Hezbollah – The Political Manifesto
Hezbollah – The Political Manifesto
1430 AH / 2009 AD
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah the Lord of all creation, and peace be upon the last of all prophets, our master Muhammad, upon his pure household, his worthy companions, and on all divine prophets and messengers.
God our Lord has said in his Glorious Book: “And those who strive in Our Cause, We will certainly guide them to Our Paths: for verily Allah is with those who do right”. {Al’Ankabut: 69}
And the Almighty also said: “O ye who believe do your duty to Allah, seek the means of approach unto Him and strive with might and main in His cause: that ye may prosper.” {Al-Mai’da: 35}
Contents
Foreword
I. Chapter 1 – Hegemony and Mobilization
I.1. The World and Western-American Hegemony
I.2. Our Region and the American Project
II. Chapter 2 – Lebanon
II.1. Homeland
II.2. The Resistance
II.3. The State and the Political System
II.4. Lebanon and Palestinian-Lebanese Relations
II.5. Lebanon and Arab Relations
II.6. Lebanon and Islamic Relations
II.7. Lebanon and International Relations
III. Chapter 3 – Palestine and the Settlement Negotiations
III.1. The Palestinian Cause and the Zionist Entity
III.2. Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Al-Aqsa Mosque
III.3. The Palestinian Resistance
III.4. Settlement Negotiations
Epilogue
Foreword
The purpose of this manifesto is to enunciate Hezbollah’s political vision. It contains the stances and viewpoints that we advocate, as well as the ambitions, hopes and concerns that we cling to. It is, first and foremost, a product of what we have experienced firsthand in the realm of pioneering endeavors and primacy of sacrifice.
In the midst of an extraordinary political phase rife with change, it is no longer possible to approach these transformations without taking note of the special status that our resistance has come to occupy, or of that ensemble of accomplishments that our march has realized. It is necessary to place these transformations in the context of a comparison between two diametrically opposed paths, and whatever lies between them in the form of growing inverse proportionality:
1- The path of resistance and dissent in its ascent, which banks on military victories, political successes, the consolidation of the resistance model at the popular and political levels, and steadfastness in political stances and positions despite the scale of direct targeting and the magnitude of challenges. This path has tilted the balances of power in the regional equation in favor of the resistance and its supporters.
2- The path of US – “Israeli” authoritarianism and Arrogance, with its various dimensions, alliances and direct as well as indirect extensions. This path has been witnessing military setbacks or defeats and political fiascos which demonstrated successive failures for US strategies and designs one after the other. All of this has led to a state of confusion, retreat and inability to dictate the course of developments and events in our Arab and Islamic world.
These givens integrate within a broader international scene, which, in turn, contributes to revealing the US dilemma and the retreat of unipolar hegemony in favor of some form of pluralism whose features have yet to take their final form.
Crashes in the US and global financial markets have only served to deepen the predicament experienced by the world Arrogant order. So too does the plunge of the US economy into a state of chaos and deficit which manifests that the structural crisis of the Arrogant capitalist model has reached its apex.
We can therefore say that we are amidst historical transformations that portend a retreat of the United States of America as a hegemonic power, the disintegration of the hegemonic unipolar world order, and the commencement of the Zionist entity’s accelerated historical decline.
Resistance movements are at the heart of such transformations. They emerge as a fundamental strategic given on this international scene. This came in the wake of the central role played by these movements in creating or inspiring those parts of these changes which relate to our region.
The resistance in Lebanon, including our Islamic resistance, has pioneered the confrontation against hegemony and occupation more than two and a half decades ago. The resistance held fast to this option at a time that seemed like an inauguration of a Pax Americana which some have attempted to present as an End of History. In light of the prevailing balances of power at the time, some regarded the option of resistance as an illusion, a form of political recklessness or an aberration that contrasts with the imperatives of rationalism and realism.
