Israel's Lebanon endgame: 'Dismantle Hezbollah entirely as a political and social movement'

From the show

Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. He sees Israel’s military actions in southern Lebanon within a broader political and strategic framework that extends beyond immediate battlefield objectives. Sayigh argues that while military operations are visible and urgent, they are deeply intertwined with domestic political imperatives in Israel, regional power calculations, and the structural fragility of the Lebanese state.

The stated goal of disarming Hezbollah is only one layer of a more complex agenda, which includes reshaping Lebanon’s internal balance and reinforcing Israel’s wider regional strategy, particularly in relation to Gaza and the West Bank. At the same time, the constraints and risks inherent in this approach, especially the potential for internal fragmentation within Lebanon and the human cost borne by civilians.