Trump says he spoke with Hezbollah, so I guess I spoke with Elvis. Such is the level of absurdity, criminality and dishonor in the ongoing US-Israel squeeze and assault on Lebanon.I explained this tonight in my interview (below) on TRT tv, saying that the US-Israel policy of maintaining Israeli superiority in the region follows a century-long legacy of such pressure tactics.
Three important points to keep in mind when asking why would the US-Israel side behave so viciously against Lebanese when a cease-fire is supposed to be in place : 1. Lebanon is the 4th party in the region to resist the Israel-US onslaughts, sanctions, threats, genocides, and occupations — after Palestine, Yemen, and Iran, all of whom still pay a heavy price. Such resistance is intolerable for Tel Aviv and Washington, whose sustained response since 1948 has been to develop and apply Israeli-American militarism widely in the region, and try to subjugate and obliterate the Arab parties that challenge them. US-Israel could not destroy Iran, Palestinians, or Yemen, so now they try to savage Lebanon, which refuses to roll over and surrender. 2. A Lebanon ceasefire is critical for ending the US-Israel war on Iran, and Hezbollah is in an existential battle to survive, and to save Lebanon from Israeli domination and colonization (in regions that Israel has not already ethnically cleansed or destroyed). Netanyahu needs a “win” to show his people and armed forces, because he has not fully achieved that elsewhere. But the combined efforts of Iran and Lebanon have so far denied Netanyahu his desired win on the battlefield, and now the US steps in to achieve this by squeezing the Lebanese, while Israel reminds everyone that its genocide in Gaza was practice for possible follow-ups elsewhere in the region. 3. The US has often tried to buy off weaker Arab states and parties that were collapsing, and to offer them subservient junior partnership status with Israel. Lebanon is a huge test of this, and its fate will shape key dimensions of the next era in Arab statehood, sovereignty, human dignity, and identity.
©
2026 Rami G Khouri |
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