Can Israel and Lebanon ever be friends? If you ask most people in the Middle East, they’ll probably scoff and say it’s impossible. After all, these two countries have been enemies for decades, with wars, conflicts, and bitter memories defining their relationship. But is that the whole story? Not necessarily.
A Painful Past
The history between Israel and Lebanon is messy, to say the least. Lebanon, like Israel, was created in the aftermath of European colonial rule. But while Israel was founded as a Jewish state, Lebanon became a mix of religious communities—Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, and Druze. It was always a delicate balance.
In 1948, when Israel declared independence, Lebanon joined other Arab nations in attacking the newborn Jewish state, but the Lebanese army played a minor role. Over the years, Lebanon became a haven for Palestinian refugees, who brought their own conflicts with Israel into the mix. Things reached a boiling point in the 1970s when the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) used southern Lebanon as a base for launching attacks on northern Israel. Israel responded by invading Lebanon in 1982, hoping to crush the PLO and bring peace to its northern borders.
But like most Middle Eastern conflicts, it wasn’t that simple. Israel’s military involvement in Lebanon led to deep divisions within Lebanon itself, and by the time Israeli forces withdrew in 2000, Hezbollah—a powerful Shia militant group backed by Iran—had filled the vacuum in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s ideology is founded on the destruction of Israel, and since then, it has been responsible for countless rocket attacks and violence along the Israel-Lebanon border.
To most observers, it seemed like a never-ending cycle of conflict and hatred.
The Present Reality: A Divided Lebanon
On the surface, the relationship between Israel and Lebanon today is one of hostility. Hezbollah holds significant political and military power in Lebanon and continues to advocate for the destruction of Israel, very actively I should say. The Lebanese government itself does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and has no formal diplomatic relations with it. There’s a history of war, including the brutal 2006 Lebanon War, after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, where Hezbollah launched rockets into Israeli cities, and Israel retaliated with devastating airstrikes.
But if you look deeper, you’ll find something interesting underneath the surface.
Many Lebanese are not supporters of Hezbollah, and there’s a growing sense of frustration with the group’s control over the country, especially after October 7th, when Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into war with Israel by launching rockets into Israel as an act of support in Hamas. Lebanon’s economy is in shambles. The country has been hit with one crisis after another: government corruption, a collapsing banking system, the devastating Beirut port explosion in 2020, and the ongoing paralysis in its political system. Ordinary Lebanese citizens are tired of war. They want to live normal lives, have stable jobs, and—yes—even meet for coffee with their neighbors.
I get messages from Lebanese people occasionally, telling me they would love to visit Israel one day. They write, “We’re not all like Hezbollah. We just want to live in peace. One day, I hope we can sit together, drink coffee, and talk about what could be instead of what is.” This shows that despite the tension, there’s a yearning for something different—something better.
Could There Be a Path Forward?
So, can Israel and Lebanon ever be friends? There are reasons to be both pessimistic and optimistic.
The pessimistic view is simple: Hezbollah is the single greatest obstacle to peace. As long as Hezbollah controls southern Lebanon, arms itself with Iranian rockets, and continues to wage its ideological war against Israel, peace seems impossible. The group’s military presence, intertwined with Lebanon’s political system, makes it very difficult for the Lebanese government to engage in peace talks with Israel—even if it wanted to. Israel cannot and will not tolerate a heavily armed, hostile force on its northern border - no country would tolerate that.
But here’s the optimistic view: Lebanon is not Hezbollah. The country is much more than one militant group. Over the years, Israel has quietly sought opportunities to reach out to Lebanese people directly. The Israeli government knows that not everyone in Lebanon is an enemy. In fact, Israel has even provided humanitarian aid to Lebanon during times of crisis through the UN, such as after the 2020 Beirut explosion. Despite the bitter history, there are moments of goodwill.
Lebanon’s own struggles might pave the way for a new future. The country’s people are fed up with corruption, war, and political paralysis. Many Lebanese are realizing that Hezbollah’s obsession with fighting Israel has done nothing to improve their lives. As Iran continues to drag Lebanon into its regional power struggles, there is growing resentment against Hezbollah’s influence. Some Lebanese even believe that normalizing relations with Israel, as some Gulf Arab countries have done under the Abraham Accords, could help bring stability and prosperity to Lebanon.
Israel has already forged unprecedented peace agreements with Arab countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. These agreements shattered the old Arab consensus that peace with Israel could only happen after a resolution to the Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu, in particular, believed that solving Israel’s security problems with its neighbors required bypassing the Palestinian issue and engaging directly with the Arab world. And it worked.
If Israel could make peace with the Gulf states, why not Lebanon one day? In fact, the Abraham Accords showed that common threats, like the Iranian regime, can bring old foes together. Iran is a destabilizing force for both Israel and Lebanon. Israel might find an unlikely ally in the Lebanese people who see Hezbollah as a pawn of Iran, dragging their country into endless conflict.
The Future: Can We Sit Down for Coffee?
The idea of Israel and Lebanon being friends might seem like a fantasy today, but the seeds are there. There is a generation of young Lebanese who are tired of war and want to break free from Hezbollah’s grip. They see the peace and prosperity that could come from a relationship with Israel. And I know it’s not just a dream, because they tell me themselves. I get messages from them, sometimes after I write about the region. They tell me, “I hope one day we can sit down together, drink coffee and eat hummus".
That’s the kind of future we need to focus on. Yes, it will be hard. Yes, Hezbollah will fight to maintain its stranglehold over Lebanon. Yes, there are decades of mistrust and pain to overcome. But people change, circumstances change, and enemies can become friends.
The potential is there. One day, perhaps not too far off, Israelis and Lebanese might actually sit down together—not on a battlefield, but at a coffee shop. And when that day comes, it won’t just be a symbolic gesture. It will be proof that even in the Middle East, where everything seems so fixed and entrenched, peace is possible. And that’s something worth believing in.
Yes, Insha ALLAH it's possible. But it may occur after the death of all Zionists including you.