On Sunday, Israeli forces captured Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon — a medieval Crusader fort perched on a mountain ridge overlooking the south of the country and northern Israel. It was Israel's deepest ground penetration into Lebanese territory in 26 years. An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers were 'writing a new chapter by planting their flag at Beaufort Castle.' Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops would remain there as part of Israel's permanent security zone. The last time Israel seized Beaufort Castle, it held it for 18 years.
This is not about the castle. It is about what the castle represents.
More than 3,000 Lebanese have been killed since March. Over a million have been displaced. Israel has ordered residents of Nabatiyeh — one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon — to evacuate, alongside the residents of Tyre, Lebanon's fourth-largest city. Both cities remain standing. Neither is in Israel. Israel is telling their populations to leave anyway.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared that Israel's northern border 'must be the Litani River' and announced what he called a territorial expansion into Lebanon and Syria. In August 2025, a right-wing Israeli talk show host gave Netanyahu a piece of jewellery shaped to the borders of Greater Israel — stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates — and asked if he connects to the vision. Netanyahu said Absolutely. He told Israeli media the same week that he feels a deep connection to the Greater Israel vision and described it as 'a historical and spiritual mission.' The Arab League condemned the remarks. Jordan called them a serious provocative escalation. Washington did not respond.
The Greater Israel project is not fringe ideology. It is government policy, stated publicly, by the prime minister and the finance minister, with reference to biblical borders that stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. Israeli soldiers have been photographed wearing patches with Greater Israel maps. Israeli activists have filmed themselves dancing in Syria after crossing from Israeli-controlled territory. Settlement infrastructure is being built in Gaza, buffer zones are hardening in Lebanon and Israeli forces have conducted ground incursions into Syria deeper than any since 1967.
The UN Security Council — every member except the United States — called for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon. The resolution failed because Washington vetoed it. The Security Council exists to enforce international law. The United States exists to shield Israel from it. These two facts have coexisted for decades. What is different now is that the language of annexation is no longer euphemistic. It is explicit. Biblical. Ministerial. Prime ministerial.
A country that uses sacred texts as title deeds is not making a security argument. It is making a theological one. International law has no jurisdiction over Genesis. That is precisely the point.
On Monday evening, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had spoken with Netanyahu and that Israeli troops would not go to Beirut and all shooting would stop. Netanyahu said publicly that strikes would continue as planned. Eight more Lebanese were killed overnight. The ceasefire Trump announced lasted approximately as long as the post. Washington cannot veto its own ally's army.
The castle fell on Sunday. The flag went up. The troops will stay. For Netanyahu, the Bible is the mission.
