So, the UN has passed a resolution to end the fighting in Lebanon. Ehud Olmert has accepted it, but the Israeli cabinet still must sign on.
I’ve been reading up on Hezbollah, and they’re a scary bunch.
Hezbollah was formed in 1982, following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Fundamentally, they oppose the existence of Israel. They were formed by Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. It’s that which makes me doubt any “moderate” intentions of the group.
They were supposedly the first organization to use suicide bombing. Since then, there have been groups who’ve adopted that tactic (e.g. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al-Qaeda). Like most Middle Eastern Islamic organizations, they’re opposed to the Zionist movement–the desire for Jews to return to their homeland, and they wish to see the “disappearance” of Israel.
Hezbollah participates in the Parliament of Lebanon. It is a rather prominent party in that parliament, having 14/128 seats. No political party in their parliament has ever won more than 12.5 percent of the seats, so Hezbollah has a pretty loud voice.
Hezbollah, by nature, has great ties to Iran–given that it was Khomeini himself who formed the group. It seems likely that Iran was using it as an extension of themselves to spread their Islamic revolution all throughout the Middle East and the world.
It reminds me a good bit of the mob but, where the mob’s aspirations to a great extent is wealth, theirs are aspirations of the Islamic state and, perhaps consequentially, wealth and certainly power. It’s always about the gold 😛
The UN sees them as a militia, and has called for their disarmament and disbanding (UN Resolution 1559). It was passed in 2004 and, since then, has really seen no progress. In fact, Hezbollah has gained political strength in Lebanon since.
I think this is going to be a long battle. Hezbollah is deeply implanted in Lebanese society, and has a rather loud say. They reportedly had over 10,000 rockets–much of which has been depleted with their attacks on Israel. I really don’t think they built up that stockpile to assure peace. Heaven forbid they ever got nuclear weapons.
In fact, that’s another reason that Iran’s enrichment program is scary. The tie between Hezbollah and Iran could make for an extremely dicey situation for Israel and ourselves–since they seem to claim that everything Israel does is our fault.
Is there any doubt that this is WWIII?