In spite of this, the resistance pressed on with its Jihadist march without a shadow of a doubt of the rightfulness of its cause or of its own ability to create victory through ceaseless faith and confidence in the Almighty God, its affiliation to the nation as a whole, its commitment to Lebanon’s national interests, its trust in its own people, and upholding the human values of righteousness, justice and freedom.
Throughout its long Jihadist path and illustrious victories – starting with rolling back the “Israeli” occupation from Beirut and Mount Lebanon to its flight from Sidon, Tyre and Nabatiyeh, all the way down to the July 1993 aggression, the April 1996 aggression, the liberation in May 2000 and the July 2006 war – the Resistance has laid down the foundations of its credibility and model before crafting its victories. The resistance has amassed the development phases of its project from a force of liberation to a force of parity and confrontation, to a force of deterrence and defense, in addition to its domestic political role as an influential pillar in the making of a capable and impartial state.
In tandem with this, the Resistance was destined to develop its political and human status. It therefore ascended from being a national Lebanese value to becoming a shining Arab and Islamic value as well.
Today, the Resistance has become an international and human value whose model is a source of inspiration and whose achievements are built upon in the experiences and literature of all those seeking freedom and independence across the world.
In spite of its recognition of these promising changes, and in spite of the fact that it sees the enemy lurching between the inadequacy of its war strategy and the inability to impose compromises in accordance with its own conditions, Hezbollah does not underestimate the magnitude of impending challenges and risks. It by no means underrates the ruggedness of the path of confrontation or the scale of sacrifices necessitated by the path of resistance, reclaiming the rights and contributing to mobilizing the nation. On the other hand, the Party now makes its choices with higher lucidity, possesses stronger resolve in its will and has more trust in its God, in itself and in its people.
In this context, Hezbollah shall outline the main contours which constitute an ideational-political framework for its views and standpoints towards the challenges that lie ahead.
I. Chapter 1 – Hegemony and Mobilization
I.1. First: The World and Western-American Hegemony
Following World War II, the United States became the conduit for the central and prime hegemonic project. Due to its efforts, this project witnessed considerable development in historically unprecedented mechanisms of authoritarianism and subjugation. To this end, it benefitted from a composite outcome of multifaceted achievements at various scientific, cultural, epistemological, technological, economic and military levels, and backed by a political-economic agenda that sees the world as nothing but open markets governed its special rules.
The most dangerous aspect of the Western, and particularly American, hegemonic logic is the fundamental belief that it owns the world, and that it has a right to hegemony out of sheer superiority in more than one field. As such, when combined with the capitalist economic project, the expansionist Western – especially American – strategy has taken on a global feature whose rapacity and greed have no limits.
Control by the savage forces of capitalism is represented primarily by international monopolistic networks of transnational, even trans-continental, companies, and various international institutions, especially financial ones, backed by a militarily superior force. Such control has led to further fundamental contradictions and conflicts not the least of which today are conflicts across identities, cultures and civilizational patterns, in addition to conflicts between the haves and have-nots.
Savage capitalism has transformed globalization into a vehicle for spreading divisions, sowing the seeds of discord, demolishing identities and the imposition of the most perilous kinds of cultural, civilizational, economic and social alienation.
Globalization reached its most dangerous limits with its transformation, at the hands of the conduits of the Western hegemonic project, into a sort of military globalization. We witnessed most of its manifestations in the Middle East, starting from Afghanistan to Iraq to Palestine and Lebanon, who received its share of this military globalization through a full-scale aggression at the hands of “Israel” in July 2006.
The American project of hegemony and domination has never reached levels as dangerous as it recently did, especially since the last decade of the 20th century till now. It followed an ascending course that took the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union as a starting point, for it figured in the American calculus as a historical opportunity for unilateralism in leading the hegemonic project globally under the rubric of historical responsibility and a congruence of interests between the world and America. The upshot of this is campaigning for hegemony as being in the interest of other
countries and peoples rather than a purely American interest.
Such a course reached its apex when the neo-conservative trend managed to take hold of the reins of the George W. Bush Administration. The neo-conservative trend expressed its distinctive views through the “Project for the New American Century” manifesto.
