HISTORICALLY REPRESSED, BUT LET'S BLAME THE JEWS:

The killing formula: What is to blame for the growth of Hezbollah? Lebanese-Canadian writer Rawi Hage says it was Israeli bombardments and invasions into Lebanon (RAWI HAGE, 7/21/06, Maclean's)

In Lebanon, Hezbollah are simultaneously respected and feared. They are respected because they were instrumental in ending the Israeli occupation of Lebanon (though they were not the sole resisters to the occupation of the Israelis. Many leftists' forces were also active in the beginning of the resistance movement). Hezbollah are also respected because they never turned their firearms inward, meaning that they never participated in the Lebanese civil war. And they always delivered what they promised, giving them an air of integrity in a region much plagued by corruption and political failure. They are feared because they are a religious party that advocates the dominance of one sect. As a person of non-Muslim background with a secular, social-democratic political affiliation, I wouldn't want to see Hezbollah as the sole ruling party in Lebanon (nor the old Reform party in Canada, for that matter).

But who is to blame for the birth of Hezbollah, if there is anyone to be blamed? In 1978, Israel bombed and invaded the south of Lebanon (on many occasions in retaliation for Palestinian operations), and in the process uprooted olive trees and demolished the houses and infrastructure of the Shiite community who predominantly lived in the south. Historically, in Lebanon, the Shiite community was the most underprivileged. Lebanon's sectarian/feudal society left each community to fend for its own. The Shiites of Lebanon were predominantly the farmers and the poor, with the highest illiteracy rate among all religious communities. With every bombardment and Israeli invasion, more farmers from that community moved to the city as they found it impossible to cultivate their land. Not to mention that Israel did reorient some of the rivers in the area, cutting off irrigation sources to the local farmers.

In 1996, the intensive bombardments by the Israelis drove half a million Shiite refugees to the periphery of the capital, Beirut, to add more refugees to one of the most overpopulated places in Lebanon, what is now known as al-Dahia (pronounced Dahieh in the Lebanese slang). Excluded from receiving social assistance from the government or outside aid, the area became a recruiting ground for religious fundamentalists, who offered social assistance, jobs, schools and hospitals. Hence, the birth of Hezbollah. Ever since, Hezbollah has evolved to become a legitimate party in the Lebanese government, having seats in the parliament, its own TV station (watched by Israelis and Arabs alike) and, as we lately have seen, a well-organized armed force.

One should stress and examine the motives that drove Hezbollah to such a unilateral confrontation with Israel. By doing so, the Party of God had achieved an unprecedented coup d'état on the Lebanese state, taking it by surprise and in the process imposing itself as an independent force that, like most religious fundamentalist parties, in the West and East alike, give a priority and allegiance to God over the nation-state.

Nation-states are never important to those who don't control them, which is why Shi'ism so resembles Judaism and Christianity.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2006 2:31 PM