Israel’s security cabinet approved a U.S. proposal Tuesday for a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following a speech in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the achievements of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Hezbollah began the war in October 2023 when it began firing at Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iranian-backed terror group, which had attacked Israel without provocation on October 7. Israel fired back sporadically until accelerating its response in September, culminating in a ground invasion that lasted nearly two months. Israel killed all of Hezbollah’s senior leaders and removed much of its infrastructure close to Lebanon’s border with Israel.
In remarks Tuesday evening to the Israeli nation, Netanyahu said (translated by the Government Press Office):
Citizens of Israel,
I promised you victory, and we will achieve victory.
We will complete the task of obliterating Hamas, we will bring home all of our hostages, we will ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel and we will return the residents of the north back home safely.
The war will not end until we realize all its goals, including the return of the residents of the north safely home. And I tell you, it will happen, just like it happened in the south.
My friends, residents of the north,
I am proud of you, I am proud of your perseverance, and I am totally committed to your security, to the rehabilitation of your communities, to your future.
To date, thanks to the bravery of our fighters in the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, the Mossad and Israel Police, we have made great inroads into the seven fronts of the “War of Redemption.”
These achievements are a source of awe and admiration across the globe, and they are projecting Israel’s might throughout the Middle East:
First, the head of the octopus – Iran. We destroyed major parts of Iran’s air defense system and missile-manufacturing capabilities, and we demolished a significant component of their nuclear program.
I am determined to do anything needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That threat has always been my top priority and is even more so today, when you hear Iran’s leaders state over and over again their intention to obtain nuclear weapons. For me, removing that threat is the most important mission to ensure the existence and future of the State of Israel.
In Gaza, we dismantled the Hamas battalions and killed close to 20,000 terrorists. We killed Sinwar, we killed Deif, we killed senior Hamas officials and we brought 154 hostages back. We are committed to bringing them all home, the 101 hostages still in Gaza, those who are still alive as well as the dead, and end the terrible anguish of their families. We are of course committed to completing the annihilation of Hamas.
In Judea and Samaria, we are taking out terrorists, we are destroying terrorist infrastructure and we are operating in all of the terror strongholds. There is no place out of our reach.
In Yemen, we attacked the Houthis’ port of Hodeida forcibly, which the international coalition had not done.
In Iraq, we successfully thwarted, and are still thwarting, many drone attacks, and we have many challenges ahead.
In Syria, we are systematically blocking attempts by Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian army to transfer weapons to Lebanon. Assad must understand that he is playing with fire.
And now, for the seventh front – Lebanon. Hezbollah decided to attack us from Lebanon on October 8th. A year later, it is not the same Hezbollah. We have pushed them decades back. We eliminated Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles, we have killed thousands of terrorists and we demolished their underground terror infrastructure abutting our border, infrastructure they had been building for years.
We have attacked strategic targets throughout Lebanon and we have brought down dozens of terror hi-rises in Beirut’s Dahieh. The ground in Beirut is shaking.
Citizens of Israel,
Only three months ago, this all would have sounded like science fiction. But it isn’t. We did these things.
At every moment of managing this campaign, I observe all fronts simultaneously. That is what I did at the beginning of the war when I decided to focus on Gaza and not open a broader front in Lebanon. That is what I did several months ago when the conditions ripened to go north, and then we decided to focus on Hezbollah.
That is what I did after the missile attack from Iran, when we meticulously decided on the time and nature of our response.
And that is what I am doing today. I observe all the fronts simultaneously and see the broad picture. I am determined to give our courageous soldiers every resource to keep them safe and bring us victory.
Therefore, this evening I will bring a ceasefire outline for the cabinet’s approval.
The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon.
With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack.
I hear the claim that if we enter into a ceasefire, we will not be able to attack and will not be able to renew the war. I remind you, that is exactly what they said when we had a ceasefire in Gaza to release the hostages. They said we wouldn’t go back to fighting, but we did.
They tell me Hezbollah will be quiet for a year or two, grow stronger and then attack us. But Hezbollah will be in violation of the agreement not only if it fires on us. It will be in violation of the agreement if it obtains weapons to fire at us in the future. And we will respond forcefully to any violation.
I know there are people who don’t believe we will do that. But many also didn’t believe we would enter Gaza on the ground, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Shifa and Khan Younis, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, in the face of all the international pressure. Not only did we go in, we attacked, and then some. Many didn’t believe that we would attack in Lebanon, and we did that too. We attacked with force and sophistication that surprised the whole world.
So after all that, maybe we should start believing? Believe in our determination, believe in our path, in our commitment to victory.
Why should we have a ceasefire now? For three main reasons:
The first reason is to focus on the Iranian threat, and I will not expand on that.
The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.
And the third reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas. From day two of the war, Hamas was counting on Hezbollah to fight by its side. With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own. We will increase our pressure on Hamas and that will help us in our sacred mission of releasing our hostages.
Citizens of Israel,
In the past year, we turned the tables. We were attacked from seven fronts and we fought back with might. We are changing the face of the Middle East. We are doing all this thanks to our brave soldiers, thanks to your tenacity and thanks to the resolute and smart management of the war.
I have said many times, a good deal is a deal that is enforced, and we will enforce it.
With G-d’s help, we will establish security, we will rehabilitate the north and continue, united, until victory.
Israelis are divided over the ceasefire, with some welcoming the pause in fighting, and others skeptical that it will bring long-term quiet on the border. More than 60,000 displaced residents of Israel cannot yet return to their homes.
Update: The ceasefire will take effect at 10:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers are racing overnight to achieve their last military objectives before the ceasefire, and Hezbollah is firing rockets at Israeli cities.
The security cabinet apparently voted for the ceasefire deal 10-to-1, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir apparently the lone dissenting voice, though he did not decide to pull his party out of the governing coalition.
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.