All quiet on the Lebanese front?

(JNS) — This headline from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last week was typical: “Trump announces Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, but major disputes remain.”

That framing misses a basic truth: Ceasefires don’t resolve conflicts. Though they can lead to productive negotiations, they are more often used by both sides to prepare for the kinetic battles that lie ahead.

Even ones that hold don’t necessarily produce good outcomes. The most obvious example: More than seven decades after the 1953 Korean armistice, the United States remains in a frozen conflict with a dynastic North Korean dictatorshi...