Recent Books
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Bashar al-Assad in 2011. It takes some
mental gymnastics to see how Hezbollah’s
role in Syria either mounts resistance to
Israel or defends the territory o Leba-
non. Daher has spent years in the Bekaa
Valley close to Hezbollah strongholds.
Her portrayal o the organization is
rather sympathetic. The book’s strongest
feature is its analysis o the charismatic
appeal o Hezbollah’s secretary-general,
Hassan Nasrallah. Daher’s superÄcial
treatment o the organization’s Änances—
and the group’s consequent ability to
eschew corruption and rent seeking—is
less satisfying. The author refutes accusa-
tions o terrorism leveled at Hezbollah,
particularly the Ändings o the interna-
tional tribunal that investigated the 2005
assassination o former Lebanese Prime
Minister RaÄq Hariri. She challenges the
evidence that Hezbollah was behind this
killing and other violent incidents.Iran Resurgent: The Rise and Rise of the
Shia State
BY MAHAN ABEDIN. Hurst, 2019, 272 pp.Abedin packs an extraordinary amount
into this compact and lucid survey o
regime dynamics and grand strategy in
Iran. The author is a British Iranian
journalist who writes with the style o
an insider. He ris on the regime’s
internal politics and traces the roles and
decision-making o key players. Much o
the book is devoted to Iran’s foreign
policy, particularly in the Middle East.
Abedin stresses that Iran’s relationship
with Syria is no mere tactical alliance.
To force Iran out o Syria is “an impos-
sible task.” Syria is Iran’s only formal ally
and the linchpin o Iran’s “axis o resis-
tance,” an anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli
alliance spanning Iran, Syria, Hezbollahinterviewed some survivors o Assad’s
torture centers, who aord hope for a
better future, but otherwise, this book
chronicles the triumph o evil.
Some o those torture survivors are
the subject o Thomson’s moving chroni-
cle o the four-year siege o Daraya, a
suburb o Damascus that was once home
to 90,000 people. Thomson, a
correspondent, learned that among those
who remained in the suburb were a num-
ber o young Darayans who collected
books to establish a secret, underground
library, sheltered from the barrel bombs,
snipers, and tanks o Assad’s forces.
The library became the embodiment o
both resistance and the hope for a more
humane future. Thomson never visited
Daraya and knew his heroes only
through Skype and WhatsApp. Still, he
became fast friends with the insurgent
librarians. Rebels in Daraya held out for
four years, enduring famine and trauma.
In the summer o 2016, they were
evacuated by the regime to Idlib prov-
ince, which itsel is now under attack by
Assad’s forces. Syrian troops unearthed
and looted the secret library.
Hezbollah: Mobilization and Power
BY AURÉLIE DAHER. Hurst, 2019,
432 pp.
Daher considers how the Shiite militant
group Hezbollah gained legitimacy
through its resistance to Israeli incursions
in Lebanon. Hezbollah went from
strength to strength after Israel withdrew
from southern Lebanon in 2000 and after
its partial victory against an Israeli
incursion in the summer o 2006. Her
book was Ärst published in French in 2014
and does not investigate how Hezbollah
decided to go to war in Syria on behal o