Why Lebanon — Not Hormuz — Keeps Iran War Grinding On

Trump’s Iran war is now a game of chicken, and Israel can’t stop upping the ante. Alexander Langlois, foreign policy analyst, senior editor at DAWN’s Democracy in Exile, and contributing fellow at Defense Priorities, joins Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra to explain why Lebanon — not the Strait of Hormuz — may be the toughest obstacle to ending it.

Langlois says Tehran understands it’s already won; Washington, true to form in wars of choice from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, refuses to admit it. He explains how Israel routinely exploits US ruling-class reluctance to risk political capital on restraining Tel Aviv, treating Lebanon as a lever it can pull whenever ceasefire talks elsewhere show signs of progress, deliberately escalating to spoil negotiations. He breaks down why the current Lebanon-Israel framework, which excludes Hezbollah entirely, isn’t a peace deal at all, but a continuation of a war that’s been grinding on since at least 2024 — one that continues a long history of foreign powers stripping Lebanon of its sovereignty.

Lebanon is “essentially a lever that Israel can pull to sustain aggression”

@langloisajl on why Netanyahu can’t stop escalating Trump’s “game of chicken” with Iran — and why Hormuz isn’t the linchpin to ending it.