It was neither strange nor surprising that this manifesto insisted mostly on rebuilding American capabilities, thus reflecting a new strategic vision for US national security. It became crystal clear that this vision is based on building military capabilities not only as a deterrent force but also as a proactive interventionist force, be that for undertaking “preventive” operations through the staging of pre-emptive strikes or for remedial purposes by dealing with crises after they occur.
In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the Bush Administration found a window of opportunity to exercise the greatest possible influence and sway through the implementation of its strategic vision for unilateral hegemony over the world under the slogan of the “Global War on Terror.” This administration initiated the following attempts which were initially considered successful:
1- The maximum militarization of its relations and foreign policies.
2- Avoiding dependence on multilateral frameworks; the unilateral style of strategic decision-making; and coordination when necessary, and with reliable allies.
3- The speedy resolution of the war in Afghanistan in order to devote itself to the subsequent, and more important, step in the hegemonic project, namely: the domination of Iraq, which was considered the main fulcrum for the establishment of a New Middle East tailored to the specifications of a post-September 11 world. This Administration had no qualms about
resorting to all sorts of cover-ups, deception and outright lies to justify its wars, especially the War on Iraq, and against any countries, movements, forces and personalities that resist its neo-colonialist project. In this context, this Administration went about establishing a correspondence between the thesis of “terrorism” and the thesis of “resistance” in order to strip the Resistance of its human and legal legitimacy, and, in turn, to justify the waging of all forms of war against it. This comes in the course of eliminating the last bastions of defense that peoples and countries use to uphold their right to live in freedom, dignity and pride, as well as their right to enjoy undiminished sovereignty, to develop their own experiments, and to assume their positions and roles in the march of human history on both the civilizational and cultural levels.
The “terrorism” label has turned into an American pretext for hegemony through the instruments of: witch-hunts, arbitrary arrest and detention, the lack of the most basic prerequisites of fair trial, as we have seen in the Guantanamo detention centers; through direct interference in the sovereignty of states and the transformation of sovereignty into a registered trademark used for the purposes of the arbitrary criminalization of, and the taking of punitive measures against, entire peoples; all the way down to arrogating to itself an absolute right to wage destructive and annihilating wars that make no distinction between the innocent and the culprit, child and elderly, man and woman.
The US’s wars of terrorism have thus far cost the lives of millions of people, in addition to manifestations of mass destruction that have not only befallen brick structures and infrastructure but also the structure and constituent parts of societies themselves, as well. Contrary to the path of their historical development, these societies have been fragmented in the course of a setback that reproduced endless inter-communal conflicts along confessional, sectarian and ethnic fault-lines, let alone the targeting of the very cultural and civilizational reservoir of these peoples.
There is no doubt that American terrorism is the taproot of all terrorism around the world. The Bush Administration has transformed the US into a threat for the entire world at all levels. Should a global opinion poll be conducted today, the US would feature as the most hated nation in the world.
The failure of the War on Iraq, the growth of Resistance in the country, the regional and international resentment towards the consequences of the war, the collapse of the “War on Terror,” especially in Afghanistan, and the abject failure of the American war on the Resistance in Lebanon and Palestine carried out by “Israeli” instruments, have all led to the erosion of American prestige internationally and to an ebb in the US’s ability to act or to engage in new adventures.
The above does not mean that the United States will be exiting the field easily. Instead, it will do whatever it takes to secure what it calls its “strategic interests,” because the policies of American hegemony rest on ideological considerations and intellectual projects nurtured by extremist tendencies allied to a military-industrial complex whose rapacity and greed have no limits.
I.2. Our Region and the American Project If the entire oppressed world suffers under the yoke of this Arrogant hegemony, our Arab and Islamic world endures the largest and heaviest share of this suffering for reasons related to its history, civilization, resources and geographic location.
