How can anybody respect the U.S.A.?

4 June 2026, posted by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

https://theduran.com/patrick-henningsen-hezbollah-just-drew-the-line-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha9elCUGl-E

“Patrick Henningsen: Hezbollah Just Drew the Line: ‘Israel Out of Lebanon Completely’”

4 June 2026, Dialogue Works

00:04

NIMA ALKORSHID: Hi everybody. Today’s Thursday, June

00:08

4th, 2026, and our dear friend Patrick

00:11

Hennington is here with us. Welcome

00:13

back, Patrick.

00:14

>> Great to be with you, Nema.

00:16

>> Patrick, let let’s start with

00:19

yesterday what has happened with the

00:21

case of Lebanon and the United States

00:23

announced that there is an agreement

00:25

between the government in Lebanon and

00:27

Israelis. What are the points? What are

00:30

the terms or the clauses of this

00:34

agreement is this is Hezbollah must

00:37

reportedly halt all attacks and withdraw

00:41

from south of the Leonian River. The

00:45

first point and Lebanon stated that it

00:49

has no hostile intentions toward Israel

00:51

and reportedly designated Hezbollah as

00:54

an enemy of the Lebanese state. The

00:58

Lebanese armed forces would assume

01:01

exclusive security control in the in

01:04

designated areas

01:06

excluding non-state armed groups.

01:10

Both sides reaffirmed

01:13

they don’t seek conflict with one

01:16

another and agreed to continue direct

01:18

talks toward broader security and peace

01:21

arrangements

01:23

and political and security negotiations

01:26

are expected to resume during the weeks

01:29

of June 22nd with continued US

01:34

mediation.

01:36

Looking at this,

01:39

is that going to make sense for anybody,

01:41

do you think, in Lebanon? I’m I’m not

01:44

talking about the government and the

01:46

people and Hezbollah. Because the

01:49

problem with Israel is the fight between

01:52

Hezbollah and Lebanon and the problem of

01:54

the occupation of the southern part of

01:56

Lebanon is not related to Lebanese

01:59

government. And how do you see the

02:01

thing? Because Donald Trump is somehow

02:03

desperate. He knows Iran is putting

02:05

pressure on Donald Trump because they

02:07

said they’re going to attack the

02:08

northern part of Israel. And you see

02:10

that he came out with this sort of I I

02:13

see I don’t see any sort of future for

02:15

this agreement. But what is happening in

02:18

your mind with the case of Israel and

02:20

Lebanon?

02:22

PATRICK HENNINGSEN: The the draft proposal that you just

02:25

read there, that was written either by

02:27

Washington or combination of Washington

02:30

and Israel. they wrote it and they would

02:33

hand it to the Lebanese government and

02:36

tell them that’s the agreement that

02:38

you’re going to put forward. Uh this

02:41

this would not, it’s impossible that

02:43

this would have come from Lebanon or

02:46

from anyone in Lebanon realistically

02:48

speaking. And what you have in Beirut is

02:52

at the moment uh what we call a trustee

02:55

government. A trustee government. So

02:57

like when you have a prison and the

03:00

prison warden nominates a few prisoners

03:02

to be trustees to govern over the other

03:05

prisoners, uh they have no power, they

03:07

have no sovereignty. They’re just there

03:09

uh symbolically to deal with, you know,

03:12

the inmates uh as it were. Uh that’s

03:14

what uh Joseph Ayun and NAF Salam are,

03:18

the president and prime minister of of

03:21

Lebanon at the moment. These are

03:23

effectively appointed by the United

03:25

States and Israel. So this is total

03:28

American and Zionist control over

03:32

Israel. And their goal, the United

03:34

States’s goal, they’ve been very public

03:36

about it. Tom Barack is Trump’s former

03:41

fixer, business fixer uh in the region.

03:44

And then he got promoted to special

03:46

envoy or ambassador to Turkey and then

03:48

he’s suddenly special envoy dealing with

03:51

Lebanon. He’s been very open that he

03:53

wants to see a civil war in Lebanon.

03:56

Now, he’s not using those exact words,

03:58

but he’s talking about using the

04:00

Lebanese military to disarm Hezbollah.

