Is Hezbollah Beating Israel in Lebanon? (w/ Laith Marouf) | The Chris Hedges Report

Journalist Laith Marouf places the new ceasefire in Lebanon in the context of the rise of the Axis of Resistance, the new multipolar world and the end of Western hegemony.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

On April 16, the Trump administration forced the Israeli military to cease its attacks on Lebanon as part of an agreement with Iran to fully open the Strait of Hormuz. This marked another victory for the Axis of Resistance and the Lebanese people. However, Israel has a long history of violating its ceasefire agreements, and it is unlikely to give up on its fundamental goal of occupying Lebanon by attempting to foment a civil war between Hezbollah and the Lebanese military.

In this episode, Chris Hedges speaks with Free Palestine TV journalist, Laith Marouf, who is reporting from southern Lebanon. Marouf describes the “massive destruction” he witnessed there, but also the determination of Lebanese people to hold onto their land. He reports that despite warnings to stay away, as soon as the ceasefire was announced, “people [were] coming back joyfully, dancing outside their homes.”

This victory was won because of the heavy losses in equipment and soldiers that the Israeli forces suffered at the hands of Hezbollah. Marouf explains how what Hedges calls ‘the resurrection of Hezbollah’ following the Israeli pager attacks and assassinations of its leadership surprised everyone. He predicts that, despite the fact that the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his family have a long-term history of aiding the Zionists, a civil war in Lebanon is unlikely due to the military superiority of Hezbollah over the Lebanese army.

Marouf marks this moment as a historic shift in the balance of power in the region, stating that “What we are seeing today is the end of Western hegemony as a whole.” Not only were Israeli forces evicted from Lebanon, but they also failed in their last attempts at a psychological victory in this conflict. Marouf explains that Iran is rising as a powerful pole in this new multipolar world while the United States and Israel’s hegemonic power are ending.

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Host

Chris Hedges

Executive Producer:

Max Jones

Intro:

Margaret Flowers

Transcript:

Margaret Flowers

Crew:

Sofia Menemenlis and Milena Soci

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Transcript

Chris Hedges: Israel, without warning, launched Operation Eternal Darkness on April 8th against Lebanon. In the span of 10 minutes, Israel hit more than 100 sites across the country, killing more than 300 people and wounding over 1,000. This act of state terror took place as the regional ceasefire, agreed to by Iran and the United States, took effect. Israel carried out a Gaza-like obliteration of villages in southern Lebanon driving one million people, a fifth of the Lebanese population, from their homes. The current ceasefire declared on April 16th is likely to prove as elusive as all previous ceasefires. Israel has not ceased its bombing campaign in the South and its random bombing attacks in Beirut even during this ceasefire. Ceasefires mean nothing to Israel, which has threatened to resume the attacks on Iran with or without the United States.

In the seven months following the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, Israel continued to occupy territory in southern Lebanon and pound Lebanon with airstrikes, killing at least 250 people. Israel’s goal is to turn Lebanon, like Syria, into a failed state and set the weak Lebanese military against Hezbollah, precipitating a civil war. This objective is not new. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, it began a 22-year occupation in the South. Israel carried out a full invasion of the country in 1982, which would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians and birthed the resistance movement Hezbollah.

Joining me to discuss the crisis in Lebanon and how it will affect regional stability is the journalist Laith Marouf from Free Palestine TV. He is based in Beirut and is covering the Israeli assault on Lebanon. Laith, you just came back from southern Lebanon. What did you see and what did you report on?

Laith Marouf: Well, thank you very much, Chris, for having me on your show. And I would like to send my congratulations to the Lebanese people, the Iranian people, people of the Axis of Resistance on the successes to force the United States and the Zionist colony into a ceasefire.

What we saw today, we actually started our travel down to the south around midnight last night when the “ceasefire” came into effect. We drove down. There was already thousands of people, not waiting for permission from anybody, trying to get down to their villages.

In fact, even though both the Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, leader of the Amal movement, and officials of Hezbollah issuing statement telling people, “Don’t go down because the Zionists are a vengeful enemy and you cannot trust them. Wait till the morning.” People still went down. As we were driving down, there was thousands of people lined up on the streets on almost every intersection up to Nabateih town, which is the largest city in the central sector of the border region between occupied Palestine and Lebanon. And then we started driving around, trying to check on those cities and towns and villages that were abandoned under the bombardment of the Zionists.

