They really thought that calling it a ceasefire would make it one. Then the evidence surfaced, and the whole thing has proved to be anything but. Right, so they love that word ceasefire don’t they? Roll it out, dust it off, stick it on the news ticker and suddenly we’re all supposed to behave like the world’s been calmed down, like the grown ups are in charge and they’ve sorted the situation. Border quiet. Situation stabilised. Everyone can breathe again. Except, funny thing, it wasn’t quiet at all. And now we have a report detailing the noise behind the scenes. Why Israel can keep b*mbing with impunity despite signing up to a ceasefire. It’s because they had permission. The Quincy Institute are the ones who have uncovered the paperwork, and there it is in black and white — the Biden White House had assented to Israel seemingly from the moment the ceasefire was called a year ago, to keep b*mbing Lebanon whilst Hezbollah downed tools. Side understandings, they called it. Lovely phrase. It means “we’ll keep the wording, you keep firing the missiles.” And Hezbollah will sit on its hands. And Washington calls that peace. We’ve seen this pantomime often enough to know the lines by heart don’t we? When they say ceasefire, they mean one of you stops. The other one doesn’t. Right, so there is a way to read a ceasefire agreement that has nothing to do with what is printed on the page. You look at who is permitted to act and who is required to absorb. You look at which side gets to move aircraft, and which side is told to hold position. You look at which violations are called violations, and which ones are quietly reclassified as routine. It is all there before the first missile leaves the ground. The paperwork when it comes to light so often tells you who was never meant to stop firing and this is the case here. The bad soap opera plotline just came full circle. During the ceasefire negotiations in late 2023, the United States presented itself as the stabilising hand on the Lebanon front. Public language spoke of preventing a second war front, even though Israel were champing at the bit for it, how dare Hezbollah fire at us in solidarity with Gaza? Deterrence. Containment. Responsible stewardship. The idea was that Washington would ensure neither side broke the truce. The image was of an overseer. A referee. A guarantor of calm. The ceasefire existed in that framing. The border was described through those words. But the official language was only the surface of the agreement. And now the Quincy Institute of Responsible Statecraft has published the missing lines. The holes that were in the plot. The “side understandings” as they have put it. The part not included in the ceasefire text. The part Lebanon did not sign. The part the public did not hear. The Biden administration gave Israel quiet approval to continue cross-border strikes after the ceasefire was announced. These were not emergency responses.