04:04

That’s effectively promoting the idea

04:07

that or forcing the idea of a of an

04:09

armed civil war in Lebanon. And you

04:13

know, this is very easy for Americans

04:15

to be talking like this because they

04:18

have no uh they’re not Lebanese. They

04:22

have no stake in Lebanon. Lebanon is

04:24

just a space on a chessboard for the

04:28

Americans. And for Israel, it’s uh

04:30

future territory that they want to

04:32

annex. That’s all. So when you hear Tom

04:36

Barack or Trump or anybody from the US

04:38

or from the uh Atlantic uh Council or

04:42

the State Department, what passes for a

04:44

State Department these days in America,

04:46

which is basically an, you know, an

04:48

annex of the Israeli embassy

04:50

effectively,

04:51

uh but when you hear this type of

04:54

rhetoric, um this is just basically the

04:57

US working with Israel pretending to be

05:02

separate parties. the US pretending to

05:04

want to restrain Israel when in fact

05:06

they’re an absolute completely perfect

05:09

partnership and they’re reading from

05:11

exactly the same page. America Americans

05:14

do not care about Lebanon, Lebanese

05:17

civilians. As far as Americans are

05:19

concerned, Arabs living in South Lebanon

05:23

are a nuisance and they would they would

05:26

like to see them uh moved out. They

05:29

would like to see that area depopulated

05:31

like Gaza. uh and the West Bank and to

05:35

make way for more settlements, more uh

05:38

expansion of Israel. So that’s an

05:40

important part of the Greater Israel

05:41

project is the annexation of South

05:44

Lebanon, not just to the Latani River

05:48

because Israel needs the freshwater

05:49

source. They can’t be dependent on

05:51

desalinization.

05:53

They need Lebanon’s fresh water. So they

05:55

effectively Israel has always coveted

05:59

Leban Lebanese uh fresh water. They want

06:01

to steal it. You know, they want to

06:04

steal that river, that water. Uh just

06:07

like they’ve stolen the Golden Heights

06:10

just like they are uh planning to steal,

06:13

and this is important, Nemo. Uh

06:17

it’s not just the Latani River. Israel

06:19

would like a buffer zone above the

06:22

Latani River. Why? Uh because it’s not

06:26

just about what’s on land in Lebanon.

06:29

It’s what’s offshore.

06:31

We’re talking about natural gas deposits

06:34

off of Lebanon. The United States

06:37

through its various agents and financial

06:39

institutions and by creating a lot of

06:42

sectarian division and arguments among

06:44

Lebanese billionaires

06:46

uh Lebanon has not been able to exploit

06:49

its natural natural gas deposits uh off

06:53

the coast of of the Levant. Um, hence

06:57

while the billionaires are arguing over

06:59

who’s going to get it, it’s not being

07:01

properly exploited. Lebanon continues to

07:04

be a sort of defunct economy,

07:06

dysfunctional economy, uh, with a

07:09

currency in freef fall. It’s, you know,

07:10

a complete disaster. That’s all by

07:12

design because Israel has always wanted

07:15

to maintain that as as a non-performing

07:20

energy asset of of Lebanon to buy time.

07:25

So where whereby they could get into

07:26

position to take it and now they’re very

07:29

close to to getting it. And that’s the

07:31

main that’s one of the main prizes in

07:33

all of this besides fresh water and also

07:37

to to steal the ag the uh very very

07:41

fertile agricultural land in the south

07:44

in much the same way that the Israelis

07:46

have already stolen uh and occupi

07:48

illegally occupied the sheba farms.

