Hezbollah - Main

Hezbollah

Background and Analysis - Summary

• What is Hezbollah?
  • Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shi’ite militia/political party which undertakes criminal and terrorist activities globally.
  • Hezbollah was created by Lebanese Shi’a with the aid of Iranian Revolutionary Guards after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
  • Hezbollah attacks on the Israeli military were instrumental in prompting withdrawal from the southern Lebanese security zone in 2000.
• What are Hezbollah’s goals?
  • To dominate Lebanese politics in order to create a theocratic Islamic state on the model of Iran
  • to act as Iran’s (and Syria’s) proxy in confronting Israel and the US as a second front
  • to support Lebanese Shi’a as a militia and political party
• What is Hezbollah’s ideology?
  • Hezbollah’s radical Shi’ite ideology combines Khomeinist theocratic doctrine with deep sense of victimhood founded in the general Shi’a and specific Lebanese experiences. Central are antisemitism, a commitment to martyrdom and violence, and determination to Islamify Lebanon, destroy Israel, oppose America, and spread Islam across the world.
  • Hezbollah’s Iranian-inspired ideology of sacrifice and martyrdom permitted it to theological justify and pioneer suicide bombing as a terror method. This has been adopted and modified by other branches of Islam.
• How is Hezbollah organized and led?
  • Hezbollah has a militia of Iranian-trained irregulars, a political party that is represented in the Lebanese parliament and cabinet, a TV station, web sites, and a patronage network of social services, hospital, commercial enterprises and offices throughout southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. It has strong overseas intelligence and espionage capabilities.
  • Hezbollah is led by Hassan Nasrallah, a charismatic cleric with strong organizational skills and deep animus toward Israel and Jews.
  • Some estimates see Hezbollah receiving up to $100 million a year from Iran, along with arms, training and technical support. The Syrian government of Bashar el-Assad supports these activities directly by permitting weapons to be airlifted to Syria and smuggled into Lebanon, and for Iranian training and support activities to be conducted on Syrian territory.
  • Hezbollah supporters and operatives outside Lebanon raise funds through charities, drugs, counterfeiting, smuggling, theft and extortion. In the US Hezbollah supporters have been convicted of smuggling cigarettes to avoid paying taxes. The tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay is also a source of remittances from Hezbollah supporters.

• What are Hezbollah’s activities?
  • The militia wing conducted attacks within the southern Lebanese security zone from 1982 until the Israeli withdrawal in 2000. Since then cross-border attacks including rockets, shelling, sniping and kidnappings have been undertaken, culminating in the 2006 war.
  • Terrorist attacks have been undertaken against American targets, including kidnappings, airline hijackings, and bombings, such as the US Marine barracks in 1983, and bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina in 1992 and 1994.
  • Since the Israeli withdrawal in 2000 Hezbollah has continued to defy UN Resolution 1559 requiring it to disarm. Rather than oppose Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah shifted its emphasis to 1. supporting Shi’a claims within the Lebanese political system, 2. defending Syria against the international community, 3. confronting Israel over the Shebaa Farms, a small area on the foothills of Mt. Hermon claimed by Lebanon but regarded as Syrian by the UN, and, 4. after provoking the Israeli attack in 2006, defending Lebanon against Israel.
  • The political party holds several seats in the Lebanese parliament and nominally acts as defender of Shi’a and Lebanese national interests.
  • The ‘political wing’ continues to use Iranian money to provide services and buy influence in southern Lebanon.
  • Support , training and now direction of certain Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including on-site direction. Global fundraising, including in North and South America, through counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals and currency, drug production and smuggling, extortion and other means.
  • Global propaganda against the West, Israel and the US through its TV station al-Manar and numerous web sites.
  • The political party holds several seats in the Lebanese parliament and nominally acts as defender of Shi’a and Lebanese national interests. It has become the center of the opposition against Lebanon’s pro-Western governments.
  • Following the May 2008 government shutdown of its covert communications network Hezbollah took over West Beirut. An Arab-brokered deal to end the fighting gave Hezbollah veto power in the Parliament and over 30% of seats in the cabinet. The June 2009 elections saw the ‘March 14’ alliance retain power but in reality Hezbollah has effective veto power over the government.

• What should Israel and America expect from Hezbollah?
  • With the aid of Iran and Syria Hezbollah has rearmed and claims to possess more missiles than before the 2006 war. Its standing within Lebanon has been weakened somewhat, and Syria and Iran are both on the defensive in the larger international arena.
  • While its tactics may vary according to larger conditions there is no reason to expect Hezbollah will ever accept the existence of Israel. This is religiously unacceptable.
  • The military option, especially the unconventional and asymmetric aspects (now called ‘hybrid warfare’ where non-state actors use “conventional capabilities, irregular tactics and formations, terrorist acts including indiscriminate violence and coercion, and criminal disorder”), has been vindicated. The asymmetric strategy of inviting retaliation through cross-border kidnapping and rocket fire against civilians, touting the resulting damage and casualties as war crimes, disseminating these messages through manipulation of Western media, and celebration of martyrs’ deaths, was a model adopted by Hamas.
  • To a large extent the Hezbollah now controls many aspects of Lebanon’s domestic and foreign policy and challenges the Cedar Revolution’s orientation toward the West. It has been diligently reshaping the Lebanese landscape and society for confrontation and drawn much of the country closer to Iranian influence and Syrian reoccupation. The ‘state within a state’ now controls much of the Lebanese state itself. In doing so it has partially reinvigorated the pro-Western forces in Lebanon and have brought the country closer to a civil war that no one wants.
  • Israel and the United States have not confronted Hezbollah forcefully, but have acquiesced or facilitated its successes. The perception of Israeli weakness is frequently spoken of by Hezbollah and by other Arab and Muslim adversaries. Force has been vindicated.
  • In broader terms while its tactics may vary according to larger conditions there is no reason to expect Hezbollah will ever accept the existence of Israel. This is religiously impossible.
  • Direct confrontation with the US depends on the degree of American involvement with Israel, Iraq and other Middle Eastern states and issues. Hezbollah began killing Americans during the early 1980s and there is good reason to think that direct confrontation will continue.

Hezbollah Background and Analysis

November 2009

1. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shi’a militia and political party supported by Iran that violently opposes Israel and undertakes criminal and terrorist activities globally.

1. To dominate Lebanese politics in order to create a theocratic Islamic state on the model of Iran.
2. To act as Iran’s (and Syria’s) proxy in confronting Israel and the U.S. on a second front.
3. To support Lebanese Shi’a as a militia and political party.