BEIRUT—No contradiction in Lebanese politics is more evident than the Lebanese Army’s (LF) desire to see its enemy Israel resolve political conflicts within Lebanon. Political parties claiming to defend national sovereignty regularly seek foreign intervention against Lebanese actors with established national bases.
In the 2022 elections alone, Hezbollah candidates received more than 365,000 preferential votes, reflecting true representation and national legitimacy rooted in communities that see the resistance as a strategic shield to protect Lebanon from foreign domination, division, and humiliation.
Hezbollah has long sought a national project to protect Lebanon’s sovereignty, maintain deterrence against Israeli aggression, and maintain independence in political decision-making.
On the contrary, the LF and its allies are promoting a project built on foreign pressure, sanctions, and external actors deliberately manipulating Lebanon’s domestic political system. Their goal is not reform, but the elimination of domestic rivals by external forces, even if that means the collapse of the state system.
This approach has now entered a dangerous public phase. The Israeli Embassy in Washington recently released a video of Ambassador Jehiel Reiter speaking directly to the Lebanese people in an interview with Lebanese media outlet This is Beirut.
In his message, Reiter asked: “Why are we allowing extremists to stand in our way? We do not want to harm Lebanon or harm civilians.” He expressed hope that 2026 could be the year to broker the so-called “Abraham Accords.”
This is not diplomacy. It is psychological marketing aimed at normalizing the occupation and erasing the memory of Israel’s genocide, invasion, and decades-long violation of Lebanon’s airspace, waters, borders, and dignity.
Cognitive warfare on a low budget
LF is not just seeking bailout from foreign capital. It has built a cheap but effective cognitive warfare network that broadcasts Israeli propaganda in Lebanese dialect and color scheme.
Their media platforms specialize in certain functions. It is about portraying Israel’s enemies as rational, civilized, and modern, while portraying the resistance as backward, marginal, irresponsible, and “bad for business.”
they don’t argue. They create perceptions. They don’t build arguments. They repeat slogans outsourced from key points in Tel Aviv. Their entire communication strategy is based on the hope that Lebanese youth forget the real history: Qana, Somor, Sabra and Shatila, Qiam, the occupation of the south, and the destruction of houses, bridges, universities, fuel depots and power plants in 2006.
Rather, channels adjacent to the LF fuel illusions: Israel wants “development,” “opportunities,” and “peace corridors.”
While Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace daily, drones fly over villages, and the threat of war is ever-present. This is not politics. It is the psychological cleansing of occupation, the oldest colonial trick in the book.
Orders from foreign countries disguised as sovereignty
For LF, this kind of messaging is strategic. Their representatives in Washington advocate not only targeting Hezbollah militarily, but also attacking its social and economic power base.
They are calling for US pressure on the Lebanese army to raid the southern region, based on Israeli intelligence claims about an alleged weapons warehouse. They propose sanctions against officials, civil servants, merchants, and airport and port employees simply because they are “suspected” of belonging to a particular community or of being sympathetic to the resistance.
They are pushing for the dissolution of the Qad al-Hassan Association through US legislation rather than Lebanese legal proceedings. This is a shortcut to weakening the state and empowering external actors.
Most dangerously, LF lobbyists are urging the US government to shape Lebanon’s electoral system from abroad, demanding “reforms” of foreign voting aimed solely at benefiting anti-resistance forces rather than serving the country’s democratic integrity.
Kabul talks about the end of mercenary politics
Here’s the punchline no one wants to hear from LF: Instead of earning medals, mercenaries are abandoned. Just ask Afghan officials who have been kissing the hands of U.S. envoys for years, parroting slogans popular in Washington. They signed every document put in front of them and believed in the myth of “Western protection.”
When the plane took off from Kabul and the “guardians” suddenly found themselves elsewhere, loyal customers sprinted through the airport, clinging to the landing gear, begging to be evacuated. That’s what a “foreign partnership” ends up being, a humiliation on the runway.
The LF continues to dream that its strategy is to outsource Lebanese politics to Israel’s enemies and Washington. In reality, this is a one-way ticket to becoming a disposable tool, useful only until the moment when external powers find cheaper bargaining chips in the region.
Lebanon faces two visions today. One is based on sovereignty, national decision-making and the defense of Lebanon’s homeland through proven deterrence. The other is betting its future on foreign intervention, wars of perception, imported talking points, and the illusion that Israel’s enemies will one day serve as neutral umpires of Lebanese politics.
Only one of these visions prevented civil war, deterred Israel’s enemies, and preserved a national identity that rejected partition. Today, only one person protects the dignity of the Lebanese people, and only one person understands this truth. Patriotism cannot be outsourced – and once you sell your politics to foreigners, they own your future and your failures.