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“When will the war end? I say: when we meet again.” Mahmoud Darwish I am by nature an optimist, without being armoured against sadness. Yet, despite the darkness and brutality of the war, I find myself living through one of the most hopeful periods of my life — contrary to many around me. I believe we are witnessing Lebanon’s last wars, and in the quiet of the night my thoughts drift toward “the day after the war.” I think, with genuine compassion and without seeking to blame anyone, in near-total neutrality, about the shock that will strike households whose members were raised in a deep hatred of Israel, its people, and Jews in general — Arab nationalists, Syrian nationalists, communists, Islamists of every stripe.

Since the outbreak of the latest military escalation on the southern border, Lebanon has found itself at the heart of the regional picture as a theatre of open confrontation, reviving longstanding questions about its role, the limits of its decision-making autonomy, and its capacity to bear the cost of engagement in conflicts that far exceed its borders. Against this backdrop, a fundamental question presents itself: how is one to assess the merits of this confrontation from a strictly Lebanese perspective, in light of the consequences it has produced on the military, economic, and social levels?

As noted in our previous article, the four pioneers of modern Lebanese painting – Khalil Saleeby, Omar Onsi, César Gemayel, and Mustafa Farroukh – imbued Western Impressionism with a distinctly Lebanese and Eastern spirit. Omar Onsi, a leading figure in modern Lebanese painting, is distinguished by his mastery of transparency and light. By working primarily in watercolor, he captured the poetic essence of Lebanon’s mountaintops and its natural landscapes. Influenced by Monet, Onsi abandoned the use of black, instead rendering shadows in deep blues and purples. Painting outdoors, his exceptional command of light earned him the nickname “Lebanon’s master of light.”

Recent "spillovers" of the war beyond the territorial boundaries that had delimited the conflict since its outset, with their attendant casualties, compel us to pause and reflect. Guerrilla Warfare by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, or Régis Debray's Revolution in the Revolution? , to cite only these two works, analysed at length, in the wake of the golden age of revolution in the 1960s, how irregular warfare, far from being reducible to a simple tactic of harassment waged by weak forces against a superior adversary, takes the form of a subtler and more disquieting undertaking, in which the civilian population no longer serves merely as a refuge or logistical relay, but becomes progressively the very stakes of the confrontation, one that the dynamic of violence never ceases to work upon and recompose according to its own logics.

After more than five weeks of war, Washington and Tehran have agreed on a two-week ceasefire in exchange for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, just over an hour before the expiration of Donald Trump's ultimatum threatening to destroy the Islamic Republic. Tehran indicated at dawn on Wednesday that talks would take place starting Friday with Washington. These discussions will be held in Pakistan, a key mediator in the Middle East war. Israel has accepted the ceasefire with Iran, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity. "Following discussions with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Marshal Asim Munir of Pakistan, during which they asked me to suspend the military intervention planned for tonight against Iran, and provided that the Islamic Republic of Iran accepts the TOTAL, IMMEDIATE and SECURE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend bombings and attacks against Iran for a period of two weeks," the American president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The deadline given by US President Donald Trump to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to restore free maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz expires today, Tuesday, at 8 PM Washington time (overnight, Middle East time). Failing that, President Trump could give his green light to a very large-scale strike against Iran. Late Tuesday afternoon (Beirut time), heavy suspense reigned in all the capitals of the region regarding the course events might take. An agreement could be reached in the final fifteen minutes, especially since throughout the day on Tuesday, April 7, the White House kept the door open for a resumption of negotiations, but it was unclear whether the Iranians had softened their position.