WEBVTT - Israel’s Attack on Lebanon 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:08.160 Cool the media. Hello everyone, welcome to it could happen here. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:09.399 My name is Dana L. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:09.799 Kurd. 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:12.880 I'm a researcher of Arab and Palestinian politics, and today 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.120 I'm joined by Iliya Ayub. Would like to introduce yourself. 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.119 Yeah, yeah, hi Danna, thank you for having me. My 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.680 name is Idiah. I'm motioning from Lebanon. My background is 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:28.240 in both history and journalism, and I often write about 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.960 the region more subbout Palestinian and I also write a 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.080 lot about Isad in Palestine, and obviously in the past 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.000 few years, I've been covering and also worrying a lot 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:38.920 about what's been happening. 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.839 Yeah, thank you so much for joining us, especially at 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.800 such a difficult time for the listeners. We are recording 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:49.199 March twenty second, twenty twenty six, and Israel's attack on 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:53.040 Lebanon is ongoing. So we're really grateful to Ilia for 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.320 joining us and talking to us about what this means 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.480 and what we're seeing on the ground. Yeah, so maybe 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.720 I'll start there. Can you lay out for the listener 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.760 what is happening in Lebanon right now? 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.160 So what's been happening in Lebanon? Is that already connected? 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.040 To the US Israeli war on Iran, which started what 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.720 about twenty two twenty three days ago something like that. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.520 That was in itself in the context of negotiations between 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.200 the Americans and the Ionians in Switzerland mediated by Arman, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.240 and just moments later, really that same night, the bombing 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.640 of Iran started in Lebanon, or rather the way Lebanon 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.080 enters this story is a couple of days after the 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:35.400 assassination of Raminida told of Iran has bought a launched 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.560 the pockets towards Israel, and this was used by the 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.959 Israelis as effectively them saying that we will only held 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:42.560 on Lebanon. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:44.760 And that's often how it's been reported. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.280 What is often missed even in that context I mean, 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.720 is that there was a so called ceasefire between Israel 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.480 and Lebanon, and hasball obviously for thirteen months before that. 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.040 But that so called ceasefire, the reason I'm saying so 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.200 called seasfire had already been violated by the Israelis. And 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.960 this is the figures that come from the uniform the unpeace 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.680 keeping forces in Lebanon over fifteen thousand times, whereas they themselves, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.480 in fact, even the BBC today. I saw an article 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.160 today I acknowledged that Hazbola had not violated the seasefire, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.000 which you know is just I guess that is also 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:19.440 where the where the mood is add in terms of 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.000 the coverage since then, like in the past three weeks, 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.400 the hell and this term was used by Israeli officials themselves, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.119 that has been unleased on Lebanon has been unprecedented, and 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.240 even even by Israeli wars on Lebanon standards, which is 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.440 saying a lot. As of time of recording, at least 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.200 twenty percent of the entirety of Lebanon has already been displaced, 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:44.799 and for the most part, these are people that had 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.440 already experienced this placement at least once in twenty twenty 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.519 four when this war started, if not older patterns of 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.680 displacements going back to the Civil War and the It'saelio 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.880 occupation of South Lebanon in the eighties and nineties and 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:03.640 so on. And unclear where this is headed because just 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.840 hours before we even started recording, they escalated their bombings 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.240 of bridges connecting South Lebanon to the Guest of Lebanon, 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.000 which is over the Litani River, which is one of 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.160 the rivers in the south as part of the attempt 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.959 to cut off the entire region of Lebanon, of South 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.359 Lebanons from the cost of the country. And yeah, we 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.560 can get into more of the details and the impact 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.600 that this is having on Lebanon itself, of course, because 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.079 this tends to be unfortunately like not covered this much. 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:33.560 Yeah, thank you so to kind of summarize, because they 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.280 decided to launch a war against Iran, and obviously there's 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.240 so much to say about that, we're not going to 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.480 be able to address every aspect. 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:41.800 Of this conflict. 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.600 But because of that, and after particularly the assassination of 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.120 the Ayatola, Hasbela launch rockets and then the Israelis, who 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.880 had already been breaking the ceasefire between them and Hesbola 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.920 that had emerged over the past year, decided to kind 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.240 of ramp up their attacks. And when we say ramp 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.200 up their attacks, you've mentioned like the destruction of infrastructure, 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.920 cutting off the south, basically clearing villages, et cetera. The 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.280 Israeli officials, including Natania, who have said they want to 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.160 impose what they called the Gaza. