TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror organization has officially taken effect as of 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) Wednesday.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will slowly withdraw from territory it has occupied in southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will move in. Hezbollah will withdraw north of the Litani River, a strategic geographic boundary that Israeli soldiers reached in the last 24 hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect.
Many Israelis are skeptical of the ceasefire, because Hezbollah has not been completely defeated. Unlike Hamas, which has been unable to fire rockets consistently at Israel since the IDF took over most of Gaza, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets and to launch drones into northern Israel, albeit less effectively than it would have done without Israeli military success in destroying Hezbollah’s command structure and infrastructure in Lebanon.
Moreover, the more than 60,000 residents of northern Israel who have been evacuated due to Hezbollah attacks will not be able to move home until the end of the 60-day period. Many will be reluctant to return even after that period.
But the terms of the ceasefire are far better than they would have been just a few months ago. Hezbollah, which vowed not to stop fighting until Israel pulled out of Gaza, has been forced to abandon Hamas to its own fate.
And, crucially, Israel managed to fight Hezbollah without causing significant damage to Lebanon’s Christian communities, who may now feel emboldened to challenge Hezbollah’s political dominance and Iran’s interference.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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