The Assault on Lebanon
The Assault on Lebanon
Ralph speaks to independent investigative journalist Lylla Younes to discuss her reporting on Israel's assault on southern Lebanon. Then, Ralph and media studies professor Robin Andersen discuss her new book "The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of the Genocide in Gaza."
Lylla Younes is a Beirut-based journalist. She is an editor at The Public Source, and a frequent contributor to Drop Site News.
What we’ve seen in the past several days is really an escalation of what’s been happening since March 2nd (when the US-Israeli assault on Iran took off) and then obviously the ceasefire… What we see is a campaign of ethnic cleansing from the Israeli military in Lebanon. And that has looked like the Gaza playbook sped up, you could say, in southern Lebanon. It’s looked like invading and bulldozing homes; tearing up roads; destroying, booby-trapping, and detonating entire villages and cultural sites. It’s looked like targeting medical personnel—killing, at this point, over 100 since March 2nd (this is in addition to the 130 or so who were killed in the last round of fighting in 2024). In addition to that, the targeting and killing of journalists who are reporting near the border. I think it’s important to note there’s practically no one left in the border region. Having a press vest on and a microphone and a camera is basically like having a target on your back at this point.
Lylla Younes
The pager attack was, I think it’s fair to say, one of the darker days of Lebanese history. I think regardless of people’s feelings about Hezbollah, the fact that you are setting men alight literally in the streets in cities all across the country, killing children, maiming children—the mark of the pager attack was that these pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying exploded in their faces and blinded them. So you have thousands of blinded people, people missing fingers. And again, some of these are relatives of Hezbollah members. It was a massive event that overwhelmed hospitals across the country. And it also marked the beginning of that 66 day [period] of escalated fighting. And it showed how deeply infiltrated Hezbollah was in an intelligence capacity. This was quite a feat by the Israeli Mossad.
Lylla Younes
Robin Andersen is professor emerita of media studies at Fordham University and an award-winning author of a dozen single- and co-authored books. She serves as a Project Censored Judge, and contributes to the annual State of the Free Press. She is on the Board of Directors of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), where she also writes regularly, and is an Izzy Award Judge for the Park Center for Independent Media. Her latest book is The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.
In my book, I look at the directives of the New York Times and CNN, and then I compare it to media coverage. And I found that, in fact, these were the ways [the directives that were passed down] in which the media was presenting the genocide in Gaza…But in terms of the Israeli directives, CNN was putting their copy through their Jerusalem bureau and the IDF was looking at it. The New York Times was simply going along with Israeli talking points. So we did find that. And the real telling part was when they finally did say that Israel dropped the bomb, it was only when Israel had admitted—or put their propaganda to the next level, which was to claim that they had killed a Hamas commander or a fighter or somebody involved in Hamas. And we found that also in the BBC. So those were direct things that came from Israel. And abandoning their journalistic mission, the US media was basically following the dictates of a foreign government.
Robin Andersen
Their form of censorship was basically murder. They knew that as the genocide wore on (and Israel controlled the narrative for a very long time, and then it started to collapse) as over time we saw on the internet, we saw on our handheld devices the documentation of what was happening [they’d lose control of the narrative]. And so in a total propaganda environment, what we have to have is no noise, no opposition, no alternative information. And Israel really was trying to achieve a total propaganda environment. It wasn’t enough that they had establishment in legacy media and those media were allowing outside influences to direct their editorial decisions. That wasn’t quite enough.
Robin Andersen
News 5/29/26
This week, Democratic Socialist Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani unveiled his plan to construct 200,000 new rent-stabilized homes in the city over the next decade, PIX 11 reports, making good on a campaign promise that many supposedly savvy political observers doubted. In addition to the new construction, Mamdani vowed to “preserve and stabilize” an additional 200,000 via New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) repairs, increased housing code enforcement, and a special focus on development in the Bronx. In his announcement, Mamdani said “We are the largest city in the nation. We have the resources, the talent, and the will to achieve this.”
