Farrah Berrou

Writer behind #AanabNews - the newsletter about stories from Lebanon and beyond, through the lens of wine and culture | Olives, cats, and curiosity

[Ahmad Baydoun @weatherwar]

A new checkpoint in Beirut.

[Danny Hajjar داني حجار @DanielGHajjar]

New from me: I'm starting a new newsletter about Arabic music and Arab artists in the Middle East, North Africa, and the region's global diaspora communities. https://t.co/IKEkKfLWuV

[Ramzi Kaiss / رمزي قيس @kaiss_ramzi]

Since a “ceasefire” went into effect in mid-April, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed over 1200 people.

This amounts to over a third of the total number of people killed by Israel in Lebanon since March 2.

[Noodles @criptopaul]

Let's decode what actually happened here.

Axios reported that Trump exploded at Netanyahu. Called him "fucking crazy." Said "you'd be in prison if it weren't for me." Said "everybody hates you now."

The journalist is Barak Ravid again, we talked about it. Israeli. Based in Washington. Covers the Netanyahu-US relationship for Axios, and every latest deals to calm the markets.

This is the same journalist who wrote the exact same type of story about Biden. There is literally a book chapter about this pattern. It is called "Fuming Biden." The same reporter. The same format. The same function. Different president.

Now watch the response.

Mark Levin, a close ally of both Trump and Netanyahu, did not deny the story. He demanded an FBI investigation into who leaked it. When your defense is "this should never have leaked" instead of "this never happened," you have confirmed the call happened.

But here is the part that matters.

Why would Levin, a friend to BOTH men, confirm the most explosive account of their relationship ever published?

Because it serves both.

Trump gets to look tough. Not Netanyahu's puppet. Willing to put Israel in its place. His base loves it.

Netanyahu gets cover. He "paused" the Beirut strike, but not because Iran threatened him. Because his "friend" asked him to. His base loves it too.

And look at what actually changed on the ground. Nothing.

Israel cancelled the Beirut strike. But the ground invasion of Lebanon continues. The IDF is still miles deep. A soldier died today from a Hezbollah drone. Netanyahu's office said: "position unchanged."

The performance was perfect. Trump gets the headline. Netanyahu gets the cover. The deal gets another 48 hours of "progress." Markets get a reason to breathe.

And the war continues exactly as planned.

This is the same playbook. Every time public opinion turns against the war, a story appears showing the US president is "furious" with Israel. It creates the illusion of restraint while changing nothing.

Biden was "furious" for 14 months. The war never stopped.

Trump is "furious" now. The ground invasion is expanding.

The visible game is: Trump controls Netanyahu.
The real game is: both men are performing for their audiences while the machine moves forward.

Nothing has been signed. Nothing has stopped. The war is not winding down. It is being managed.

Neither one controls the other. They walk arm in arm. Know that.

[Ramzi Kaiss / رمزي قيس @kaiss_ramzi]

Another deliberate Israeli attack on medical workers in Lebanon today; a war crime committed so frequently these videos are now horrifically familiar.

Since March 2, Israel has killed at least 123 medical workers, including 7 just in the last 24hrs…amidst a supposed “ceasefire”

[Michelle @Michelle3id]

I have come to despise the word ceasefire. How can we act like anything has changed? Only because Beirut has stopped being carpet bombed? In what dictionary does it say that a ceasefire includes the constant killing of our medics, journos, and people? The destruction of homes?

[Nada Maucourant Atallah @MaucourantNada]

How is Israel conducting what legal experts describe as a campaign of wanton destruction in southern Lebanon?

Data shared exclusively with The National by Lebanon’s Southern Council shows nearly 100,000 civilian infrastructure sites destroyed or damaged by Israel since March 2.

The figures are only preliminary because access to many frontline villages remains restricted. The scale of destruction points to a broader pattern: rendering large parts of southern Lebanon uninhabitable.

[Mona Fawaz @mona_fawaz]

Just to be clear to friends asking:
There is NO cease-fire, not in Lebanon, not in Gaza. Israel is imposing its usual “you cease-we fire”, and the outcome is daily raids, bulldozed villages, burned fields, and continued savage occupation.

[roqayah chamseddine @roqchams]

Also, if I can be frank, I find the attempts to make our condition 'relatable' to the American metropole both intellectually hollow and morally cowardly.

When we see white phosphorus over southern Lebanese villages we aren't seeing a 'preview' of American overpolicing but the pure, unfiltered expression of a colonial machine that views the Global South as a laboratory for human disposal.

We don't demand an end the targeting of our people because it might 'come home.' We demand it because our humanity is absolute, non-negotiable, and requires no American 'relevance' or appeals to their own self-interest to be defended.

[من لبنان Aya @AyaFatimaC]

@AvichayAdraee Shu hal ceasefire l khara

[Mona Fawaz @mona_fawaz]

Reporters using "defense" to describe what Israel is doing in Lebanon are providing cover and impunity for these forms of brutal erasures. Inexcusable.

[Jamil Mouawad @JamilMouawad]

With the declaration of the so-called ceasefire, Southerners immediately "returned" to see their homes and lands, only to be forced to "evacuate" again hours later.

This is not a coincidence. It is a carefully orchestrated mechanism to inflict pain. A strategy of harm to force people either to witness and see what has been lost and destroyed (homes, graveyards, farmlands...), or to examine what remains (for a last time) before it, too, gets demolished and disappears.

This is torture compressed into a matter of hours.

[Will Christou @will_christou]

Israel is deploying its “yellow line” model it premiered in Gaza, now in Lebanon. It will maintain its control over 55 towns in south Lebanon and demolish many of them.

Demolitions have continued at a rapid pace in the days after the ceasefire with Lebanon.

[Mat Nashed @matnashed]

When I was in Lebanon's southern town of Nabatieh speaking to paramedics two weeks ago, Israel had already killed about 52 emergency workers since March 2.

That figure has risen sharply to 87, according to the Lebanese health ministry. #Lebanon

[Nada Homsi @NadaOHomsi]

Another strike on Beirut now

[Rania Abouzeid @Raniaab]

Urgent call for doctors across #Lebanon to go to hospitals to help. Repeated requests for people to donate blood, all types. Red Cross units from north Lebanon mobilized & headed to #Beirut & south to help. Talk of 100s killed & wounded but no casualty toll from Min of Health yet

[Will Christou @will_christou]

Lebanese hospitals put out an urgent call for blood donations as they prepare for an influx of wounded after Israel levelled entire buildings across the country without warning.

The lebanese ministry of health pleaded with people to clear the streets to that ambulances could reach the wounded.

[Nada Maucourant Atallah @MaucourantNada]

Reports that four paramedics from the Islamic Health Authority were killed in an Israeli strike in Qlayaa.
Seems like a targeted strike on the ambulance.
This comes after Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire.

[Michael Young @BeirutCalling]

The confusion over whether the ceasefire encompasses Lebanon gives Israel a lever to torpedo the agreement. If Iran agrees to pursue the ceasefire, it would mean it "abandoned" its Lebanese allies; if it refuses to continue with the ceasefire, this would suit Israel just fine.

[Ali A Olomi @aaolomi]

western journalism is special because it has an active voice, passive voice, and a special third voice for when israel does something