07:51

That’s Lebanese territory as well. And

07:54

so that’s very profitable, fertile

07:56

agricultural land which is Israel is

07:58

seeking to take and then to eventually

08:01

export product uh from there. And if you

08:04

look at what Israel does whenever it

08:06

steals territory, uh it very quickly

08:08

goes to uh develop the economic assets

08:12

of the lands that it steals and then it

08:15

will want to make that a performing uh

08:17

economic asset. And that just further

08:20

sort of in their mind justifies the fact

08:22

that they’re there, they’re going to

08:24

occupy it illegally and they’re going to

08:25

take it. And they say, well, you know,

08:27

the the people who were here before, the

08:29

Palestinians or whoever, they weren’t

08:31

doing anything with this land, so we

08:33

just took it and now it’s now it’s it’s

08:35

profitable. Now it’s developed and it’s

08:37

because of us, the Israelis. So they

08:40

will if if they’re allowed to, they will

08:42

continue this pattern of behavior

08:47

uh into Lebanon onshore and offshore.

08:51

That’s the first thing. So they and they

08:54

they’ve cloaked this under the uh the

08:56

idea of security. Okay. And and then one

08:59

of the big sort of frauds in all of this

09:02

unfortunately and and really this is at

09:04

the core of a lot of the problems in the

09:06

region um and the big enabler of Israel

09:09

is to label everybody a terrorist.

09:13

anybody that is opposing their uh

09:16

aggression, their occupation and and

09:19

remember Nema uh Israel has throughout

09:23

all of this and years prior to October

09:27

7th, Israel has always uh maintained

09:30

possession illegally of Lebanese

09:33

territory. They never fully withdrew

09:36

from South Lebanon. They still maintain

09:38

illegally occupied pieces of land in

09:42

South Lebanon. Okay, that is why

09:44

Hezbollah exists from the beginning.

09:47

Hezbollah as a uh political movement as

09:50

a indigenous organic militia uh defense

09:54

militia, armed liberation struggle uh

09:58

opposing an illegal occupation of their

10:01

land. by definition under international

10:03

law and the UN charter that’s the

10:05

classification of Hezbollah. Uh and that

10:08

goes for Palestinian resistance as well.

10:11

Okay, that’s that is why they have a

10:14

mandate to do what they’re doing. And so

10:16

it’s it’s about defending the border

10:18

because the Lebanese army, what they

10:20

call the Lebanese army, bless them, but

10:24

they’re just they’re they’re just a

10:26

jumped up uh security force, domestic

10:30

security force.

10:32

the the Americans because of and and

10:35

this is coming from Israel. One of the

10:38

important roles of the Israeli lobby in

10:41

America is to make sure that pressure is

10:45

placed on Washington

10:48

to to to dictate terms

10:52

for the Lebanese military. Okay? What

10:55

they can and what they cannot purchase

10:58

as a military. Okay? And Israel has

11:02

insisted that Washington impose

11:04

restrictions on the Lebanese military.

11:07

So they cannot have any air defense

11:09

forbidden by the Americans. So they

11:12

cannot have an air force forbidden by

11:15

the Americans. It’s that’s kind of

11:18

ridiculous if you think about it, but

11:20

that’s the that is the actual state of

11:23

play in Lebanon because Israel

11:27

needed to have full occupation uh

11:31

occupational control over Lebanese

11:32

airspace for for the last few decades.

11:35

One of the important reasons for that is

11:38

Israel wanted to have access to Lebanese

11:42

airspace in order to send its IDF uh

11:46

jets into Lebanese airspace to fire uh

11:49

missiles on Syria.

11:52

Okay. For 15 years and to do it with

11:55

total impunity. And if Lebanon had air

11:58

defense or any ability to police their

12:01

own airspace, Israel would not have been

12:04

able to basically act as uh the moderate

12:09

rebel or al-Qaeda air their air force of

12:11

al-Qaeda and the moderate rebels in

12:13

Syria from 2011 forward until until

12:16

al-Qaeda took control of Damascus with

12:20

uh Muhammad uh Al Galani, al-Shar as

12:26

he’s called now Akmed Al- Shar. So Abu

12:28

Muhammad Al Jalani Akmed Al- Shar I

12:31

think I got the right

12:32

>> right.