In the federal government, one of the most controversial members of the Trump administration – former Democratic Congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard – has resigned her position as Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The BBC reports Gabbard is citing her husband’s recent bone cancer diagnosis as the reason for her departure, but also notes that Gabbard “has largely been out of public view even as the US took military action against Iran, put pressure on Cuba, and…removed Venezuela’s president.” In theory, these would all require a substantial degree of participation from and coordination with the DNI, but Gabbard seemed pointedly out of the loop. The actions of the administration have also been diametrically opposed to Gabbard’s past foreign policy positions, defined by her 2020 slogan “no more regime change wars.” Others have noted that Gabbard now joins former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as high-profile women ousted from the Trump administration while glaringly incompetent men like Pete Hegseth remain in their posts.
Turning to Texas, this week saw a political bloodbath in the runoffs for the primaries held back in March. The topline of course is that scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, backed by Trump, triumphed over powerful longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn. With the backing of the president, Paxton wiped the floor with Cornyn, winning around two-thirds of the vote. Yet Paxton goes into the general election against James Talarico very weak. 35% of those polled “Disapprove Strongly” of Paxton with only 15% saying they “Strongly Approve” according to the Texas Politics Project and even the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) condemned Paxton’s “lies” “incompetence” personal scandals and corruption in now-deleted press releases. Further down the ballot, incumbent Democratic Members of Congress Al Green and Julie Johnson have been defeated in their primary run-offs, after being forced into Member-on-Member races by the Texas redistricting scheme.
Meanwhile in Michigan, NOTUS reports the Working Families Party (WFP) has endorsed progressive Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed. This primary campaign, with El-Sayed running against moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens and liberal state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, has become a bruising tripartite affair pitting the three major factions within the Democratic Party against one another. Recently, El-Sayed has taken the lead in this race, which WFP hopes to help consolidate, saying it is prepared to go “all in” on this race. WFP is feeling confident following their role in helping to ensure victory for Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania and Analilia Mejia in New Jersey.
In the Garden State, Senator Andy Kim was caught in a cloud of pepper spray this week as he joined protestors outside of a privately-run ICE detention facility, NJ.com reports. The protests began as a result of an ongoing hunger strike inside of the facility, which has led many high-profile New Jersey Democrats – including Governor Mikie Sherill and Congressman Robert Menendez Jr. in addition to Senator Kim – to call for the facility’s closure. Following the confrontation, Kim stated that “What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country…It’s sad…sad day.” At another point, Kim said “The cruelty that you see behind me, this is the point…Right now, I’m trying to have them not point guns at us.”
In another case of outrageous overreach by the Trump administration, Fox reports the Treasury Department has served subpoenas to CodePink activist Medea Benjamin and political streamer and influencer Hasan Piker seeking “financial, logistical and communications information” regarding their recent humanitarian voyage to Cuba. According to this story, the Treasury probe – handled through their Office of Foreign Assets Control – is primarily concerned with whether the convoy “violated U.S. sanctions laws through the financing, coordination or delivery of goods to Cuba, including potential contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities on the island.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned the probe, writing that “Weaponizing the Treasury Department to target Americans for exercising their constitutional right to support human rights is unacceptable.” CAIR went on to call the investigation “performative and politically-motivated,” contending that “Every American who believes in the rule of law and human rights should stand in solidarity with Medea and demand that the Treasury Department drop its McCarthyite witch hunt.”
The Democrats meanwhile are once again conspiring against one another. The Bulwark reports the campaign to unseat Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin is back on – and now includes viable alternatives. Previously, discontent was mounting but there did not appear to be any other options. Presently though, the list circulating in Democratic circles consists of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, former EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock, former president of the Service Employees International Union Mary Kay Henry, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Lavora Barnes, and former Wisconsin party chair Ben Wikler. Wikler, who revitalized the Beaver State party and placed second against Martin in the DNC Chair election, has “rebuffed discussions about leading the DNC, saying he wants nothing to do with effort to remove Martin and isn’t interested in replacing him.” Yet even with no obvious alternative, calls are mounting for Martin to step aside. This piece cites statements by progressive Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, as well as a new initiative by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on one side, alongside statements by more moderate Reps. Marc Veasey and Seth Moulton to the same effect. Still, many state parties and an equally ideologically diverse coalition is standing by Martin, so he will likely remain in place, at least for the time being.
Looking southward, this week Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her country will host the Iranian team ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Per Al Jazeera, the United States, which is hosting many of the matches, including all three the Iranian team was scheduled to play in, expressed that they did not think it “appropriate” for Iranian team members to be in the country, “for their own life and safety.” FIFA approached Mexico as an alternative. In her daily press conference, Sheinbaum stated that “We have no reason to deny them the possibility of staying in Mexico.” The Iranian team has also announced they will be moving their training base from Tucson to Tijuana, but still plan to enter the United States to play their games – with Trump saying they will be “welcome,” despite the fact American authorities have yet to issue the necessary visas.
