In September, Israel violently escalated its offensive against Lebanon, allegedly aiming to destroy the anti-Zionist resistance group and political party, Hezbollah, for its support for Palestine and anti-genocide intervention. This is not the first time Israel aimed to destroy Lebanon’s only defense against Israeli hegemony, nor even the second.
In this episode, we explore the factors that shaped Hezbollah’s formation, its extensive social, economic, and political role within Lebanese society, and its regional posture and relations. To answer these questions, we sat down with Dr. Joseph Daher, author of “Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God”, who shared expert insights into the complex political, social, and economic dimensions of Hezbollah’s influence.
This episode will be valuable to all listeners, whether you’re a Lebanon expert or this year was the first time you heard of Hezbollah.
Joseph Daher’s Books: Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God (2016); Syria after the Uprisings (2019); Palestine and Marxism (2024)
The podcast with Joseph Daher is on the “Let’s Talk Palestine” site here
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Already the backsliding begins. ITV news is reporting that the Government has changed one point in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They have accepted that academies will retain their ‘freedom’ to set their own pay scales for teachers. So the criteria in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions document will only apply to teachers in Local Authority schools. Why have the Government climbed down on this issue? It’s not as if this is a major financial problem for academies. But what will be the next change/climb down by the Government? Will academies be exempt from the National Curriculum? Will Local Authorities be able to build schools according to the needs of their communities or will all new schools, as at present, have to be academies?