Over the past year I have written several articles dealing with the war between Israel and Hamas. While that war is still ongoing, a more recent conflict has begun between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. While Hamas and Hezbollah have a shared goal to destroy Israel, they are very different organizations and populated by different people. With the attacks between the two and a possible invasion of southern Lebanon, it is worth explaining the difference between the two groups and giving some background on Hezbollah.
To understand Hezbollah, it is necessary to understand a quick, and I mean very quick, history of Lebanon. Lebanon was created by the French as a safe haven for Christians who lived in a predominately Islamic world. As such, the law required that the head of the Lebanese government be Christian. Over time, as Muslims became the majority, fights broke out between Christians and Muslims as well as between Shia and Sunni Muslims in what became known as the Lebanese Civil War.
Tensions in Lebanon were ratcheted up in 1971 when the Palestinian Liberation Organization, under the control of Fatah moved their headquarters to southern Lebanon. The PLO was organized in 1964 and was considered by Muslims as the legitimate government of Palestine. To put this in American terms, the PLO is the government, but there are parties within the government like the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The largest party, however, is Fatah and so it governs the PLO, and Fatah’s leader, Yasser Arafat, was like the president because his party was in control.
From 1967 to 1971 the PLO operated out of Jordan in its attacks against Israel. When the PLO launched an unsuccessful coup against the Jordanian government in 1971, it was kicked out of Jordan and moved to Lebanon. They continued their attacks on Israel as well as began infiltrating Lebanese politics. The PLO teamed up with Lebanese Muslims, most Sunni, in a growing war with Christians that saw massacres against civilians by both sides. In 1982 Israel had had enough and launched an invasion of southern Lebanon pushing the PLO out which moved its headquarters to Tunis, Tunisia. With the PLO’s expulsion, the Israeli army remained behind, and with Lebanese Christian militias, committed their own acts of brutality with the Sabra and Shatila Massacre where again thousands of civilians were killed, mostly Shia.
This Shia population in southern Lebanon never had much power in the nation— they were third in the government after the Christians and Sunni Muslims. Their feelings of despair from their own countrymen and the Israeli occupation led to the formation of Hezbollah.
It was only a few years before that the Shia nation of Iran overthrew their secular government and set up an Islamic nation led by the Ayatollah Khamenei. Hezbollah was inspired by the Iranian revolution for its new organization. Iran, in turn, was willing to provide any support it could, including arms and training, to this new Shia faction, in hopes of turning the tide against Israel and the other factions in Lebanon.
In 1985 Hezbollah issued a manifesto proclaiming its goals, and placing most of the blame for all atrocities against Muslims at the feet of America mainly because of our support of Israel. Hezbollah’s primary goal was to push Israel out of Lebanon and eventually eliminate the State of Israel. Their second goal was to push out all foreign influence, primarily America out of Lebanon. Finally, they wanted to allow Lebanon to create a new government, but only if it was an Islamic one.
While they supported Lebanon, the manifesto also referred to Khamenei as its leader. Eventually Hezbollah became a state within a state while also participating in Lebanese governmental affairs. Hezbollah then began its campaign of terror, especially with suicide bombings on both the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon and began hijacking planes and taking hostages. Their targets were mostly Israeli and American but also some Sunni Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia. In that same year, 1985, except for a strip in southern Lebanon they used as a buffer between them and Hezbollah, Israel pulled out of Lebanon. Finally, in 2000, Israel completely pulled out of Lebanon—something they may reverse with recent attacks.
The Creation of Hamas In 1993, Bill Clinton’s administration organized secret negotiations between the Arafat, the Palestinian leader who founded the PLO, and Israel. To the shock of everyone, Israel recognized the PLO and granted them selfrule in Gaza. In return, the PLO renounced violence and agreed to work towards a peaceful two-state solution.
The agreement, known as the Oslo Accords, seemed like it could achieve peace, but some Palestinians rejected the deal and formed Hamas, another party under the PLO. Eventually Hamas was able to oust Fatwa and seize control of Gaza, but Fatwa retained control of The West Bank. Fatwa still controls The West Bank today.
While Hezbollah has always been a threat, they have recently stepped up their attacks while Israel is occupied with its war in the south against Hamas. While Hamas and Hezbollah can tolerate each other and work together for a common goal of destroying Israel, they are different. Hamas is made up of Sunni Palestinians who are more in line with al Qaeda and ISIS. They are mostly families of refugees who lost land to Israel during their several wars and are fighting for the right of return. Hezbollah are Shia Lebanese who align more with Iran and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. While Hezbollah was affected by Israel during its occupation of Lebanon, they are not fighting for right of return as much as the elimination of Israel and an Islamic state in Lebanon like Iran.
James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@ gmail. com.