Our final two stories involve the Pope. First, AP reports that this week Pope Leo XIV made an historic apology not only for the Catholic Church’s role in legitimizing slavery, but its failure to condemn the practice for centuries afterwards. Pope Leo called this a “wound in Christian memory.” Leo, the first American Pope, can point to both enslaved people and slave owners in his familial lineage, a remarkable vantage point from which to issue this statement in his first ever encyclical ”Magnifica Humanitas.”
Yet, for how historic this section of the encyclical is, it is not the portion of it that drew the most attention. That would be the section on Artificial Intelligence. Pope Leo writes “Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.” Leo goes on to make the critical point that “technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it.” He further goes on to state that “the pressure of new ideologies or certain highly powerful interests” can reduce the human person to “a resource to be used and exploited” or evaluated “on what they achieve or produce,” whereas God creates each individual person in His image and imbues them with inherent dignity. It is impossible to say whether the Pontiff’s words will move the titans of the tech industry to change their ways, but his moving rhetoric is sure to significantly influence the world’s view of AI, both today and for students of history.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
Discussion about this episode
I was your campaign contact in San Francisco in 2008 and mostly still admire you.
You lost a lot of respect endorsing Joe Biden
You’re wrong af on the idea that the super rich will save anyone but their own useless hides and it’s sad you defend capitalism when a decent human would be against the early stage of fascism while denying any ties to a better system like socialism
It’s good you at last return to writing something decent
Sure hope I don’t see you endorsing the next blue maga war criminal that runs for president
Better to endorse no one you should read up on boycott (mark e smith wrote a nice short concise article on that including how South Africa utilized that to start the end of apartheid or read web Dubois on the topic) or run again yourself but never endorse the more effective evil again. Not because of my opinion but you enable this monstrosity when you endorse a war criminal.
Hope you’re still around for the next bullshit selection and I also hope to see you’ve grown past promoting the fake democracy of USA. Better to stick to writing like this instead.
Biden was a huge enabler of this issue as you’re smart enough to know.
David Cay Johnston has been outspokenly supporting the rich guy, Steyer, giving a lot of reasons, one of which was that Bill McGibben was shocked and surprised that he was actually doing a lot of the right things.
The assault on Lebanon, discussed so well by Lylla Younes on this episode of the Radio Hour, tells much of how far this nation and its ally, Israel, have moved from the rules of war, developed over thousands of years with an emphasis on addressing the atrocities of World War II. That those laws have been dumped into the dustbin of history is particularly sickening.
Following the mayhem of the Vietnam War and larger wars in Southeast Asia, there was a sense among some that the US would return to following the Geneva Conventions and other sources of the laws of war, but that hiatus lasted until The Great Communicator began the march toward wars of aggression in Central America.
Israel is an outlier in terms of its expansion of war throughout the Middle East. The false argument that the horror of the Holocaust gave Israel the right to conduct endless wars against its neighbors pains me greatly. When the journalist Abby Martin conducted interviews with people on the streets of Israel, the supremacy that runs through Israeli society was obvious. Israel was seen in a positive light within the international community until it began its relentless march to dominate the Middle East and cast aside the rudimentary values that make up Judaism, in both its religious and secular manifestations. How a government and people, a majority of Israel’s people, can stand by, or cheer the destruction of the life of innocent people is beyond comprehension.
Robin Anderson does a masterful job describing how major media outlets have become fellow travelers in stopping points of view at odds with US hegemony from seeing the light of day. Returning to the issue of the 1980s and US war making, a group of letter and commentary writers were banned for a time from the single newspaper in a New England state where we organized an active and effective pushback against the beginning of the march toward endless wars that we see in plain sight today.
A great program!
And Ralph’s ongoing antisemitic assault continues. I considered Ralph to be a National Treasure. I voted for Ralph for President. I wonder how he reconciles his values and conscience with his defense of a death cult disinterested in peace, that gang-rapes innocent young women-cutting off their breasts during their vile assault, beheads people with blunt garden instruments while still alive, burns babies alive in ovens in front of their parents who are further tortured, who take hostages, use their own population as human shields, and are openly committed to a REAL genocide rather than the redefinition that the antisemites have concocted in a disgusting and deceitful moral inversion. Shame on you Ralph. I thought you were better than this.
