It is important to note how the decisions of Israel’s policy makers to go to war in Lebanon in 1982, literally created what is now, decades of resentment among Shiite people toward the Zionist state.

Tim King

Hezbollah’s origin is directly related to the defense of Palestinian people who were forced out of their own country during the creation of Israel in 1947/48. The group came into existence to protect the Palestinian refugees of Lebanon after the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to pull out of the area in the early 1980’s. With Palestinian civilian refugees facing immense threat and pressure from both Israel’s military and the Lebanese Christian militias, Hezbollah was born under the fires of oppression and occupation. The group came to existence in a vacuum created by the exit of the PLO, and they are a highly accomplished military, political and humanitarian party in Lebanon with full participation in government policy.

As Israel and Lebanon waged war against those refugees in ’82 they indirectly forged the existence of Hezbollah, just as the US and western forces occupying Afghanistan and Iraq created The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). I can not think of two groups that are more different or ideologically opposed than Hezbollah and ISIL, but I appreciate that each was formed because military forces from another country were sent to their part of the world to reign fire and murder, it is as simple as that. Israel had no business occupying and attacking Lebanon and the US has no legitimate right to invade or occupy Afghanistan or Iraq, let alone kill over a million human beings in Iraq alone.

Occupation never makes a positive difference. Every time the US occupies a nation, US politicians send the military to plead for help from the local populace; they ask people to stand against the enemies of the United States in their own countries. These include the Montanyards or Dega people in Vietnam, a battered culture that faces eternal oppression for siding with the US, the Kurds who turned against the government of Saddam Hussein and were left holding the bag when the Americans pulled out and failed to support them, and of course the “Sons of Iraq” and other Sunni’s in Iraq who sided with the American war machine, only to face terrible retribution when the Americans packed up and left, and God knows the Afghans keep paying the price for working with foreign invaders, be they Russian or American.

But I digress. As Israel and the United States edge closer to military conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, it is important to examine and evaluate the history that brought political, ethnic and religious tensions to the boiling point. And don’t think this isn’t happening, 2,500 US Marines are in Israel at the time of this writing, and in an interview with the Jerusalem Post,  U.S. Third Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Richard Clark  confirmed for Israeli readers that U.S. ground troops are now “prepared to die for the Jewish state.” Clark said, “We are ready to commit to the defense of Israel and anytime we get involved in a kinetic fight there is always the risk that there will be casualties. But we accept that, as in every conflict we train for and enter, there is always that possibility.”

Myths about Hezbollah

Whether people can accept it or not, it is true that American mainstream media performs at the discretion of Israeli censors. The word “terrorist” precedes any statement about Hezbollah or Hamas on network television and that’s fine, Israel did pressure the United States and other agencies to list the groups as such when Hez and Hamas refused to pander to Israel’s occupational policies. But in reality, both are resistance organizations created to protect oppressed Palestinian people. In truth, the groups have killed just a tiny fraction of the number of people the US and Israel have ground into smithereens over the last five years alone.

In their own words, Hezbollah, which translates to “party of God” is a Shi’a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. “Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics.”

It is important to note how the decisions of Israel’s policy makers to go to war in Lebanon in 1982, literally created what is now, decades of resentment among Shiite people toward the Zionist state. Stanford University’s “Mapping Militant Organizations” project, described the period leading to the creation of Hezbollah, which was brought about strictly due to the belligerence of Israel’s occupational military forces, as two particular incidents would galvanize a popular Shiite opposition to Israeli occupation:

“While the Sabra and Shatla refugee camps were under the control of the occupying Israeli forces, a Christian Lebanese militia linked to the Phalanges Party entered the camps and killed at least 800 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, including many women, children, and elderly men. An internal Israeli investigation found that the Israeli Defense Force was complicit in allowing the militia into the camps and took no action to prevent the massacre, and used mortar and aircraft to illuminate the area for the Phalangists. In 1983, another incident sparked outrage and prompted many to join the Shiite resistance. An Israeli patrol accidentally crashed through a Shiite festival called Ashura, and when observers began throwing stones, the patrol responded with gunshots and grenades, killing several in the crowd. Following these incidents and amidst growing anti-Israeli sentiment, several Shiite leaders of Amal led by Husain al-Musawi broke away from the group to form a new organization espousing a more militant response to the occupation, which they named Islamic Amal.”

Amal gained great momentum, joining with other revolutionary Shiite groups in Lebanon including the Muslim Student Union and the Dawa Party of Lebanon. Soon the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) joined forces, helping train and equip Amal, which ultimately came to be known as Hezbollah. Syria’s government also provided sponsorship which proved crucial and significant in the group’s formation. While Hezbollah is generally regarded as having formed in 1982, the group’s manifesto was not published until 1985, hence the founding date remains unclear.

American Hostilities and Money

Iran was an ally of the United States and Britain until the country took control of its own oil during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and also kidnapped a large number of Americans which became known as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Fortunately, all of the Americans returned home alive, which is much more than the US can say.

On September 1980, the US urged Saddam Hussein to invade Iran in what came to be known as the Iran/Iraq War, a bloody conflict that would claim more than one million lives, lasting until August 1988. Of course the Americans funded and provided military weapons for both Iran and Iraq. It was nothing but a US sponsored and organized war of attrition between the Arabs and the Persians. No wonder people hate the American government so much.Then on July 3, 1988, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down by the US Navy, 290 passengers and crew were aboard the airliner, all perished when a US missile blew the plane to pieces, something the US never apologized for.

Iran provides funding for Hezbollah and while much of the nation exists in poverty, Iranian citizens are increasingly speaking out and expressing anger over their country’s financial and military support of the militant group. Many Iranians recall Hezbollah’s sometimes brutal treatment of demonstrators in years past. It’s also true that part of Iran’s economic struggles are greatly impacted by US sanctions.

While he will not disclose the amount of funding Hezbollah receives from Iran, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was ridiculed by Arab friendly media earlier this year after it was revealed that his salary from Iran is only $1300 a month. What the Arab media misses by a mile is the humility in a top political leader receiving such a low wage. The US president would likely find it funny as well, but then Hassan Nasrallah made it clear with the following statement that he’s no fan of Donald Trump: “When an idiot resides in the White House, this is the beginning of the release for the oppressed in the world.”

The bottom line is that Hezbollah has a distinct purpose and place in the world. Iran’s arch nemesis, Saudi Arabia, which openly beheads and even crucifies people in public to this day, is an American ally, and the backer of ISIL or ISIS, along with US taxpayers and Israel, while the ideologies of these Daesch “rebels” stands in direct conflict with everything Americans believe they stand for. These Takfiri militants have been trying for years to take down the moderate Syrian government of Bashar al Assad and replace it with a Sunni government which would be like going back into the stone ages. Assad’s government protected Christians and Jews as well as Muslims, that has all changed since the Syrian civil war. This is what the American taxpayers are paying for, it is absolutely insane. The goals of Iran and Hezbollah by all accounts, are peace and a safe future for Palestine, and God knows they have their work cut out for them.

The goals of ISIL and radical Wahhabi and Salafist hardliners from Saudi Arabia and it’s neighboring countries is much closer to, “Kill the infidels,” Iran and Hezbollah are more like, “Give Palestine back and keep the western military out.”