Why do Lebanese leaders keep courting Israel?

Why do Lebanese leaders keep courting Israel? Submitted by Joseph Massad on Wed, 04/15/2026 - 13:46 Direct talks in Washington for the first time in 30 years continue a long history of overtures that predate resistance and persist despite repeated Israeli attacks on civilians Lebanese protesters gather in Martyrs' Square in Beirut to reject direct negotiations with Israel, expressing opposition to normalisation and diplomatic engagement, on 13 April 2026 (Abdul Kader Al Bay/ZUMA Press Wire) On Since Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam assumed office in early 2025, mere weeks after the November 2024 ceasefire between the Lebanese resistance and the genocidal state of Israel , the new leadership, under strong US and Saudi advice, moved urgently to offer friendship and full cooperation to Israel. Not only did they fail to protest the more than 10,000 ceasefire violations that Israel committed over the 15 months leading up to the US-Israeli aggression on Iran in late February 2026 - including thousands of air strikes, drone attacks and ground incursions that killed more than 500 people, most of them civilians - but they went as far as offering, even pleading, for direct negotiations to achieve permanent peace with the Jewish settler-colony.