Prospects of the Future After The Great Accomplishment
Author: Cairo-Al-Raya- Jamal Khalil
Source: Qatari Newspaper Al-Raya 2/06/2000
The Zionist Entity...Hizbullah`s Perpetual Enemy
Martyrdom Ideology in Strife Defeats up-to-date Weaponry of ""Israel""
"Israel`s" humiliating withdrawal from south Lebanon in the middle of the night placed Lebanese Hizbullah in the forefront amid large political parties in the world as international, Arab, and even "Israeli" media reserved plentiful time for the party talking about its establishment, manner of combat, its role in Lebanon`s political and social life...and its future: will it demilitarize and head towards peaceful activity or will it embrace a differing view?
Why not? Hizbullah forced "Israel", which boasts its strength and insolence, to withdraw from Arab land unconditionally for the first time in its history, becoming the only one capable of transforming "Israeli" life into intolerable torment.
The Ideology and the Early Development
To comprehend the reasons leading to this victory, a glance at the circumstances in which Hizbullah emerged is required. The party`s first bullet went off in the heart of Beirut in 1982 at the enemy officers and soldiers who had reached Baabda Palace and set up a military intelligence command at the Alexander Hotel in eastern Beirut; hence, the spark of martyrdom burst forth. So on November 11th 1982, martyr Ahmad Kassir-driving a car full of explosives-blew himself up demolishing the enemy`s army command in the city of Tyre - fortress of ""Israeli"" troops at the time- causing 300 casualties (some dead, others wounded)...consequently forcing the enemy to draw back to the Lebanese south.
This daring courage and bravery to face death obliged Ariel Sharon to pronounce the freedom fighters invincible.
Three years were necessary time for the organizational structure of the resistance to be formed. So in 1985, five seniors of Shiite Islamic movement gathered to announce the birth of a new party amid a heap of 269 Lebanese parties and factions- some public, others secret- that had formed by 1982. Then the party named its first secretary general, Sayyed Abbas Al-Mousawi, who later became a martyr in 1992; Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the current secretary general, succeeded Sheikh Subhi al-Tufaili; Sayyed Ibrahim Amin heads the Loyalty to Resistance block in parliament while sheikh Mohammad Yezbek is a current member of the Consultation Council.
The first founding-statement declared that the military wing targets the occupation and doesn't wade into Lebanese sectarian or fractional disagreements. The time came when Hizbullah became the backbone of all national forces via generating common grounds between them, attempting to unify their lines. This defined its goal and impelled it to conduct commando operations against militants from agent Lahd`s militia or the "Israeli" army causing more than 2700 casualties (dead and wounded) till they withdrew from Lebanon. Meanwhile there were 1200 martyrs for Hizbullah.
It`s not a secret to any observer that the party`s resistance doesn`t originate from emptiness. It rather possesses intellectual methodical means looking into Islam with a vision exceeding the boundaries of commitment to religion and faith as rituals of worship, seeing that Islam represents the Muslim`s identity and belonging. The party strives to conceive Islamic Ideology with a comprehensive view based on Monotheism, distinct from the east or west, to reawaken all Muslims.
From here, the party assigns its true role to rear a new revolutionary Muslim possessing willpower. The party`s intellectual literature indicates the importance of believing in the oneness of God, bearing in mind that Islamic Monotheism renders man steadfast against all sorts of polytheism and other powers which attempt to enslave him as a result of his commitment to and belief in God, therefore capable of developing his independent personality, defending his liberty with his life, implementing his will above which is God`s will alone. The party also sees that it`s necessary to induce a revolutionary Islam without copying from the experiences of other countries but sustained by Quranic conception only - The 34th verse of (SIGNS) SPELLED OUT (sura in the Quran) "Nor can goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate!" Consequently, goodness is Islamic behavior.
Hizbullah`s 5th general congress on July 28th 1998 was a true political and organizational rendition of the advanced level the party had reached in Lebanon and the Arab world because it asserted that the resistance -in all its military and political dimensions and the development of its tactical and strategic performance- is the firm point around which the axis of Hizbullah`s concerns moves. The Lebanese Brigades for the Resistance of "Israeli" Occupation was an important addition that opened the way for communicating with the diverse Lebanese sects and politics without touching the basic foundations which it deems above politics... the relationships with Iran and Syria, and the position from the occupation and the peace process. The fifth general congress illustrated the party`s basic guidelines as follows:
1- Collective decisions and centralized administration: This was interpreted through maintaining the leadership`s consultation on the one hand, while reinforcing and expanding administrative authority of the secretariat-general on the other hand. This targeted securing a dynamic administration capable of escorting contingencies and daily political activities without encountering organizational complications.
