Hezbollah

[Annie]

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Jonathan Gurwitz: Cornered, Hezbollah sharpens its claws
Web Posted: 03/27/2005 12:00 AM CST

San Antonio Express-News

At a breakfast in San Antonio last fall, former CIA Director George Tenet described Hezbollah as the "A-team" of international terrorism.

The world is focused on the headline-making actions of al-Qaida, which might merely be terrorism's second stringers, Tenet warned. As a U.S.-led effort pounds al-Qaida on the global battlefield, a more serious threat emanates from Hezbollah, resting comfortably on the bench.

For most Americans, the conflict with Islamic extremism began Sept. 11, 2001. A few may remember the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in 2000, some others the bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1996 or the first attempt to bring down the World Trade Center towers in 1993.

But America's first deadly encounter with radical Islam came a decade earlier from Hezbollah, the party of God.

The group formed in 1982 following the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Armed and supported by Iran and Syria and given sanctuary in Syrian-occupied eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah earned its legitimacy by attacking Israeli forces and providing desperately needed social services in the absence of a functioning Lebanese government.

And then there was the terrorism, beginning in 1983 with the suicide truck bombing that killed 241 American peacekeepers in their Beirut barracks; followed by the bombings of the American Embassy in Beirut and its annex; the murder of Malcolm Kerr, head of the American University in Beirut; the torture and beheading of CIA station chief William Buckley; and the torture and lynching of Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, who was serving with U.N. peacekeepers.

Hezbollah extended its terrorist reach beyond Lebanon to southern Europe, where it hijacked a TWA flight bound for Rome from Athens, diverting it to Beirut, where terrorists beat to death Navy diver Robert Stethem, a passenger; to Spain, where a bomb attack on a restaurant near the U.S. air base at Torrejon killed 18 servicemen; and to Argentina, where bombings of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center took more than 100 lives.

Hezbollah's primary raison d'être, the defeat of occupation forces — the Israeli ones, not the Syrian ones with longer tenure — evaporated in 2000 when Israel completed its military withdrawal from Lebanon.

With the national uprising that has followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hezbollah's remaining claims to legitimacy are in jeopardy.

The potential withdrawal of Syria's 15,000 troops and their accompanying intelligence apparatus would remove Hezbollah's protectorate.

Parliamentary elections later this spring hold the potential for competent, autonomous leadership to take power in Lebanon for the first time in three decades. An effective Lebanese government would assume many of the educational, medical and charitable services that have earned Hezbollah a loyal following. A sovereign one could not tolerate on its soil Hezbollah's private army.

The pro-Syrian demonstrations Hezbollah has orchestrated to counter the independence rallies lay bare its incongruous political threads. Christian, Sunni and Druse Lebanese seeking independence and sovereignty may reasonably question the intentions of their Shiite countrymen bearing signs that ironically read "No to foreign interference," by which they mean the United States and France should not interfere with Syria's continued occupation.

Hezbollah presently holds 12 of 128 seats in the Lebanese Parliament. Shiites account for about 40 percent of the Lebanese population. With its legitimacy threatened and elections looming, how can Hezbollah reassert itself politically?

By doing what it does best — terrorism. The only way for Hezbollah to salvage its position is by reigniting the confessional warfare that enabled its ascension or by drawing Lebanon into conflict with Israel or the United States.

Like a wild animal, Hezbollah is most dangerous when it feels cornered. And like a wild animal, it will respond with its most basic instinct: to murder without discretion.

 

[waltky]

Hezbollah muckin' things up in Lebanon...

Hezbollah at the center of Lebanon’s current crisis
November 13,`17 — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is at the center of the recent crisis that has gripped Lebanon and rattled a region already rife with conflict.

When Saudi-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri declared his resignation in a surprise announcement from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, he blamed Hezbollah for imposing itself on the country and doing the bidding of its main backer, Iran, in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. The one-time local Shiite guerrilla army that rallied Lebanon’s Shiites and battled Israel — even earning admiration from the region’s Sunnis— has turned into a powerful, well-armed group caught up in the Iran-Saudi rivalry that is shaping the Middle East. Saudi Arabia singled Hezbollah out, accusing it of declaring war on the kingdom, just as the U.S. ratcheted up its pressure on Iran and imposed new sanctions on Hezbollah, which it considers a terrorist group. Here is a look at the 35-year old militant group, its sources of power and regional role.

BEGINNINGS and LEADERS

Hezbollah was formed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982 to fight Israel’s invasion of Beirut. Under the leadership of Hassan Nasrallah, who took over in 1992 after his predecessor, Abbas Mussawi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the group moved from seeking to implement an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon to focusing on fighting Israel and integration into Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics. Nasrallah, now 57, has played a key role in ending a feud among Shiites, focusing attention toward fighting Israel and later expanding the group’s regional reach.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, center, escorted by his bodyguards, waves to a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters during a rally denouncing an anti-Islam film that has provoked a week of unrest in Muslim countries worldwide, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. Nasrallah, who took over the militant group in 1992, has focused on integration into Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics, fighting Israel and expanding the group’s regional reach.​

WARS WITH ISRAEL

Hezbollah became the main militant group opposing Israel and the buffer zone it established in southern Lebanon in 1985. In 1996, Israel launched an offensive to end the guerrilla attacks, striking Lebanese power stations and killing more than 100 Lebanese civilians sheltering in a U.N. base. A year later, 12 Israeli soldiers were killed in a commando raid in the south. Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 was hailed as a victory for Hezbollah. In the same year, Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers and a businessman in cross border raids, and later negotiated a swap in 2004, releasing hundreds of prisoners and fighters. Then in 2006, Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, sparking a 34-day war that killed 159 Israelis and more than 1,000 Lebanese. A U.N.-brokered cease-fire brought thousands of international peacekeeping troops to police the Israeli-Lebanese border.

HEZBOLLAH AT HOME

Hezbollah’s popularity at home didn’t only stem from its opposition to Israel. With a weak Lebanese state, the Iranian-sponsored group, like most other sects, provided a vast array of social services for its supporters, through education, health and social networks. But as the militant group sought more executive and legislative powers following Israel’s 2000 withdrawal, it worked to funnel some of its support through state institutions to reach the broader public. Another turning point came in 2008, when heavily armed Hezbollah fighters seized control of vast parts of Beirut, flexing its power domestically for the first time. The show of force followed attempts by Lebanon’s Western-backed government to curb the militants’ influence by dismantling its telecommunication network. Hezbollah has been the most powerful player in Lebanon’s politics ever since. Saudi Arabia and Iran, which backed opposite sides inside Lebanon, ended a two-year deadlock over electing a president by tacitly approving a power-sharing deal that effectively enshrined Hezbollah’s new powerful role. With that, Hariri, a Sunni, headed a unity government and Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, became president.

REGIONAL FOOTPRINT

 

[Bleipriester]

Hezbollah defended Lebanon against ISIS when gov’t, army failed to fight them: Lebanese FM

At the center of the crisis: Hezbollah liberated Lebanon from ISIS

"Furthermore, Bassel slammed Hariri’s attack on Hezbollah, claiming that if it wasn’t for the latter, Lebanon would not have defeated ISIS.

“Hezbollah defended Lebanon against ISIS terrorist when the government and army failed to do so,” Bassel added."

Hezbollah defended Lebanon against ISIS when gov't, army failed to fight them: Lebanese FM