In a ideologically illuminating interview rooted in grounded reality, Lebanese-American journalist and analyst Julia Kassem, describes the ongoing conflict in Lebanon not as an isolated military confrontation, but as part of a broader regional struggle tied to U.S. and Israeli power projection across West Asia. Speaking from the perspective of someone who endured the Israeli bombardments, attacks, and brutality in Lebanon, Kassem argues that the reality on the ground sharply contradicts international narratives portraying Israeli military operations as restrained or carefully targeted. She described scenes of panic, mass displacement, and the deliberate weaponization of indiscriminate, civilian terror strikes, that were intended not only to attack armed groups but also to fracture and already divided Lebanese society through fear, confusion, and sectarian tension.
Julia witnessed how many of the attacks during the war and its aftermath disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable civilians and displaced families, particularly in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon. According to her account, evacuation orders purposely created chaos rather than safety, with entire neighborhoods emptied into overcrowded streets while shelters and municipalities reportedly turned displaced people away. She further argued that parts of Lebanon’s political and media establishment amplified sectarian narratives during the conflict, accusing several pro-Western Lebanese outlets of repeating unverified stories that justified Israeli military actions or portrayed resistance factions as internal threats. In this analysis, the information war became just as significant as the military campaign itself, deepening political divisions inside Lebanon during a period of national trauma.
There’s an emphasis in Lebanon’s internal crisis as inseparable from the decades of foreign influence over the country’s political class. For most, the government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is a puppet government, aligning with U.S. strategic interests and attempting to sideline Hezbollah and the broader Resistance movement under the banner of normalization and diplomacy. Julia pointed specifically to “ceasefire” arrangements and postwar negotiations that effectively grant Israel broad latitude to continue military operations aka bombing civilians, while limiting Lebanon’s ability to respond. On the ground, this has enabled continued drone strikes, sea-launched attacks from U.S. tankers, and assassinations in civilian-heavy zones, including one near Bahman Hospital in Dahiya. In her view, the political elite’s willingness to accommodate these terms reflects a historical pattern in which sections of Lebanon’s ruling class prioritize foreign-backed stability over national sovereignty and resistance to external pressure.
In response, the Lebanese resistance—specifically Hezbollah—has escalated its own operations, employing FPV drones that have forced the withdrawal of Israeli bulldozer units from southern border areas. This material resistance, Julia explains, not the photogenic diplomacy of Prime Minister Nawaf Salaam, constitutes the sole effective leverage against Israeli aggression. Instead of the reason for its failures, in actuality Hezbollah stands as the lone protector of the people of Lebanon against the Israeli regime.
Beyond Lebanon, the larger conflict is intrinsically linked to the escalating confrontation involving Iran, the United States, and Israel. Julia argues and I concur, that the wars in Lebanon, Gaza, and the Persian Gulf are now inseparable fronts in a larger struggle against American hegemony in the region. In reality, the United States and Israel have lost their military upper hand—a fact obscured by ongoing brutality.
The Gaza genocide, as Julia mentions, was not a sign of strength but a desperate message to Arabs about the costs of noncompliance, a message shattered by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and Hezbollah’s ground resilience. The cyclical pattern of fake negotiations, sanctions, and soft war that trapped Iran for three decades under reformist administrations has now reached a decisive contradiction: the U.S. can no longer impose its consensus militarily, and Tel-Aviv’s “Greater Israel” rhetoric is face-saving for a power without backing. Only the continued military confrontation by Iran and Lebanon’s resistance will force a U.S. recession from West Asia.
Per reports, Iran and allied resistance groups have increasingly succeeded in challenging what was once overwhelming U.S. and Israeli military dominance, forcing Washington and Tel Aviv into a cycle of escalation, ceasefires, and renewed violations. These repeated breakdowns in diplomacy demonstrate that negotiations alone cannot resolve the crisis because the United States uses periods of diplomacy strategically while continuing broader campaigns of pressure and destabilization—the classic intelligence playbook.
Iran’s Ideological, Existential Fight Is The Way to Defeat US-Israeli Alliance, Not Pragmatism
We also address the role of global powers such as China and Russia, pushing back against weak and dishonest online narratives, portraying them as leading a unified anti-Western alliance. Instead, Iran and Resistance movements in West Asia have borne the primary burden of militarily confronting U.S. influence over the last several decades, while China and Russia have largely focused on economic and strategic calculations. Although there’s acknowledgement that Beijing and Moscow benefit from a weakening of the U.S.-dominated order, we agree that both countries remain cautious and pragmatic actors rather than the ideologically committed partners in direct confrontation like Iran.
So while China’s control of rare earth metals and Russia’s need for an eastern non-NATO corridor give them substantial stakes in Iranian victory, neither power has demonstrated the ideological or military courage to directly confront U.S. hegemony. Still, 15 years ago, Russia and China backed sanctions on Iran, and contemporary Chinese calls for negotiations—such as those voiced during the Beijing talks—reflect economic pragmatism, not revolutionary solidarity. The MQ-9 drones downed by Yemen, reportedly aimed at China by U.S. military planners, illustrate the entanglement, but the principle remains: political power grows from the barrel of a gun, and only Iran and the resistance have consistently wielded it against imperial forces.
In this perspective, Iran’s willingness to sustain long-term military and political resistance has done more to accelerate the potential emergence of a glorified multipolar world than any formal alliance structure. But that alone may not be enough, as Iran and Resistance are alone in the fight and the Washington-Israeli alliance refuses to give in to any of Iran’s logical demands, like lifting sanctions, leaving the region, respecting Tehran’s sovereignty, paying reparations, and ending the incessant bombing on Lebanon, with Trump calling it “unacceptable”. Trump then later says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and that he has the “best plan ever”.
Julia notes that the region’s entering what she called “the final battle” phase — a decisive period in which the balance of power across West Asia is being fundamentally contested. In essence, wars now unfolding are no longer temporary flare-ups but existential struggles over sovereignty, regional autonomy, and the future of American-Israeli influence in West Asia.
Our conversation reflects a growing current of thought emerging from parts of the region: that diplomacy without leverage has failed, especially when dealing with non-rational and psychopathic entities who only wish to destroy. That Iran, Hezbollah and their military resistance are reshaping political realities —and they’ve already made significant waves in the global order, as the collapse of long-standing assumptions about U.S. dominance has already redefined the geopolitical order far beyond what was expected.
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