I queued this article in September of 2024 but never published it. It's still quite topical as, 15 months later, Venezuela's president has been kidnapped, Israel's genocide against Gaza continues, and Israel is gearing up for another run at Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Iran. Vijay Prashad offers an in-depth analysis of the history of Hezbollah, as well as the more recent history in the region. He particularly emphasizes that Israel is, by all reasonable definitions, the terrorist state, as it routinely crosses international borders to assassinate people. These murders are then completely forgotten by the NATO nations as they all wonder when an enemy like Hizbollah or Iran will "attack out of the blue", simply because they hate Israel so much---and for no known reason. <media href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZzcquhDcN0" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/AZzcquhDcN0" source="YouTube" width="560px" author="acTVism Munich" caption="Vijay Prashad - Iran, Israel & Venezuela and the Context Missing in the Media"> Vijay said the following in August of 2024. <bq>The Israelis are playing a very reckless game here and I don't understand why Europe doesn't recognize this.</bq> The statement still applies. At about <b>16:00</b>, Prashad corroborates Finkelstein's more provocative formulation that Netanyahu <i>is</i> Israel since the <iq>Israeli voting public, one way or the other, find him to be a good leader.</iq> All of the things that we find appalling---like torture camps---don't seem to bother the voting public at all. It's just like the U.S. though---when Obama said <iq>we tortured some folks</iq>, it actually <i>improved</i> his popularity. The U.S. public is at least vaguely aware of how the country works---and they <i>just don't care.</i> Israelis seem to be the same.