It was massive destruction. But to see all those people coming back joyfully, dancing outside their homes, sitting down in the rubble smoking shisha, and this showed us how much the connection of the people to the land is in Lebanon. There were a few things that we saw that I don’t think anyone has reported on yet.

One of them is we got to the Beaufort Castle, it’s a crusader castle just outside Nabateih city. It’s called Arnun Castle in Arabic. And when we got there, there were locals that were removing Israeli flags from top of Beaufort Castle. In the beginning, we didn’t understand how these Israeli flags made it into the Crusader Castle. This is like north of the Litani River. And what we were told is that in the early hours of this morning, the Zionists sent four, not quadcopters, those drones that have eight actual blades, huge ones, each one of them carrying hastily made rods with tripod legs and Israeli flags and one that had actually a surveillance dome. And they landed with these drones on top of the Beaufort Castle, which looks over the whole of the south of Lebanon and much of the area around Nabateih City, in order to make people feel or lie to themselves that they made it north of the Litani River. We saw those flags. The locals threw them off the cliff.

Remember just last week, the Zionists fell into an ambush at the bottom of the valley under Beaufort Castle when they were trying to cross the Litani River. They were ambushed and they lost many of their soldiers, many injured, and they abandoned all their equipment including very heavy machinery, three heavy machineries, all these canoes, all these temporary bridges that were trying to build over the Litani River.

So, it’s clear that that ambush that they fell into it etched deeply in their hearts that they wanted to come and make this fabricated win by planting these flags by the use of these drones. Another location that we visited that we thought was very telling about the battles that happened over the last 45 days was the town of Dibbin, which is just one town north of Al-Khiyam. And Al-Khiyam is a very famous village directly on the border with occupied Palestine and the Houla Valley. And during the 45 days, the Zionists were unable to capture Al-Khiyam or enter it. So, what happened is that they went through a Christian town that is mainly controlled by the Christian supremacists Phalanges and Kataeb Party that didn’t have any Lebanese resistance Hezbollah members in there to protect it. Those Kataeb, Christian supremacist parties let the Israelis go through Marjayoun to get to Dibbin and try to cut the supply route for the resistance into Khiam. Now, what has happened is that the Israelis were scared of sending an armored column, so they sent in a special force, infantry special force, into Dibbin, but they were already spotted by the resistance, and the resistance lured them into the village. And as soon as the special forces entered into two homes to begin stationing themselves in the village, they were bombarded from all sides by the resistance. And there was a literal massacre of the invading forces. And that required huge waves of bombardment from air by the Israelis to try to extract their trapped invading force.

And in this crazy bombardment, Dibbin has a historical castle in it, and also a graveyard for French soldiers that perished in Lebanon in 1941 during the uprising across Syria and Lebanon against French occupation. The Israelis dropped a bunker buster, the largest size of these bunker busters, onto the graveyard hosting these French dead soldiers and wiped it off the map. There was a crater that is at least 40 meters wide and 20 meters deep. And the marker for these graves, there’s even a statue there for these soldiers, all destroyed. It’s almost 80 years since the death of these French soldiers and the Lebanese people, although they fought the French to leave, still respected those graves but it was the Israelis that destroyed them.

So, in general, what we understood from looking at the few scenes of battles that we visited was that the Israelis had huge losses. This is also of course proven with the videos that Hezbollah released over the last 40 somewhat days, at least around 200 tanks destroyed or out of commission, above and beyond all their other heavy equipment that they lost - the armored vehicles and jeeps and what have you.

So, we look at this and we can wait to see more and more of the videos that are going to be released for sure right now by Hezbollah since they don’t have the worry of trying to bring the videos through a battle zone to the editing teams. So, we will see more of that in the next few days.

The last thing I would say about what we saw there is that the Zionists were trying to still destroy and detonate houses in villages that they still occupy right now before they had to leave. Throughout the day, we were hearing huge explosions of houses that were being detonated in villages across the border that the Israelis are still stationed in but will be leaving soon.

Chris Hedges: Well, they erased, virtually demolished, isn’t it 20 villages in the South, just entire communities?

Laith Marouf: Yeah, there were already a lot of villages that were destroyed during the 66-day war in 2024 and the so-called ceasefire that followed, about 15 months of ceasefire. And the villages that they have destroyed now were all partially destroyed already.

I think the most important thing that the Zionists were trying to do over the last few days of this war, before Donald Trump forced them to end their movement in Lebanon, was to try to capture Bint Jbeil town. Bint Jbeil is in a second line or third line village in the central zone of the border with occupied Palestine. It’s very famous for the speech of martyred Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that he gave in the year 2000 after the liberation of Lebanon where he said, in the soccer field of the town, “The Zionist colony is as weak as a spider’s web.”

And so, they were trying to achieve some emotional or psychological victory. And again, to attack Bint Jbeil, they were unable to reach it except after the treasonous collaborationist Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ordered the Lebanese military to withdraw from three Christian villages that are right south of Bint Jbeil, where then the Israeli military entered those three villages and surrounded Bint Jbeil. And the battle for Bint Jbeil was almost 35 days, and the Israelis were unable to enter the main parts of the city and lost tens of tanks and soldiers in this battle. And again, they were unable to achieve that symbolic victory that they were trying to hurry up before Trump forces them into ceasefire. Remember this, they refused to accept the ceasefire a week ago when Iran and the United States reached that deal just because they wanted to reach and occupy Bint Jbeil, and they failed miserably.

Chris Hedges: I want to talk about the tanks. So, we’ve seen images of Israeli soldiers leaping from their tanks and fleeing. We don’t know a number, but it’s certainly significant, the tanks that were disabled or destroyed by Hezbollah. We also saw Israeli columns of tanks almost bumper to bumper. I know from covering war, you never do that. You space your tanks out. I’m curious why Hezbollah was so effective in taking out tanks. I believe they were taken out by drones, is that correct?

Laith Marouf: Yes, so Hezbollah was using drones, FPVs that, like the ones that have been used also in the Ukraine war, the ones that are very simple with an attached bomb at them and you just drop it, that’s one way. They had also all these suicide drones that would crash into these tanks and have shells attached to them. They also were using their ATGMs, and Hezbollah is considered the most expert military force in the world in the use of ATGMs.

Chris Hedges: Explain what those are for people who don’t know, Laith.

Laith Marouf: Yeah, anti-tank missiles like RPGs, but much more advanced that there is a camera on the nose of this missile and it’s guided by hand and can evade any attempt to take it down. And we watched throughout the 33-day war and the solidarity front with Gaza in 2024, all those amazing videos of Hezbollah fighters hitting pinpoint little cameras on the bases of the Zionists looking into Lebanon.

So, the Russian military who built those ATGMs were saying clearly that they don’t even have soldiers that can reach the expertise of Hezbollah fighters in those shoes. So, there’s two things that can confirm to us that the Zionists had huge losses. One, of course, is that in the admittance of the Zionists in June 2025, they said that they lost 1,000 tanks in both the battlefield in Gaza and in the battlefield in Lebanon. And of course, the Israeli military has around only 2,000 tanks. And the other thing that proves to us that they’ve lost even more since this battle happened is that we started seeing Merkavas, not the latest versions, the Merkava IV, but Merkavas III. Those are like almost 10 years old, so clearly the best tanks that they had were very much hit in those battles in Lebanon and Gaza in those two and a half years, and now they were having to use older stock.

The other thing about those columns that you described, Lebanon is blessed with a topography in the South that makes it just that topography and geography of the south a defense mechanism. It’s not a flat territory like Gaza, and it’s a huge territory. It’s not a small strip like Gaza also. And when we look at the geography of the South, there’s clearly a few paths that any armored columns can go through. It’s not like they can fly these armored vehicles. They have to go either through the valley or try to go on top of ridges of mountains. And the ridges are full of villages and so forth. So, they have no choice but to go through specific paths. And Hezbollah was ready for them because it’s the logical path. It’s not a genius thing that they have to come up with some new ideas of how to invade South Lebanon. It’s the same repeated tactics that they’ve had to use since the 1970s, as you mentioned. And Hezbollah had prepared a lot of ambushes, a lot of mines, a lot of IEDs and they managed to destroy these columns as they were advancing.

