Hezbollah:  The Wars Within the War

 By

Barbara J. Stock

The history of Israel’s ongoing battles with Islamic terror groups who have used southern Lebanon to attack the Jewish state is long—very long. 

Looking back on the history of Israel, it isn’t hard to understand why the leaders of Israel have little faith in the United Nations.  The Israelis learned long ago that if Israel was to survive, it would be up to the Israeli government and the Israeli people themselves.   

In 1978, the Israelis gave up their occupation of southern Lebanon with the understanding that the United Nations would enforce Resolution 425 and disarm the Palestine Liberation Organization, (PLO) restore order, and return power to the government of Lebanon.  As should have been expected, the force sent by the United Nations, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, (UNIFIL) was incapable of preventing the PLO from re-arming and was helpless to stop the attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon.  

Does this scenario sound familiar?  It is exactly what has led to the present situation between a hostile Islamic force in southern Lebanon and Israel. 

Leading up to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon Israel did what it could without invading, by assisting Major Saad Haddad, the leader of the Christian forces in Lebanon.  Haddad was also fighting the PLO inside Lebanon.  But it was not enough. 

Israel agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Philip Habib who had been sent by President Reagan to stop the constant fighting between the PLO in southern Lebanon and Israel.  Lebanon also agreed to the cease-fire but apparently forgot to tell the PLO, which continued to kill Israeli citizens. 

After the deaths of 30 Israelis, the last being an Israeli soldier who stepped on a land mine planted on Israel soil by the PLO, the fighting and bombing began again. 

To add insult to injury, Islamic terrorists attempted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Great Britain.  

Israeli forces invaded Lebanon and pushed the PLO back to Beirut to stop the constant attacks on Israel.  A force that was only supposed to stay long enough to destroy the PLO ended up occupying southern Lebanon for the next 18 years. 

In that time, the PLO left Lebanon and moved its war with Israel to the Palestinian territory.  The vacuum left behind by this move was filled by a militant group that would become Hezbollah. 

Backed and funded by Iran and Syria, Hezbollah used the time to win the loyalty and admiration of the Shia Muslims who lived mostly in the occupied areas in the south of Lebanon.  Israel once again put its faith in the United Nations to enforce its own resolutions and again the United Nations failed Israel.  When Israel left Lebanese soil in 2000, Hezbollah was credited with a huge victory over Israel, which seemed to withdraw as a beaten army.  Hezbollah became a force to be reckoned with. 

Paralleling all the fighting in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s was the radical upheaval taking place in Iran.  Iran moved from the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the rule of the strict Islamic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  In 1979, Iran became the Islamic state of Iran.  Khomeini ruthlessly purged the country of anyone unwilling to live under the painfully oppressive Sharia law. 

Though not Arab, the Ayatollah Khomeini hated Israel with the same passion that his Muslim Arab brothers did.  If Iran could assist a group made up of Shia Muslims in removing the scourge of the Jews from the Middle East, Iran would do it.  Within Lebanon was such a group and Iran wasted no time in getting assistance to them.   

It was Iran, with the blessing of Syria, that sent millions of dollars to buy the loyalty of the mostly Shia Muslims of southern Lebanon.  It was Iran and Syria who armed Hezbollah with the weapons and rockets to be used to attack Israel.   

It has often been stated by leftists that because al Qaeda is Sunni and Wahabi Muslims, it would never work together with the Shia Muslims.  It should be pointed out that most of Syria is Sunni Muslim and Iran is Shia Muslim, yet they have been working together for years to destroy the Jewish state. 

However, even though different sects of Islam can work together if necessary, there is still a deep and long-standing hatred between them. 

It is this hatred and distrust of Shia Muslims that has pushed the Sunni Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, and Egyptian governments to condemn the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah.  The war between Shia and Sunni Muslim is but one war within this present war. 

It is not love of Israel that pressed three Arab nations to condemn Hezbollah.  It is the encroachment of Shia Muslims on Sunni Muslim land.  The vast majority of Shia Muslims are contained in Iran and Iraq.  The Shia population in Iraq was not a threat until Saddam was removed.  Saddam, being Sunni, killed Shia Muslims by the hundreds of thousands.   

The Shia Muslims in Iran were never a problem until they began pushing into Iraq and began urging the Shia there to exact retribution on the Sunni Muslims for the years of Saddam’s rule.  Of course, what Iran wants is an Islamic theocracy in Iraq just as it has in Iran, with the Shia Muslims in charge.   

Now, in Lebanon, there is the ever-present threat that the Shia Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who trained in both Iraq and Iran, will make an attempt to overthrow the legitimate and elected government of Lebanon.   

So, here is another war within a war.  This war is between a Shia Islamic terrorist leader and the democratically elected and diverse government of Lebanon. 

Has this been Iran’s plan all along?  Lebanon was well on its way to being a pro-American democracy.  This is something the radical Islamic leaders of Iran could not tolerate.   

Despite Iran’s best efforts, the United States has not abandoned the Iraqi people to the Islamic terrorists sent in by Iran to slaughter the Iraqi people and discourage them from forming a democracy.  Election after election took place despite the bombings and executions.  While the struggle continues in Iraq with each passing day, Iran’s dream of controlling Iraq fades.   

So, the radical Shia Muslim theocracy in Iran has put its sights on Lebanon and the Sunni Arab world is not happy about this development.  The entire world is not happy that this same seemingly mad Muslim country demands it has a right to possess nuclear weapons.   

Ultimately, Iran wants to control the entire Middle East.  Today, Iran’s Shia leaders want to kill Jews.  Today, it killed Sunni Muslims in Iraq.  

In the Palestinian territory, the Fatah Party and Hamas have been in open warfare with each other since the Palestinian election. There have been pitched battles on the streets with Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire.  One terrorist group at war with another terrorist group has been amazing to watch.  Hamas has demonstrated to the world that removing a suicide belt and replacing it with a suit does not remove the stain of being a terrorist organization. 

There are wars because of Islamic hatred of the Jews.  There are wars within Islam because of a slight difference of beliefs.  There are wars for power and domination between Islamic terrorists.  There are so many wars within the war.  

There is so much death and destruction because of one “religion”—Islam.