Our Arab and Islamic world has, for centuries, been subjected to endless, vicious colonialist wars. But the most advanced stages of such wars started with the implanting of the Zionist entity in our region in the course of a project that aims to fragment the region into conflicting and feuding entities under various designations. This colonialist phase reached its epitome when the US inherited old colonialism in this region.
Dominance, in all its forms, over peoples represents the central and principal goal of American Arrogance, be that political, economic, or cultural domination or the looting of their wealth, primarily the looting of oil wealth – a key tool for controlling the essence of the world economy. In pursuit of such dominance all methods that do not abide by any human or moral principles or standards have been employed, including the use of excessive military force, directly or by proxy.
In a bid to achieve its goal, the US has adopted general policies and operational strategies. Foremost among these are:
1- Making available all the means necessary to ensure stability for the Zionist entity – a forward base for and the fulcrum of the American colonialist project that aims to fragment the region. This entity has been propped up with all means of power and permanence, and provided with a safety net to sustain its existence, in order to qualify it for playing the role of a cancerous gland that drains the nation’s capabilities and powers, scatters its potentials and dashes its hopes and
aspirations.
2- Undermining the spiritual, civilizational, and cultural potentials of our peoples, and working towards weakening their morale by waging media and psychological wars directed against their values, symbols of Jihad and resistance.
3- Supporting dependant and tyrannical regimes in the region.
4- Taking control of strategic geographical locations in the region for they represent key land, sea and air nodes, and deploying military bases throughout vital seams in its fabric to serve America’s wars and support its puppets.
5- Preventing the rise of any form of renaissance in the region that may lead to the possession of the means of power, progress, or playing a historical role in the world.
6- Sowing the seeds of discord and divisions of various forms, especially sectarian discord among Muslims, in order to foment endless internal inter-communal conflicts.
It is evident that there is no room today for viewing any conflict in any region across the world except through a strategic global perspective. The American threat is neither local nor restricted to a particular region. As such, the field of confrontation with this American threat must be global as well.
There is no doubt that this confrontation is difficult and delicate. It is a battle of historic scope. It is, therefore, a battle that lasts for generations and requires the employment of all putative powers. Our experience in Lebanon has taught us that difficulty does not amount to impossibility. On the contrary, dynamic and vigorous peoples led by wise, informed and alert leaderships who are prepared for all possibilities and wager on the accumulation of achievements, end up crafting one victory after another. Inasmuch as this holds true longitudinally across history, it also holds true horizontally across geographic and geo-political space.
American Arrogance has left our nation and its peoples no option except that of resistance for the sake of a better life, and for the sake of a more humane and human future – a future governed by relations of brotherhood, diversity and interdependence at one and the same time, and where peace and harmony prevail, exactly as it had been sketched out by the prophets and great reformers throughout history, and as it figures in the aspirations and yearnings of the true and lofty spirit of humanity.
II. Chapter 2 – Lebanon
II.1. Homeland
Lebanon is indeed our homeland and that of our fathers and forefathers, just as it shall be the homeland of our children, our grandchildren and all the generations to come. It is in order to safeguard the sovereignty, dignity and honor of this homeland that we offered the most precious sacrifices and the most treasured of martyrs. We want this homeland to be for all Lebanese equally – a homeland that embraces them all, has room for all of them, and takes pride in them and their
accomplishments.
We want Lebanon to be one and united – in terms of its land, people, government and institutions. We reject any form of division or “federalism,” whether overt or covert. We want Lebanon to be sovereign, free, independent, dignified, distinguished, impregnable, strong and capable, maintaining a presence in the equations of the region, and a main contributor to shaping the present and the future as it has always taken part in making history.
A key condition for the creation of such a homeland and for its sustainability is the presence of an impartial, capable and strong state, and a political regime that truly represents the will of the people and their aspirations for justice, freedom, security, stability, well-being and dignity. This is something to which all Lebanese aspire. They are all, including ourselves, working towards attaining it.
