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The episode features Gal Shalom Elbaz, the manager of the Telegram channel ‘Asrar Lubnan’ (Secrets of Lebanon) and an undergraduate student in the Middle East department at Bar-Ilan University. The conversation covers the channel he manages, open and covert sources of information on Lebanon, and the country’s internal situation, including sectarian divisions and the effects of the recent war.
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The founding of the ‘Asrar Lubnan’ channel
According to Gal Shalom Elbaz, the channel’s name, ‘Secrets of Lebanon,’ does not imply a pretense of fully understanding Lebanon, but rather expresses a continuous process of learning and discovery. He explains that his interest in Lebanon began in high school, when he wrote a research paper on the gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The complexity of the country, with its multitude of sects, intrigued him, and he decided to continue researching the topic. Initially, he wrote on Twitter, but due to character limits, he moved to Telegram, a platform that allowed him to publish longer and more in-depth content. Over time, he decided to focus on the Lebanese arena to offer unique added value, and the channel gained momentum, especially after the events of October 7.
Sources of information on Lebanon
Elbaz describes how he gathers information from a variety of sources. He reads mainstream Lebanese media, such as the newspaper ‘Al-Akhbar,’ not out of agreement with its ideological line but to understand the voice of a large community in the country. He notes that the media in Lebanon is relatively free compared to other Arab countries. Additionally, he follows social networks like Twitter to get a sense of the mood on the street, but he emphasizes the difficulty of verifying the information circulated there. Another source of information is conversations with people in Lebanon, although he exercises great caution and cross-references information to ensure its reliability. Finally, he talks about extensive use of geolocation and satellite imagery, tools that he says are very difficult to fake. Through them, it is possible to verify reports of attacks, track damage to buildings, and identify military activity, such as IDF operations to level buildings in southern Lebanon even during the ceasefire period.
Sectarian divisions in Lebanon
In response to a question from Boris Gorelik about rifts within the Shiite community, Elbaz presents data from a survey by the company ‘Lebanon Statistics’ according to which 63% of Shiites support an agreement with Israel. He adds that there is a strengthening of rival Shiite political movements to Hezbollah, such as the ‘United Shiite Party.’ However, he qualifies this by emphasizing that survey data should be treated with caution, and one should always check who funded and conducted them. Referring to the Druze community, he notes that leader Walid Jumblatt publicly condemned Hezbollah’s decision to enter into conflict with Israel. According to him, this step represents a break in the ‘alliance of minorities’ that existed previously, in which Druze representatives supported the Hezbollah-aligned coalition.
The war in southern Lebanon and the Jewish community
Elbaz confirms the perception that Israel has significantly damaged Shiite villages in southern Lebanon but has avoided harming nearby Christian villages. He describes how from the Israeli side of the border, one can see the ruins of the Shiite village of Kfar Kila, while the Christian village of Deir Mimas remains standing. He adds that in many cases, Christian residents insisted on staying in their homes. At the same time, based on conversations with fighters, he recounts that Hezbollah’s resistance in certain battles was sparse, and that in cases like the village of Ayta ash-Shab, most of the organization’s militants fled, leaving only a small force behind.
On the subject of the Jewish community, Elbaz estimates that fewer than two hundred Jews currently live in Lebanon and are forced to hide their identity. He tells how he shared a photo on the channel of Hanukkah candles being lit in Lebanon, while completely censoring the subject’s details to protect them. The conversation concludes with a brief comparison between Lebanon and Qatar. While both are small countries in a complex environment, Qatar enjoys wealth and power on the world stage thanks to its oil and media influence, whereas Lebanon is a failed state lacking similar resources.
The original episode, in Hebrew: סודות לבנון