Who is Hezbollah?

BY A Alabed

Party, social movement or terrorist organization? Opinions differ widely when it comes to this movement. But what should we actually think of it?
Well, it is safe to say that Hezbollah is very hard to catagorize. Even only trying to do so, Hezbollah has to be split in two parts: The political wing which forms part of the Lebanese government and parliament and the strong militay wing which is listed as a terrorist organizaton by EU, USA and GCC (which however consider a terrorist organization Hezbollah as a whole), the Lebanese Resistance Brigades (al-Moukawama al-Lubnaniyya‎), which is believed to be the biggest and most affluent paramilitary organization in the world, overnumbering the Lebanese army with an estimated potential of mobilization of more than 10000 armed men. Despite occupying only twelve of 128 seats of the Lebanese parliament Hezbollah is therefore considered a state-in-the-state, simply due to its colossal armed strength.
Being a product of the Lebanese civil war Hezbollah should have been disarmed years ago in the course of the implemantation of the Taif agreement; however the Lebanese government lacked the courage or simply the will to do so. Officially the Hezbollah military wing now serves solely as a resistance movement against Israel, namely the Shebaa farms and Kafar Shuba hills. However Hezbollah is widelly active in many neigbouring countries, supporting the Bahraini uprising and standing by Syria's Assad regime, which is alongside Iran the most powerful supporter of the militia.

This axis Teheran-Damascus-Hezbollah has a long-lasting history and represents the most powerful counterpoise to US backed Saudi-Arabia, Turkey and Qatar which are among the fiercest adversaries of the movement as they have not only political but also religious differences with the Radical-Shia organization. Gebran Tueni, the late editor of the Lebanese daily an-Nahar referred to Hezbollah as an "Iranian import" and said "they have nothing to do with Arab civilization." Tuení believed that Hezbollah's evolution is cosmetic, concealing a sinister long-term strategy to Islamicize Lebanon and lead it into a ruinous war with Israel. Tueni was killed in a car bomb in 2005, but the plotters have not been identified. An official of the Future Movement part of the March 14th Alliance, warned that Hezbollah has all the characteristics of a terrorist party", and that Hezbollah is moving Lebanon toward the Iranian Islamic system of government.
Hezbollah is seen with disapprove throughout most Arab countries especially since its allignment with Syria's Assad government in the Syrian civil war. Even in Lebanon support for the organization has dropped, as it's seen as the major reason for the ongoing tension between Lebanon and Israel and due to its possible involvement in the assassination of former (March 14th) prime minister Rafiq Hariri. 59% of the entire population sees the organization unfavorably, despite its wide-or reaching social security programmes, and polls are constantly dropping, especially since many Lebanese blame Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into the bloody civil war. Maybe time for dissolving the militia or, better, use its strength to build up special elite military forces, integrated within the Lebanese militray and encompassing all ethnics and religious groups. In the face of the Syrian turmoil and Daesh aggression such powerful forces could be more than valueable.