Rania Khalek Dispatches

As Israel expands its war across the region, Lebanon is once again in the crosshairs.

Israeli officials are openly calling for pushing the border to the Litani River, annexing southern Lebanon, and preventing displaced civilians from returning. At the same time, the country is being bombed, depopulated, and pushed toward internal collapse.

So what is Israel actually trying to achieve?

In this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek speaks with Karim Makdisi, co-host of the Makdisi Street podcast and Associate Professor of International Politics at the American University of Beirut.

They discuss: 

-Israel’s long-term ambitions in southern Lebanon

-Whether this is a plan for annexation or permanent control

-Hezbollah’s actual strength after 2024

-Lebanon’s internal divisions and the role of the army

-The risk of civil strife and regional escalation

This isn’t Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon, but the stakes may be higher than ever.

The United States and Israel are pushing the region toward a dangerous escalation with Iran, threatening strikes on energy infrastructure and even raising the possibility of a ground invasion.

But Iran isn’t backing down.

As the war expands across the region and the global economy, the risk of a wider conflict is growing by the day.

So what is the real strategy here? Is this brinkmanship, or the early stages of a war that could spiral far beyond anyone’s control? Have the U.S. and Israel fundamentally misjudged Iran?

Rania Khalek is joined by Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran, to break it all down.

In week 4 of the U.S.-Israeli war of aggression on Iran, the global economy has been pushed to the brink. 

Iran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz shows just how key it is to global energy markets, supply chains, and food systems, putting millions at risk.

So what happens when the U.S. no longer has a monopoly on economic coercion?
Has Trump overplayed his hand?

Are we witnessing the limits of American power and the beginning of a more chaotic global order?

To break it all down, Rania Khalek is joined by Marxist economist Prabhat Patnaik, professor emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University and co-author of Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present.

Three weeks into the war on Iran, the conflict is expanding more than ever.

The Strait of Hormuz is closed, energy infrastructure is under attack, and U.S. bases are increasingly vulnerable. Israel and Washington are escalating.

According to Middle East expert Vali Nasr, this is actually all part of Iran's strategy.

Iran isn’t trying to win quickly. To “win” is to survive — and for that it wants to make the war longer, more expensive, and politically unsustainable for the United States.

In this conversation with Rania Khalek, Nasr explains:

-Why Trump gets weaker the longer the war extends
-How energy and Hormuz became the central battlefield
-What Washington fundamentally miscalculated
-Why regime change is unlikely
-The role of Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi factions
-And whether any real off-ramp still exists
-If this war continues, the consequences won’t just be regional, they will be global.

Israel has expanded its war across the region, bombing Lebanon and Iran while preparing a potential ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials claim the goal is simply to create a “buffer zone” for security. But many Israeli politicians and commentators are openly discussing something much bigger: territorial expansion to the Litani River and beyond.

This is not about security, it’s part of much longer historical Greater Israel project

On this live episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek is joined by historian Zachary Foster to examine the long history of Israeli invasions of Lebanon, the ideological roots of the “Greater Israel” concept, and how the Gaza model of destruction is now spreading across the region.