Workers load dismantled tents onto a truck at a displaced families' camp along Beirut's waterfront on July 1, 2026. Following a U.S.-backed trilateral agreement between Lebanon and Israel, Lebanese authorities removed tents and unauthorized encampments along the waterfront and transferred the remaining displaced families to officially designated shelter centers. (Credit: AFP)
David Schenker is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the Trump administration.Last week in Washington, Lebanon and Israel declared their intent to end the state of war and committed to draft a peace treaty. The Framework Agreement is ambitious and faces significant obstacles to implementation, including, principally, Iran-backed Hezbollah. But Lebanon’s own antiquated boycott regulations are also a barrier to improved relations between the neighboring states.On April 23, President Trump was introduced to Lebanon’s Orwellian censorship laws. In the Oval Office after the second round of U.S.-brokered Israeli-Lebanese peace talks, Anthony Merchek, a correspondent with MBC TV, asked Trump about Lebanon’s draconian “anti-normalization”...
David Schenker is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the Trump administration.Last week in Washington, Lebanon and Israel declared their intent to end the state of war and committed to draft a peace treaty. The Framework Agreement is ambitious and faces significant obstacles to implementation, including, principally, Iran-backed Hezbollah. But Lebanon’s own antiquated boycott regulations are also a barrier to improved relations between the neighboring states.On April 23, President Trump was introduced to Lebanon’s Orwellian censorship laws. In the Oval Office after the second round of U.S.-brokered Israeli-Lebanese peace talks, Anthony Merchek, a correspondent with MBC TV, asked Trump about Lebanon’s draconian...