Being against genocide isn’t antisemitic
Your statement sure is though
You’re obviously equating Zionism with Judaism and claiming genocide is a right of Jews
That’s blood libel
You’re as anti semetic as can be supporting a genocide of Palestinians who are semetic and that they have a right to commit genocide which is blood libel
Ralph is a lot of things and I disagree with him on several issues but he’s not anti semetic, you, Joel sure are though
Everything you mentioned above is false. The accusations of rape, beheadings, etc. was not true. The israeli journalist said she made it up. Not to say what happened was atrocious, but what is happening to the palestinian people for the last 80 years is just as atrocious. What about the thousands and thousands of women and children in Israeli prisons whose only crime is defending their land and homes. Both Palestinians and Jews are semites. Israel is the one not interested in peace. Palestinians and jews got along before the 1948 European invasion. It was the Palestinians who helped the jews and brought them into their homes to start a new life. Israel has now over 75% of Palestinian land and they still want more.
How is it wrong to call out unprovoked carnage on innocent civilians in neighboring countries. What you accuse others of is what your protected people are lying about or are actually doing - the world sees-- your "defense of a death cult disinterested in peace, that gang-rapes innocent men and women during their vile assaults, kills innocent children and people with US-made bombs while still alive, snipes children in the head or genitals, leaves babies to die in front of their parents who are further tortured, who take hostages, use their own population as human shields, and are openly committed to a REAL genocide rather than the redefinition concocted in a disgusting and deceitful moral inversion"- shame on you, you are an ugly excuse of a human being.
This sounds like the typical Mossad crappy propaganda. The outrage belongs on Israel in every and all respects. Have you not read any of "The Grayzone"'s coverage on the Oct. 7 attack and much of their other work by Max Blumenthal and others? https://thegrayzone.com/
He's not antisemitic. He's just calling out major human rights violations and murder. It's Israel, along with the US, who seem to bully the little guy, if you will. It's not right to bomb and kill innocent women and children, or anyone for that matter. And it keeps happening, in gigantic numbers!
I'd hope for more stentorian anger on what Israel is doing. Napolitano is doing some tough interviews with competent former CIA, Military and other professionals that exposes the sprawling evil by Israel and the US. This one with Charles Freeman the ambassador yesterday was good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91TtI--ANQ
Israel is the center of evil in the modern world with the US a close second. All their people produce are war crimes, intelligence equipment designed to undermine and attack the rule of law and accountability and various types of financial frauds. The stated "right" of Israel as to their "right to exist" has been and is currently highly questionable. No country has a "right to exist" but should be politically overthrown when they are unsustainable, as "The Declaration of Independence", declares.
Thank all you guys! I look forward to the show every Saturday. We really need civics lessons today. Taking on the rich and powerful, and often corrupt, is really needed today. Income inequality is expanding faster than ever today.
Going after Code Pink is not surprising for Trump, et.al. but it gets press ...
There were, still are, demonstrations by students and others in defense of Palestinians and of note in the last election there were quite a number of voters in Michigan(?) who voted for Jill Stein who was the ONLY Pres candidate on the ballot who decried US support for Israel's genocide - as usual, though it was BS, she was blamed for Harris' loss ...
She was out front with demonstrating students when they were attacked by police and is now going to trial for "assaulting a police officer" when videos show quite clearly that she was knocked over by a policeman with a raised bicycle .... where is the press, any press, on this -
Can't say this often enough and reiterating for the sake of newbies and to support this post.
I am a FREE SPEECH absolutist! All the censorship out there is pure evil!
Without freedom of speech and expression, there is nothing but a 'boot stamping on your face forever', total tyranny and slavery! Free speech must be protected and preserved at all costs!
citizensforfreespeech.org
thefire.org
I am Jewish and I LOATHE the government of Israel and Zionism, thanking you for saying truths that must be said!
END ALL WARS NOW! END ALL MILITARY MADNESS NOW BEFORE IT ENDS ALL OF US!
