On Israel's 78th Independence Day, President Isaac Herzog extended an olive branch to Lebanon, as both sides prepare to meet in Washington on Thursday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog with UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, on Wednesday in Jerusalem © X
On the evening of Israel's 78th Independence Day, President Isaac Herzog chose hope over hostility.
"My dream is to get into a car and drive straight to Beirut, visit that beautiful city, and befriend the good people of Lebanon," Herzog wrote on X, sharing the message he had delivered to ambassadors, diplomats, military attachés and faith leaders gathered at the President's Residence to mark the occasion.
The timing was deliberate. Israeli and Lebanese delegations are due to meet in Washington on Thursday for direct talks, a rare and fragile diplomatic opening in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives since March.
Herzog's words will not silence the guns on their own. But on a night of national celebration, Israel's head of state chose to look across the border not with suspicion, but with longing — a reminder that behind the geopolitics and the ceasefire negotiations, there are two peoples who have never truly been given the chance to be neighbours.
Thursday's talks in Washington will show whether that dream has any ground to stand on.
Hezbollah has received $200 million from Iran to help Lebanese displaced by this year’s war with Israel, two people with direct knowledge of the transfer said, the first significant aid from the group to supporters who bore the brunt of the conflict.
Saudi Arabia has launched an air accident probe following last week's cockpit stabbing on a flydubai jet, as experts examine any fallout for aviation safety alongside a separate UAE-led criminal investigation, three people close to the matter said.
A reported CIA warning that Israel faces civil war or state collapse rests on anonymous briefings, an unpublished paper, and a unit whose job is to invent uncomfortable scenarios. That is a thin basis for a claim this large.
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