II.2. The Resistance
“Israel” represents a permanent threat to Lebanon – both as a state and an entity – and an imminent menace by dint of its historical covetous desires for Lebanon’s land and water resources. Lebanon, as a model of co-existence between the followers of heavenly religions based on a unique formula, represents the polar opposite of the idea of a racist state embodied in the Zionist entity. Moreover, Lebanon’s location on the borders of occupied Palestine, and in a turbulent region due to the conflict with the “Israeli” enemy, made it inevitable for the country to carry the burdens of national Lebanese and Arab responsibilities.
“Israel’s” threat to this homeland began since the implanting of the Zionist entity on Palestinian land. It is an entity that never hesitated to disclose its covetous desires for Lebanon’s land and annexing parts of it, and for taking over its wealth and resources, primarily its water resources. “Israel” has attempted to gradually satisfy these covetous desires.
Ever since this entity started its aggression against Lebanon since 1948, it has targeted areas from the border all the way to the deep reaches of the homeland. Aggressions from the Houla massacre in 1949 to the aggression against the Beirut International Airport in 1968, and the long years of aggression against border areas – their land, inhabitants and riches – that elapsed between them, were a prelude to the direct seizure of land through recurring invasions. These culminated in the March 1978 invasion and the occupation of the border area and its subjugation to the Zionist entity’s security, political and economic authority, as a step in the course of an integrated project aimed at subjugating the entire homeland in the 1982 invasion.
All of this was taking place with the full support of the United States of America, and was ignored – to the extent of complicity – by the so-called "international community" and its international institutions.
It also met with the suspicious silence of the official Arab order, and the absence of the Lebanese authorities which left their land and people as an easy prey for “Israeli” massacres and occupation, thus abdicating their national responsibilities and duties.
Amid this great national tragedy, the suffering of the people, the absence of its state, and its abandonment by the world, the Lebanese who are loyal to their homeland had no other option but to exercise their right, and to fulfill their patriotic, moral and religious obligation, to defend their land.
Their choice was: to launch a popular armed resistance to confront the Zionist menace and unending aggression against their lives, livelihoods and future.
In those difficult circumstances, when the state had failed the Lebanese, the march to restore the nation through armed resistance started with an eye to liberate the land and the political decision from the clutches of “Israeli” occupation as a prelude to restoring the state and building its constitutional institutions. Most importantly, the aim was to reinstate those national values upon which a nation is built, namely: national sovereignty and dignity. This conferred on the value of
freedom its true dimension. Freedom was not to remain a deferred slogan. It was rather reinforced by the Resistance through the liberation of land and man. These national values laid the groundwork for the building of modern Lebanon. They secured a place for the country on the world map. They rehabilitated it as a country that earns its respect from others and whose citizens take pride in belonging to it as a homeland of freedom, culture, knowledge and diversity just as it is a homeland of valor, dignity, sacrifice and heroism. Put together, these dimensions were crowned by the Resistance
through achieving the liberation of most of occupied land in the year 2000, and through winning an historic victory against “Israel” during the July 2006 war on Lebanon. With these two achievements the Resistance presented a living experience in defending the homeland – an experience that became an exemplar to be emulated by other peoples and nations defending their land, protecting their independence and safeguarding their sovereignty.
The Resistance accomplished this national achievement with the support of a loyal populace and a patriotic army. The Resistance thwarted the enemy’s goals and inflicted an historic defeat on it, while it emerged, with its fighters and martyrs, along with the people and Army of Lebanon, with a great victory. Such victory laid the foundations for a new phase in the region whereby the Resistance performs a central role and function in deterring the enemy, safeguarding the independence and sovereignty of the homeland, defending its people, and completing the liberation of the rest of the occupied land.
This role and function represent an enduring national necessity as long as the “Israeli” threat continues, as long as the enemy’s covetous desires for our land and water resources linger, and as long as the capable and strong state remains absent. Amid the power disparities between the state and the enemy – disparities that usually motivate weak states and the peoples targeted by the covetous desires and threats of powerful and domineering states to search for approaches that benefit from available capabilities and potentials – the continuous “Israeli” threat makes it imperative for Lebanon to
devise a defense formula whereby an existing people’s resistance, which contributes to defending the homeland in the event of any “Israeli” invasion, is wedded to a national army that protects the homeland and maintains its security and stability. As evidenced by the previous phase, this integrated process has succeeded in managing the conflict with the enemy, achieved victories for Lebanon and provided it with means of protection.
