{"id":523542,"date":"2026-07-03T15:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/523542\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T15:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:43:12","slug":"hanin-ghaddar-lebanon-turns-against-hezbollah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/523542\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanin Ghaddar: Lebanon turns against Hezbollah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus<\/a>. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman<\/a> for a deep dive into what\u2019s behind the news that spins the globe.\n<\/p>\n

Israelis and many Americans \u2014 not to mention Gulf Arabs \u2014 were stunned by the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Trump administration and the Iranians last month.\n<\/p>\n

There was much to criticize in the MOU, but one of the most egregious elements was the inclusion of Lebanon in the ceasefire deal. Although neither Israel nor the Lebanese government were signatories to a deal between Washington and Tehran, it specifically mandated a halt to Israel\u2019s campaign against Hezbollah, Iran\u2019s most powerful proxy.<\/p>\n

Then, last Friday, a reason for some hope.<\/p>\n

WATCH the full episode here:<\/p>\n

As a beaming US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looked on, the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington signed an agreement envisioning peace between the neighbors and the staged disarming of Hezbollah by the Lebanese army.<\/p>\n

Could this be the beginning of the end for Hezbollah, the tool of Iranian control of Lebanon? Can we expect a real peace deal that would see Israelis and Lebanese moving across the border?<\/p>\n

Or is this another half-baked Trump agreement that will lead nowhere, and will allow Israel\u2019s enemies to rebuild and keep their weapons?<\/p>\n

Hanin Ghaddar, a Shiite Lebanese scholar who grew up in southern Lebanon, says that even her community is sick of Hezbollah. The turn against the organization \u2014 which claims to represent and protect the Shia \u2014 began a decade ago, as they sided against anti-government protestors.<\/p>\n

With the country in a deep economic crisis and political stalemate, the organization dragged the country into war on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas. The majority of Shiites in Lebanon, said Ghaddar, are done with Hezbollah. \u201cThe resistance is dead as a solution to everything,\u201d she posited. There\u2019s no belief in the resistance anymore. Hezbollah is still there with its arms, and people relate to it because of the factor of fear, not loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into a war in support of Iran again this year. Lebanese citizens want Israel out, but see an agreement as the way to accomplish that goal.<\/p>\n

Ghaddar offered the possibility that the notoriously ineffective Lebanese military is actually more capable than Hezbollah after the Shiite militia was severely degraded by years of war with Israel. However, to disarm Hezbollah, she said, the Lebanese army must be willing to engage in armed conflict if necessary, with the backing of the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

She made the point that while Israel\u2019s relationships with Arab countries are with their governments, the public continues to disdain the Jewish state. In Lebanon\u2019s case, the public wants an end to the conflict with Israel, while governments have been loath to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cLebanese are ready,\u201d she said. \u201cLebanese are definitely ready for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.<\/p>\n

Check out last week\u2019s Lazar Focus:<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190560,190507,85,46,56943,72927,202385,43,965,21664,202386],"class_list":["post-523542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-lebanon-border","tag-israel-lebanon-relations","tag-lazar-focus","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-southern-lebanon","tag-times-of-israel-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}