“Thank God for Hezbollah” – the strangest of statements

The last time I was in Beirut it was to hold a conference for the BBC with our partners AFP on reporting conflict. It was two years ago and ISIS/IS/ISIL or Daish, as it is known in Arabic, didn’t exist. The war in Syria did though and thousands of refugees were pouring over the border.

This week, I was there for an organisation called Search for Common Ground and working with a group of journalists, students and NGO workers on reporting women’s issues and becoming more gender-sensitive in the media.

The news of the brutal burning alive of the young Jordanian pilot reached us while I was there and was greeted with universal disgust and dismay.

I asked my taxi driver, a Christian, whether he was worried that Islamic State would sweep into Lebanon. “No, he said, we have Hezbollah, and they will never let them in. Thank God for Hezbollah.”

Proof that our enemy’s enemy really is our friend.

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