Devised in the context of a defense strategy, this formula constitutes a protective umbrella for Lebanon, especially in the wake of the failure of all bets on other umbrellas, be they Arab, international or negotiated with the enemy. For Lebanon, the adoption of the resistance option has indeed accomplished liberation of land, recovery of state institutions, protection of sovereignty, and the realization of genuine independence. In this context, the Lebanese, with all their political forces,
social segments, cultural elites and economic outfits, have a vested interest in safeguarding this formula and subscribing to it, for the “Israeli” danger threatens Lebanon with all its constituent parts and components. This necessitates the broadest possible Lebanese participation in bearing the burdens of responsibility to defend the homeland and to provide it with means of protection.
The success of the Resistance’s experience in confronting the enemy, and the failure of all plots to crush it, besiege its option, and disarm it altogether, on the one hand, and the persisting “Israeli” threat to Lebanon and the continued existence of threats directed at it, on the other, make it imperative for the Resistance to stay the course in its relentless quest to possess the means of power and enhance its own capabilities and potentials. This would enable the Resistance to fulfill its duty and discharge its national responsibilities so as to contribute to the liberation of those parts of our land that remain
under “Israeli” occupation in the Shebaa Farms, Kafar Shuba Hills, and the Lebanese town of Ghajar. It would also allow the resistance to free the remaining prisoners, missing persons and bodies of martyrs, and to take part in performing the function of defending and protecting the land and the people.
II.3. The State and the Political System
The main problem of the Lebanese political system – a problem that continuously prevents its reform, development and modernization – is political confessionalism. The fact that this system is established on sectarian grounds represents a rigid obstacle impeding the achievement of true democracy where the elected majority rules and the elected minority acts as opposition and where the door is open for a proper alternation of power between the loyalists and the opposition or various political coalitions.
For this reason, the key condition for the implementation of such a genuine democracy is the elimination of political confessionalism from the system. To this end, the "Ta’if Accord" provided for the formation of a higher national commission.
Until the Lebanese manage to perform this historical and sensitive feat – i.e., the abolition of political confessionalism – through national dialogue, and as long as the political system continues to be based on sectarian grounds, consociational democracy would remain the fundamental basis for governance in Lebanon. That is so because consociational democracy is the actual embodiment of the spirit of the Constitution and the essence of the charter of co-existence.
Against this backdrop, any approach to national issues based on a majority-minority equation would continue to hinge on the realization of the historical and social conditions for the exercise of actual democracy, where the citizenry represent a value in and of themselves.
The will of the Lebanese to live together with dignity and equality in rights and duties necessitates constructive cooperation in order to bolster true participation, which represents the most suitable formula for protecting their diversity and complete stability, especially after an epoch of instability wrought about by various policies founded on the tendency to monopolize, eradicate or exclude.
Consociational democracy represents an appropriate political formula for real participation by all. It represents a factor of confidence that reassures the components of the homeland. It contributes greatly to paving the way for entering the stage of building the reassuring state that all citizens would feel has been built for them.
The state that we look forward to participate in building along with the rest of the Lebanese is:
1. The state that protects public freedoms, and makes available all the climates conducive for the exercise of such freedoms.
2. The state that is keen on national unity and national cohesion.
3. The capable state that protects the land, the people, sovereignty and independence; one that has a strong, capable and well-equipped national army, and effective security institutions that are vigilant in guarding the security and interests of the people.
4. The state whose structure is founded on the basis of modern, effective and collaborative institutions, ones that are organized around clear and specific authorities, functions, and tasks.
5. The state that is committed to applying the rule of law on all within a framework of respect for public freedoms, and impartiality in administering the citizens’ rights and duties, irrespective of their sects, home regions or outlooks.
