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Why Do Democrats Refuse to Accept That Lebanon Still Supports Hezbollah?
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in southern Lebanon, March 28, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is working overtime to craft a US foreign policy in the Middle East defined by flawed thinking. The latest example comes from Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
On the afternoon of March 21, the left-wing senator felt compelled to share her bewildering thoughts on X, and tweeted:
Pay Attention to Lebanon.
Trump and Netanyahu started a regional war in the Middle East, creating a humanitarian disaster.
And now, the Israeli army has killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon — about 20% of them are kids.
Congress should not bankroll this escalating war of choice.
For anyone with knowledge about Lebanon, the Middle East, and US foreign policy in the region, the senator’s words are baffling, if not insulting.
Warren’s crude attempt to curry opposition to Israeli self-defense reveals her bizarre rationalization and confused thinking. In her bizarro world, a country that strung along and lied to the US government while working to extort additional US tax dollars is considered a victim.
If the former Democratic presidential candidate had been paying attention to Lebanon prior to March 21, she would have acknowledged that Lebanon has refused to stop Hezbollah from committing terror attacks against Israelis — and exporting its terror globally — and that a decades-old US policy (which she has never vocally and explicitly opposed) has been an utter failure.
Since 2006, the US government has bankrolled the “rebuilding” of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to the tune of billions of US tax dollars. Repeated incidents demonstrate that all the arming, training, and even paying the salaries of some soldiers did nothing to diminish the hollowness of the institution.
The latest example of LAF ineffectiveness occurred on March 2. Hezbollah launched its most recent unprovoked attack on Israel. It was an attack that the LAF via the Lebanese government told US authorities (barely two months ago) could not happen.
Lebanese authorities asserted that the area extending north from the Israeli-Lebanese border to the Litani River was clear of Hezbollah and its arms.
In addition to this falsehood, Lebanese authorities requested more funding to continue disarming Hezbollah.
The US and allies obliged by scheduling a LAF funding conference on March 5 in Paris. But the events of March 2 demonstrated that Lebanon either cannot — or will not — do what it has promised the international community in return for billions in aid. Fortunately for American taxpayers, the outbreak of violence in the region postponed the conference.
If the senior senator from Massachusetts had been paying attention to Lebanon prior to March 21, she would have also acknowledged the futility of diplomacy until conditions on the ground change.
The Biden-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon (which began on November 27, 2024) proved to be naïve and premature. The Lebanese state (once again) failed to keep its word by bringing the militia and terrorist group to heel (even in a limited area). Despite its considerable degradation, Hezbollah retained its weapons and maximalist goal — the destruction of Israel.
The Left needs to understand that right now, anything with the Lebanese government’s name on it is worth as much as the Lebanese pound — next to nothing. Suspending fighting is tantamount to giving Hezbollah the opportunity to regroup and rearm.
The former Democratic presidential candidate indulges in denying agency to Israel and America’s enemies. Senator Warren ignores that the humanitarian disaster engulfing Lebanon is self-inflicted. Hezbollah and its supporters invited it. The Lebanese government did not prevent it, despite having 15 months to disarm Hezbollah. Instead, it dragged its feet, looking for any excuse to delay the job.
What makes Warren’s tweet more insufferable is that many of the causalities and the parents of deceased children she speaks of are supporters of Hezbollah and its allies. They put themselves and their families in danger. They repeatedly voted for them in municipal and parliamentary elections (many will do it again), and celebrate the culture of “resistance.”
Segments of the now-displaced population never divulged the whereabouts of Hezbollah’s munitions to the state, or the population actively cooperated in concealing them. Is one expected to believe that the posters of former Hezbollah soldiers and its allies that line many roads in southern Lebanon are just decorative?
Senator Warren must also realize that Iran and its proxies chose to create a regional war. Iran chose to attack its Arab and Turkish neighbors, embassies, and international shipping. Hezbollah chose to attack Israel — at the direction of Iran.
But in the progressive mindset of Senator Warren, these are secondary or insignificant issues. Lebanon’s failures, irresponsibility, and extortion are forgivable or forgettable.
As witnessed by the tweet, her obsession with blaming Israel and the US is all-consuming; it defies logic and understanding. For the self-proclaimed progressive, restraining Israel is the priority. Labeling Israel the aggressor and US complicity is the norm. Denying Israel funding is the objective. Will any of this resolve the conflict? The senator has no real answer.
Sadly, Senator Warren’s words and thoughts are not unprecedented, let alone uncommon. Progressives in the House and Senate share similar views. As the influence of the progressive wing in the Democratic party grows regarding foreign policy matters, understanding Senator Warren’s warped mind provides a glimpse of what to expect from the future of the party.
Eric Bordenkircher, Ph.D., is a research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Middle East Development. He tweets at @UCLA_Eagle. The views represented in this piece are his own and do not necessarily represent the position of UCLA or the Center for Middle East Development.
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US Hits Military Targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, Vance Says No Change to Strategy
US Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, California, US, June 20, 2025. Phone: REUTERS/Daniel Cole
US strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, US Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday as a US official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure.
