Jeremy Scahill speaks with the Axis of Resistance scholar about Iran, Hezbollah, Israel, and Trump—and why she believes another regional war is inevitable.
I hope Ms. Saad’s upcoming book on Hezbollah gets a wide audience. My understanding from the limited reading I have done is that Hezbollah formed in response to Israel’s massacre of Lebanese Shia and Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon in the early eighties. I remember when that happened and the outrage it elicited at the time, but it seems to have been quickly forgotten and Hezbollah has been reliably referred to since as a terrorist organization. The history of the region is so poorly known in the U.S., as if it began on October 7, 2023. Thank you to Drop Site for educating us. Education is the first step toward change.
This “framework” isn’t diplomacy — it’s the political cover for an occupation. By outsourcing Israel’s war aims to the Lebanese government, Washington and Tel Aviv are trying to manufacture a civil conflict they couldn’t win on the battlefield. Saad is right: this is self‑colonization dressed up as statecraft, and unless the U.S. enforces the ceasefire it signed, the next phase won’t be negotiation but escalation.
I learned so much from this interview. To hear that Hezbolla isn’t a completely separate rogue entity in Lebanon but has its own ministers as part of the government was something I didn’t realize. Aoun has forsaken his own people. A total traitor to the country’s sovereignty. Hezbolla going out of its way to state it has no interest in a civil war while Aoun is doing everything to start one. He must be despised by large segments of the population who want stability but not to be a vassal of Israel.
Sickens me how Israel, US, and even the Lebanon government so easily discards and devalues human lives. Confounding to conceive of such monsters.
Timely. Can always rely on Jeremy and Drop Site.
I hope Ms. Saad’s upcoming book on Hezbollah gets a wide audience. My understanding from the limited reading I have done is that Hezbollah formed in response to Israel’s massacre of Lebanese Shia and Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon in the early eighties. I remember when that happened and the outrage it elicited at the time, but it seems to have been quickly forgotten and Hezbollah has been reliably referred to since as a terrorist organization. The history of the region is so poorly known in the U.S., as if it began on October 7, 2023. Thank you to Drop Site for educating us. Education is the first step toward change.
This “framework” isn’t diplomacy — it’s the political cover for an occupation. By outsourcing Israel’s war aims to the Lebanese government, Washington and Tel Aviv are trying to manufacture a civil conflict they couldn’t win on the battlefield. Saad is right: this is self‑colonization dressed up as statecraft, and unless the U.S. enforces the ceasefire it signed, the next phase won’t be negotiation but escalation.
Great and timely interview! Thank you Jeremy. I look forward to Ms. Saad's book.
I learned so much from this interview. To hear that Hezbolla isn’t a completely separate rogue entity in Lebanon but has its own ministers as part of the government was something I didn’t realize. Aoun has forsaken his own people. A total traitor to the country’s sovereignty. Hezbolla going out of its way to state it has no interest in a civil war while Aoun is doing everything to start one. He must be despised by large segments of the population who want stability but not to be a vassal of Israel.