2- Extending the organizational apparatus and placing it in one unified structure frame in order to provide highest level of coordination of movements for the overall process.
3- Devoting the political division to politics through its complete dedication to political activity in order to enhance professionalism and to provide sufficient analysis and an agenda for all political issues.
4- Promoting institutions and divisions concerned with interacting with the various sectors of society. This was reflected structurally through more stability in the administrative identity of party`s civil institutions. Hizbullah has a unique situation in elections as it doesn`t form lists of candidates in opposition of other lists nor does it work in internal blocs; nevertheless, nomination -always individual not marked with particular agendas or propositions- originates from the party`s literature and established issues which support Hizbullah. What reinforces this trend is the absence of competition for leadership as the current secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was elected unanimously, the matter which echoed stability in the party and a burst forward in its struggling (Jihadi) developmental, social, and cultural levels. Thus, the organizational and electoral formation is assumed based on these three dimensions and their interaction.
The Resistance`s Idealism (Guerilla Warfare)
Hizbullah managed to discover the geo-strategic environment in the sphere of the military operations against the "Israeli" occupation and settled on guerilla warfare. So, if the overall occupied area was 850 km2 protected by an army of 20 thousand agents and "Israelis" armed with the most up-to-date lethal weapons were to be considered, then guerilla warfare would be the ultimate means for a 10 km2 deep area from northern Palestine to south Lebanon where Christians, Sunnis and Shiites reside and where occupation overlaps with everyday life.
The assumed strategy for a nation confronted with a strong enemy occupying its land or part of its land is the indirect strategy which many wrote about like Liddel Hart, Chi Guevara, Mao Tse Tung, and Fon Gibbe. It prompts the avoidance of any comprehensive military confrontation with a strong enemy military-wise, whereas the only way out is to shatter the enemy`s spirits and internal front, subjugating it to the resistance`s will through exhausting its economy and people with the least possible loss for the resistance. In his guerilla war against Japan, Mao Zedong resorted to an important strategic principle: turning to offensive and swift operations because this war requires rapid termination of battles through constant offensive raids.
Hizbullah`s public depth was the main incentive for the success of the resistance and the development of the earlier experiences of hit-and-run guerilla warfare. Chi Guevara conceived this tactic by rejecting the sudden virulent attack followed by complete recession after which the survivors from the assault are made to believe that things are back to normal and BANG; a strike hits them from another direction side.
Despite the various forms used by Hizbullah, the concept of swift attacks is the common factor which it took from Guevara in the strategy of transformation into the substitute plans and safeguarding from hostile actions. This strategy specifies that bases be established to secure the process of organizational structuring and escaping enemy strikes, and this is executed through decreasing losses, moving to exchange zones, and applying precautionary deployment schemes.
Hizbullah took advantage of certain methods in guerilla warfare and used them to develop the nation`s ability to defend itself.
In this frame of fight till death, Hizbullah had no room for compromises nor could it balance between the enemy and the popular forces. Among the chief aspects of Hizbullah`s development is reaching a grandiose strategy based on deciding to vanquish the occupation without paying attention to how realistic that goal was on the short run as the choice of goal under occupation would mean bargaining and losing advantages whereas on the long run it would gain those advantages; in the end, the latter did succeed.
This may be a development of the Vietnamese experience which gave equal importance in struggle between politics and guerilla warfare. Thus, Hizbullah targeted the enemy`s spirits and economic resources to achieve an offensive strategy which wore out the army`s organizational powers and "Israeli" public opinion obliging it to surrender. Moreover, Hizbullah didn`t abide by the previous Marxist experiences with guerilla warfare going further by developing that concept of warfare and its tactics to suit the kind of land, objectives, and enemy weaponry. Thus, it began its martyrdom attacks at convoys, posts, and stations of the occupying army and "Israel`s" militia South Lebanese Army(SLA). This evoked the "Israelis" to adopt measures prohibiting the inhabitants of the occupied bordering area from traveling alone in vehicles, requiring that at least two persons. In response, Hizbullah resorted to planting ambushes as its small groups infiltrated into the occupied zone and attacked enemy patrols and checkpoints.
