Hezbollah members carry the coffins of two of their comrades who were killed on Wednesday when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, September 19 2024
[AP Photo/Hussein Malla]
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing
GORDON PARSONS steps warily in between the lines of Britain’s most famous diarist
SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
Hezbollah: Mobilisation and Power
Aurelie Daher, Hurst, £18.99
ORIGINALLY published in 2014 in French, translated into English in 2019 and then reissued in a paperback this year, Aurelie Daher’s book is a meticulous and fascinating academic account of the development of Lebanon’s Party of God.
With current developments in west Asia it can hardly be more relevant. The Israeli campaign to wipe out Palestine continues apace, Tel Aviv presses ahead with provocations on both Iran and Hezbollah, which, if answered, would drag the United States into entering the conflict.
It would be very difficult to understand what this might lead to. The US has an established pattern of wrecking countries and then withdrawing as it remains unable to achieve political solutions by blowing things up. Both Israel and the US have powerful military capabilities, hard-line governments, and nuclear weapons.
ALEX HALL follows the battered fortunes of Syria, a multi-ethnic country caught in the crossfire of competing imperialist interests
