Swords of Iron Day 1078: The Truth Behind Lebanon’s Offer
Shabbat is beginning, and this week brought a sentence I did not expect to read. Lebanon is talking about a peace treaty with Israel. Roadblocks to peace are being taken down in one place while somebody is busy building new ones somewhere else.
Yemen Is Burning Its Own Future
Watching the Houthis stage a huge desert mobilization, my honest first thought was that I feel bad for Toyota. All those trucks. All that fuel. Every bit of it poured into a war nobody there will ever win.
Yemen sits on oil and gas that could build a country. Instead the goal has not changed. Destroy Israel.
Tribes near Marib now say they are ready to fight, so this is escalating quickly.
Understand what that mobilization actually costs. Every truck in that column is a school that never opened and a clinic that never got built. Yemenis pay for the Houthi obsession with my country long before any Israeli does.
If Nobody Else Disarms Hamas, We Will
Our Defense Minister says Israel is committed to disarming Hamas if the international stabilization force fails, and to destroying the tunnels that remain.
In other words, if nobody else finishes the job, we finish it ourselves.
That means more work for me. I made my peace with that a long time ago.
Still, I would rather an international force did it properly. A disarmament that Gaza’s neighbors enforce lasts longer than one we impose at gunpoint, and it costs fewer lives on both sides.
A Lebanon Peace Treaty Is Suddenly on the Table
Here is the part that genuinely surprised me.
President Joseph Aoun says Beirut wants a peace treaty with Israel, although he says a security arrangement has to come first. He has called on America and Europe to strengthen the Lebanese army so it can fill the vacuum that international forces leave behind.
A Lebanon peace treaty sounded impossible not long ago. I am not naive about it, and a statement is not a signature. Even so, I hope Lebanon and Israel can work together again the way we once did.
Lebanon’s real problem was never Israel. It was a militia that answers to Tehran rather than to Beirut. Any leader willing to say that out loud deserves a hearing, and Aoun is closer to saying it than any Lebanese president in my lifetime.
Saudi Jets and the Lebanon Peace Treaty Math
The United States is reportedly preparing a 24.3 billion dollar sale of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia, strengthening Saudi defenses as the kingdom faces the Houthi threat.
That matters more than the price tag suggests. A region where the threat comes from Tehran and its proxies, rather than from Arab capitals, is a region where a Lebanon peace treaty stops being a fantasy.
Iran Is Rebuilding, Again
Meanwhile Iran keeps rebuilding sensitive facilities.
At the Taleghan site, long associated with suspected nuclear weapons research, Iran has brought in bulldozers, cranes, trucks and concrete equipment to put the structures back up.
Israel struck that facility in 2024. Rebuilding started the following year. Another strike reportedly hit it again this past March. They rebuild, we strike, they rebuild again. That cycle only ends when the regime decides the program costs more than it is worth, or when somebody removes the choice entirely.
Iran also claims its air defenses downed another MQ-9 Reaper near Qeshm Island, and says dozens have been destroyed in total. Nobody can verify those numbers independently. Either way, advanced surveillance is expensive, and this conflict stays intense.
A Tense Night Near Deir Mimas
There was also a confrontation between the Lebanese army and the IDF near Deir Mimas.
An Israeli patrol approached a newly established Lebanese position. Soldiers used stun grenades. The Lebanese army eventually withdrew, and nobody opened live fire.
That restraint matters more than it sounds on paper. Every night that ends without a funeral is a night a Lebanon peace treaty stays possible.
One Hundred Thousand at the Wall
Meanwhile nearly one hundred thousand people gathered at the Western Wall ahead of Yom Kippur to pray and seek God’s forgiveness. The crowds grew so large that police had to close the area.
In the middle of a war, people are reaching for something deeper than materialism or politics. They are looking to the God of Israel.
Psalm 36 says: “Your mercy, O God, is in the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. How excellent is Your lovingkindness, O God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.”
That is where I want to begin this Shabbat. Under the shadow of His wings, preparing my heart for Yom Kippur, and praying that the roadblocks keep coming down.
Watch the full update here: Swords of Iron Day 1078, Roadblocks To Peace Being Removed
