Israel Is Preparing A Risky Incursion Into Lebanon — As Biden Stands By

Fighting on the ground in Lebanon risks millions of lives, and officials tell HuffPost the White House is prepared to let it proceed.

Israel has told the U.S. it is planning ground operations inside Lebanon, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday.

Miller cast the Israeli incursion as short of an invasion, saying the U.S. believes it will be “limited” and focused on infrastructure belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. But U.S. officials similarly believed Israel’s campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas would be relatively constrained as they started funneling support to it last year.

Further escalation inside Lebanon, regardless of scope, would endanger millions of lives and put the Middle East and the U.S. in an incredibly precarious situation. With no end in sight to the war that started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants invaded Israel and Israel began pummeling the Palestinian territory of Gaza in response, a second major front would be open, risking a spiral of bloodshed that could implicate the U.S. in war crimes, expand into all-out regional conflict, and prove as hard to end through diplomacy as the devastating fighting in Gaza.

Despite the likelihood of further violence, one course of action from President Joe Biden is extremely unlikely, sources told HuffPost: an American veto on Israel’s actions.

Within Israel, there is still a debate over whether a full invasion makes strategic sense, analysts say. As the country’s chief military and diplomatic backer, the U.S. is the only party that could pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prioritize reaching a deal with Israel’s foe in Lebanon: the armed group Hezbollah, which was led by Hassan Nasrallah until Friday, when he was assassinated by Israel.