Back in June, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a “Trilateral Framework” signed by Lebanon, Israel, and everyone’s favorite tyrannical global superpower, which, Rubio boasted, constituted “another major milestone in President Trump’s effort to bring lasting peace and stability to the region.” As per Rubio’s vision, the agreement established “a clear and structured process to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
As might be guessed by anyone familiar with the imperial lexicon – and the US tendency to purge terms like “freedom” and “democracy” of any actual meaning – Lebanese “sovereignty” is not in fact the goal here. After all, literal sovereignty would require Israel to cease occupying the country and slaughtering people left and right with the help of billions of dollars in US military aid and arms transfers.
Ever since the state of Israel up and invented itself on Palestinian land in 1948, setting the ball rolling in the direction of the current genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis have harbored designs on Lebanese territory, as well. The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon killed tens of thousands of people and prompted the formation of Hezbollah, whose ensuing resistance activities would henceforth be labeled “terrorism” and provide an ongoing pretext for Israel’s own terrorization of the country. . . .
Once the genocide kicked off in Gaza in October 2023, it wasn’t long before Lebanon came under fire, too, as Israel creatively expanded its terror repertoire by not only blowing up entire apartment blocks but also engineering the simultaneous explosion of personal electronic devices across the country. More than one million people were displaced by Israeli aggression that, like in Gaza, now continues unabated in spite of a series of ostensible “ceasefires.” Since March of this year, the death toll from Israeli attacks in Lebanon has surpassed 4,380, with over 12,420 wounded. READ MORE AT BLACK AGENDA REPORT.