12:33

>> Yeah. So the the the former deputy to

12:37

Abu Baku Abaghdaddy an ISIS and the

12:40

founder of al-Qaeda Syria who Donald

12:42

Trump has lauded and invited to the

12:44

White House and sprays perfume on him

12:46

and does selfies. That’s a head chopping

12:48

al-Qaeda leader. Okay. He benefited from

12:52

Israel’s air support. Okay. he and all

12:55

the other terrorists backed by the

12:57

United States, backed by Israel, trained

13:00

and uh backed by Jordan, backed by

13:03

Turkey, backed by France, backed by the

13:05

Netherlands, backed by the UK,

13:08

backed by Germany,

13:10

backed by, you know, pretty much NATO

13:12

full stop. Backed by Saudi Arabia,

13:14

backed by Qatar, backed by the UAE,

13:18

backed by Kuwait. Okay. So, Lebanon’s

13:21

very important because that allowed for

13:25

constant and very safe deployment of uh

13:29

air missiles and munitions and so forth,

13:32

hitting targets constantly in Syria.

13:34

That that ultimately led to it being a

13:37

failed state,

13:39

hitting infrastructure, claiming that

13:41

they were targeting Hezbollah. So, that

13:45

that’s very important. So it’s very easy

13:47

to create thisi civil war situation in

13:50

Lebanon. It’s very very easy for the

13:52

United States and Israel to engine try

13:53

to engineer this. Okay. Uh and but the

13:58

but the the fact remains the Lebanese

14:00

army uh they’re not equipped to fight

14:03

Hezbollah. They won’t I don’t believe

14:05

they can credibly do that. Uh it would

14:08

lead to a sectarian civil war in

14:11

Lebanon. you know, after the country has

14:13

recovered from, you know, decades of

14:16

western and Israeli imposed civil war,

14:19

which the first Lebanese civil war was

14:22

characterized in such a way that even

14:23

Leban Lebanese were brainwashed to think

14:26

that it was between factions within

14:28

Lebanon. So they’re constantly uh

14:31

suspicious uh t taking sides uh partisan

14:37

uh sectarian mentality that developed in

14:40

that country where it’s very clear when

14:43

you look at the history and you step

14:44

back that was a that was a foreign it

14:47

wasn’t a civil war it was a foreign war

14:50

uh Lebanese was used as the battle space

14:53

for it okay that was really in many ways

14:57

uh a war between Syria and Israel as

15:02

much as anything. Uh and le Lebanon was

15:05

the battle pitch for that. And it was

15:07

the United States uh working either

15:09

behind the scenes in the front of house

15:13

during the Reagan administration and

15:14

then later behind the scenes with USAD

15:16

money uh the CIA working behind the

15:20

scenes. to to uh to to maintain this

15:23

level of instability and dysfunction in

15:26

that country.

15:28

And so here we are in 2026. uh America,

15:33

the neocons, uh the wararmongering party

15:36

led by Donald Trump and Netanyahu in

15:39

Israel, they believe they’re very close

15:41

to achieving their ultimate goal, uh

15:44

which is to wipe out any disscent, any

15:46

resistance, uh in the Levant. Uh and so

15:51

the the the problem is that it it’s

15:54

probably not going to be practical. It’s

15:57

not going to work. And you know to the

15:59

idea that you could get a Lebanese

16:02

government to say that they wish no harm

16:05

on Israel after Israel’s been massacring

16:07

Lebanese civilians. Massacring

16:10

people in Beirut, people in Tyer, people

16:13

in right across Nabatia, right across

16:16

the entirety of the south. It’s just

16:18

it’s laughable and it’s such a betrayal

16:22

of the Lebanese people by this puppet

16:24

this US American and Israeli puppet

16:27

government in and it’s the sha shameless

16:30

to the any Lebanese official would

16:34

read such a statement but you can tell

16:37

it was drafted in Washington. It’s very

16:39

clear this is uh it’s a very um

16:44

uh the arrogance in that statement. This

16:48

it’s a it’s it’s a foreign drafted

16:51

statement probably more like drafted in

16:54

in Tel Aviv, rubber stamped in

16:56

Washington and then handed to the le the

16:59

Lebanese president and prime minister

17:00

and they’ll stick it on their desk and

17:02

say read that read that and that’s that.