6. The state where proper and adequate parliamentary representation can only be achieved through a modern electoral law which allows Lebanese voters to choose their representatives away from financial influences, partisanships and various other pressures, and which realizes the widest possible representation for the various segments of the Lebanese population.
7. The state which depends on those who possess educational qualifications, scientific skills, and integrity, regardless of their sectarian affiliations; and which puts in place uncompromising, effective and strong mechanisms to purge its administration of corruption and the corrupt.
8. The state which has an independent higher judicial authority that operates outside the control of politicians, and where qualified, honest and free judges exercise their weighty responsibilities in the administration of justice among people.
9. The state that primarily bases its economy on productive sectors, especially the agricultural and industrial sectors; that works on mobilizing and boosting them; and that provides them with appropriate plans, programs and support. This would result in improving and marketing the output, and in creating sufficient and adequate job opportunities, especially in rural areas.
10. The state that adopts and applies the principle of even development between the regions, and works to bridge the economic and social gaps between them.
11. The state that looks after its citizens and works to provide them with an appropriate level of the public services of education, medical care and housing; one that secures decent living for them, addresses the problem of poverty, provides them with job opportunities, and so on.
12. The state that takes care of the youthful and young generations, assists in developing their potentials and talents, guides them towards humanitarian and national goals, and protects them from deviance and vice.
13. The state that works to strengthen the role of women in society, and enhances their participation in all fields in the context of benefitting from their influence and special standing as well as respecting their status.
14. The state that attaches adequate importance to the educational system, particularly in what relates to public schooling, supporting the Lebanese University at every level, and the implementation of compulsory, free-of-charge education.
15. The state that adopts a decentralized administrative system where broad administrative powers are devolved to the various administrative units [governorates / counties / municipalities] with an eye to enhancing opportunities for development and streamlining citizens’ paperwork and affairs, without permitting such decentralization to turn into a form of federalism at a later stage.
16. The state that diligently works to curb emigration from the homeland – the emigration of the youth, families, the competent and the skillful minds – within the framework of a comprehensive and realistic scheme.
17. The state that supports its expatriate citizens throughout the world, defends and protects them, and benefits from their spread, status and positions in the service of national issues. The establishment of a state with these specifications and conditions is an objective for us and for every honest and sincere Lebanese citizen. We, in Hezbollah, shall exert every effort towards achieving this noble national goal, and will do so in collaboration with the various political and popular forces which share our vision.
II.4. Lebanon and Palestinian-Lebanese Relations
The predicament of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been, and continues to be, one of the tragic consequences of the emergence of the Zionist entity on the land of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinian people from that land. Palestinians had moved to Lebanon to live temporarily as guests of their Lebanese brothers pending their return to their homeland and homes from which they were expelled.
“Israel’s” occupation of Palestine is the real and direct cause of what the Palestinians and the Lebanese have equally suffered as a result of this displacement. The harm caused by the ensuing tragedies and calamities was not limited to the Palestinians alone but has also befallen the peoples of the entire region.
Furthermore, the suffering of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has not been limited to the pangs of forced migration and asylum. It was further aggravated by the brutal “Israeli” aggressions and massacres that have destroyed both humans and buildings. The completely pulverized Nabatiyeh camp testifies to this, as do the harsh living conditions in refugee camps which lack the most basic requirements of decent living, depriving the refugees of civil and social rights, and the fact that successive Lebanese governments have not fulfilled their duties towards them.
This abnormal reality has now made it imperative for the responsible Lebanese authorities to discharge their responsibilities and build Lebanese-Palestinian relations on proper, solid and legal grounds which take into consideration standards of right, justice and the common interests of both peoples. The Palestinian presence in Lebanon and Lebanese-Palestinian relations must no longer be held hostage to political whims, caprices and calculations, internal tugs-of-war, or international interventions.