And also, when we look at the videos of Hezbollah taking out these tanks, it’s clear that from all sides, Hezbollah had spotted and knew the advancements where they’re coming. The last thing I would say is that today, as the Israeli military was leaving the outskirts of Khiam village, they walked into a minefield or an IED field - improvised explosive devices - and it blew up on them. This is after the ceasefire. And, according to Israeli sources, they have many wounded in this battalion, including those who have lost limbs. I would say every time the Israelis admit something like severe wounded or so forth, it means that they have dead, but they’re not truthfully telling about it.

Chris Hedges: I want to talk about, maybe you would quibble on the word, the resurrection of Hezbollah, because you had these exploding pagers that Israel used to maim hundreds of Hezbollah, not necessarily fighters. They might be accountants. But I think Israel kind of wrote, perhaps the United States, wrote Hezbollah off after that. Explain that incident and how Hezbollah proved so resourceful and effective in countering this latest invasion by Israel.

Laith Marouf: Well, the first thing that we need to point out is that according to international law and the laws of war, the booby trapping of civilian objects is a war crime. So, we know the Zionists are very proud of their war crimes, and they considered this a huge win, booby trapping these pagers and intercepting the production lines of the companies that were selling these pagers. Having said that, as you pointed out also, hundreds of non-combatants were injured or killed in those attacks. The pagers are used heavily, of course, within the medical field. Doctors and nurses use pagers to receive their calls in the environments with no cell phones allowed. And although it is a big loss and a lot of suffering happened - children that were around these pagers were also injured or killed - we saw videos currently throughout this war released by Hezbollah of wounded men that survived the pager attacks, that were actually on the front lines firing missiles, firing drones. And this shows you how much pride there is and how much conviction the Lebanese people and Hezbollah members have.

Now, we look at the decapitation attack that happened against the leadership of Hezbollah.

Chris Hedges: This is the assassination of the head of Hezbollah, Nasrallah.

Laith Marouf: Yes, and much of their commanders…

Chris Hedges: And much of their command structure.

Laith Marouf: Yes, in 2024. And we can think of two things. One is that Hezbollah, during its engagement in Syria trying to stop the Wahhabi death squad hordes that were thrown by the CIA and Mossad on Syria. In that battle, it had to restructure itself, and it became a semi-military with tanks and APCs. It also meant that in that 15-year war, that every other intelligence agency in the world was able to draw up a chain of command for Hezbollah in those battlefields - the names of the commanders, their faces and what have you. So, by the end of that 15-year war in Syria, those intelligence forces that are allied with the Mossad and the Zionists knew practically the military structures of Hezbollah. And that is how the Israelis were able to assassinate the leadership of Hezbollah in 2024.

Now once that happened, Hezbollah had to switch back to being a guerrilla organization. Therefore, the structures had to be shifted back from a semi-military format to cell formations with leaders that are unknown, with three-member cells, and with a kind of non-hierarchical dispersed commands everywhere. In fact, during the 15 months of the ceasefire, we saw a continuation of the Israelis assassinating known Hezbollah commanders. And those commanders were out on the streets in their cars, normally and so forth. And this is only because Hezbollah had literally retired them, right?

Anyone that had any public face that was discovered during the war inside Syria had to be retired and new structures and new leaders had to be put in. And this is what drove the Zionists crazy right now. And it also allowed Hezbollah to play this ambiguity very well and hide its capabilities.

The Zionists, and the United States behind them, thought that they had destroyed the structures of Hezbollah and that they had somehow destroyed all its military capabilities. And lo and behold, Hezbollah actually surprised them and surprised even the Lebanese people with the huge amount of ammunition that it still had and the very well-organized defense lines and defense structures that played out here during this war.

Chris Hedges: Two things I want to ask: first about the Lebanese government. They have expelled the Iranian ambassador even before this current assault. The Lebanese government has been quite obsequious to Israel, calling for negotiations, even before the negotiations that have apparently begun. I want you to talk about the role of the Lebanese government. And then, I want you to address the long-term demand by Israel that the Lebanese military disarm Hezbollah, and you can comment on this, but at least it’s always been my understanding that that is because they are seeking to create a civil war within Lebanon.

Laith Marouf: Well, for the viewers, let’s start with the basics. I think it’s very important to understand that there is no state called Lebanon. There has never been a state called Lebanon. And the way we can judge states is a state has a monopoly over the use of force in its territory and control of its borders. And those things never happened since 1942 and the Declaration of Independence and chopping off Lebanon from Syria.

