Screenshot of a video published by the leader of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Yossi Dagan, showing him shaking hands with Massaad Boulos at the latter's home on March 9, 2025.
Massaad Boulos, Donald Trump's Lebanese American adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, met Sunday at his home in Washington with an Israeli official from the occupied West Bank settlements, where they discussed hopes for “concrete results” on a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
During the meeting, Boulos exchanged a prolonged handshake with Yossi Dagan, head of the regional council of “Judea and Samaria” — the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank — and leader of the settlers in the area. Boulos expressed “his full appreciation for the people of Samaria, our brothers and sisters in the region.” He added, “In Israel, Lebanon, and throughout the region, we want and hope for peace, and with God's grace, we will achieve it soon,” while suggesting that “concrete results” could be reached through the “positive will” of all parties.
Dagan, for his part, said he hoped to coordinate with Boulos and Trump for “a better future in the region and in Israel, especially after Oct. 7, 2023, and the deadly Hamas attack.” The settler leader is in Washington for a series of meetings aimed at securing U.S. support for Israeli settlements, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. The newspaper also reported that Dagan presented Boulos with an “official medal” from his region and a bottle of “Trump Victory” wine produced at the Kabir Israeli vineyard in the occupied West Bank.
The ‘acceptable’ mission of the Lebanese Army
In an interview with Lebanon’s an-Nahar newspaper published Saturday, Boulos — who is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter — said Washington “expects the Lebanese government to fully respect this agreement and all relevant Security Council resolutions, with the common goal of disarming and dismantling the financial infrastructure of Hezbollah and all other armed groups.”
The United States is said to have given Israel assurances allowing it to maintain its occupation of at least five positions in southern Lebanon. The occupation has been condemned by Beirut and Paris, another guarantor of the cease-fire agreement that took effect in late November after two months of Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs, along with daily Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.
On Friday night, Boulos told Lebanon’s MTV that “the Lebanese Army is fulfilling its duty in an acceptable manner” in southern Lebanon, where it is supposed to deploy while Hezbollah withdraws from the area south of the Litani River.
Regarding the so-called “Pager” law — a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress requiring the Lebanese government to take concrete steps within 60 days to disarm Hezbollah — Boulos said the measure “is under discussion and should not face any objection, as it is time to set a deadline” for the group's disarmament. Republican Rep. Greg Steube reintroduced the bill last week.
The bill was supported by several organizations, including the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy and The Endowment for Middle East Truth.
The name refers to Israel's deadly operation in Lebanon on Sept. 17 and 18 when it detonated thousands of pagers and talkie-walkies used by Hezbollah for communication, killing a dozen people, including a child, and injuring over 3,000 others. In his February visit to the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted President Donald Trump a gold pager as a souvenir.
The cease-fire agreement concluded at the end of November 2024 between Lebanon and Hezbollah, under U.S. auspices, ended a 13-month war between Hezbollah and Israel. More than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during this war, which drastically escalated last September.