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:17.359 Model on Lebanon. So what can we understand from from 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:18.760 this kind of comment. 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:20.120 Yeah, thank you. 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.479 It's important to note that such comments are not new 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.800 at all, and they have also been uttered in times 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.040 of quote unquote peace. So when there isn't any kind 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.039 of active conflict. In my own article of ninety seven 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:34.760 two which I wrote about it, don't know two weeks ago, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.599 so I quote a number of those politicians, and I'll 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.120 just mention a few of them. Here you have Galant, 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.919 who has of course since been and still has in 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.920 a gust warrant by the International Comment Court. He's threatened 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:48.640 to send Leblon back to the Stone Agent. This was 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.560 in November twenty twenty four. The Diaspora Affairs Minister Amishai 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.480 quickly declared in September twenty twenty four that Lebanon quote 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.000 does not mean the definition of a state, and he 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.039 described all of the sheare population of Lebanon es quote 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:07.960 unquote hostile, which is genocide the language by definition, and. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.600 Even about what two three weeks ago. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.760 So smart Hitch, who was one of kind of the 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.839 main for great politicians in Israel today said that very soon, 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.680 as I'm quoting, very soon, Dahi will resemble herne newness, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.840 Dahi being the southern suburb of Bayhood, where a lot 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.200 there's a lot of support for has Bola and has 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.000 always been talked about by the Israelis as like one 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.160 of the quote Bolla's songholds. In fact, they pioneered, you 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.760 might say, the Dahi doctrine in two thousand and six, 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:35.560 so named after Dahi, and there was a war in 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:36.400 two thousand and six as well. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:37.680 But Venezuela has butla. 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:43.680 Which is quite explicitly a policy of bombing civilian infrastructure 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.359 in order to put pressure on the enemy in this 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.440 case as Butler, which is basically in acknowledgment that they 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.240 virate international law as state policy. And on March eleven, 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.679 a member of the pigness it for the same party 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.400 of smoothly as smart Hitch said, and I'm quoting, we 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.840 must conquer territory in southern Lebanon, destroy villages there, and 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:04.760 annex the territory to the state of Israel. 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:06.400 End quote. There's another one. 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.839 Gad Eisencote, who was the former chief of staff of 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.520 the Israelia Media IDEAF said around the same time, I 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.400 think it was a couple of weeks ago. Quote the 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.200 dog Hit doctin has never been more relevant than right now. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.240 And it must be implemented and quote dire doctrine being 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.560 the one that I just mentioned. And this is they 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.080 said not new, whether in the context of talking about 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.279 Palestinians in Raza long before the ongoing genocide, whether in 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.039 the context of talking about the Lebanese and so on, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.839 there has been this stain of open utterances of genocidal 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.640 claiming on behalf of like Israeli politicians and military leaders. 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.800 One needs to notice to understand why they act in 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.400 certain ways in Lebanon. If it was just about like 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.839 you know, targeting their enemies or whatever, that would be 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.880 like one one way of doing warfare. But it willn't 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.599 explain like detonating entire villages as they've been doing during 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.200 the so called ceasefire. It wouldn't explain splaining herbicide, which 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.479 they did about a month ago over like large parts 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.679 of South Lebanon, including parts of Syria for that matter, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.120 which killed cops and so on. It would explain them 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.359 not allowing farmers to harvest their cops. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:10.960 You know, it would explain all of these things. 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.640 What would explain all of these things is if you 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.440 take into account what they say the intentions are in 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.120 Lebanon or the valley is what they want it to 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:20.480 happen in Lebanon, if that makes sense. 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:26.080 Yeah, it really seems like the Israeli policy, especially now 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.080 that there's been really no accountability for what happened in Gaza, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:34.560 it's like basically to pursue maximum violence, including against civilians, 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.200 and create I think kind of like a no man's 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:41.480 land buffer zone around Israel. Now, there are some elements 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.960 in Israeli society that are like religious Zionists, like Messianic 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.880 types who want to settle and like expand. But aside 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.559 from those those people, like I think even we would 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.920 call like centrists in Israel, or like the liberals in Israel, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.200 are like, okay, well, yeah, we do need we do 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:00.920 need a buffer, so. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.160 We need a flatten Gaza, we need a flatten southern Lebanon. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.520 And what this translates to, I mean in Lebanon in 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.240 particular is I think you know, some estimates say over 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.560 a thousand have been killed in just the past like 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:14.720 two and a half weeks. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.360 Yeah, and then millions displaced. