**Who Decides the Pause** US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel will begin at midnight Israel time, after separate conversations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. The arrangement, presented from the top as a done deal, comes with Israel keeping a security buffer stretching 10 kilometers into southern Lebanon for the duration of the ceasefire. The people living under the fire are told to wait for the powerful to sort it out. Trump said on Truth Social, “Both sides want to see peace, and I believe that will happen, quickly!” He also said he invited Aoun and Netanyahu to the White House for the first direct talks between the leaders of Lebanon and Israel since 1983. The language is all summit theater and managed diplomacy, with the actual terms still shaped by military control on the ground. **The Buffer Zone and the Chain of Command** In a later statement, Netanyahu hailed the ceasefire as “an opportunity to make a historic peace agreement with Lebanon.” He said, “We have changed the balance of security,” and said Israel will maintain a security buffer stretching 10 kilometers into southern Lebanon for the duration of the ceasefire in order to deter the threat posed by Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. The ceasefire is not a withdrawal; it is a pause with an armed perimeter still in place. Another report said Netanyahu told a security cabinet meeting, when asked what led to the sudden change and Israel’s decision to agree to a ceasefire, “It's a Trump request.” The Jerusalem Post also reported that an Israeli source said Trump and Netanyahu held at least one phone call during the day, and that in recent days there had been no pressure from Israel for a ceasefire, only requests by Trump and other officials to minimize Israeli strikes in Lebanon. The decision-making sits where it usually does: in phone calls, cabinet rooms, and the hands of men with armies. The Jerusalem Post reported that Trump pressured Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon after Lebanon’s president clarified to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior American officials that such a call would not take place without progress in negotiations between the two countries. According to two sources familiar with the details, Aoun told Rubio and others, “There is only value in such a phone call between leaders when there is significant progress on the ground. Without real negotiations underway, and certainly without a ceasefire, I will not hold a call with Netanyahu at this time.” He said he was not ruling out a future call, but that something meaningful must happen first. **What the People Under Fire Were Told** Haaretz reported that the Lebanese Armed Forces warned citizens to avoid Israeli-occupied areas in southern Lebanon and urged the public to exercise caution. In a statement, the LAF said, “Amid circulating news regarding a cease-fire agreement being reached, the military leadership calls on citizens to exercise restraint in returning to the southern villages and towns until the agreement enters into force, and urges not to approach the areas infiltrated by Israeli occupation forces.” It added that citizens must “adhere to the military's directives to preserve their safety, exercise caution and report unexploded ordnance and suspicious objects left after Israeli attacks to the nearest military center.” The same report said shrapnel from a Hezbollah rocket barrage severely wounded a 25-year-old man in Carmiel, northern Israel, after 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon, two hours before the cease-fire was expected to go into effect. It said the Israeli military reported that ten rockets were fired from Lebanon toward the area, that it intercepted eight and that two others hit open areas. It also said five rockets were fired toward Nahariya along northern Israel's coast, with Israeli air defenses intercepting four, and that the military expected more rocket fire in the coming hour ahead of the cease-fire taking effect at midnight. **Politics, Pressure, and the Usual Referees** The Jerusalem Post reported that Hezbollah said the ceasefire must not allow Israel freedom of movement and stated that the presence of Israeli troops in Lebanese territory grants the Lebanese the “right to resist.” It also reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the ceasefire agreement in a post on X/Twitter, saying the pause in fighting was Lebanon’s “primary goal in the Washington meeting on Tuesday.” Salam wrote, “I congratulate all Lebanese on this achievement,” and thanked regional and international partners who helped achieve the ceasefire. The report said Aoun refused to speak directly to Netanyahu about a ceasefire after Trump indicated in an overnight post on Truth Social that the Israeli and Lebanese would be speaking, and that Aoun instead held a call with Trump, who spoke to Netanyahu before the ceasefire was eventually announced. The choreography is familiar: leaders talk, intermediaries pressure, and the people living with the consequences are left to absorb the terms. The Jerusalem Post also reported that Netanyahu did not ask for the security cabinet's approval when he informed them of the ceasefire in Lebanon, and only held an urgent conference call after Trump’s announcement. It said Netanyahu presented the cabinet with the cessation of the war in southern Lebanon as a fait accompli, not asking the ministers to serve as a “rubber stamp” as he did in previous times. The report said Iran had set the ceasefire in Lebanon as a precondition for holding negotiations with the United States, with Israel publicly opposing Tehran’s demand. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the ceasefire, describing it as “all the promises of this government... crashing against the ground of reality.” He said the war with Lebanon can only end by fully and permanently removing the threat to Israel's northern border communities. Lapid said, “In this government, it will no longer happen; we will do it in the next government.” Yisrael Beytenu chairperson MK Avigdor Liberman also condemned the ceasefire, calling it a “betrayal.” He said, “The government of October 7 learned nothing,” and added, “Once again, Hezbollah is being given time to recover and strengthen itself. The war must not be ended without a clear decision and the elimination of Hezbollah. Otherwise, the next round is just a matter of time, at a much heavier price and under much worse conditions.” Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, leader of Yashar!, said he thought the ceasefire was “a bad omen,” adding, “And it stems from the way in which Netanyahu, as prime minister, does not know how to realize the military achievements into political achievements, and therefore a ceasefire is being forced upon us for the third time.” Internationally, the announcement drew support from President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who said, “I welcome the announced 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, mediated by President Trump.” She said, “This is a relief, as this conflict has already claimed far too many lives.” Von der Leyen added, “Now, we need not just a temporary pause, but a path to permanent peace. Europe will continue to call for the full respect of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. And we will keep supporting the Lebanese people through substantial humanitarian aid.”