As a result, the Zionists modified their tactics by reducing the regular forces in the security zone, redeploying them as to reduce the volume of their geographic deployment, and entrusted the security operations to the special paratroop force since paratroopers are better trained than the army- infantry- for guerilla warfare. This impelled Hizbullah to upgrade his armament using Russian-made AT3 SAGER and Korean-made AT4 SPIGOT missiles which are wire guided missiles with a range greater than 2km inducing great damages to the "Israelis".
The "Israelis" reacted through: entrusting a greater role to the air force escorting the convoys; reducing the number of military stationary posts; planting nightly ambushes intended for the resistance. The party`s reaction was adequate and immediate. It resorted to focused, intensified bombardment of the posts with mortars and Katyusha missiles, transferring fear into the posts where "Israeli" troops were looking forward to a sense of safety promptly following the end of a patrol where they were haunted with fearful anticipation of the explosion of landmines or anti-tank missiles hitting their vehicles.
Hizbullah`s combatants also got their hands on night vision systems adding, with that, a new surprise factor- night attacks against "Israelis" and escaping from ambushes planted by "Israeli" paratroopers.
In addition, the enemy occupation attempted to terrify the southerners and create a gap between the party`s fighters and the inhabitants by revengefully bombarding residential areas on the opposite side of the border zone. Subsequently, Hizbullah turned to counter-strikes on Jewish colonies in northern "Israel" with Katyusha missiles. As a reaction, "Israel" endorsed the April Understanding which stipulates that civilians on both sides will be unharmed. This generated great faith within the resistance fighters and improved their relationship with the southerners securing the latter`s social, educational, and human needs, furthermore protecting them from "Israeli" damage.
Particularity of Lebanese Brigades
Following the Qana massacre in 1996 and the martyrdom of the son of Hizbullah`s secretary general on 15th Sept. 1997, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and Arabs poured forward to present their congratulations and blessings to the party. The leadership, then, saw that the consensus should be employed in directions other than the Islamic resistance, resulting in the emergence of the Lebanese Resistance Brigades in order to fight "Israel" without necessarily adopting the party`s beliefs. Announcing the founding of the Brigades came after a qualitative resistance operation on the Rafi` Mountain renewing national embrace of the idea as a military group with the objective of fighting occupation and liberating land through several important aspects:
1- The Lebanese Resistance Brigades brought the resistance out of the Shiite sect into its national open arms to attain Hizbullah`s particularity and not transforming it into an impediment hindering non-Shiite`s participation.
2- This step resulted in embarrassment of certain forces so as to halt their hesitation and get deep inside the battlefield.
3- The founding of the Brigades was an addition of a new institution to national fusion establishments while Lebanese-youth`s aspiration lead to the discovery and expansion of common grounds between all sects.
The year after witnessed the succession of martyrdom operations. In Martyr Salah Ghandour`s operation, he and his brothers infiltrated into the occupied belt in a car carrying 400 kg of explosives, 4 wheels, and a battery. The resistance fighters divided into two groups; the first works on maintenance and preparing the bomb while the other spread about the place and to protect their brothers and to clash with the enemy in case they became exposed. Martyr Salah wore a SLA uniform. And when the designated enemy convoy arrived at the west brigade headquarters, he started off with his car past a Lahd checkpoint, waving as if he were truly a member, swooping down on the enemy vehicles with his car, transforming the headquarters into a ball of fire. Truth has it that martyrs are an elite tested in many missions yet they choose in their own free will to do martyr operations via an administrative process tended by Hizbullah`s human affairs division. And when the green light is given, the martyr-to-be undergoes several training sessions in martial arts, Special Forces, explosives, and living in difficult conditions.
Hizbullah`s Institutional Infrastructure
Hizbullah possesses an effective media structure which is advanced technologically and media-mission wise. It`s Al-Manar TV which is expected to broadcast on satellites upcoming June, Al-Nour (Light) and Sawt Al-Mustadafiin (voice of the oppressed) radio stations and Al-Intiqad weekly. Those supervising this structure own a developed political vision towards Lebanese and Arab issues. This media parallels with the so-called military media which films the resistance`s combats broadcasting it on TV, the matter which reflects positively on the Lebanese public opinion, and negatively on the "Israeli`s". Hizbullah has a website as well. All these politically and culturally controlled instruments are supervised by well-trained cadres.
