Hizballah does not “represent a substantive majority”
Posted by editor on 20 February 2010 at 6:17 pm UTC
Hizballah’s deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem again reiterated Friday that Hizballah “will not be affected by some objections on its armed resistance,” according to the Lebanese news source, Naharnet.
“We won’t be shaken by the objections of some sides on the resistance [Hizballah] because we represent a substantive majority among the Lebanese people,” said Qassem, adding, “The resistance is a demand and, God willing, it will go on.”
A Muslim cleric and trained chemist, who advocates the use of suicide bombers as a legitimate means of waging war, Qassem writes in his book, Hizballah: The Story from Within, “The weapon of martyrdom is the main and pivotal weapon on which we can rely.”
Qassem also told CBS News in 2002, “We don’t call them suicide operations because suicide comes out of a loss of hope in life, while martyrdom is a love of life.”
Qassem’s reiteration Friday is nothing new, nor is it not unlike the rantings of other jihadi leaders. However, it must be understood that Hizballah does not “represent a substantive majority among the Lebanese people.”
Hizballah (which former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says “makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team”) is greatly feared – perhaps by a majority – in Lebanon, as it should be throughout the rest of the world.
But with the war-on-terror focus on fronts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the African and, yes, European continents, Hizballah continues to operate beyond the general public’s scope of understanding.
Why the Lebanon-based Shia terrorist army matters -
1. Hizballah is trained, equipped, and heavily financed (an estimated one-billion dollars annually) by Iran, and the organization is operationally supported by both Iran and Syria. In fact, this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly told Hizballah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah that if a new Israeli-Hizballah war breaks out, Hizballah “should retaliate strong enough to ‘close their case once and for all,’” according to Naharnet.
2. Hizballah is expanding its political base in Lebanon, and the organization is increasing its global reach.
3. The group has “conducted very large, spectacular” terrorist operations worldwide.
4. The group has defiantly refused to surrender its arms in Lebanon as called for under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701.
5. The group has demonstrated time-and-again since its bloody May 2008 attacks against the Lebanese government and civilian population that it has no qualms about overtly killing Lebanese civilians as a means of furthering the organization’s aims.
6. The group has heavily infiltrated the legitimate Lebanese Army – an army which the American taxpayer is supporting with $ millions worth of military aid – while Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman is having friendly phone chats with Ahmadinejad.
7. Since May 2008, Hizballah has wormed its way into position as an official component of the overall Lebanese Defense apparatus.
So, yes, Qassem’s boasting may sound like typical jihadi-leader braggadocio, but Hizballah is hardly typical. And Lebanon is a “front” (for lack of a better word) worth some serious consideration.
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