Assaulted and Abducted by Hezbollah. Plus. . .

[Valin]

The Free Press

Kat Rosenfield on the subversive genius of Melania Trump; how to help Madame Proto; and much more.

Oliver Wiseman

September 23, 2024

A view of damage at a residential area in Kiryat Bialik, Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets toward the northern Israeli cities of Haifa and Nazareth on September 22, 2024. (Photo by Samir Abdalhade/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The war between Hezbollah and Israel, which has been at a low boil since October 7, is bubbling over. Early Sunday morning, the Iran-backed terror group launched more than one hundred rockets, drones, and cruise missiles at Israel. 

The attacks, which reached further into Israel than any in the past year, came after the Jewish state had hit Hezbollah’s network with exploding pagers and air strikes. On Friday, a strike on southern Beirut killed at least 37 people, including a senior Hezbollah commander and at least 16 other operatives. (For more on this strike—and what Arabs who have suffered under Hezbollah think of it—watch this recent Free Press video.) 

In an interview this weekend, Israeli president Isaac Herzog said the Hezbollah officials killed in the strike had been planning an October 7–style attack on the Galilee in northern Israel. 

On Sunday, a Hezbollah leader declared the start of an “open-ended battle of reckoning.” And Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to do “whatever it takes” to restore security in the north of the country. 

In other words, after almost a year of incessant rocket attacks that have displaced more than 70,000 Israelis from their homes in the north, patience with Hezbollah is wearing thin. And, as one Wall Street Journal report framed it, Israel appears to be presenting Hezbollah with an ultimatum: Back off or go to war. 

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Sep 16, 2024

Welcome to our new series Hezbollah’s Hostages, a Center For Peace Communications production presented by The Free Press. Hezbollah maintains control by wielding lethal force to silence dissenting voices, especially among the Lebanese Shi’ites it claims to represent. Yet these voices want to be heard—and the world needs to hear them, for the sake of a new conversation about how to end the harm Hezbollah does to Arabs and Israelis alike.

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Sep 23, 2024

A woman in Syria describes her abduction, rape, and months-long captivity by Hezbollah, shedding unprecedented light on the militia’s sex trafficking network. This is part two in our series Hezbollah’s Hostages, a Center For Peace Communications production presented by The Free Press.

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[Valin]

Sep 30, 2024
Captagon isn't just a pill. It’s Hezbollah’s lifeline, financing jihad across borders.

Today’s Hezbollah’s Hostages tells the story of one young man’s seduction into the dark world of terror and drugs, and the lives shattered by it.

Over the past year, the Center for Peace Communications, a New York nonprofit, interviewed Shi’ite opponents of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Sunni victims of Hezbollah in Syria, each of whom in their own way has fought back against the group’s depredations. At great personal risk, they let us record and film them bearing witness to the reality Hezbollah hides. To obscure the identity of these brave people, we have illustrated their stories with striking animation. The voices you hear, however, are theirs.

The result is Hezbollah’s Hostages, a Center for Peace Communications production which The Free Press is presenting exclusively to English-language audiences on successive Mondays beginning today.

The first episode of our series is “The Combatant.” It tells the story of a Lebanese Shi’ite boy transfixed by American action movies who is lured into combat by Hezbollah during its entry into the Syrian civil war.

[Valin]

Oct 6, 2024
In today’s video, we hear the voice of Hussein, a young Shi’ite in Lebanon whose education was dominated by Hezbollah’s propaganda machinery. He was taught to hate Israel and to see its people as “zombies. . . spreading and growing, who aim to conquer the entire Arab region from the Nile to the Euphrates.”

Then, as a college student, Hussein participated in exchange programs in the West. There he met Israeli students, and the deep friendships he formed with them changed his understanding of the world. When he returned to Lebanon, he began advocating—at great risk—among his fellow Shi’ites for peace with Israel.

Over the past year, the Center for Peace Communications, a New York nonprofit, interviewed Shi’ite opponents of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Sunni victims of Hezbollah in Syria, each of whom in their own way has fought back against the group’s depredations. At great personal risk, they let us record and film them bearing witness to the reality Hezbollah hides. To obscure the identity of these brave people, we have illustrated their stories with striking animation. The voices you hear, however, are theirs.

The result is Hezbollah’s Hostages, a Center for Peace Communications production which The Free Press presents exclusively to English-language audiences on successive Mondays.

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[Valin]

Oct 11, 2024
The Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh is Lebanon’s shadow capital and the nerve center of Iran’s Arab empire. But it has an inner weakness.

Over the past year, the Center for Peace Communications, a New York nonprofit, interviewed Shi’ite opponents of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Sunni victims of Hezbollah in Syria, each of whom in their own way has fought back against the group’s depredations. At great personal risk, they let us record and film them bearing witness to the reality Hezbollah hides. To obscure the identity of these brave people, we have illustrated their stories with striking animation. The voices you hear, however, are theirs.

The result is Hezbollah’s Hostages, a Center for Peace Communications production which The Free Press presents exclusively to English-language audiences on successive Mondays.

[Valin]

 Oct 21, 2024
“A Walk in the Woods,” tells the story of Ali, a young Lebanese Shi’ite, who committed a radical act with four friends: they took a walk in the woods to enjoy the beauty and peace of their own country.

Sitting in a grove listening to birds, the quiet outing of the three young men and two young women was soon interrupted by the force that really controls Lebanon: Hezbollah, the terror organization that does Iran’s bidding.

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