The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described at least some of the strikes as targeting sites that had been previously struck before and said the attack occurred in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
Vance, speaking separately in Budapest, said the strikes were not a change in US strategy, with the Trump administration confident that it can get a response from Iran by 8 pm (0001 Wednesday GMT) in negotiations to end the conflict. US President Donald Trump is demanding Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil transit waterway.
“We were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so,” Vance said.
“We’re not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don’t make a proposal,” he added. “I don’t think the news in Kharg Island … represents a change in strategy, or represents any change from the President of the United States.”
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French Nationals Leave Iran After Three and a Half Years Amid Softer France Tone on War
A woman walks past posters with the portraits of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, on the day of support rallies to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, in front of the National Assembly in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. The slogan reads “Freedom for Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris.” Photo: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
Two French nationals were heading home on Tuesday after Iran allowed them to leave the country following three and a half years in detention, a surprise move that came as Paris sought to distance itself from the war in the region.
Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris had been confined to France‘s embassy in Tehran since November, after being held since 2022 in the notorious Evin prison on spying charges that France has said were unfounded.
“This is a relief for all of us and obviously for their families,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. “Thank you to the Omani authorities for their mediation efforts.”
Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry responded to requests for comment on what had been agreed between the two sides to ensure their release.
Iran‘s official news agency IRNA said the couple were freed following an understanding under which France would in turn release Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon, and withdraw a complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice.
However, both assertions were unclear. Esfandiari, who was convicted at the end of February for glorifying terrorism in social media posts, was released after serving almost a year in prison but has appealed the conviction.
It was not clear whether she had left the country, as ordered by the February ruling. France dropped the ICJ complaint last September.
Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi spoke with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot on Sunday, confirming the pair’s imminent release.
Macron has criticized US President Donald Trump’s approach to the US-Israeli war on Iran and said France would only help restore freedom of navigation to the Strait of Hormuz once there is a ceasefire and after consultations with Tehran.
France last week refused Israel permission to transfer weapons through French airspace for the war and has led efforts to water down a draft UN Security Council resolution that could have opened the door to forceful action in the strait.
A French official briefing reporters after the release denied that France had a softer position towards Iran and said Paris had warned the Iranians about the safety of their citizens given the escalation in the war.
“I think the Iranians rightly considered that if anything happened to our compatriots, the reactions here would have been extremely catastrophic,” the official said, declining to comment on the details of the negotiation.
French officials have also refused to comment on why a container ship belonging to French shipping group CMA CGM was able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a sign that Iran may not consider France to be a hostile nation.
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Gunfight Outside Israeli Consulate in Istanbul Leaves One Attacker Dead
A drone view shows police officers and medics standing at the scene, after a gunfire was heard near the building housing the Israeli consulate, according to a witness, in Istanbul, Turkey, April 7, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
One attacker was killed and two others were wounded in an extended gun battle with police outside the tower building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Footage showed the backpack-wearing attackers firing with automatic rifles and handguns, and police officers returning fire and seeking cover, as they maneuvered among parked white police buses near a checkpoint. One body lay on the street.
Shots rang out for at least 10 minutes among the glass towers in Turkey’s main financial district, Reuters witnesses said. One person was seen covered in blood.
No Israeli staff were at the consulate, which occupies a floor in one of the towers, at the time of the attack, Turkish and Israeli authorities said.
Israeli diplomats had left Turkey shortly after the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza began in late 2023, a conflict that prompted large pro-Palestinian protests outside the consulate and across the country, and a deep chill in Turkish-Israeli diplomatic ties.
US ENVOY SAYS CONSULATE WAS TARGET
The three attackers had links to an organization that “exploits religion,” Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said, without giving any name. Two of them were brothers, and they had traveled in a rented car from the city of Izmit, he added.
While Turkish authorities did not say what motivated the attackers, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, said on X that it was an attack on the Israeli consulate and he condemned it.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the “heinous terrorist attack” would not dent Turkey’s trust and security. Israel’s foreign ministry said it appreciated Turkish security forces’ “swift action in thwarting this attack.”
Two police officers were also lightly wounded, Istanbul Governor Davut Gul told reporters at the scene of the midday incident, which occurred next to a major motorway as thousands of nearby workers were breaking for lunch.
DIPLOMATIC CHILL AMID GAZA WAR
Turkey, a fierce critic of Israel’s military operations in Gaza as well as in Lebanon and Iran, had recalled its ambassador from Israel in November 2023, and diplomatic relations have been effectively frozen since then.
At the same time that year, Israeli diplomats left Turkey due to security concerns, including the protests. Since then, heavily armed police and armored vehicles have been stationed in a broad area surrounding the consulate.
Militant violence has mostly subsided in Turkey in recent years after a violent spate from 2015 to 2016 when Islamic, Kurdish, and leftist militants carried out attacks amid the spillover from the Syrian civil war.
The latest incident was late last year when three Turkish police officers and six Islamic State terrorists were killed in a gunfight in the town of Yalova in northwest Turkey, amid raids on militant cells believed to be planning Christmas and New Year attacks.