Israel’s Attack on Lebanon: To what End?
In the past week, Israel has killed over 1000 people in Lebanon and injured thousands more. Israeli bombs have destroyed entire city blocks in Beirut and a fifth of the population has been displaced. Israel is also threatening a ground invasion. How far will Israel go and what will be the repercussions for Lebanon, the region, the genocide in Gaza, and the safety and security of people around the globe?
Speakers:
Lara Deeb is Laura Vausbinder Hockett Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and the Program in MENA Studies at Scripps College. In addition to numerous articles and chapters, Deeb is the author of Love Across Difference: Mixed Marriage in Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2024), An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon (Princeton University Press, 2006), co-author of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi’ite South Beirut (Princeton University Press, 2013), co-author of Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2015), co-editor of the volume Practicing Sectarianism Archival and Ethnographic Interventions on Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2023).
Karim Makdisi is an Associate Professor of International Politics, and Director of the Program in Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is the co-host of Makdisi Street podcast that has been focusing on the Gaza genocide and the larger wars as well as US policy and global movement activism and solidarity for Palestine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Academic Council for the United Nations System (ACUNS). His current book project, Disarming Syria: The International Politics of Eliminating Syria’s Chemical Weapons (with C. Pison-Hindawi) is under contract with Routledge Press. He is the co-editor of Land of the Blue Helmets: The United Nations in the Arab World (University of California Press, 2017), Interventions in Conflict: International Peacemaking in the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), published in journals such as Global Governance, Third World Quarterly, International Peacekeeping, and International Studies Perspective.
Maya Mikdashi is a professor and director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. She is author of the award winning book Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism and the State in Lebanon (SUP, 2022). Her work is grounded in ethnographic and archival research, and focuses on state power, sexual and political difference, and law, religion, and secularism. She has been published in several peer reviewed edited volumes and in public facing venues. She is a co-founding editor of Jadaliyya, and co-director of the documentary film About Baghdad (2004), filmed in Iraq in 2003, and director of Notes on the War (2006), filmed in Lebanon in 2006. She holds degrees from the Lebanese American University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University. Maya sits on the editorial collectives of the Journal of Palestine Studies and Social Text, and is a co-founding editor of Jadaliyya. Maya’s work has been translated into and published in Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Portuguese
Moderator:
Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA’s Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).