Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: More than 70 martyrs in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn.
Death toll from latest Israeli strikes on Gaza rises to 30
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Five killed in the Israeli bombing of a civilian vehicle on Al-Qassam Street in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip
Hamas confirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Two civilians were killed and four others, including a child and an infant, were injured in an Israeli bombing of a house belonging to the Al-Banna family in the al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: An Israeli airstrike targets the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, west of Gaza City
Al-Qassam: We will postpone the handover of the body of the Israeli captive we found, which was scheduled for today, due to the occupation's violations
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza: Israeli occupation aircraft launch airstrikes on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
Netanyahu's office: At the end of the security consultations, the prime minister instructed the military to launch massive military strikes on the Gaza Strip immediately
President Aoun: We urge the activation of the monitoring committee, the cessation of hostilities, ongoing Israeli violations, attacks

Graham’s Middle East vs. reality on the ground: Hezbollah, the undefeatable Resistance

  • Sondoss Al Asaad Sondoss Al Asaad
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 8 Oct 2025 14:20
  • 4 Shares
6 Min Read

The paradox becomes clear: Graham is demanding the disarmament of Hezbollah under the pretext of restoring “normalcy", while his country is practicing the most extreme forms of abnormality on the ground.

Listen
  • x
  • Graham’s Middle East vs. reality on the ground: Hezbollah, the undefeatable Resistance
    Hezbollah remains at the heart of the equation, and no regional project can outweigh its power (Illustrated by Batoul Chamas; Al Mayadeen English)

When US Senator Lindsey Graham declared that “there can be no normal Middle East as long as Hezbollah exists,” he was not merely a Republican congressman making a passing statement.

Rather, Graham was expressing, with complete candor, the profound understanding within the US-Israeli strategy of a reality on the ground and in politics: that Hezbollah is the greatest obstacle to the project of “comprehensive normalization” and the reshaping of the region to suit Tel Aviv and Washington.

Graham's statement, despite its simplicity, carries connotations that go beyond traditional political rhetoric and deconstruct the “defeat” narrative that Western and Israeli media have been promoting for years.

If Hezbollah had truly been defeated, as they claim, Graham would not have been compelled to make its disarmament a condition for any “normal Middle East.”

This condition reveals that the party remains at the heart of the equation and that no regional project can outweigh its power.

Thus, the rhetoric of “defeat” becomes nothing more than a tool for producing counter-awareness, while American statements themselves acknowledge that the Resistance remains the most formidable force.

Field facts reinforce this conclusion: Between December 2023 and September 2025, American MQ-9 Reaper drones carried out dozens of sorties over Lebanon, some lasting for long hours, reaching up to 18 consecutive hours, with up to three drones participating simultaneously over the South, the Bekaa, and Greater Beirut.

According to the Union Center for Research and Development, these drones don’t just photograph; they also intercept communications, decrypt encryption, and have the capability to strike with Hellfire 3 missiles.

More seriously, these missions are carried out without any coordination with civil aviation authorities, which has led to several incidents that nearly turned into air disasters.

However, Washington sees no harm in this blatant violation of Lebanese sovereignty, instead framing it as a “security necessity” to protect Israel since the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” of 2023.

Fundamentally, this American behavior does not express “normalcy" as Graham desires, but rather the continuation of the abnormality imposed by Washington on Lebanon and the region by violating airspace and sovereignty and employing all intelligence tools to "Israel’s" advantage.

Thus, the paradox becomes clear: Graham is demanding the disarmament of Hezbollah under the pretext of restoring “normalcy", while his country is practicing the most extreme forms of abnormality on the ground.

Related News

Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

The US wants Lebanon, Gaza and Iraq to disarm and will fail

Nevertheless, what Washington does not realize is that the Lebanese street is moving in a different direction. The mass scenes that accompanied the funeral of Hezbollah Secretary-Generals, in February 2025, were a revealing moment.

Hundreds of thousands filled the streets in the south, the suburbs, and Beirut, in an unprecedented scene that expressed the depth of popular connection to the Resistance.

These crowds were not merely an emotional response; they were an eloquent political message: the Resistance is not merely an armed organization, but a socio-popular movement rooted in the people’s conscience. 

