writing, in a typically trenchant remark, “I keep reading everywhere that Lebanon is ‘on the brink of collapse.’ No. It is on the brink of relief and deliverance.” Mr. Kushner adds that “moments like this come once in a generation, if they even come at all.” The scion who brokered peace between Jews and Arabs is one to listen to in respect of unexpected opportunities. If liberation for Lebanon is now in view, Mr. Kushner writes, it is because Iran is now fully exposed. Tehran’s ring of fire was intended not only to savage Israel, but also to protect the Islamic Republic. The Times reports that the assault on Hezbollah “has left Iran, and its supreme leader, in a vulnerable position.” The ayatollah is “deeply shaken,” fearful for his own life. One analyst reckons that Iran is “completely checkmated by Israel.”Mr. Kushner marks that “there is no going back for Israel,” but that point of no return doubles as a point of departure for Lebanon and maybe the whole Middle East. The collapse of Hezbollah and the demise of Nasrallah lays waste to 40 years of Iranian investment. It also calls into question the entirety of the proxy project. Israel is striking the Houthis in Yemen as word comes that Hamas’s terror army is in disarray. The world’s call for de-escalation — a chorus that, regrettably, includes the Biden-Harris administration — is likely to increase as the possibility of a direct clash between Jerusalem and Tehran comes into view. If Mr. Netanyahu had bent last week to the pressure from President Biden, Nasrallah would even now be lording it over Lebanon and taking orders from Iran. Israel’s resolve to win the war offers the possibilities for peace. It happens that we were in Beirut in the early 1980s. It was after the massacres at Sabra and Chatilla, but before the bombing of our Marine barracks. A debate fizzed over whether America would be better to stay or withdraw. Syria warned that if America stayed, Damascus would become the “Hanoi” of the Middle East. We favored calling that insulting bluff. Now Israel has just given Lebanon a new chance to be embraced. A Nobel prize for peace may be, of course, yet premature. There’s much military work to be done. It’s not premature to suggest that Iran’s buckling is good news for Lebanese who yearn to live in a free state. At the UN, Mr. Netanyahu held aloft two illustrations. One, labeled “The Curse,” showed Iran’s long hand. The other, “The Blessing,” showed the promise of Israel’s vision. Let those who dream of peace seize the day.

Lebanon’s Main Chance

Lebanon’s Main Chance

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