International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Zionist expansionism in Lebanon seizes upon Hezbollah as a pretext

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-04-01T16:18:00Z

Never had a military initiative of the Lebanese Hezbollah (literally, Party of God) been so much repudiated in Lebanon as its decision on March 2 to launch rockets across the country's southern border with the Israeli state, in retaliation against the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This opening salvo was immediately seized upon by the Zionist state as a pretext to launch a long-premeditated invasion of southern Lebanon.

- IVP615 - April 2026 / Israel, Lebanon

Lebanon's Sovereignty Battle Isn't Just Over Arms

Joseph Daher, Sami Atallah, Sami Zoughaib — 2025-08-21T15:00:06Z

“When citizens see the state not as an enforcer but as a guarantor of rights, Lebanon will have moved from asserting sovereignty to constructing it.”

- IVP607 - August 2025 / Lebanon

Georges has returned, Ziad has left us!

Nicolas Dot-Pouillard — 2025-08-05T09:39:21Z

On 25 July 2025, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, finally released, returned to his native Lebanon where he was welcomed as a hero. The next morning, Ziad Rahbani, musician, theatre and radio personality, son of the legendary couple Fairouz and Assi Rahbani, took his last breath in a hospital in the Hamra district of Beirut. The Lebanese – and Arab – left is moving from euphoria to tears.

- IVP607 - August 2025 / Lebanon

Israel does not want peace!

Édouard Soulier — 2024-12-14T10:08:03Z

The United States said it could impose a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. This was declared on 29 November for a period of 60 days. Just long enough for Biden to say that he had ‘done the job' and hand over to Trump at the end of January. An inglorious end to the reign of ‘Genocide Joe', who has spent the entire year supporting, arming and ultimately encouraging Israel's genocidal escalation.

- IV599 - December 2024 / United States (USA), Israel, Lebanon

Where is Syria headed?

Gilbert Achcar — 2024-12-11T08:36:04Z

While observing the amazing historical events that unfolded since last Friday, the first thing that came to mind was relief and joy at the images of detainees being freed from the hell of the carceral society that Syria had become under the Assad family's regime. Our feelings were also overwhelmed by delight at the sight of Syrian families suddenly able to return from nearby exile, whether from another area within Syria or from Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey, to visit the towns and homes they were forced to flee from years ago. Add to this that the dream of millions of Syrian refugees, in the countries surrounding Syria and in Europe, of returning to their homeland, even if only for a visit, this dream that looked impossible a few days ago, has begun to seem achievable.

- IV599 - December 2024 / United States (USA), Syria, Russia, Israel, Iran, Lebanon

Solidarity with Palestine and the Struggle from Below

Joseph Daher — 2024-11-28T09:43:00Z

Joseph Daher, author of a recent book, Palestine and Marxism, writes that amid drawn-out suffering in Palestine and Lebanon, we should not despair. He argues that resistance from below against our own complicit states offers a way forward.

- IV598 - November 2024 / Turkey, Israel, Iran, Lebanon

Lebanon's Ceasefire is No “Divine Victory”

Gilbert Achcar — 2024-11-27T11:17:24Z

Could the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon be a new “divine victory”? That was how the agreement that ended the Israeli onslaught on Lebanon in 2006 was characterized by Hezbollah. Then, the party displayed that phrase on huge billboards featuring a picture of its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, in a clear play on words, as the slogan could be read as both a victory attributed to God and a victory led by Nasrallah, whose name in Arabic means “God's victory”.

- IV598 - November 2024 / Palestine, Israel, Iran, Lebanon

Trump and the Middle East: What Lies Ahead?

Gilbert Achcar — 2024-11-14T15:18:33Z

Trump's victory in the US presidential race is a major catastrophe for the peoples of the Middle East. It comes on top of the Nakba that has been raging since the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 operation. Benjamin Netanyahu had been eagerly hoping for this victory and did everything he could to contribute to its achievement, whether by inciting his right-wing US allies or by refusing to grant Joe Biden and the Democratic presidential campaign the Gaza truce they had been hoping for in order to provide them with an electoral argument they desperately needed. So, what awaits us now that Trump's return to the White House is confirmed?

- IV598 - November 2024 / Palestine, United States (USA), Israel, Iran, Lebanon

Lebanon: a fragile country becomes a new war front

Joseph Daher — 2024-10-27T09:01:52Z

Below we publish three articles from Jospeh Daher translated from L'Anticapitaliste about Lebanon.

- IV597 - October 2024 / Palestine, Israel, Lebanon

Hezbollah's Dilemma

Gilbert Achcar — 2024-10-24T09:00:29Z

Lebanon's Hezbollah is a unique phenomenon, and any attempt to reduce it to one of its facets would be either unfair or excessive in sanctification. The party's complex and intricate nature is evident in the very circumstances of its birth. It started as a Khomeinist splinter group coming out of the Amal movement, seeking to establish an ideologically committed “Islamic resistance” against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982 as an alternative to the “Lebanese resistance” that Amal upheld (the latter's name itself is the Arab acronym of “Lebanese Resistance Brigades”). The motive for the rift that led to the party's foundation was twofold: on the one hand, ideological loyalty to the regime instituted by the 1979 “Islamic Revolution” in Iran, but also, on the other hand, an aspiration to a resolute and radical position against the Zionist occupation, unlike the ambiguous position that Amal had taken towards it, especially in southern Lebanon.

- IV597 - October 2024 / Iran, Lebanon