WE ARE ALL GAZANS NOW! Peggy Hall's commonsensical reasonable and logical ONE STATE solution is the only thing that can actually work! peggyhall.substack.com/…
Can't say this often enough! STOP BEING PLAYED - TARGET THE PUPPETMASTERS WHO WANT US AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS - ALL WARS ARE BANKERS WARS AS THEY PROFIT FROM DEATH AND DESTRUCTION! What is happening in Gaza is the globalist WEFFERS plan for the entire world!
THEY want you dead or a slave every which way from Sunday and actual kinetic warfare ops are major components in THEIR arsenal.
ISRAEL: A pox on both their houses! Recommend Scott Ritter's detailed and incisive essay: scottritterextra.com/p/…
Divide and rule! Agents provocateurs anyone, FALSE FLAGS, propaganda social engineering psyops? Keeping us proles at each others' throats while the globalist technocrat predators laugh all the way to the BIS and The Bank of Rothschild's!
Can't say this often enough! The Military/Industrial Complex and the Biowarfare/industrial Complex, WEF agenda and the evils assaulting humanity are from one and the same source - it is the 99% against the diabolical GREED of the 0.01% who should not be in charge of anything!
And BIG pHARMa is an arsenal making permanently sickly addicted slaves dependent on their products - the complete opposite of actual health.
Peddling pure poison! Folks have to wake up to reality: health comes from organic diet, daily exercise and clean living and never from a needle or a pill except in dire, rare traumatic injuries.
Can't say this often enough!
It was NEVER about health! The Powers That Should Not Be were ALWAYS about they want you DEAD or a SLAVE! This is a painful truth to accept but we the people must wake up and fight back! And toxic injections/pills were/are a huge part of their arsenal! Mistakes were not made!
KEEP FIGHTING! All the perps who pushed this greatest crime against humanity, all the way down to the local level, must get their comeuppances!
Proudly ANTI-VAXX! Reiterating for the sake of newbies and to support this post.
Ban all vaccine jabs! There has never been a 'safe and effective' vaccine since Edward Jenner's fraud over 200 years ago as per 'Dissolving Illusions' by Suzanne Humphries and 'Turtles All the Way Down' by Anonymous. Health can never come from a needle or pills, but from healthy eating, healthy exercise and healthy living! virustruth.net
JAB INJURIES: GROSS CALAMARI BLOOD CLOTS/AUTISM TSUNAMI/SADS/TURBO CANCER/BIZARRE TERMINAL ILLNESSES: More tragic victims of the ruling parasite genocidal enslavement agenda, sacrificed on the altar of psychopathic greed and hatred of humanity.
PSYCHOPATHS! MEGALOMANIACS!
The monsters in human skin suits who rule the world get a sadistic vampiric thrill and boost from perpetrating the vilest most demonic crimes against the most vulnerable (babies and small children) and then corrupting the system to get away with it scot free! We the People must stop them, there are a lot more of us than them!
This horrifying Congress Critters, Gates, Governor 'Gruesome Newscum', 'Lone Scum', Soros, 'Benedict' Biden and Harris and even Trump, Vance, and 'Ramaswampy' et al are blatant fully owned and operated puppets of their globalist technocrat parasite masters same as other numerous 'PUBLIC SERPENTS' infesting by design from above, the bureaucratic apparatus.
BURN BACK BETTER!
CREATIVITY! ARTISTRY! IMAGINATION! SPIRITUALITY! HUMOR! LOVING KINDNESS! These are the best ways to fight THEM!
HELL NO TO GENESIS MISSION/STARGATE/DEEPSEEK! HELL NO TO AI! technocracy.news
Life everywhere is being assaulted by THE TECHNOCRATIC OMNIWAR! RESIST! DO NOT CONSENT TO ALL THINGS DIGITAL, 'SMART', AI, 5G, NO CASH - ALL OF IT! dhughes.substack.com Technocrat ruling class psychos get a sadistic thrill from their powers over life and death and hurting all who stand in their way and they need the resources worldwide to build their digital total slavery control grids (herd survivors into 15 minute city digital prisons)! iaindavis.substack.com
AI is designed to be anti-human/anti-life programmed by technocrat control freak psychos - garbage in = garbage out. Everyone got along just fine without all these absurd and downright satanic electronic gadgets that did not exist until recently. NOBODY NEEDS THIS AI CRAP!
Bless and thank you for doing what you do.
I was always a R. Nader staunch follower. Im disappointed in his biased reporting involving Israel. You don't represent anymore the values I cherish.