Another thing is that Hezbollah, in the year 2000 when it liberated Lebanon, it became the first liberationist movement in the world, in the history of humanity, that liberated a country and didn’t take control of the state. And that was a choice that Hezbollah did, although it had the right as the liberators of the country to do so. But it decided not to take the control of the government because it was hoping not to trigger any civil war right after spending decades fighting the occupation.

Chris Hedges: And let me, just for people who don’t know, Lebanon is a mix of Christian, Sunni, Shia -Hezbollah is a Shia organization, but there’s quite a heavy ethnic mix within Lebanon.

Laith Marouf: Yes, and the other thing is of course that the confessional sectarian makeup of the government, the parliament, and what have you, was imposed by the French in 1942 as they were leaving. And the number of seats per sect - Christians, Druze, Sunnis, Shias, what have you – is according to the percentage of the population in 1942. And the country has not been allowed or did not want to have a census since then because actually today, as we are speaking, at least 50 % of the population are Shia. And if there’s a census done, even if the confessional sectarian constitution is maintained, Hezbollah will have 50 % of the seats along with this Shia partner, Amal, and then you add to it all the other parties that are allied with it and it will govern naturally. So that’s one thing.

The other thing that we need to understand about the current Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. This man comes from a multi-generational treasonous family. His grandfather, Salim Salam, which was one of the elite of Lebanon at the end of the Ottoman era, went and bribed Ottoman land registrars and defrauded the landowners in what is now the Houla Valley, the panhandle of Palestine that sticks up north, and changed the ownership of those lands to his name. And he was trying to do the same for much of the south of Lebanon. And, fortunately for the Lebanese people, World War I broke out before he was able to defraud the rest of those villages that we’re talking about, Bint Jbeil, Khiam, and others. And so, once that happened, Salim Salam tried to sell those lands in the Hula Valley to the Zionists, the Jewish colonists. But because the Hula Valley was still part of Lebanon at that point, or the French mandate, the French authorities refused because the Hula Valley has a lot of the water coming out of the Golan Heights. And so, he ended up, Salim Salam, working with the Jewish Colonization Agency to bribe the French authorities, brought a bag of $30 million, handed it over to the French occupation, where they redrew the land, the map, and handed over the Hula Valley to Palestine and the British Mandate in Palestine. And eventually he sold those lands to the colonists. And now we know Kiryat Shmona and all of those were built on the land defrauded by that grandfather of Nawaf Salam.

Chris Hedges: Let me just interrupt there because going back to documents from the early 1920s, the Zionists have always coveted southern Lebanon because of the water supply and because of the very fertile land. And they always talk about this security zone up to the Litani River. This is over a century-long project on the part of the Zionists. I just want to historically throw that in.

Laith Marouf: Yes, you are right. Now comes Nawaf Salam, the grandson of Salim Salam. Nawaf Salam, according to East German intelligence files, was recruited by the Mossad in the 1970s, late 70s, and infiltrated the PLO youth wings in the universities to try to get them information. And eventually was on the team of the president of Lebanon that came on the Israeli tanks into the presidential palace in 1982, Gemayel, and Nawaf Salam was on the negotiating team at that time in 1982-1983 to sign the normalization and surrender and peace with Israel.

So, Nawaf Salaam has been an agent himself since his student days throughout the occupation of Lebanon by the Zionists and now was brought back on again on the top of an Israeli tank and an American jet to finish the job that he attempted to start in 1982. And, by the way, the president of Lebanon at the time, Gemayel, his life ended with a bullet to his head by Habib Shartouni, a very famous Lebanese resistor, and when you walk around Lebanon there’s all these posters that say, “For every Gemayel, there’s a Shartouni in Lebanon.”

Chris Hedges: Let’s talk about this Israeli policy of fomenting civil war. That has just been a constant. I was actually in southern Lebanon with Lahad, and you can explain who he was, an Israeli proxy. And when they talk about negotiations, the iron demand that Israel has is that Hezbollah be disarmed, knowing that that would provoke what they want, which is an armed conflict. And let’s also characterize the Lebanese military because it’s very weak.

