Israel’s escalations in Lebanon further expose its pattern of impunity

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) unequivocally condemns Israel’s horrific attacks on Lebanon. These attacks, even as a ceasefire with Iran was being announced, are a grotesque reminder of the impunity it has been granted for years. Within hours of the truce, Israel launched major strikes on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, killing and wounding hundreds, despite public claims from mediators that the ceasefire was meant to halt attacks “everywhere, including Lebanon.” Israel, as always, rushed to cast itself as the aggrieved party while making clear it had no intention of honoring the basic premise of de-escalation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly said the ceasefire did not apply to Lebanon, even as Hezbollah had reportedly paused attacks under the truce.

This is exactly what happens when the United States and other world leaders spend years giving Israel free rein to slaughter, starve, and destroy civilians en masse with no real accountability. After more than two and a half years of devastation in Gaza, and after repeated findings and warnings from major human rights bodies and UN experts describing genocide, extermination, and acts of genocide, Israel has only grown more emboldened. It has learned that it can bomb, besiege, violate ceasefires, and then hide behind the language of “self-defense” while the world scrambles to excuse its actions.

Iran’s ceasefire proposal, as publicly reported, called for an end to attacks on Iran and its allies. Yet Israel responded the way it so often does: by insisting on special exemption for its own violence. That is the pattern. Israel demands quiet from everyone else while reserving for itself the right to keep bombing, keep killing, and keep escalating. It claims victimhood in every forum, but when it comes time to uphold a ceasefire, it is Palestinians, Lebanese civilians, and the wider region who are forced to pay the price for Israel’s refusal to keep its word.

Israel’s actions are a political choice, enabled by governments, mainly the U.S., that have refused to impose tangible consequences on Israel for years. Every new strike on Lebanon, every shattered ceasefire, and every massacre carried out under the cover of diplomacy is the result of that failure. There can be no serious talk of peace while Israel is allowed to bomb its neighbors at will, violate agreements without consequence, and continue a campaign of annihilation in Gaza under the protection of the very governments now claiming to want calm.