There are several institutions providing various services placed in six categories.
First: Al-Shahid Foundation which manages the families of the resistance`s martyrs and captives including civilian martyrs. It spreads over most Lebanese districts and is concerned with educating the martyrs` children in harmony with their families. Around 2000 orphans, among whom 150 are vocational and university students, are under the institution`s care in an attempt to compensate for the loss of the family`s main supporter. Children are privileged with private schooling and advocate teachers. There are scouts, athletic and entertainment activities. The wife obtains a home and a support committee as a part of a program to consolidate motherhood.
Second: Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital which lies on the edge of the southern over-populated and chronic-neglected suburb of Beirut. The hospital has 200 beds based on current repairs. It quickly developed from a small field hospital caring for casualties of the civil war 10 years ago into a modern establishment serving about 200 thousand patients yearly ranging between examinations and surgical operations. It employs more than 100 physicians of various specializations. Dr. Ahmad Nasrallah, the hospital`s director general notes that the patients who belong to various groups pay a nominal fees since the general character is charity while all martyr and captive families are medicated free of charge, meanwhile the remaining rates are to cover expenses, nothing more.
Third: Shahed Schools which lies opposite the Hospital and is specialized for the children of martyrs and captives.
Fourth: Al-Hay`a Al-Sohiyah (Health Society) Institution. This institution provides basic health care such as guidance and prevention, arranging courses for remote areas, and organizing lectures in villages via a health link which is usually a female volunteer. The institutions take advantage of this dispersion to correlate with government organizations in specified programs such as vaccination campaigns against polio from which, in the year 1998 alone, 50 thousand citizens benefited. Add to that, health surveys of public schools conducted detailed examinations of each student. The organization began its activity in the 65 villages that parallel the occupied border zone as it resulted in producing useful registers for all residents about their blood groups the matter which facilitated their treatment upon "Israeli" strikes. Dr. Abbas Hasaballah, director general of the institution declares that it has 21 infirmary clinics, 9 large health centers, 13 mobile clinics in 45 villages in the Bekaa and 25 villages in the south, and that it graduated 360 volunteers in 1999, while 119 nurses joined an enlarged civil defense division, as well as Al-Janoub (South) Hospital in Nabatieh and Dar Al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) Hospital in Bekaa both of which received about 200 thousand patients last year. Al-Hay`a Al-Sohiyah presents health relief from which 23 thousand Lebanese benefited a sum exceeding $1 million divided among medication and surgical operations at no cost coordinated with the Christian Youth Association and National Relief in Baalbeck.
What About the Future?
The Islamic Resistance, represented by Hizbullah, asserted the struggle-importance of martyrdom in the cause of God and their country. It also revived the Arab nation`s credibility of revolutionary act based on faith in Jihad against the enemy. Therefore, it didn`t point its guns at fellow Lebanese Christians, Druze, or Sunnis, nor did it intervene in sectarianism, but recognized the Lebanese government and claimed the priority of state sovereignty in the liberated areas of the bordering zone. This was elucidated after the withdrawal in several indications:
1. Protecting the Christian villages in the south -Rmeish, Ain Ebil, and Alam Alshaab- and visiting the various Churches to reassure the displaced of their safety and to renounce sectarianism.
2. Turning over all Shiite and Christian SLA agents to authorities refusing to retaliate their treason.
3. Not requesting a share in authority or the change of sectarian distribution shares in Lebanon till after the parliamentary elections.
4. Refusing to disarm or reduce the mode of resistance till the Shebaa Farms are liberated from occupation in harmony with the government, while stressing that political investment of the former against "Israel" only.
These indications shed more light on the nature governing Hizbullah`s future stances. Sayed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a celebrated official Shiite authority, believes that the motto Islamic Republic in Lebanon may be a cultural emblem signifying that Islam represents an international political state yet it is difficult to find the opportunity to apply it since some people may come up and talk about an Islamic majority predominating a Christian minority...
Finally, the truth is that the internal situation and the nature of balances in Lebanon emphasizes Hizbullah`s integration in government systems yet maintaining distinctiveness through fixing new conceptions for sectarian and doctrinal coexistence based on firm grounds produced by devising new forms of resistance and coexistence.
