New Delhi, July 19 -- a date when Israel's soldiers leave.

The meeting with Donald Trump, confirmed for July 21, marks the first White House visit by a Lebanese head of state since Michel Sleiman met Barack Obama in 2009. Aoun travels under circumstances no Lebanese diplomat in 2009 could have imagined - Israeli troops occupying a strip ten kilometers deep across the country's south, more than 4,300 Lebanese killed since March, and a framework agreement on his desk that defines the architecture of Israeli withdrawal without committing Israel to it.

Lebanon was pulled into the regional war on March 2 when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in an operation Iran described as support for Gaza. Israel's military response breached the Blue ...