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:18.960 Right, yeah, twenty percent of the country. 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.560 Lebanon is one of the smallest countries in the world, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.280 and South Lebanon is one of the only regions in 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.160 the country that you might call like a bread basket 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.760 in terms of agriculture. So yeah, twenty percent of the 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:31.880 population has already been this place, and those are those 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:32.960 that could be registered. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:34.760 You can imagine numb as being higher than that. 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.360 And as I said, like a lot of those people 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.640 have already been displaced a number of times before, even 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:42.079 in twenty twenty four when there was like kind of 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.199 the initial escalation, but many of them even going back 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:46.640 to two thousand and six when there was the war, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:48.920 and in some cases even further back in the eighties 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.760 and nineties when these eighties occupied southern Lebanon. And I 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.560 guess this is really important to note because obviously what's 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.960 happening today is connected to the war on Iran. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:08:59.400 Of course it's directly connected. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.440 But if one only knows this, I think we missed 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:04.400 what I would describe as a bit of an Israeli 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.400 obsession with Lebanon specifically for a long time. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:09.960 There's like historical roots to all of this. 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.240 It even goes back to the Israelis like having ties 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.680 with like the local Christian far right in the sixties, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.719 especially as the seventies and eighties. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:19.880 Like during the civil war, during the. 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.560 Civil war in Lebanon, and a bit of this almost 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.840 I mean ideological thing of like will we will focus 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.000 on the non Muslims and hope that they're on our side, 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.360 that sort of thing, which is a policy that these 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.160 Raelies have done within is A Palestine and in Syria. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.199 You know, this is an ongoing thing as well, and 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.760 so on and so forth. I really want to emphasize 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.720 this because I have had the experience when I hit 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.079 a lot of the coverage and you know, listen to 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.680 podcasts what have you, that even among people who don't 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.440 support the State of Israel, who are very critical of it, 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.280 there tends to be understandably because Lebanon is less powerful 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.640 than Ions, you know, not as influential on a. 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:55.640 Global scene or whatnot. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.400 But there's usually a tendency to link what happens in 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.600 Lebanon there to what's happening in Yon. And this has 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.160 been two in the past few weeks. And as I said, says, 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.200 of course, partly the cases it's not like completely un elevant. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.520 Has Bala did even stated that the reason why they 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.600 launched those vockets was to avenge the assassination of dieto loss. 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:13.320 Of course, it's they're. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.200 Activiated, but there's all of this, like why they're in 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.760 all the context that can help at the bare least 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.280 explain why the Asaetias are doing that in Lebanon and 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:24.960 also help extending what's happening to Lebanon itself, which tends 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:26.120 to be not not as focused on. 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.560 I mean, yeah, let's discuss for a moment where Lebanon 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:35.160 was before these latest attacks, before the ceasefire, before October seventh. 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.760 For the Lebanese people, it has been increasingly unlivable. There's 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:44.079 been a financial crisis and economic crisis. Lebanon has hosted 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.120 huge amounts of refugees from Syria from Palestine. Continues to 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.440 these conditions now where effectively like what like half of 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.079 the country is like inaccessible or some large portion of 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.959 the country is inaccessible. The capital city has being bombed, 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.800 residential buildings, like there's there's nothing kind of off limits. 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.160 What is the situation now for for regular people who 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.880 first and foremost have not had any kind of like 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.120 sense of accountability from their own government and have had 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.200 also his Babla sort of you know, acting unilaterally in 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:23.280 some ways. Obviously, this does not excuse Israeli actions in 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.040 any way. But what's the kind of like sense of 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:27.920 emotion right now among Lebanese people. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.439 I mean, despair is I guess one word to describe it. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.600 There's there's definitely a sense of helplessness. 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.160 His Bubble is not a popular party in the country 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.920 in terms of like the percentage of the population there 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.120 is in actions, whether this one or like after October seventh, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.120 the decision to join the war was unpopular. 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:48.200 Instead it's unpopular. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.440 There's something that the Israelis are trying to capitalize on, obviously, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.280 either because they want to just destroy the parts to you, 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.400 because as part of doing that they also want to 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.960 destabilize all of Lebanon, sort of that both of those 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.360 things are happening at the same time. The current government 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.120 in Leblon is led by the guy who was the 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.079 head of the ICJA when South Africa had started this 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:07.440 case of accusing is that of genocide like a year 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.400 or so ago, So he's by the only naive of 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.559 what Israeli intentions are. But I think what's really important 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.840 to understand of what's kind of the mood of the 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.160 country is the sense that no matter what we decide 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:20.880 as a nation. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:23.520 It's completely out of our hands. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.880 And this goes beyond even questions related to has Buddler 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.400 and has Bulah's actions, because, as I said, even when 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.320 Hesbola does not launch cockets or whatnot, Israeli Is continue 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.280 to vide it as far as anyway they in coach Land, anyway, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.839 they dynamite entire villages, anyway, they've prayed those herbicide and 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.360 so on and so on anyway, And it's one of 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.360 those things that it's also important to know this to 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.199 understand why there are people, for example, in South Lebanon that, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.160 regardless of their personal feelings towards his bud Law, don't 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.480 see any alternatives because in fact there are none. Something 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.040 that I know isn't talked about as much and certainly 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.400 not covered as much, is the fact that the armed 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.120 force that is supposed to be the alternative to Hasbola. 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.520 The thing that we hear about all the time that 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.800 the Americans, what they want is for Hasbola to be 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.800 disarmed and for the Lebanese army to take over, and 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.599 so on and so forth, and this is basically the 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.319 stated goal of the entire world. In a sense, what 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.120 is a good chunk of it, and in fact it's 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.160 officially the stated policy of the Liberes state itself. That 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.559 is their intention as far as like their public declarations 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.800 and so on, and they have made certain moves to 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:25.680 that end as well. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:27.520 But the Libanese army. 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.400 Is the army of a very poor country that has 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.000 been in economic crisis for a long time. When we 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.360 had wildfires in twenty nineteen, there wasn't even enough like 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.559 equipment to tackle them, and like foreign government had to 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.120 donate helicopters and stuff like that. And that Liberanese army 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.679 is also heavily subsidized, if you want to say, like 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.319 funded in any case by the United States itself, the 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.839 same United States that obviously heavily funds and arms the Israelis. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.040 Of course, the weapons that the Lebanese get is nothing 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.120 compared to the weapons that the Israelies get. There's no 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.760 such thing as an iron dome in Lebanon. None of 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:03.319 these things are available to the Lebanese. And so effectively, 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.599 what is being asked of Lebanon itself, and especially of 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.520 South Lebanon, of the Ahia and East Lebanon, ultimately of 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.760 all of Lebanon, is that just accept your fate just 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.079 accept that there's nothing you can do about the Israel 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.319 least there's nothing you can do about their actions in 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.400 Lebanon proper. I'm not even talking about any actions like 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.600 rockets towards it, and I'm talking to their actions in 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.320 Lebanon itself. And they're also asking Haswella, for example, to disarm, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.640 which in itself I am not opposed to, but in 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.000 the context of what has been happening, in the context 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.120 of what's happening now, I think it's ludicrous to imagine 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.600 that people in the context like in South Lebanon, who 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:44.280 have decades now long experience of seeing Israeli occupation, of 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.240 seeing Israeli troops on their lands, no matter like multiple 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.920 different you know, different prime ministers in Israel taking the 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.280 charge and whatnot, but that continuing to be this kind 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.720 of almost eternal fact. In a sense at least, that's 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.760 how that's how it feels they're being asked to just 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.600 disarm and hope for the best. That's really like effectively 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.520 the policy towards Lebanon at the moment. Like I saw 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.320 an interview with one of the French ministers a few 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.720 few days ago, and she was asked like why aren't 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.280 we doing more to help Lebanon by someone in the 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.360 audience or whatever, and she said that, like we're sending 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.520 humanitarian aid, and we have UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.800 and so on. UNIFIL forces, those un peace keeping forces, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:24.840 as I said, don't have a legal right to even 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.800 retaliate against the Israels, including when Israel bombs them, which 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:30.840 it has done at least twice in the past few weeks. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.200 The Lebanese army really engages with Israelis, they don't even 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.000 have the means in the first place, and so what 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.520 do people expected to do? And this is sort of 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.360 the context in which everything else almost doesn't matter, like 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.400 in terms of whether you personally like the Hasibodla, I 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.480 certainly don't, and whatever, like ones personal feelings or even 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.280 politics is towards a political party because they're also members 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.160 of the Lebanese Parliament, towards the state itself, whatever it 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.880 is that it really feels that ultimately it's like our 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.560 of our hands. And this is like a component of 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.600 this entire thing that I really see, to be honest 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.240 discussed as though like there are like two sides to 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.160 the story, or like two equal armed actors for that 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.040 even none on like equal states for that matter, and it's. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:13.560 Just not the case. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.920 Yeah, thank you so much for laying that out like that. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.800 I think that you're right that it's not well acknowledged, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.680 how disempowered. The international community basically expects people in the region, 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.480 including the Lebanese, to behave and like accept the fact 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.960 that they are collateral damage in Israel's, you know, perpetual 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:32.080 desire for domination. 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:44.680 American political scientist. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.840 Nathan Brown just published this article called Israel's Forever Wars 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.680 for the Carnegie Domat. His argument is that there's been 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.120 a shift in the Israeli policy where he says it 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.760 used to be the terrents domination and diplomacy have long 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.840 blended in Israeli statecraft, and today he's says they've been 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:05.119 eclipsed by something harsher quote a preference for domination, degradation 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.560 and the prevention of the adversaries recovery. I mean, I 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.480 think he's right, though, I think that we've seen kind 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.199 of a at least a lower intensity, maybe not as 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.560 high intensity, but we've seen a long scale policy of 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.680 domination even before this moment. But I think this moment 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.760 does definitely bring it out, which brings me to my 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.320 question of like for Hesbola in particular, in the last 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.480 year two years, like there have been assassinations, we saw 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.320 the Pager attack. You know, it seems that Hesbola has 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.119 been very effectively weakened. And since the Israelians are now 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.320 kind of going all out, what do you think is 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.720 going to happen to Hezbolas as a group, set aside. 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.280 Perhaps their public support or you know, lack thereof. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.119 So it's important to note that Hezbola comes from a 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.240 certain context. They hose in the context of South Lebanon 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.399 during the israel occupation of South Lebanon, theyse as the 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.080 alternative to existing party that were either seen as to 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.880 complicity with the Israelis or maybe too weak or complacent 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.560 or whatnot. And essentially because there was a need for 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:09.440 something like has Ball at the time. And again this 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.959 is completely regardless of my personal opposition to a lot 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.439 of their politics, whether it's a Lebanon or especially in Syria. 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.560 But that question, if you're going to call it the 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.520 Lebanese question, it's completely being side stepped, it's not being 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.800 tackled whatsoever. And in fact, it's it's not that dissimilar, 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.200 I think from the Israeli attempt to erase or triig 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:30.520 to pretend as of the Palestinian question as well as 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.760 can be completely side stepped. But they can just continue 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.360 to pursue this policy of just complete domination, as you said, 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.960 you know, make these apomic codeas with the UEE and 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.480 other some of the other Arab states, for example, without 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.240 any mentions of Valestine and Palestinians and so on and 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.840 so forth. And in the case of Lebanon is like 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.760 less official because there isn't that component, but of the 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.080 spirit of it is pretty similar. There is a sort 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.120 of like illegal ilegalistic framework of the Land for Peace, 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.480 and I think explaining that at least beef would I 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.320 think connectualize the quote that you even you just read 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.040 out to us here that you know, the Isaelis occupied 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.400 Arab territories in nineteen sixty seven. Palestinitary obviously they're being 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.119 gudz at the West Bank, and is Jerusalem. Egypt, of 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.440 course was the Sinai and Cia was and still is 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.640 the Golden Heights. And so the Land for Peace quote 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.679 unquote worked. In the case of Egypt, they occupied the Sinai, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:24.840 and then as part of a peace deal with Egypt, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:26.800 they returned the Sinai to the Egyptians. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.919 It didn't happen with Syria. 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.080 The Sian Golden Heights have been occupied since nineteen sixty seven, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.520 were effectively the factor annexed in nineteen eighty one. They've 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.400 been annexed for so long that Smotrich himself was born 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.520 in an illegal settlement in the Siyan Golden Heights. And 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.359 I'm mentioning this because the Lebanese state, the Prime Minister 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.320 I mentioned earlier about what a week ago, ten days 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.960 ago or so, said that he's hoping for a Land 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.880 for Peace framework, which to me shows just how desperate 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:00.879 even they are, like they don't know what to do, 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.119 they have no options in front of them. So what 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.960