Source: Qatari Newspaper Al-Raya 2/06/2000
The Zionist Entity...Hizbullah`s Perpetual Enemy
Martyrdom Ideology in Strife Defeats up-to-date Weaponry of ""Israel""
"Israel`s" humiliating withdrawal from south Lebanon in the middle of the night placed Lebanese Hizbullah in the forefront amid large political parties in the world as international, Arab, and even "Israeli" media reserved plentiful time for the party talking about its establishment, manner of combat, its role in Lebanon`s political and social life...and its future: will it demilitarize and head towards peaceful activity or will it embrace a differing view?
Why not? Hizbullah forced "Israel", which boasts its strength and insolence, to withdraw from Arab land unconditionally for the first time in its history, becoming the only one capable of transforming "Israeli" life into intolerable torment.
The Ideology and the Early Development
To comprehend the reasons leading to this victory, a glance at the circumstances in which Hizbullah emerged is required. The party`s first bullet went off in the heart of Beirut in 1982 at the enemy officers and soldiers who had reached Baabda Palace and set up a military intelligence command at the Alexander Hotel in eastern Beirut; hence, the spark of martyrdom burst forth. So on November 11th 1982, martyr Ahmad Kassir-driving a car full of explosives-blew himself up demolishing the enemy`s army command in the city of Tyre - fortress of ""Israeli"" troops at the time- causing 300 casualties (some dead, others wounded)...consequently forcing the enemy to draw back to the Lebanese south.
This daring courage and bravery to face death obliged Ariel Sharon to pronounce the freedom fighters invincible.
Three years were necessary time for the organizational structure of the resistance to be formed. So in 1985, five seniors of Shiite Islamic movement gathered to announce the birth of a new party amid a heap of 269 Lebanese parties and factions- some public, others secret- that had formed by 1982. Then the party named its first secretary general, Sayyed Abbas Al-Mousawi, who later became a martyr in 1992; Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the current secretary general, succeeded Sheikh Subhi al-Tufaili; Sayyed Ibrahim Amin heads the Loyalty to Resistance block in parliament while sheikh Mohammad Yezbek is a current member of the Consultation Council.
The first founding-statement declared that the military wing targets the occupation and doesn't wade into Lebanese sectarian or fractional disagreements. The time came when Hizbullah became the backbone of all national forces via generating common grounds between them, attempting to unify their lines. This defined its goal and impelled it to conduct commando operations against militants from agent Lahd`s militia or the "Israeli" army causing more than 2700 casualties (dead and wounded) till they withdrew from Lebanon. Meanwhile there were 1200 martyrs for Hizbullah.
It`s not a secret to any observer that the party`s resistance doesn`t originate from emptiness. It rather possesses intellectual methodical means looking into Islam with a vision exceeding the boundaries of commitment to religion and faith as rituals of worship, seeing that Islam represents the Muslim`s identity and belonging. The party strives to conceive Islamic Ideology with a comprehensive view based on Monotheism, distinct from the east or west, to reawaken all Muslims.
From here, the party assigns its true role to rear a new revolutionary Muslim possessing willpower. The party`s intellectual literature indicates the importance of believing in the oneness of God, bearing in mind that Islamic Monotheism renders man steadfast against all sorts of polytheism and other powers which attempt to enslave him as a result of his commitment to and belief in God, therefore capable of developing his independent personality, defending his liberty with his life, implementing his will above which is God`s will alone. The party also sees that it`s necessary to induce a revolutionary Islam without copying from the experiences of other countries but sustained by Quranic conception only - The 34th verse of (SIGNS) SPELLED OUT (sura in the Quran) "Nor can goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate!" Consequently, goodness is Islamic behavior.
Hizbullah`s 5th general congress on July 28th 1998 was a true political and organizational rendition of the advanced level the party had reached in Lebanon and the Arab world because it asserted that the resistance -in all its military and political dimensions and the development of its tactical and strategic performance- is the firm point around which the axis of Hizbullah`s concerns moves. The Lebanese Brigades for the Resistance of "Israeli" Occupation was an important addition that opened the way for communicating with the diverse Lebanese sects and politics without touching the basic foundations which it deems above politics... the relationships with Iran and Syria, and the position from the occupation and the peace process. The fifth general congress illustrated the party`s basic guidelines as follows:
1- Collective decisions and centralized administration: This was interpreted through maintaining the leadership`s consultation on the one hand, while reinforcing and expanding administrative authority of the secretariat-general on the other hand. This targeted securing a dynamic administration capable of escorting contingencies and daily political activities without encountering organizational complications.
