“Shocked and appalled” is the mildest of the reactions I’ve had to the charade that unfolded today at the Presidential Palace in Lebanon. Scientists have already published new research concluding that the maximum amount of hypocrisy one can be exposed to in a single day equates to one “U.S. Envoy Press Conference.” Comedy aside (though it is now arguably the only lens through which to view these events to preserve your sanity), the press conference in question marked a new low for the hastily assembled Lebanese government and its “egg-shaped” president, who is quick to “crack” under pressure from foreign powers.
If I were to wrap what I witnessed at the Presidential Palace today in a sweet, sweet metaphor, I would liken it to a circus performance—specifically one branded by Trumpian Absurdism™. Why a circus? Because the audience is usually warned against involving themselves in the act, given the dangers involved—especially to those who dare ask questions. Naturally, the circus master (a.k.a. Tom Barrack) takes it upon himself to cull the crowd and keep things “civilized,” all to prevent any “animalistic” outbursts—even though he’s the one who unleashed the animals onto the stage in the first place.
The show ran for thirty minutes, though the opening act quickly gave way to a monologue by one of Washington’s most notorious Zionist cheerleaders: Senator Lindsey Graham. Of the fifteen minutes given to the three freshly arrived senators, Graham seized nearly all, wielding the microphone as though it were his birthright. This is the same Graham who has infamously insisted that Israel be handed “all the bombs they need” to wage their wars—yes, even nuclear ones. And though Israel already possesses such weapons, Graham’s real message was clear: not only should Israel stockpile them, it should have the green light to use them at will.
The Zionist Cheerleader
That senator now stands at the forefront of Washington’s so-called “diplomatic” efforts to deliver to Israel what it has sought from Lebanon since the year 2000: the dismantling of the resistance and the stripping away of its ability to defend this land. With his “charming” southern drawl and his thinly veiled bias toward the entity that has ravaged Lebanon time and again over the past two decades, Graham seized the microphone repeatedly, thundering that the supposed demand to disarm Hezbollah does not originate in Washington or Tel Aviv—oh no—it comes from the Lebanese people themselves. According to Graham, the very people who have been murdered, displaced, tortured, and imprisoned for decades by the Zionist entity are now clamoring to de-fang the resistance born from their own suffering.
There is nothing surprising about Graham’s presence here, nor about his attempt to separate Israel’s glaring interest in a disarmed Hezbollah from the discussion altogether. After all, his title as “dear friend of Israel” has been earned through years of unwavering loyalty.
What is striking, however, is the audacity of his performance. With the limited time his trio of congressional clowns was allotted, Graham transformed his sermon into something resembling a Sunday-morning televangelist act: promises of salvation, assurances of blessings, and visions of a brighter tomorrow freely showered upon the country by Saudi Arabia and the US—if only Hezbollah would lay down its arms. Yet beneath the theatrics lies the same tired grift, designed to stir shallow emotions and distract from the brutal geopolitical reality of what such disarmament would mean.
At its core, Graham’s mission is simple: he wants what Israel wants. And what does Israel want above all else? Security—the kind of “security” that grants it the freedom to terrorize and occupy, to cement its status as the only entity in West Asia with the unchallenged right to launch unilateral wars against its neighbors. For Graham and the broader U.S. foreign policy machine, a disarmed Hezbollah is not a “people’s demand”; it is a critical stepping stone toward Israel’s utopian dream of permanent, uncontested regional dominance.
Graham, in his merry little speech, pretends to make the resistance out to be a problem that the “people of Lebanon” need to solve. He waves around the idea that Arab countries and “the only democracy in the Middle East” will “view Lebanon differently” if they do so. As if their approval is something that the whole of Lebanon seeks wholeheartedly.
This script, however, is older than Graham’s hair dye. Every few years, a new envoy or senator lands in Beirut, clutching the same recycled lines: disarm the resistance, weaken your defenses, trust the international community. The same “community” that watched in 2006 as Israeli jets pounded bridges, hospitals, and schools into dust, only to later insist Lebanon “move forward” without the very movement that drove the invaders back. What we saw today was not diplomacy—it was a performance, a grotesque rehearsal of the same tired narrative that Lebanon’s security is a threat, while Israel’s nukes are a “stabilizing force.”
The “Animalistic” Displacement Speech
The second act of the show was headed by the circus master himself, Tom Barrack. Who, instead of presenting the audience with another fun cast of trick-slinging animals, insinuated that they themselves are animals.
After deftly insulting the entire region’s people and press corps, Barrack then spent about five minutes weaving yet another frayed American illusion for us to swallow. “What will happen to the Shia population?” he asked, attempting to cast the U.S. as the sole savior. He singled out just the “Shia” of southern Lebanon—as though the region lacked Christian villages, two of which Israel flattened entirely. In his narrative, the south became a monolith: “Shia” land, representing merely 30–40 percent of the country.
In the U.S. and Israeli mindset, the resistance is—and will only ever be—a “Shia” cause, a proxy of Iran rather than a homegrown front opposing Zionist occupation and terror. Its makeup is reduced to a single sect, erasing the plurality of religions, sects, and backgrounds that give resistance its true soul.
Then, in an act of theatrical empathy—because all circus masters must flatter their audience—he presented the supposed solution: the “Trump Economic Zone.” Every time “Trump” tags a project, success obviously follows. It’s as if conjuring luxury resorts on the ashes of Gaza wasn’t enough for the “Israel-First” president—now he wants to replicate the same fantasy over our wounded south. But such a dream could never take root without first removing “Iranian funding,” disarming the resistance, and, of course, by extending the sacrilege of “talking” to Israel—the inevitable crescendo of the normalization saga and closing act of this illusory puzzle.
That economic zone, lauded by Barrack as an antidote to conflict, is, in reality, a bribe masquerading as opportunity. Saudi Arabia and Qatar may pledge investments, but no amount of capital can compensate for the displacement, destruction, and dispossession inflicted upon these lands. Workers flocking to assembly lines won’t find solace in wages—they’re being handed crumbs from tables that once sustained entire communities. And make no mistake: this is less about economic revival than political erasure. In promising to replace resistance with factories, Barrack and his backers are not rebuilding Lebanon—they’re attempting to rewrite its memory.
Besides, the US population itself is going through one of the worst economic crises targeting the working class and the poor, and Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is promising to provide more economic leeway than ever before to the elites who caused such crises in the first place. So maybe instead of promising the Lebanese people economic reform and stability through big beautiful economic zones, the congressional circus ought to go back home and deal with their own problems.
A Circus That Masks an Occupation
What played out at Baabda Palace was not diplomacy, nor even a genuine attempt at dialogue—it was theater. A traveling circus of senators and envoys, draped in self-righteous language, parachuted into Lebanon to dictate, to scold, and to promise salvation that will never come. They dressed up old demands as new, insulted the intelligence of the press, and attempted to sell the people of the south their own dispossession wrapped in the glitter of a “Trump Economic Zone.”
Strip away the theatrics and the message is plain: the United States comes not to listen, not to support, and certainly not to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty, but to advance Israel’s interests under the guise of peace and prosperity. The resistance is reduced to a sect, Lebanon’s pain is commodified into “opportunity,” and dignity is exchanged for empty promises of foreign investment.
Lebanon has seen this play before: 2006, 1982, and every “international initiative” in between. Each time, the script is the same—disarm yourselves, trust us, accept your place in our design. But no circus, no matter how gaudy its tricks or how loud its ringleaders, can erase the truth: Lebanon’s people know too well the cost of occupation, and they will not trade the hard-earned shield of their resistance for the illusion of security or the crumbs of economic bribes.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
