[Marxism] Hezbollah - NOT Islamist but multi dimensional resistance to occupation

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Op-Ed Contributor - NY Times 
Ground to a Halt 
By ROBERT PAPE
Published: August 3, 2006
Chicago
ISRAEL has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. 
Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power wonât work either. The 
problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that 
they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Hezbollah is principally neither a 
political party nor an Islamist militia. It is a broad movement that evolved in 
reaction to Israelâs invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. At first it consisted 
of a 
small number of Shiites supported by Iran. But as more and more Lebanese came 
to resent Israelâs occupation, Hezbollah â never tight-knit â expanded 
into 
an umbrella organization that tacitly coordinated the resistance operations of 
a loose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims. 
In terms of structure and hierarchy, it is less comparable to, say, a 
religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American 
civil-rights 
movement of the 1960âs. What made its rise so rapid, and will make it 
impossible 
to defeat militarily, was not its international support but the fact that it 
evolved from a reorientation of pre-existing Lebanese social groups.
Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollahâs resistance to Israeli occupation 
can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a 
broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets 
from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks â which included the infamous 
bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 â involved 41 suicide terrorists. 
In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese 
sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies 
of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and 
other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic 
fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the 
Lebanese Communist 
Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female 
high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers â and their heirs today â shared was not a 
religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign 
occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out 
Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon 
and 
elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force. 
Thus the new Israeli land offensive may take ground and destroy weapons, but 
it has little chance of destroying the Hezbollah movement. In fact, in the 
wake of the bombings of civilians, the incursion will probably aid 
Hezbollahâs 
recruiting.
Equally important, Israelâs incursion is also squandering the good will it 
had initially earned from so-called moderate Arab states like Egypt and Saudi 
Arabia. The countries are the court of opinion that matters because, while 
Israel cannot crush Hezbollah, it could achieve a more limited goal: ending 
Hezbollahâs acquisition of more missiles through Syria. 
Given Syriaâs total control of its border with Lebanon, stemming the flow of 
weapons is a job for diplomacy, not force. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, 
Sunni-led nations that want stability in the region, are motivated to stop the 
rise of Hezbollah. Under the right conditions, the United States might be able 
to help assemble an ad hoc coalition of Syriaâs neighbors to entice and bully 
it to prevent Iranian, Chinese or other foreign missiles from entering Lebanon. 
It could also offer to begin talks over the future of the Golan Heights.
But Israel must take the initiative. Unless it calls off the offensive and 
accepts a genuine cease-fire, there are likely to be many, many dead Israelis 
in 
the coming weeks â and a much stronger Hezbollah. 
Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of 
Chicago, is the author of âDying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide 
Terrorism.â
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