2- Extending the organizational apparatus and placing it in one unified structure frame in order to provide highest level of coordination of movements for the overall process.
3- Devoting the political division to politics through its complete dedication to political activity in order to enhance professionalism and to provide sufficient analysis and an agenda for all political issues.
4- Promoting institutions and divisions concerned with interacting with the various sectors of society. This was reflected structurally through more stability in the administrative identity of party`s civil institutions. Hizbullah has a unique situation in elections as it doesn`t form lists of candidates in opposition of other lists nor does it work in internal blocs; nevertheless, nomination -always individual not marked with particular agendas or propositions- originates from the party`s literature and established issues which support Hizbullah. What reinforces this trend is the absence of competition for leadership as the current secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was elected unanimously, the matter which echoed stability in the party and a burst forward in its struggling (Jihadi) developmental, social, and cultural levels. Thus, the organizational and electoral formation is assumed based on these three dimensions and their interaction.
The Resistance`s Idealism (Guerilla Warfare)
Hizbullah managed to discover the geo-strategic environment in the sphere of the military operations against the "Israeli" occupation and settled on guerilla warfare. So, if the overall occupied area was 850 km2 protected by an army of 20 thousand agents and "Israelis" armed with the most up-to-date lethal weapons were to be considered, then guerilla warfare would be the ultimate means for a 10 km2 deep area from northern Palestine to south Lebanon where Christians, Sunnis and Shiites reside and where occupation overlaps with everyday life.
The assumed strategy for a nation confronted with a strong enemy occupying its land or part of its land is the indirect strategy which many wrote about like Liddel Hart, Chi Guevara, Mao Tse Tung, and Fon Gibbe. It prompts the avoidance of any comprehensive military confrontation with a strong enemy military-wise, whereas the only way out is to shatter the enemy`s spirits and internal front, subjugating it to the resistance`s will through exhausting its economy and people with the least possible loss for the resistance. In his guerilla war against Japan, Mao Zedong resorted to an important strategic principle: turning to offensive and swift operations because this war requires rapid termination of battles through constant offensive raids.
Hizbullah`s public depth was the main incentive for the success of the resistance and the development of the earlier experiences of hit-and-run guerilla warfare. Chi Guevara conceived this tactic by rejecting the sudden virulent attack followed by complete recession after which the survivors from the assault are made to believe that things are back to normal and BANG; a strike hits them from another direction side.
Despite the various forms used by Hizbullah, the concept of swift attacks is the common factor which it took from Guevara in the strategy of transformation into the substitute plans and safeguarding from hostile actions. This strategy specifies that bases be established to secure the process of organizational structuring and escaping enemy strikes, and this is executed through decreasing losses, moving to exchange zones, and applying precautionary deployment schemes.
Hizbullah took advantage of certain methods in guerilla warfare and used them to develop the nation`s ability to defend itself.
In this frame of fight till death, Hizbullah had no room for compromises nor could it balance between the enemy and the popular forces. Among the chief aspects of Hizbullah`s development is reaching a grandiose strategy based on deciding to vanquish the occupation without paying attention to how realistic that goal was on the short run as the choice of goal under occupation would mean bargaining and losing advantages whereas on the long run it would gain those advantages; in the end, the latter did succeed.
This may be a development of the Vietnamese experience which gave equal importance in struggle between politics and guerilla warfare. Thus, Hizbullah targeted the enemy`s spirits and economic resources to achieve an offensive strategy which wore out the army`s organizational powers and "Israeli" public opinion obliging it to surrender. Moreover, Hizbullah didn`t abide by the previous Marxist experiences with guerilla warfare going further by developing that concept of warfare and its tactics to suit the kind of land, objectives, and enemy weaponry. Thus, it began its martyrdom attacks at convoys, posts, and stations of the occupying army and "Israel`s" militia South Lebanese Army(SLA). This evoked the "Israelis" to adopt measures prohibiting the inhabitants of the occupied bordering area from traveling alone in vehicles, requiring that at least two persons. In response, Hizbullah resorted to planting ambushes as its small groups infiltrated into the occupied zone and attacked enemy patrols and checkpoints.
