Hezbollah

I got a call the other night from a listener, who wanted to know, and I quote:

"Why does everybody hate the Israelis so much?"

I went through the litany of reasons both sides in the Arab-Jew conflict hate each other, and how things are hardly going to get solved quickly or easily given how long things have gone on, and then went on to explain why Hezbollah is as militant as it is. The gist of my rant was on righteous religious indignation, and how such an approach to life is as destructive as it gets.

Both sides have been sticking to their guns so ferociously that diplomacy is almost laughable, and all attempts have failed. The occasional glimpse of hope is quickly snuffed out by those extremists whose position of power demands constant conflict and fear amongst its constituency.

Hezbollah is organized as such a terror unit, and the fact that the elections in Lebanon lead some to believe that Hezbollah is now a morally legitimate organization is equivalent to saying that a Lebanese terrorist gang got one of its own elected into office - that neither legitimizes their continued existence, nor does it mean they will be any more likely to work for peace.

I'm afraid it means that Hezbollah now feels more emboldened to do what they did: attack Israel out of righteous religious indignation. Let's hope Israel is extremely effective in wiping the members of Hezbollah off the face of the earth.

What's currently being written about Hezbollah around the web...

Stay Up to Date via Email

Enter your email address here to subscribe to your daily Hezbollah update:

Daily news and offers, breaking news and more, from The David Lawrence Show.

Best Sellers at Amazon.com...

Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics)
By: Augustus Richard Norton
List Price: $12.95
Amazon Price: $7.50

Product Description

Most policymakers in the United States and Israel have it wrong: Hezbollah isn't a simple terrorist organization--nor is it likely to disappear any time soon. Following Israel's war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, the Shi'i group--a hybrid of militia, political party, and social services and public works provider--remains very popular in the Middle East. After Lebanon tottered close to disaster, Hezbollah and its allies gained renewed political power in Beirut. The most lucid, informed, and balanced analysis of the group yet written, Hezbollah is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East. A new afterword brings readers up to date on Hezbollah's most recent actions.

Hizbullah (Hezbollah): The Story from Within
By: Naim Qassem
List Price: $29.95
Amazon Price: $14.00

Product Description

A unique insider's view of one of the most important political parties in the Middle East. The mandate of Hizbullah ("Party of God") is laid out here for the first time in English by a high-ranking insider.

Hezbollah
By: Hala Jaber
List Price: $41.50
Amazon Price: $28.75

Product Description
Revered by many fundamentalist Shiites and reviled by the West, Hezbollah is considered to be a paradigm for other militant groups wishing to make the promise of Islamic Revolution a reality. Journalist Hala Jaber was granted exclusive and unparalleled access to the inner circle of this organization, and she exposes not only its tactics, but also its history, ideology, and culture.

Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah
By:
List Price: $19.95
Amazon Price: $10.74

Product Description
The first English translation of the statements of the leader of Lebanon's "Party of God", in a comprehensive edition.

In July 2006, with the commencement of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the longstanding secretary general of the "Party of God," burst into the spotlight of the Western media?cast, almost inevitably, as an even more dangerous incarnation of Osama bin Laden. Yet well before the start of the war, Nasrallah had acquired an almost unrivalled credibility in the Arab world among admirers and detractors alike, a profile that soared in May 2000 when he became the first leader to push Israel out of Arab land. Voice of Hezbollah brings to an English-speaking readership for the first time Nasrallah's speeches and interviews: the intricate, deeply populist arguments and promises that he has made from the mid-1980s to the present day. Newly translated from the Arabic, and with an introduction by one of the foremost writers on Lebanon, Voice of Hezbollah is critical to the understanding of the man and the movement.

