Shame on You, Sec'y Rubio, for "Quiet for Quiet" Proposal
Dr. Aaron Lerner 1 June 2026

"I want the Department of State to have the best ideas and the best options
available for the President, and then I want us to be able to execute them
better than any agency in our government. That will also be a task of mine.
I have watched from the congressional side from time to time,
administrations in both parties, in which sometimes the Department of State
has been sort of relegated to a secondary role because some other agency can
move faster or seems to be bolder or more creative. It's not your fault, but
we're going to change that. We want to be at the centerpiece, and we want to
be at the core of how we formulate foreign policy, because we're going to
have the best ideas of any agency and because we're going to execute it
better and faster and more effectively than any other agency in our
government. And I know we have the right team to do it."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Employees 21 January 2025

I genuinely expected you to have your team come up with "the best ideas".

That is why I am so profoundly disappointed to read that you are proposing
"quiet for quiet" in Lebanon.

Under this approach, Hezbollah would be permitted to continue operations
full throttle inside Beirut so long as it does not kill too many Israelis.

This isn't a "best idea" - it is an old, failed policy.

And it doesn't require the knowledge of a top expert in Middle Eastern
affairs to know this.

Anyone whose brain has been functioning these past few years knows that
"quiet for quiet" is a disastrous policy.

So there are two possibilities:

#1. You and everyone else on your team are idiots.

#2. Israel's security - and for that matter, the future of Lebanon - is
taking a back seat to a deal with Iran which requires sacrificing Lebanon to
Iran.

Mr. Rubio, we aren't children.

And we know you aren't an idiot.

We know that you know that the only real way for Lebanon to be saved is if
the Lebanese leadership can justify its collaboration in action against
Hezbollah.

And that requires a tangible disaster-in-progress as IDF action against
Hezbollah destroys parts of Beirut and elsewhere.

And since we aren't children, we also appreciate how important a deal with
Iran is for your boss.

And how challenging it is for you to deviate even a millimeter from what Mr.
Trump thinks or wants at any given moment

I appreciate that you are "paying your dues", thinking to yourself that at
some time in the future when you are your own man you can make this all
right.

But you are a man of principles.

A man of morals.

And you know in your heart that doing the right thing in the future cannot
compensate for immoral acts today.

So I urge you, for all our sakes, to do the right thing and drop this "quiet
for quiet" farce.

And that "all" includes Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf States, America's partners
in the Far East and yes, the United States of America itself.

Because the whole world is watching.

And when they see you and your government screwing Israel, they don't pity
the Jewish State. They worry if they might be next.

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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il