As a result, the Zionists modified their tactics by reducing the regular forces in the security zone, redeploying them as to reduce the volume of their geographic deployment, and entrusted the security operations to the special paratroop force since paratroopers are better trained than the army- infantry- for guerilla warfare. This impelled Hizbullah to upgrade his armament using Russian-made AT3 SAGER and Korean-made AT4 SPIGOT missiles which are wire guided missiles with a range greater than 2km inducing great damages to the "Israelis".
The "Israelis" reacted through: entrusting a greater role to the air force escorting the convoys; reducing the number of military stationary posts; planting nightly ambushes intended for the resistance. The party`s reaction was adequate and immediate. It resorted to focused, intensified bombardment of the posts with mortars and Katyusha missiles, transferring fear into the posts where "Israeli" troops were looking forward to a sense of safety promptly following the end of a patrol where they were haunted with fearful anticipation of the explosion of landmines or anti-tank missiles hitting their vehicles.
Hizbullah`s combatants also got their hands on night vision systems adding, with that, a new surprise factor- night attacks against "Israelis" and escaping from ambushes planted by "Israeli" paratroopers.
In addition, the enemy occupation attempted to terrify the southerners and create a gap between the party`s fighters and the inhabitants by revengefully bombarding residential areas on the opposite side of the border zone. Subsequently, Hizbullah turned to counter-strikes on Jewish colonies in northern "Israel" with Katyusha missiles. As a reaction, "Israel" endorsed the April Understanding which stipulates that civilians on both sides will be unharmed. This generated great faith within the resistance fighters and improved their relationship with the southerners securing the latter`s social, educational, and human needs, furthermore protecting them from "Israeli" damage.
Particularity of Lebanese Brigades
Following the Qana massacre in 1996 and the martyrdom of the son of Hizbullah`s secretary general on 15th Sept. 1997, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and Arabs poured forward to present their congratulations and blessings to the party. The leadership, then, saw that the consensus should be employed in directions other than the Islamic resistance, resulting in the emergence of the Lebanese Resistance Brigades in order to fight "Israel" without necessarily adopting the party`s beliefs. Announcing the founding of the Brigades came after a qualitative resistance operation on the Rafi` Mountain renewing national embrace of the idea as a military group with the objective of fighting occupation and liberating land through several important aspects:
1- The Lebanese Resistance Brigades brought the resistance out of the Shiite sect into its national open arms to attain Hizbullah`s particularity and not transforming it into an impediment hindering non-Shiite`s participation.
2- This step resulted in embarrassment of certain forces so as to halt their hesitation and get deep inside the battlefield.
3- The founding of the Brigades was an addition of a new institution to national fusion establishments while Lebanese-youth`s aspiration lead to the discovery and expansion of common grounds between all sects.
The year after witnessed the succession of martyrdom operations. In Martyr Salah Ghandour`s operation, he and his brothers infiltrated into the occupied belt in a car carrying 400 kg of explosives, 4 wheels, and a battery. The resistance fighters divided into two groups; the first works on maintenance and preparing the bomb while the other spread about the place and to protect their brothers and to clash with the enemy in case they became exposed. Martyr Salah wore a SLA uniform. And when the designated enemy convoy arrived at the west brigade headquarters, he started off with his car past a Lahd checkpoint, waving as if he were truly a member, swooping down on the enemy vehicles with his car, transforming the headquarters into a ball of fire. Truth has it that martyrs are an elite tested in many missions yet they choose in their own free will to do martyr operations via an administrative process tended by Hizbullah`s human affairs division. And when the green light is given, the martyr-to-be undergoes several training sessions in martial arts, Special Forces, explosives, and living in difficult conditions.
Hizbullah`s Institutional Infrastructure
Hizbullah possesses an effective media structure which is advanced technologically and media-mission wise. It`s Al-Manar TV which is expected to broadcast on satellites upcoming June, Al-Nour (Light) and Sawt Al-Mustadafiin (voice of the oppressed) radio stations and Al-Intiqad weekly. Those supervising this structure own a developed political vision towards Lebanese and Arab issues. This media parallels with the so-called military media which films the resistance`s combats broadcasting it on TV, the matter which reflects positively on the Lebanese public opinion, and negatively on the "Israeli`s". Hizbullah has a website as well. All these politically and culturally controlled instruments are supervised by well-trained cadres.