17:06

So realistically, it’s almost impossible

17:09

for them to implement this. Besides the

17:12

fact that, you know, Israel’s just been

17:14

bomb bombing with imp impunity, they’re

17:17

now bombing the UNESCO World Heritage

17:21

Protected site, the city of Ty.

17:25

There’s so many different civilizations

17:27

layed on top of each other in Ty. It’s a

17:29

wonderful and amazing piece of history.

17:32

And Israel has no qualms, nor does the

17:35

United States, about leveling that city,

17:38

turning it into a pile of rubble and

17:40

then getting Jared Kushner or whoever to

17:42

build some new uh high-rise towers there

17:45

and say there’s going to be a resort

17:47

there. They they have no problem with

17:48

that at all. Uh Alexander the Great,

17:52

Egyptian, Bisantine,

17:54

uh Roman, uh

17:57

further a field going back. Uh it

18:00

there’s so much history entire and then

18:02

the excuse that Israel says is well

18:05

there’s Hezbollah hiding in the

18:06

Christian area so we’re going to flatten

18:09

and kill you know an 80 80% civilian 20%

18:12

combatant that uh kill kill ratio

18:16

casualty ratio so many civilians will

18:19

die but it’s not just that it’s about uh

18:22

destroying the the dwellings. There’s

18:24

also a major Palestinian refugee camp

18:27

still in Ty. I don’t know how many

18:29

people are. It’s very densely packed. I

18:31

I’ve been to Ty many times. I know it

18:34

very well. Very densely packed. 20 200

18:38

plus thousand people in that very very

18:41

small Palestinian refugee camp. So,

18:44

Israel will use these as excuses as they

18:46

have done for forever. They’re just this

18:49

is constantly this is during the

18:51

Lebanese civil war in the 80s. uh in 90s

18:55

the whole basis of Israeli involvement

18:57

was that they were uh taking out

18:59

Palestinian terrorists in Lebanon and

19:02

now it’s Hezbollah. Same exact excuse.

19:05

Hezbollah would not exist if not for

19:08

Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation

19:10

of South Lebanon. Full stop. And and

19:13

Hezbollah is not a proxy of Iran. That

19:17

is a fake talking point that keeps being

19:19

pushed adnauseium by the United States.

19:23

Okay. They’re not they’re they’re

19:25

absolutely from South Lebanon. There’s

19:27

no question about that. And they don’t

19:28

have an expeditionary terrorist

19:31

uh branch. Okay. It’s not al-Qaeda or

19:34

ISIS,

19:36

whatever you believe those organizations

19:38

actually are, but it’s nothing like

19:41

that. But that’s how it’s been

19:42

classified legally and prescribed by the

19:46

United States, uh, Israel, Brussels, UK,

19:50

Germany, France, and a few other

19:52

European countries, Canada, and the US.

19:55

And that’s it. So, and that gives you

19:58

basically cart blanch to carpet bomb

20:01

anywhere where you suspect that these

20:03

so-called terrorists will be, including,

20:05

look at Gaza. That’s the whole basis of

20:08

the genocide in Gaza. It was it was a

20:10

war on terror. That was the banner that

20:14

Israel perpetrated this genocide

20:17

underneath.

20:19

Simple. So it’s the same this this is

20:21

the source of so many problems in the

20:24

region. It it’s it’s the prescription

20:28

and the labeling gives the perpetrators,

20:31

the state actors the license to to uh

20:36

enact state terror policies of total

20:39

annihilation in the war on terror in

20:43

according to their legal justification.

20:47

And that creates the instability, it

20:50

creates the crisis, it creates the wars.

20:52

It’s the same reason that the US and

20:55

Israel are have been attacking Iran.

20:57

They’re claiming that Iran is a

20:59

terrorist state, that they’re funding

21:01

terrorism and so forth. Okay? So, but

21:04

but the bottom line is if you if you

21:06

strip back all of these labels, anybody

21:09

who’s resisting the US or Israeli

21:13

aggression or occupation will at some

21:16

point be labeled a terrorist by the

21:19

legal system in the West and by Israel,

21:22

of course. And that’s just a constant

21:25

pattern that keeps repeating itself over

21:27

the last, you know, 50 or 60 years.

21:32

…

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.