This popular entrenchment was also reflected at the ballot box. The results of the recent municipal elections showed significant progress for the Resistance lists and their allies in the South and the Bekaa, reflecting that the public mood still favors this option and that attempts to promote a narrative of defeat have not affected the broad social base.

Faced with these realities, the Resistance’s domestic opponents, particularly forces linked to the US embassy in Beirut, have resorted to attempting to circumvent the situation through the political-legal process.

Amendments to the electoral law have been proposed, aiming to redistribute representation or introduce new mechanisms, particularly with regard to expatriate seats, in order to reduce the parliamentary weight of the Resistance forces and weaken them within the institutions.

These attempts fall within a single strategic context: if Hezbollah cannot be defeated militarily or popularly, then let us attempt to contain it through the law and the constitution.

However, these maneuvers also reveal the extent of the impasse facing the American camp in Lebanon. The more popular support for the resistance increases and transforms into a tangible electoral presence, the more the external insistence on engineering laws that satisfy the demand for normalization with "Israel" increases.

Indeed, Graham’s statement becomes clearer: He’s not just talking about weapons, but about eliminating the Resistance option from the equation as a whole, by dismantling its battlefield, political, and popular power.

But even this ambition clashes with reality. The popular scene in Lebanon—from the funerals of leaders to the results of the municipal elections—clearly indicates that the Resistance is not in a collapsed defensive position, but rather in a position of strength protected by the balance of deterrence with "Israel" and a renewed popular support.

More importantly, Graham’s rhetoric, which was supposed to be threatening, has turned into an implicit admission: “The Middle East will not be normal without the defeat of Hezbollah,” meaning that the party’s survival is what prevents US-Israeli normalization from becoming an inevitable fate.

The bottom line is that between the rhetoric of a “normal Middle East” and US violations, and between attempts to amend laws and the escalating popular scene, one equation becomes clear: Hezbollah has not been defeated and will not be defeated!

Hezbollah may face challenges, and military, political, or media wars may be waged against it, but its deep-rooted presence among the people and on the ground makes it a constant force in the equation.

Any rhetoric about a “normal Middle East without it” is nothing more than an admission that its power is what deprives the American-Israeli project of its alleged “normality".

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Hezbollah disarmament
  • Hezbollah Secretary General
  • Hezbollah
  • Lindsey Graham
  • Lebanon
  • Middle East
  • martyr Sayyed Hashem Safiedine
  • Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Sondoss Al Asaad

Sondoss Al Asaad

Lebanese journalist

Most Read

All
What Marr evidently didn't seem to understand was that Hedges isn't saying that Western journalists manipulate the truth, but that they systematically amplify Israeli narratives they know are false. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Western journalists know they have a case to answer for their betrayal of Gaza, and it frightens them

  • Opinion
  • 24 Oct 2025
Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

Manufacturing civil war: The Zionist doctrine to destroy resistance

  • Opinion
  • 21 Oct 2025
Documents submitted to the UK Foreign Office by ARK - founded by MI6's Alistair Harris - noted the FSP were “revolutionary entities who share a general ideological affinity with the Syrian rebels.” (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

How MI6 built Syria’s extremist police

  • Opinion
  • 16 Oct 2025
It is no secret that removing Russia from Syria in preparation for isolating it in Libya and Africa is a Western goal. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Will Damascus be willing to pay the price to restore relations with Moscow?

  • Feature
  • 25 Oct 2025

Coverage

All
Gaza: An Epic of Resilience and Valor

More from this writer

All
13 years after 'Bahrain Forgotten Uprising': Bahrainis are resisting to their best

13 years after 'Bahrain Forgotten Uprising': Bahrainis are resisting to their best

Worried Bahrain becomes a home for the Zionists: Sheikh Ali Salman, from behind bars

Worried Bahrain becomes a home for the Zionists: Sheikh Ali Salman, from behind bars

The temporary occupation erroneously thinks banning Al Mayadeen would emerge victorious

The temporary occupation erroneously thinks banning Al Mayadeen would emerge victorious

Hezbollah Al-Qassam Gaza Lebanon

Hochstein is in Beirut to save the failed 'Israel'

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS