On May 4, 2026, NPR’s Michel Martin hosted former Department of Homeland Security official Fayrouz Saad on Morning Edition (“Former DHS official talks about Israel’s destruction of her ancestral home”). Martin vaguely referenced a social media post of Saad’s about having lost her ancestral home and invited her on to talk about it. In the interview, riddled with false and dubious claims, both Saad and Martin ignored the role of both the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hezbollah in Saad’s family history and the reason for the present destruction.
In discussing the destruction of her family’s ancestral home in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, Saad encouraged listeners to look beyond general destruction and stop to consider the individuals affected. She also described Bint Jbeil as a “beautiful, little quaint village in south Lebanon.” Martin allowed listeners to maintain this image of Bint Jbeil throughout the interview. She did nothing to reveal its history as a PLO haven when Saad’s parents left or as a Hezbollah stronghold in the last several decades.
Now-deceased former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, giving a speech at Bint Jbeil Stadium in May 2000
Martin then claimed, “The IDF, Lebanese army, [and] Hezbollah have been vying for control of the area for decades.” This premise is demonstrably false. The IDF has not “been vying for control” of any part of Lebanon for decades. Between 2000 and 2023, Israel and Hezbollah operated under a ceasefire agreement except for a 33-day war in 2006 triggered by a Hezbollah cross-border raid which killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two. Even after Hezbollah began firing at Israel in October 2023, the IDF did not invade Lebanon until October 2024, and even that was for “targeted operations.” One month later, another ceasefire was in place.
Martin’s untrue statement about the IDF not only serves a Hezbollah narrative, but also improperly ascribes a political motive onto Israel. The assertion that the Lebanese army has also been vying for control of the area “for decades” is also dubious. Despite a 2006 UN Security Council mandate to disarm Hezbollah and establish sole control of the area, Lebanese authorities only recently began to act following the 2024 ceasefire. Yet, both American and Israeli officials remain skeptical of the seriousness of the Lebanese government’s efforts. Evidencing the government’s failure, Hezbollah terrorists have continued using the territory to attack Israel and even admitted to only handing over decoy weapons.
The incorrect framing in Martin’s question not only ignored Hezbollah’s role in the recent destruction of Saad’s “ancestral home,” but provided the perfect segue for Saad to blame Israelis for even more. Saad told Martin that her parents left Lebanon in the 1970s specifically to escape “Israeli aggression and the threat of Israeli occupation . . . before Hezbollah existed.” Michel did not ask even the most basic question: what was happening in Lebanon in the 1970s? More specifically, what had been happening in Bint Jbeil in 1973 when Saad’s father emigrated from Lebanon?
At least four years before that, the Lebanese state ceded control of Bint Jbeil and other nearby areas to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), leading to it being nicknamed “Fatahland.” Bint Jbeil, under Palestinian control, was used as a base for armed activity against Israel and faced repeated retaliatory IDF attacks. Israeli forces did not enter Lebanon until 1978: three years into an ongoing civil war in Lebanon and five years after Saad’s father left.
Like Saad’s parents, many Bint Jbeil residents have immigrated to the U.S. since the early 20th century, with many settling in Dearborn. This exodus increased following the beginning of Lebanon’s civil war. Once Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Bint Jbeil became a Hezbollah stronghold. Just last month, the IDF found over 130 weapons inside a Bint Jbeil school and a weapons cache in a Bint Jbeil hospital where several Hezbollah terrorists were conducting surveillance.
🎥WATCH: Weapons cache discovered inside a hospital used by Hezbollah for terrorist activity in Bint Jbeil.
Several Hezbollah terrorists were identified conducting surveillance from a hospital window and firing toward IDF soldiers in the area, and following identification of… pic.twitter.com/GCnpIumFUO
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 12, 2026
Saad’s American origin story is disingenuous in that it ignored the PLO’s violent campaign against Israel and blamed only Israel for her parents’ decision to leave Lebanon. Likewise, in lamenting the recent destruction of her ancestral home, she did not acknowledge Hezbollah’s role in the village for more than 25 years and the reason for the present-day destruction. Instead, she only told listeners it was a quaint little village with sheep crossing the street.
Martin failed to provide basic context for her audience, Instead, she reinforced a biased, Hezbollah-aligned narrative with false claims of the IDF’s territorial goals and refused to offer or inquire about any historical gaps in Saad’s storytelling.
This was not journalism, it was an interview in service of a narrative.