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.
The Israeli military withdrawal from two "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, scheduled under last Friday's framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, has been postponed until both sides agree on a "joint supervision mechanism," Israeli Channel 11 reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday visited Lebanese territory occupied by the Israeli military, telling soldiers that Israel would not withdraw from the country's south as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah continued to pose a threat.
Iran said on Tuesday that it would not meet with top U.S. envoys who flew to the region following an outbreak of hostilities, clouding the prospects for a lasting peace between the two countries.
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