Israel and Lebanon Share a Common Enemy

By Hugh Fitzgerald | April 20, 2026

2023 Hezbollah drill in Aaramta, Tasnim News Agency reporter (uncredited), Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

When Donald Trump told the world that “Israel is PROHIBITED” from continuing its attacks on Hezbollah, he was not only showing a palpable want of sympathy for Israel, as it tries to complete its war against the jihad terror group. He also betrayed his miscomprehension of the Lebanese government’s position. The Lebanese government, and at least two-thirds of the Lebanese population, want Hezbollah to be destroyed. Trump’s prohibition was shameful; one hopes that despite his bullying “prohibition,” the IDF will continue to attack what remains of Hezbollah as a fighting force in Lebanon.

Here is more on the Lebanese situation by Jake Wallis Simons: “Israel is not at war with Lebanon,” by Jake Wallis Simons, Spiked, April 18, 2026:

The joint statement released by Israel and Lebanon on Thursday could not have been clearer. ‘Israel and Lebanon affirm that the two countries are not at war and commit to engaging in good-faith direct negotiations’, it said.

Wait, what? Israel and Lebanon were not at war? What about the endless hours of media coverage showing us the devastation of Lebanon’s southern villages? What about all the Gaza comparisons? What about all the outrage?

Well, their joint statement held further clues. ‘Both countries recognise the significant challenges faced by the Lebanese state from non-state armed groups’, it said. ‘Those groups’ activities must be curtailed.’

It isn’t mentioned by name, but that threatening “non-state armed group” is, of course, Hezbollah.

To anybody who knows anything about the region, so much was already obvious. Israel’s campaign in Lebanon is targeted at Hezbollah, not the population at large. Even if every single Shia in the country was supportive of the terror group – which is far from the case – that would mean that two-thirds of Lebanese people opposed it.

With good reason: Hezbollah was founded by the Iranian regime, is fanatically committed to Israel’s destruction and has even adopted the Sieg Heil as its salute. Meanwhile, it has infiltrated Lebanese politics and society like a parasite, turning the country into a zombie state designed for the death of its neighbour.

As the Lebanese academic Makram Rabah pointed out this week on The Brink, a podcast I co-host with Andrew Fox, Hezbollah is inherently anti-Lebanese. It was set up as an Iranian puppet in 1985 to establish a Tehran-style Islamic Republic in Lebanon.

‘As a young kid in the streets of Beirut, I still remember their banners’, Rabah said. ‘They had the same AK-47 on them, but they used to read “Islamic Revolution in Lebanon”.’ Hezbollah, which runs international drug-trafficking networks and has dabbled in prostitution, is widely hated, he said, not least because it plays a large part in the corruption of Lebanon’s political system….

That’s before you even log onto social media. In truth, the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) campaign in the south of Lebanon has nothing to do with territorial expansion, some conception of ‘Greater Israel’ or an unbridled bloodlust for dead babies, as the digital yahoos would have you believe. Rather, it began in response to relentless rocket fire from Hezbollah on civilian communities on the other side of the border….

In Lebanon, the IDF has only one goal: to end Hezbollah’s palpable threat to Israel’s citizens. For years, Hezbollah has been sending rocket fire into civilian villages and cities, and doing so with special ferocity after October 7, 2023. The IDF has seized territory in southern Lebanon, only in order to completely clear the area of Hezbollah combatants and weaponry. Once Hezbollah has been dismembered, but only then, the IDF will pull back its forces to the Blue Line that separates Israel and Lebanon.

Lebanon and Israel are both determined to end the threat that Hezbollah poses to citizens of both states. At least two-thirds of the Lebanese — the Christians and Sunnis — want the IDF to crush Hezbollah. Seventy percent of Israelis, and a much larger percentage of Israeli Jews, want the war against Hezbollah to continue until it has been decimated.

Trump’s “PROHIBITED!!!” post stunned Netanyahu. Trump may not realize it — he is extremely confused — but that prohibition, if followed by the IDF, would save Hezbollah from destruction at a time when both Lebanon and Israel are determined to see it collapse. Trump appears not to understand the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel that his administration brokered. On Truth Social, he wrote that “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!!” Later, in an interview with Axios Trump reiterated that he wants Israeli strikes on Lebanon to end: “Israel has to stop. They can’t continue to blow buildings up. I am not gonna allow it,” he said.

The ceasefire agreement does not “prohibit” Israel from attacking Hezbollah. In fact, according to the agreement, Israel reserves the right to take military action, even during the ceasefire, “in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.” Israel has emphasized that it is not constrained from striking Hezbollah if necessary.

Trump says one thing one day, and another a day later. He appears not to have realized that the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire agreement preserves Israel’s right to strike Hezbollah “in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks”? Did he actually read the terms of the agreement? Does Trump realize that at least two-thirds of the Lebanese want the IDF to finish off Hezbollah? What does this strange man, who contradicts himself once a day and twice on Sundays, understand about Lebanese desires, or Israel’s needs?