On June 27, 2026, The Young Turks co-host Ana Kasparian tweeted that Hezbollah is only considered a terror organization by Israel, which she claimed is attempting to annex Lebanon.
The tweet followed her calling Lebanese President Joseph Aoun “a disgrace” for signing an agreement with Israel on June 26 — one that calls for phased Israeli withdrawals after Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Kasparian’s claim is false. Hezbollah is widely designated as a terror organization. The only people who don’t see it that way are terrorists themselves — and, apparently, Ana Kasparian.
The United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Honduras, Israel, Paraguay, Kosovo, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Guatemala have all designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization. The EU, by contrast, recognizes only Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” as such.
The group’s record speaks for itself. It killed 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and three Army soldiers in the 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing. It assassinated Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, in 1984. In 1985, it hijacked TWA Flight 847, murdered an American passenger, and threw his body from the plane. Between 2006 and 2011, it attacked U.S. forces and coalition allies in Iraq. It killed 85 Argentinians in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and a Bulgarian bus driver and five Israeli tourists in the 2012 Burgas bus bombing. Its roots trace back to the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, when PLO operatives killed dozens of Israeli civilians and triggered Israel’s first incursion into Lebanon. Hezbollah continues to target Americans, Europeans, Israelis, and others today.
It has even turned its violence on Lebanon itself. In 2005, Hezbollah assassinated Prime Minister Rafic Hariri — the man who ended Lebanon’s civil war — with a suicide truck bomb. It has repeatedly gone after Lebanese officials who challenged its authority or pushed for its disarmament.
That’s exactly why Lebanon wants Hezbollah gone. Despite being politically entrenched in the government, Hezbollah keeps putting Lebanese citizens in danger by provoking wars with Israel. Its manifesto calls for the Islamization of Lebanon, and it has recently threatened to overthrow the country’s Christian-led government. Lebanese leaders have said, repeatedly and plainly, that they don’t want Iran’s proxy operating in their country.
As for Kasparian’s claim that Israel wants to annex Lebanon — that’s false too. Nothing in the agreement permits Israeli annexation of any territory. It requires Israel to withdraw after Hezbollah disarms.
And if annexation were really the goal, Israel had every opportunity to do it during each of the wars Hezbollah itself started.
Bottom Line
Ana Kasparian can’t bring herself to call Hezbollah a terror organization, breaking with the U.S., the EU, the Arab League, and dozens of other countries. Her worldview is that if you kill Israelis, you’re a hero. She has no compassion for Lebanon. That’s why she attacks Joseph Aoun — the Lebanese president trying to extract his own country from Hezbollah’s grip and finally end the cycle of wars Hezbollah keeps starting. Kasparian’s hatred for Israel runs so deep that she can’t even tolerate peace with it. When an Arab leader chooses diplomacy over Iran’s proxy war, she doesn’t celebrate it as a win for Lebanon. She calls him a disgrace.
Sources
Ana Kasparian, Times of Israel, AJC, Wikipedia, JNS, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN News, Fox News, Reuters, FDD