Tea with Hezbollah: Our Journey to Sitting Down with Our Enemies
By: Ted Dekker
List Price: $22.99
Amazon Price: $15.63

Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism
By: Judith Palmer Harik
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $13.20

Product Description
Since the assassination of Rafik Hariri in early 2005, Lebanese politics has been plunged into a new era. Will Syrian withdrawal send the country back into civil war? How will the seismic political shifts underway affect the stability of the region? At the center of the turmoil stands one player that will affect the outcome more than any other: Hezbollah. Hezbollah, or the "Party of God", is one of the most powerful and the most misunderstood forces in Middle Eastern politics. In this new edition of her acclaimed book, Judith Harik explains what it actually believes in, what its real relationship with other regional players is, and in what direction it is heading.

Hezbollah arose amidst the chaos of the Lebanese civil war to resist the Israeli invasion of 1982. Based amongst the poor Shi'ite population, it takes its inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of Ayatollah Khomeini. Today Hezbollah's military wing controls the major fault-line of the Middle East: the Lebanese-Israeli border. To the US, Hezbollah represents one of the most dangerous terrorist networks in the world. In Lebanon, it is a democratically elected party within the Lebanese parliament, backed not just by Shi'ites, but by Christians and secular Muslims. To the wider Arab world, Hezbollah is a legend: the only Arab fighting force to have defeated Israel, forcing its withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000.

Harik draws on her considerable first-hand experience of the movement to tell the story of how a clandestine, radical militia transformed itself into a seemingly moderate and mainstream player in the Lebanese political arena. She looks at key questions: why do so many non-Shiites support them? Who controls the movement--the Mullahs, or the grassroots? Harik's penetrating analysis helps us make sense of fast-moving events as the future of Lebanon--and the region--hangs in the balance.

Lessons of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War
By: Anthony H. Cordesman
List Price: $21.95
Amazon Price: $21.51

Product Description
The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War marked the third time in less than a quarter century that Israel conducted major military actions in Lebanon. As this study points out, however, it also marked the third time that Israel miscalculated the strategic consequences of intervention in Lebanon. This book assesses all aspects of Israel's goals in the war, from crippling the Iranian influence in Lebanon, to ending Hezbollah's status as a "state within a state" to liberating two captured Israeli soldiers. The tactics used to achieve those goals, explain the authors, did not serve a plausible grand strategy, and the result was to generate forces in the Arab world that would thrust Israel into a broader, four-cornered struggle with radical Arab elements. The authors discuss major lessons regarding the conduct of the war, its tactical and technological aspects, and the lessons of the Law of Unintended Consequences Israel's grand strategy and strategic assumptions were fundamentally flawed, showing that conventional forces can be vulnerable to asymmetric attacks and can create political problems that offset many of their military advantages. With asymmetric wars ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States and its allies need to learn the lessons of the Israeli-Hezbollah War as quickly as they can and act accordingly. This volume provides a timely assessment of flawed war planning, overreliance on high-technology conventional warfare, and a strategy that underestimated the strength of the enemy.

Hezbollah: The Story of the Party of God: From Revolution to Institutionaliza...
By: Eitan Azani
List Price: $89.95
Amazon Price: $59.11

Product Description

The Hezbollah movement is a product of the environment in which it operates and of the interactions as well as of the reciprocal relations between the players surrounding it. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite movement with an affinity and a deep correlation with the Iranian system, yet it?s foundation stemmed from the development of social and political procedures in the Lebanese system, in general, and among the Shia sect, in particular.

As the movement expanded and became institutionalized, it turned more sensitive to the procedures and influences of the internal and the regional systems. On the regional and the international fields, it used a controlled policy which integrating between guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks while taking into account ?profit and loss? considerations. The 2008 model of Hezbollah is one of a pragmatic terrorist organization that is far more dangerous than that of the revolutionary Hezbollah of the eighties. In fact, the movement hasn't abandoned its goals, but changed their pace of application.

