The preparatory telephone call, when it finally happened, was conducted with the fastidious care of surgeons operating on a live grenade . No one used the word "normalisation." No one spoke of recognition. The very fact of the call — Israeli officials, Lebanese officials, American mediators on a secure line — represented something that had not occurred in more than three decades: direct negotiation between two states that share a border, a history of war, and almost nothing else.
It is 2026, and Israel and Lebanon are talking again . The last time they attempted anything like sustained bilateral dialogue was 1993, when secret channels explored the terms of a possible withdrawal from South Lebanon . That effort collapsed. Before that, the only serious precedent was the ill-fated May 1983 agreement, a US-brokered pact that crumbled under Syrian and domestic pressure before it could take effect . Now, against a backdrop of intensified conflict, shifting regional power, and the death of one of the Middle East's most formidable actors, the two countries are trying once more.