Jonathan Conricus counts the pieces. The Strait of Hormuz. Iran.
Bahrain. President Trump’s threat to “complete the job.” A disputed memorandum of understanding.
Then Lebanon. He called the Lebanon track “the big news of the weekend.” For a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, that single phrase carries weight. It gave him, he said, “a glimmer of hope that maybe the future will be different” from the near-constant war Israel has faced over the last almost three years.
Three years. That is the number Conricus keeps returning to.
Not a single, unbroken crisis across Asia and the Middle East, he argues. A series of collisions. One moment the conversation swings to attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and US retaliation.
The next, it shifts again. But the Lebanon deal cuts through that noise. Conricus sees a fundamental divide.
He noted it is “very interesting to see, very telling to see, who is for a peace deal between two sovereign states and who’s against it.” The question splits the region. Those truly committed to sovereignty, democracy, and peace, in his view, should be welcoming a roadmap between Israel and Lebanon.
Not reflexively resisting it because it weakens “Iran and Hezbollah.” He cast the moment as a quiet rebuke. A rebuke to those who have spent years claiming to care about human rights while opposing any development that might reduce violence. The numbers tell the story.
One peace track. Two sovereign states.
A divide between those who want that outcome and those who do not. This is not a simple peace announcement, Conricus made clear. It is a process.
Families across the region watch for what comes next. A peace deal between two sovereign states would cut against the usual grain of regional alignments. That is why the opposition matters.
Asked about criticism from Israeli hard-liners, Conricus dismissed National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as “a” — the report cuts off there. But the point stands.
The opposition comes from predictable quarters. For communities across Asia watching the Middle East, the picture has often looked like one long, unbroken crisis. Conricus sees it differently.
He describes the region as a series of collisions. The Lebanon track is the latest collision — and the one that offers a different outcome.
The numbers are simple. One deal. Two states.
A glimmer of hope. Three years of near-constant war. The divide between those who want peace and those who oppose it.
Conricus keeps coming back to that divide. It exposes something fundamental, he argues.
Those truly committed to sovereignty, democracy, and peace should be welcoming this roadmap. Not resisting it because it weakens Iran and Hezbollah. The quiet rebuke is the point.
For almost three years, the region has seen near-constant war. The Lebanon track offers a different path.
Conricus called it “the big news of the weekend.” For families across the region, that matters.