The Israel-Hezbollah War
By: Alan M. Dershowitz
List Price: $0.49
Amazon Price: $0.49

Product Description
The 2006 war in Lebanon, started by the Hezbollah kidnapping by two Israeli soldiers, is the first major battle of a third world war between terrorist armies and democracies. It employs a new tactic in the history of warfare: the terrorists hide among civilians and target civilians with long-distance anti-personal rockets, challenging the democracies to either do nothing, thereby allowing the terrorists to continue to target the democracies' civilians, or to fight back and inevitably kill some enemy civilians. This situation is a true test of the UN's capacity as world peacekeepers.

34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon
By: Amos Harel
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $10.17

Product Description
The border abduction of two Israeli soldiers on the morning of July 12, 2006, set in motion what would eventually become known as the Second Lebanon War. After 34 days and more than 5,000 casualties--including those injured--a ceasefire was signed, and the geopolitics of the region were changed immeasurably. A #1 bestseller in Israel for months, 34 Days brilliantly reconstructs the progression of the war, from the soldiers' abduction through the hasty Israeli decision for an agressive response; the fateful discussions within the Cabinet and among senior Israeli command; and the heavy fighting in south Lebanon. It also delves into the raging diplomatic battles that took place in Paris, Washington, and New York, which would eventually end the war.

• Terrorism and Insurgency - Philippine Eduardo in anti-Hezbollah raid! (p2pnet...
Philippine Eduardo in anti-Hezbollah raid! (p2pnet.net) p2pnet news view | MPAA News:- I thought I was done for the day. But I couldn t let this pass. Here is one for Tom to comment on says Aussie Terrorists in a Reader s Write, going on Aussie Movie pirates funding terrorists http://www.smh.com.au/national/movie-pirates-funding-terrorists-20090627-d0gm.html?page=-1 You are either with us or against us - G bush on the fight on [...] Abuses against Muslims in US (Arab News) The day US • So, what about Omar Shaban?
Wow. Rarely have I seen such universal and widespread vitriol condemnation than what I have seen expressed online towards the former vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation who celebrated Canada Day by posting "F---Canada Day" on his personal Facebook page and calling Canada a "genocidal state? because of its treatment of its aboriginal people. Of course, I find these comments offensive and, I would suggest, misleading. Omar Shaban?s real issues have to do with Canada?s close relations • Video Surfaces of Alleged Lebanese Hezbollah Members Attacking Iranians
On July 2, Iranians began using a new protest technique called ?political traffic,? where they all drove in an attempt to cause traffic jams between 6 and 8 PM in Tehran. Photos can be seen by clicking ?read more.? In an attempt to prevent a large uprising on July 9, the regime?s forced searched every single dorm at Sistan and Baluchistan University and cancelled the summer classes that were to begin July 6 so the schools can be shut down. Students say that very, very few people are being give • united against nuclear iran.
For continuing coverage follow UANI on Twitter and join our Facebook group. AP reported that "President Barack Obama says he is 'not reconciled' to the idea of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon within a year. The president told The Associated Press in an interview that U.S. government planning is running in precisely the opposite direction. He said a nuclear-armed Iran would likely trigger an arms race in the already volatile Mideast and said that would be 'a recipe for potential disaster.' Obam • Combat Camera in Seine-Saint-Denis
The IDF did it on the Philadelphi Route when clearing tunnel entrances. Hezbollah did it in Southern Lebanon on ambushes. Now the French police are doing it in Seine-Saint-Denis, a rough suburb of Paris: equipping forward-deployed units with mini-cameras. Mobile phones with digital cameras have become ubiquitous. Not only in far-away combat zones, but also in trouble spots at home. Until now, those at the receiving end of law-enforcement had the pictures and they had YouTube. So the police a

Related items from eBay...

Previously: Why is my hard drive almost filled up? >>
Next: Floyd Landis >>

Was this helpful? Buy David a Starbucks® Mocha via PayPal!

David loves his Starbucks® mocha. Skim, no whip, please. To easily and painlessly send David a selection from Starbucks® and paying via PayPal, just click on the button below your choice: