From Gaza to Lebanon and America: On-the-Ground Perspectives and Prospects for the Middle East with Kim Ghattas

A March 29 IGP policy roundtable examined the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza with emphasis on the perspective from Lebanon, Israel’s neighbor to the north.

The discussion was led by Kim Ghattas, an IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow who is also an award-winning journalist, analyst, and author with more than two decades of experience covering the Middle East, and Azmat Khan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times and Professor at Columbia Journalism School.

Throughout the roundtable, Ghattas drew on her own experience of the difficulties Lebanon has faced, and the country’s volatile political situation.

“The panic that seized [Lebanon] is really hard to describe because we've been through so much already,” said Ghattas, who lives — and was born and raised — in Beirut. “The economic crisis that started in 2019, the massive port explosion in August of 2020, fuel shortages, bread shortages — you name it — and COVID, of course, like the rest of the world. We have these layers of trauma from the past of wars.”

The panic that seized Lebanon is really hard to describe because we've been through so much already: The economic crisis that started in 2019, the massive port explosion in August of 2020, fuel shortages, bread shortages — you name it — and COVID, of course, like the rest of the world. We have these layers of trauma from the past of wars.
— journalist Kim Ghattas

As Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has unfolded in the months since October 7, Ghattas said, many in Lebanon — and elsewhere in the region — have questioned the role Hezbollah might end up playing in the conflict, and what the implications might be for Lebanese civilians.

While some would like to see Hezbollah disappear, Ghattas said it isn’t so simple: Despite being designated as a terrorist organization outside Lebanon, domestically they are  “part of [the nation’s] political body.” Many Lebanese view the group as their country’s “best defense strategy because Lebanon needs to be defended from Israel.”

But Ghattas also said Hezbollah is facing challenges from within because its supporters feel the group is not doing enough to fix the country’s faltering economy.

Khan raised the question of how the war in Israel and Palestine is affecting Lebanese people on the ground, and whether residents in the wider region are likely to shift their perspective as a result.

“The full truth and the sad truth is that the reaction by Arab leadership has been muted,” Ghattas said, “because they're not exactly going to be unhappy if Hamas is thoroughly decimated.”

Ghattas highlighted four key factors driving Israel in its conflict with Palestine.

“There's the national trauma, and the desire for revenge. There is the day-to-day realization that the hostages are not coming home. That’s part of the day to day experience for most Israelis,” she said. “Then you have Benjamin Netanyahu [who is driven by] power.”

At the end of the panel students asked about the role of activists in this conflict, who could act as a mediator in peace talks.

Ghattas acknowledged the United States was likeliest to play the most meaningful mediating role in peace talks. “I'm biased towards hope,” Ghattas said. “So I'm always looking for ways to write about what can be the long-term way out of this.”