Laith Marouf: Yeah, well, look, the Zionists may dream that they can have a civil war in Lebanon or that they have a partner for such a civil war. Maybe they’re still living in that delusion of the 1970s. But, when we look at the possible opponents of Hezbollah, let’s start with the Lebanese military. The Lebanese military, more than 50 to 60 percent of the soldiers are Shia. Although the head of the Lebanese military is always appointed as a Christian, currently the Commander in Chief is General Rodolphe Haykal. And although he’s under a lot of pressure, he has refused up until now to try to disarm Hezbollah. And this is because he knows that if he attempts to do such a thing, that there will be a mutiny within the military and it will collapse.

And in any case, Lebanese military is very lightly armed. It doesn’t have tanks. It has APCs. It doesn’t have missiles or drones. And it cannot last in a fight even if the whole Lebanese military is unified behind the leadership, which it is not. So, although there’s been multiple recordings or testimonies about meetings between Nawaf Salam and Rodolphe Haykal, those meetings almost descended into fistfights because Haykal is not willing to sacrifice the military for the aims of Nawaf Salam.

Looking at the Christian supremacist parties in Lebanon, the Phalange or the Kataeb, these parties are a shadow of what they used to be. Their main backers are the Saudis. This is the crazy part. The Saudis are the main backers of the Christian supremacist parties in Lebanon. And they don’t have much arms. They don’t have many men that are ready to fight and therefore they’re not a possible opponent to Hezbollah that can challenge them. The last possibility is to somehow instigate Wahhabi death squads, as happened in Syria, to create trouble in the country. And we already saw a few attempts of that, an invasion from the outside in the north of Lebanon, right on the border of Syria.

After the collapse of the Assad government and the takeover by Al-Julani in Damascus, they attempted to invade in the north Beqaa Valley, the special forces of HTS, known as the Red Bandanas. And at that moment, the Lebanese military just withdrew and opened the door for these Red Bandanas - this is in 2025 - to advance onto the Beqaa Valley. And what we saw is that the local clans, not even Hezbollah, picked up arms and repelled the Red Bandanas, defeated them, and advanced into Syrian territory, took over three villages, and were almost reaching Homs.

And at that point, the Lebanese army came and cut the route of the Lebanese clans in the north of the Beqaa Valley, and the Israeli military sent its air force to destroy the supply routes of the clans in the north of Lebanon to save the HTS Red Bandana. So, I don’t think that even Al-Julani and his death squads can defeat Hezbollah even if they bring them all to the border here with Lebanon.

Chris Hedges: Where do you see this going? I’ve covered many, many ceasefires established by Israel. There’s not one that they don’t violate. You mentioned pressure from the Trump administration, but it’s pretty clear from the rhetoric out of Netanyahu’s office that they’re not done. What do you see happening?

Laith Marouf: Look, this has been an ongoing 100-year war, and it is anchored in Jewish supremacy, and it’s anchored in imperialism that maintains that Jewish supremacy on the land of Palestine. The Jewish colony wouldn’t be able to last one day in front of the children of Gaza if there isn’t a non-stop financial, political, and military support for this Jewish colony.

And what we are seeing today is the end of Western hegemony as a whole. And everything that we saw with the genocide in Gaza and the wars since October 7th, where the apex of this 100-year war in terms of the projection of power of the West and the Zionist colony, and from this point on, it is retreat for both the Empire as a whole and its favorite lapdog.

Now, does that mean that it’s going to end tomorrow? No. Does that mean that we’re not going to have more wars? No. But it just means from this point on, it will be the Jewish colonists and their sponsors that are going to be suffering more than us. And with every new wave of this battle, it will be more suffering for the West, more suffering for the Jewish colonists and less for us until we’re fully completely down from the apex moment that we saw with the threat of use of nuclear weapons against Iran, which the United States had to retreat from.

So, when we look at this moment, because we saw all of this 100 years before, sometimes we’re unable to see what’s coming. We feel that there is a routine, a repetition. But you know what? Iran controls the Hormuz Strait right now. It controls 30 % of the oil output and gas output of the world. Iran forced a ceasefire in Lebanon before it opened the Hormuz Canal, and we have a new superpower arising. Does that mean that Israelis are going to just give up, or the Americans are just going to give up? That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I’m trying to say is that we are living right now a historic moment. Probably the only comparative moment that we can look in our history to is that moment of the Tripartite Attack on Egypt by the French, the British, and the Israelis in 1956, which ended with the defeat of that Tripartite invasion and...

Chris Hedges: You’re talking about the Suez crisis.