There are several institutions providing various services placed in six categories.
First: Al-Shahid Foundation which manages the families of the resistance`s martyrs and captives including civilian martyrs. It spreads over most Lebanese districts and is concerned with educating the martyrs` children in harmony with their families. Around 2000 orphans, among whom 150 are vocational and university students, are under the institution`s care in an attempt to compensate for the loss of the family`s main supporter. Children are privileged with private schooling and advocate teachers. There are scouts, athletic and entertainment activities. The wife obtains a home and a support committee as a part of a program to consolidate motherhood.
Second: Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital which lies on the edge of the southern over-populated and chronic-neglected suburb of Beirut. The hospital has 200 beds based on current repairs. It quickly developed from a small field hospital caring for casualties of the civil war 10 years ago into a modern establishment serving about 200 thousand patients yearly ranging between examinations and surgical operations. It employs more than 100 physicians of various specializations. Dr. Ahmad Nasrallah, the hospital`s director general notes that the patients who belong to various groups pay a nominal fees since the general character is charity while all martyr and captive families are medicated free of charge, meanwhile the remaining rates are to cover expenses, nothing more.
Third: Shahed Schools which lies opposite the Hospital and is specialized for the children of martyrs and captives.
Fourth: Al-Hay`a Al-Sohiyah (Health Society) Institution. This institution provides basic health care such as guidance and prevention, arranging courses for remote areas, and organizing lectures in villages via a health link which is usually a female volunteer. The institutions take advantage of this dispersion to correlate with government organizations in specified programs such as vaccination campaigns against polio from which, in the year 1998 alone, 50 thousand citizens benefited. Add to that, health surveys of public schools conducted detailed examinations of each student. The organization began its activity in the 65 villages that parallel the occupied border zone as it resulted in producing useful registers for all residents about their blood groups the matter which facilitated their treatment upon "Israeli" strikes. Dr. Abbas Hasaballah, director general of the institution declares that it has 21 infirmary clinics, 9 large health centers, 13 mobile clinics in 45 villages in the Bekaa and 25 villages in the south, and that it graduated 360 volunteers in 1999, while 119 nurses joined an enlarged civil defense division, as well as Al-Janoub (South) Hospital in Nabatieh and Dar Al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) Hospital in Bekaa both of which received about 200 thousand patients last year. Al-Hay`a Al-Sohiyah presents health relief from which 23 thousand Lebanese benefited a sum exceeding $1 million divided among medication and surgical operations at no cost coordinated with the Christian Youth Association and National Relief in Baalbeck.
What About the Future?
The Islamic Resistance, represented by Hizbullah, asserted the struggle-importance of martyrdom in the cause of God and their country. It also revived the Arab nation`s credibility of revolutionary act based on faith in Jihad against the enemy. Therefore, it didn`t point its guns at fellow Lebanese Christians, Druze, or Sunnis, nor did it intervene in sectarianism, but recognized the Lebanese government and claimed the priority of state sovereignty in the liberated areas of the bordering zone. This was elucidated after the withdrawal in several indications:
1. Protecting the Christian villages in the south -Rmeish, Ain Ebil, and Alam Alshaab- and visiting the various Churches to reassure the displaced of their safety and to renounce sectarianism.
2. Turning over all Shiite and Christian SLA agents to authorities refusing to retaliate their treason.
3. Not requesting a share in authority or the change of sectarian distribution shares in Lebanon till after the parliamentary elections.
4. Refusing to disarm or reduce the mode of resistance till the Shebaa Farms are liberated from occupation in harmony with the government, while stressing that political investment of the former against "Israel" only.
These indications shed more light on the nature governing Hizbullah`s future stances. Sayed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a celebrated official Shiite authority, believes that the motto Islamic Republic in Lebanon may be a cultural emblem signifying that Islam represents an international political state yet it is difficult to find the opportunity to apply it since some people may come up and talk about an Islamic majority predominating a Christian minority...
Finally, the truth is that the internal situation and the nature of balances in Lebanon emphasizes Hizbullah`s integration in government systems yet maintaining distinctiveness through fixing new conceptions for sectarian and doctrinal coexistence based on firm grounds produced by devising new forms of resistance and coexistence.
Memoirs of a Disappointed Collaborator
11 months ago
