Arabic → English transcript

Between an official

narrative of a state of permanent war and a field reality that is more complex,

the history of the relationship between Lebanon and Israel reveals a path

different from what is commonly known. The details with Mario Dweiri.

From the day the establishment of the State of Israel was announced in 1948,

Lebanon has been in a state of war with it, that is what we know.

Lebanon, as a state and a regular army, fought in its history only one

official war with the Hebrew state,

in 1948 under a decision taken by the Arab League. At that time,

Lebanon was still a newly independent state, established only five years earlier.

There was Arab pressure on Lebanon to get it to take part in this war.

From 1948 until today, it has mostly been illegal organizations that have

confronted Israel and that have drawn

the Israelis into entering Lebanon. When did Lebanon enter a war?

When Lebanon was considered a gateway

to a war with Israel. The PLO considered Lebanon part of the nation

and gave itself permission to come and

launch from Lebanon to fight Israel.

Legally, we are the ones who were attacked.

We are using the border crossing,

and the Lebanese does not want it,

nor did the state say,“ I want it.”

In 1949, Lebanon and Israel signed an armistice agreement, but it did not last long.

In the late sixties,

the Palestine Liberation Organization and its armed factions entered

southern Lebanon.

The Palestinians wanted to take Lebanon as an alternative homeland,

and through this alternative homeland they wanted to head toward Israel.

All the operations

that were carried out against Israel were being prepared in Lebanon.

That is what made the Israelis invade Lebanon in’ 78 and’ 82.

The result was escalation and Israeli invasions,

the most prominent of which were in 1978

and 1982, and the Israeli forces reached Beirut. Later, with the creation

of Hezbollah, backed directly by Iran,

Lebanese territory once again became a conduit for a war that Lebanon

did not choose, which manifested in the wars of 1993, 1996,

2006, and 2023.

Today Israel has entered Lebanese territory once again.

For the Axis, this intervention

is due to confronting Israel’s expansionist ambitions. As for these ambitions,

they were defined by Israel in 1982. They said,“ We do not have”

Our ambition is not to occupy Lebanon, but we are ready to help you,

your water is flowing into the sea,

we are ready to help you rationalize water use,

and we will buy from you everything you have in excess. They wanted peace,

they wanted Mount Hermon to become a tourist attraction,

to build a casino on Mount Hermon. And far from all these projects,

Hezbollah today has offered a part of South Lebanon on a silver platter to

Israel under the banner of resisting the occupation,

hoping its achievements stop there when the day comes and we say that once upon a

time there was a beautiful country called Lebanon that was destroyed completely

because the party insisted on waging futile and destructive wars.