Laith Marouf: Exactly, and the end or the demotion of France and England, the UK, from being superpowers to being secondary powers under the control of the United States. What we’re seeing today is the end of the superpower of the United States, but there is no other European pole that can fill that gap. What is rising right now is a new world, multipolar world, that Iran is going to be one of the central poles of it and the Axis of Resistance, including members like Hezbollah or Ansarallah in Yemen, are going to be the victors in this, the ones that are going to pick the fruits of this battle.

Chris Hedges: Thanks, Laith. And I want to thank Malena, Sophia, and Max, who produced the show. You can find me on chrisedges.substack.com.

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Photos

The aftermath of an airstrike, two days after the attack on

DAHIYEH, LEBANON - 2026/04/10: The aftermath of an airstrike, two days after the attack on a residential building killed dozens of people. All-out war between Israel and Hezbollah restarted on March 2, after Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli territory, following a 15-month ceasefire where Israel continued to attack on a near-daily basis. (Photo by Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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NABATIEH, LEBANON - APRIL 17: Neighbors going back to check the aftermath of their businesses and houses on first day after a ceasefire agreement on April 17, 2026 north of Saida in Nabatieh, Lebanon. At 00:00 on April 17, a 10-day ceasefire took effect that is meant to pause fighting between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.(Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)

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Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the village of Mayfadoun in southern Lebanon as seen from nearby Marjeyoun (Marjayoun) on March 31, 2026. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of the Iranian supreme leader during US-Israeli strikes on February 28. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

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TOPSHOT - Israeli military tanks patrol close to a concrete wall along the border fence separating northern Israel from southern Lebanon on November 24, 2025. Hezbollah held the funeral on November 24 for its top military chief and other members of the militant group a day after Israel killed them in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP via Getty Images)

(FILE) Israel And Lebanon Retrospective

ZABKIN, LEBANON - MARCH 3, 1978: (FILE PHOTO) This archive image provided by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) shows Israeli soldiers on patrol during Israel’s Operation Litani March 3, 1978 in the village of Zabkin in southern Lebanon. (Photo by Moshe Milner/GPO via Getty Images)

Israeli Forces Invade Lebanon

Israeli soldiers in an armoured vehicle on the streets of the Lebanese port city of Sidon during the Israeli army invasion named “Operation Peace for the Galilee” in Sidon, Lebanon, in June 1982. (Photo by Bryn Colton/Getty Images)

Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militants para

Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militants parade with a missile as the Palestinian (R) and the movement’s (back) flags flutter during an annual parade in the southern city of Nabatiyeh on January 10, 2009 to mark the sacred day of Ashura, the holiest Shiite rite. AFP PHOTO/MAHMOUD ZAYAT (Photo credit should read MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP via Getty Images)

LEBANON-POLITICS-PARLIAMENT

Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri presides over the first session of the newly-elected assembly at its headquarters in the capital Beirut on May 31, 2022. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY PATRICK RAHIR P

Nabatiyeh, LEBANON: TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY PATRICK RAHIR Picture taken 21 August 2006 shows Beaufort Castle in Arnoun village near the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh. (Photo credit should read OUSSAMA AYOUB/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-LEBANON-IRAN-US-WAR

TOPSHOT - Israeli soldiers try to tow a tank stuck in the mud on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 21, 2026. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that the United States and Israel would intensify their strikes on Iran in the coming week starting March 22. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images) /

Israel Intensifies Attacks Across Lebanon Despite US-Iran Ceasefire Deal

NABATIEH, LEBANON - APRIL 08: Paramedics and civilians rush to a building hit moments earlier by an Israeli airstrike on April 08, 2026 in Nabatieh, Lebanon. Israel has stepped-up its attacks on Lebanon following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, conditional on shipping being allowed to resume through the Strait of Hormuz. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Hezbollah Political Party Rally Ahead Of Lebanon’s Elections

BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON - MAY 13: Hashim Safi Al Din (center) senior Hezbollah leader and maternal cousing of Hassan Nasralla, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, sits in the front row ahead of his speech at the Hezbollah Political Party Rally on May 13, 2022 in Baalbek in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. On May 15 Lebanese will be heading to polls for the first time since the financial collapse and the protest movement of 2019. (Photo by Francesca Volpi/Getty Images)

