Israel’s ceasefire agreement with the terror group Hezbollah is mainly about biding time for Israel until U.S. President Joe Biden leaves office, according to Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro.
Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a 60-day ceasefire that went into effect on Wednesday morning, the day after Israeli lawmakers approved its terms. Negotiators from France and the United States brokered the deal, which Biden said on Tuesday was “designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah has agreed to pull its forces out of southern Lebanon and north of the Litani River. Israel will slowly withdraw its own forces from southern Lebanon, while Lebanese and United Nations forces are to occupy a buffer zone, according to The New York Times.
The deal is similar to an agreement struck in 2006, Resolution 1701, that failed after Hezbollah entrenched itself in southern Lebanon despite the presence of U.N. Peacekeeping forces in the region.
Shapiro was less optimistic than Biden about the durability of the current ceasefire.
“If Hezbollah abides by the terms, so much the better: Israelis go home and live in security in the north,” Shapiro said in a post on X on Wednesday. “But Israel is working under the likely correct assumption that Hezbollah will not abide by the terms, and that the agreement as interpreted by the Trump administration will actually allow Israel freedom of action (a freedom of action denied by Biden under his spurious and ugly interpretation of the same agreement).”
Shapiro said that Israel, though it has been successful in its war against Hezbollah, agreed to the ceasefire because of three main reasons.
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First, “Joe Biden has been slow-walking aid to Israel. That slow-walking has gotten Israeli troops killed,” according to Shapiro. The ceasefire gives Israel time to re-arm and wait for President-elect Donald Trump, who is much more supportive of Israel, to take office.
Second, the ceasefire relieves international pressure to end the conflict in Hezbollah that Israel has been under from the U.S. and France. And third, “Even under these conditions, Israel has an interest in taking Hezbollah off the board as a chess piece with regard to Hamas. Hamas has attempted throughout the October 7 war to rope in other powers to save it,” according to Shapiro.
“It is a 60 day ceasefire. Joe Biden leaves office in 54 days. That is not a coincidence,” Shapiro said.
One of the major aims of Israel’s war against Hezbollah is the return of about 70,000 Israelis to their homes in northern Israel. They were forced to flee the region because of the threat posed by Hezbollah rockets. Even with the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet called for those Israelis to return home.
Netanyahu’s silence suggests that Israel is not confident in the ceasefire and is likely waiting out Biden’s final days in the presidency, Shapiro said.
“The durability of the ceasefire is completely dependent on Hezbollah and Lebanon abiding by it. If they don’t, and January 20 comes, Israel will do what it must,” he added.
Let’s be clear about why Israel signed onto this ceasefire. There are three reasons.
1. Joe Biden has been slow-walking aid to Israel. That slow-walking has gotten Israeli troops killed. The ceasefire is designed to allow Biden to leave and Israel to be re-armed by the incoming…
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 27, 2024