TEHRAN – Lebanon’s government continues to insist that proximity to the United States grants it absolute protection or that it can shield Lebanon from Israeli aggression.

Senior officials are drowning in the illusion that an alliance with the U.S. and reliance on its guarantees can restrain the Israeli regime or hold it to its commitments in the ceasefire agreement announced by Washington in a joint trilateral statement (U.S.-Israeli-Lebanese) several days ago. 

But the America that the people of this region know and have experienced in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and elsewhere behaves exactly as it always has: Tel Aviv’s interests come first, while the interests of its Arab allies, if they matter at all, are postponed and expected to wait.

Such an argument by the Lebanese government used to justify direct negotiations with the Zionist regime. Yet the painful truth demonstrated repeatedly by experience is the exact opposite: those who shelter under America soon discover, through blood and suffering, how fragile the security promised by a biased and unpredictable American patron really is.

While Lebanon places its faith in “American guarantees” to protect Lebanese citizens from U.S.-backed Israeli aggression, the Israeli war minister, Yisrael Katz, wasted no time after the ceasefire announcement in boasting that “the Lebanese will not return to the south, and we will continue destroying infrastructure.” 

He further declared that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) would remain in southern Lebanon up to the so-called Yellow Line, including the Shqeif area, while continuing indiscriminate attacks and maintaining freedom of action alongside the illegal occupation with American backing. Hebrew media reported on Friday that Netanyahu echoed the same remarks.  

Critics argue that after such statements, there can be no excuses. The truth will out. You can’t sweep it under the rug forever. The United States is neither a friend of Lebanon nor of the Arab world as a whole, nor a faithful guardian of them or their lives and souls.

Rather, it is a bullying power that operates according to its own interests and those of its closest ally, the Zionist occupation regime. It’s claimed that support for Lebanon quickly becomes a tool of pressure and coercion, and it abandons its partners when convenient. Has Lebanon’s government forgotten, or chosen to ignore, the countless times Washington overlooked IOF violations and atrocities committed against Arabs and their interests?

Does the IOF differentiate between Hezbollah, children, women, the elderly or even Lebanese Army personnel (two officers and a soldier) were killed on Saturday? The Lebanese government doesn’t need to look too far. Its neighbor, Syria, is a case example. 

The U.S. calls Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharee’s government a friendly partner, offers sanctions relief, a White House handshake, and a photo op with Trump. Yet when Israel seizes more Syrian land and launches attacks, Washington says nothing and does nothing. America grants the new rulers in Damascus diplomatic legitimacy but refuses to restrain Israel, which is actively expanding its illegal occupation of Syria.

The more Damascus reaches out to Washington, the more emboldened Israel becomes. Each gesture of Syrian friendship toward the U.S. has convinced Israel that it has a free hand to grab land while America looks the other way. There is a deafening absence of U.S. action, pressure, or even public rebuke. The U.S. rewards Syria with smiles while allowing Israel to take its soil.

America is the same nation that neglected its closest Arab allies in the Persian Gulf when they most needed it. The same U.S. formula applies to all regional nations. It’s Israel first, and when the time comes, they will be abandoned too. 

The illusion of protection through American power and military bases quickly becomes a heavy burden on a nation rather than a source of support.

How can America protect Lebanon when it unconditionally embraces the narrative of its favored ally, Israel, and only takes care of Israeli ambitions? 

It pushes the country toward internal conflict and civil strife that could devastate everything in its path, all in the name of safeguarding a genocidal regime.

The bitter reality that the Lebanese government refuses to acknowledge today is that dependence on America, as in previous Arab experiences, will only leave Lebanon weaker and more vulnerable. 

Popular wisdom is not mistaken: Whoever shelters under America is left exposed. No external cover, however powerful it may appear, can substitute national strength and genuine sovereignty. Real sovereignty must begin from within, investing in the nation’s sources of strength, including resistance efforts, to build a defensive strategy capable of enduring and securing Lebanon’s rights and dignity through diplomatic and political means.

Lebanon must learn this lesson before it is too late. Its security does not lie in repeatedly tested American guarantees that have already cost immense Arab bloodshed in Gaza, Syria, the West Bank, and elsewhere. Security lies in Lebanon’s own ability to manage its interests, protect its people, and preserve national unity. 

These are the only reliable guarantees of security, dignity, and stability, not shifting promises from a powerful imperial force that exploits Arabs to serve its own interests and those of its protégé, Israel.

Lebanon’s rulers seek to shelter beneath the American umbrella even though they know the White House will not truly protect them. Instead, it manipulates their fears, their illusions, and their inherited sense of weakness and dependency, luring them into complacency beneath the security umbrella America promises. 

More importantly, it seeks to impose a systematic normalization with the Zionists and transform them into accepted allies to secure the illegal borders and safety of the Israeli regime.

If Lebanon is to enjoy stability according to the American model, then, as Mahmoud Darwish once suggested in one of his poems, it must “cling to the earth to survive.” 

Trump and his impulsive, far-right administration, which consistently follows Israeli interests wherever they lead, effectively tell Lebanon that, in exchange for avoiding destruction, it must prove its “worthiness” within these political testing grounds. If it succeeds in turning inward and engaging in internal conflict, its official leaders may be granted little more than a fig leaf with which to conceal their failures before a suffering people battered by the machinery of American and Israeli power.

It is both the irony and the tragedy of history, a recurring disappointment. Sadly, few among the official Arab leadership seem willing to learn from history’s harsh lessons.

Yes, it might sound like a complex equation. Ignoring America appears difficult; befriending it can be even more difficult. Opposing it carries risks. Yet the greatest danger today is that Lebanon’s leadership may fail to understand American intentions and objectives in Lebanon. 

The examples are painfully visible. In Gaza, there would not have been a genocide without Washington’s support. 

After all this, will Lebanon be stung by the same wound that has afflicted Arab nations time and again?

The conclusion is clear and unmistakable: any Arab state that relies on American protection, no matter how extensive that protection may appear, will ultimately remain exposed to reality, weak before challenges and captive to promises that never materialize. Whomever shelters under America is left uncovered. The lesson is obvious for anyone willing to see reality as it is rather than as they wish it to be.

Tomorrow the tide may turn against those rushing into the embrace of America and Israel. American protection will not conceal their weaknesses, nor will flattery save them, nor will bowed heads rescue them. The truth is simple: whoever shelters under America is left exposed. The best protection comes from the people themselves, from the state’s own strength, and from wise political leadership supported by the sources of power that Lebanon already possesses.