Lebanese president names ICJ judge Nawaf Salam to form new government

BEIRUT, LEBANON - JANUARY 14: International Court of Justice (ICJ) judge Nawaf Salam gives a speech after his meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (not seen) at Baabda Palace in Beirut, Lebanon on January 14, 2025. Lebanese president named ICJ judge Nawaf Salam to form new government. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel Continues Ground Operation In Gaza

SOUTHERN ISRAEL, ISRAEL - SEPTEMBER 17: An Israeli soldier walks near tanks as they are stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip on September 17, 2025 in Southern Israel, Israel. Israel launched its major ground offensive on Gaza City yesterday conducting heavy air strikes overnight forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee to the centre of the Strip to join the hundreds of thousands who have already fled. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-ARMY-DRILL

Merkava battle tanks of the Kfir brigade’s Shimshon (”Samson”) battalion drive during a military exercise at the Tzeelim army base on July 3, 2018 simulating urban combat in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-LEBANON-ISRAEL-IRAN-US-WAR-BAALBEK

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken during a media tour organised by the Hezbollah shows a man installing a flag of Hezbollah on the balcony of a damaged building at Nabi Sheet town after an Israeli military operation in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, on March 7, 2026. (Photo by FADEL itani / AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-IRAN-LEBANON-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT

TOPSHOT - Iranians lay flowers beneath a billboard bearing a portrait of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, during an anti-Israel protest in Palestine Square in Tehran on September 30, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon

Lebanese citizens and Hezbollah fighters in front of Khiam prison after the Israeli Army withdrew from southern Lebanon in Khiam, May 24, 2000. (Photo by Yannis Kontos/Sygma via Getty Images)

LEBANON-GOVERNMENT-POLITICS

Lebanon’s new prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam delivers a statement at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on January 14, 2025. Lebanon’s President on January 13 picked international jurist Salam to form a government to pull the war-scarred country out of economic crisis, after two years of a caretaker government. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

LEBANON-GOVERNMENT-POLITICS

Lebanon’s new prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam delivers a statement at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on January 14, 2025. Lebanon’s President on January 13 picked international jurist Salam to form a government to pull the war-scarred country out of economic crisis, after two years of a caretaker government. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Phalangist Militia during Lebanon War

Phalangist Forces Leader Bashir Gemayel (Photo by Alain Dejean/Sygma via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-LEBANON-CONFLICT-PROTEST-HEZBOLLAH

TOPSHOT - A member of the Lebanese Army riot-control forces fires a shotgun as they try to disperse a Hezbollah-organised rally to block the road to Beirut International Airport over a decision to bar two Iranian flights from landing there, in Beirut on February 15, 2025. An AFP correspondent said tear gas was fired to disperse crowds on February 15 after again blocking amidst calls by the Iran-backed group for a sit-in. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP) (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

EGYPT-LEBANON-DIPLOMACY-CONFLICT

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (C) poses for a group photo with commander of Lebanon’s Armed Forces Major General Rodolphe Haykal (C-L), commander of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces Major General Raed Abdullah (C-R) and representatives of participating countries during the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Cairo on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-SYRIA-CONFLICT-ANNIVERSARY

TOPSHOT - Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa waves to the crowd at the gate of Aleppo’s Citadel during celebrations marking one year since an Islamist alliance, led by Sharaa, entered the northern city and swiftly took control of it, on November 29, 2025. Sharaa visited the northern city of Aleppo on November 29 as the country marks a year since a lightning Islamist-led offensive that eventually toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December. (Photo by Bakr ALkasem / AFP via Getty Images)

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At His Palm Beach Estate

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 29: U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago club on December 29, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. The two leaders are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting to discuss regional security in the Middle East as well as the U.S.-Israel partnership. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Strait of Hormuz/Iran-Oman April 7, 2026

STRAIT OF HORMUZ, IRAN/OMAN -- APRIL 7, 2026: Maps4Media processed and enhanced Sentinal-2 satellite imagery shows a broad view of the Strait of Hormuz between southern Iran and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, including surrounding islands, coastal terrain, and turquoise shallow-water zones at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. (Photo enhanced and published by maps4media via Getty Images)

Suez Crisis 1956 : French Parachutists

EGYPT - JANUARY 01: A troop of French parachutists verifying their position during the Suez crisis in 1956. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)