LATAKIA, Syria - Hezbollah, a group often
misunderstood by Westerners, is a militant but
also a political group.
The Arabic name
means Party of God. Led by the charismatic Hassan
Nasrallah, the Lebanese Islamist Shi'ite group was
set up in 1982 to resist Israeli occupation of
Lebanon during the brutal civil war. The group
declared a political existence in 1985.
Hezbollah achieved its goal when Israeli
troops withdrew from southern Lebanon on May 25,
2000. The Israeli withdrawal followed sustained
Hezbollah attacks on its troops.
The
political platform of Hezbollah calls for the
destruction of Israel, but the group has
successfully transformed itself from a radical
extremist group into an effective political force
that holds
18% of
the seats in the Lebanese parliament.
The
United States, Britain, Israel and other Western
countries consider Hezbollah a terrorist
organization that they say has received weapons
and also financial and political support from Iran
and Syria. Both these countries deny supplying
arms to Hezbollah.
But both countries
openly support the group politically. Iranian
leaders have produced angry rhetoric in support of
Hezbollah. In Syria, massive demonstrations were
held in Damascus, Latakia and several other cites.
Demonstrations in support of Hezbollah were also
held in cities across many Arab countries.
Throughout most of the Arab and Muslim
worlds, Hezbollah is highly regarded as a
legitimate resistance movement. The group follows
a distinctly Shi'ite Islamist ideology developed
by the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in
Iran, ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In
Lebanon, the group had first hoped to transform
the whole country into a fundamentalist Shi'ite
state. But it has now abandoned that objective for
a more inclusive platform.
About 60% of
the 3.8 million population of Lebanon is Muslim,
most of them Shi'ite. This is where Hezbollah
draws its support. The rest of the population is
almost all Christian. A 15-year civil war between
Muslim and Christian groups ended in 1991.
The Shi'ite movement in Iraq led by
Muqtada al-Sadr is following in the footsteps of
Hezbollah. It has won broad support in Iraq from
millions of impoverished Shi'ites there for
similar reasons.
Hezbollah won the support
of Shi'ite Muslims by providing social services,
health care and welfare when the Lebanese
government failed. Hezbollah runs hospitals, news
services and educational facilities for its
followers in Lebanon. It is behind a large number
of economic and infrastructure projects in the
country.
The Israeli strikes in Lebanon
destroyed Hezbollah's Al-Manar Television station.
But the group continues to broadcast messages from
Nasrallah by other means.
Hezbollah has
refused to integrate its forces into the Lebanese
army despite political pressure. It considers
itself a legitimate resistance movement in Lebanon
that is also important to the entire Middle East
region.
Hezbollah has long accused Israel
of holding many of its members in jail, some for
more than 20 years, and continues to demand their
release. Hezbollah says it will continue to fight
unless its prisoners are released.
Hezbollah became the most powerful
military force in Lebanon after Syria withdrew its
troops last year. It now has a seat in the
Lebanese cabinet.
During the civil war,
which brought Lebanon to its knees, Hezbollah
became infamous for its suicide bombings and
kidnapping of Western hostages, primarily
journalists.
The biggest Hezbollah suicide
attack was the bombing of the barracks of US
marines in Beirut in 1983. The attack killed 241
marines and led then-president Ronald Reagan to
withdraw all US troops from the country.
The group is also widely believed to have
carried out an attack on the US Embassy, killing
63 people, and on the headquarters of the French
multinational forces, killing 58 French troops.
Hezbollah began a substantial political
rise after the assassination of former Lebanese
prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. In
May of that year Hezbollah won its biggest
election victory.
Hezbollah was invited to
join the government last July in the hope that the
move would bring national unity to Lebanon as the
country struggled for stability and peace.
The current fighting between Hezbollah
forces in Lebanon and Israel has left more than
250 Lebanese dead, along with several Israelis.
Both Hezbollah and the government of Israel have
declared open war with one another. International
intervention has been lackluster to say the least,
and the crisis looks set to deepen.
As
through its checkered history, Hezbollah is again
winning praise and support from the Arab and
Muslim world, while it is accused of terrorism by
the West. Hezbollah is about the most prominent
division points at present between the two worlds.
