![]() Similarly, it was "Zionist interventionists" who supported the creation of a Christian Lebanon not so much in the interest of peaceful coexistence with Israel but with the objective of deepening the divisions in the Arab world. Thus, when describing the aftermath of World War I, Hirst writes that "not only was there no Jewish state, there were not even the basic prerequisites of one," both ignoring historical fact and constructing a lethal fantasy of early Zionists as committed to supplanting the indigenous people and creating an aggressive, expansionist state predisposed to violence. Beware of Small States is as much about delegitimizing Israel as it is about delineating the historical course that led to the emergence of Hezbollah as the paradigmatic non-state actor of the Middle East. Sadly, Hirst's book reflects the author's unreserved bias against Israel and what he terms the pro-Zionist, Christian Lebanese. ![]() Embracing Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin's dictum that small states are the victims of greater states, yet a source of danger to them, Hirst, a former Middle Eastern correspondent for the Guardian, situates Lebanon in this history at the center of Middle East politics, having undergone successive colonialist, nationalist, and Islamist phases. ![]()
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