We believe that success in this task can be realized through:
1. Direct Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue.
2. Enabling the Palestinians in Lebanon to agree on a unified umbrella that represents them in this dialogue, transcending divergences facing the broader Palestinian situation.
3. Awarding the Palestinians in Lebanon their civil and social rights as befits their human status and preserves their character, identity and cause.
4. Upholding the Palestinians’ Right of Return and rejecting their permanent settlement in Lebanon.
II.5. Lebanon and Arab Relations
Lebanon, an Arab country in terms of identity and affiliation, practices such identity and affiliation as a natural condition that is inherent in the Lebanese societal configuration.
Furthermore, Lebanon’s dynamic reach, political geography, and strategic depth, along with regional integration policies and Arab national interests – all representing strategic determinants of Lebanon's political standing and vital interests – make it imperative for Lebanon to be committed to just Arab causes, at the forefront of which are the Palestinian question and the conflict with the “Israeli” enemy.
In addition, there is an unmistakable need to exert concerted efforts towards transcending the state of conflict that splits Arab ranks. Contrasting strategies and differing coalitions, no matter how serious or intense, do not justify being drawn into policies that target the nation or engaging in external plans based on the deepening of discord, inciting sectarian hatreds, and stirring the factors of division and fragmentation. This would exhaust the nation, serve Zionist interests and realize American objectives.
Developing the political approach which is based on containing or regulating disputes and preventing them from breaking out into open conflicts is an option that deserves to be adopted for the purposes of fostering a qualitative and responsible approach to dealing with national issues. Equally so is searching for commonalities so as to build them up and make available opportunities for constructive communication, at the level of both governments and peoples, to bring about the broadest solidarity framework which would serve our causes.
Herein, adopting the resistance option constitutes a quintessential need for and an objective factor in fortifying the Arab stance and weakening the enemy, irrespective of the nature of adopted political strategies or wagers.
Based on all of the above, the Resistance harbors no misgivings about publicizing the returns accruing from benefitting from its option, so that these benefits reach various Arab settings, and as long as the results are set within the framework of weakening the enemy and strengthening and fortifying the Arab stance.
In this context, Syria has recorded a distinctive and steadfast stance in its struggle against the “Israeli” enemy. It lent its support to regional resistance movements and stood by them in the most difficult of circumstances. It sought to unify Arab efforts, aiming to secure the interests of the region and meeting its challenges.
We hereby stress the need to hold fast to the special relations between Lebanon and Syria, as they represent a common political, security and economic need. This need is necessitated by the interests of the two countries and peoples, the imperatives of geopolitics as well as the prerequisites of Lebanese stability and of meeting common challenges. We also call for putting an end to all the negative sentiments that have marred relations between the two countries over the past few years, and urge the return of these relations to normalcy as soon as possible.
II.6. Lebanon and Islamic Relations
Our Arab and Muslim world is facing a number of challenges that affect our societies, with their different components, which necessitates that their danger ought not to be underestimated.
Our societal cohesion is threatened by heightened sectarian tension and manufactured confessional frictions, especially between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites; the fabrication of national contradictions between the Kurds, the Turkmens and the Arabs, and between the Iranians and the Arabs; terrifying and terrorizing minorities; and the continuous hemorrhage of Christians from the Arab East, especially from Palestine and Iraq, let alone Lebanon. These are factors that reduce the immunity of our societies and aggravate the impediments hindering its renaissance and development.
Instead of representing a source of richness and societal vivacity, religious and ethnic diversity has been abused. It has been employed as a factor of fragmentation, division and societal disintegration.
The situation resulting from such abuse is the consequence of an overlap between deliberate Western, especially US, policies and internal, bigoted and irresponsible practices and perceptions, in addition to an unstable political environment.
Taking these facts into account seems urgent. It is both important and worthwhile to consider them as part and parcel of the core concerns that ought to figure in the programs of the main forces and trends, including the Islamic movements that shoulder a special responsibility in meeting such challenges and addressing these problems.
Hezbollah hereby stresses the importance of cooperation between Islamic countries in all fields. Such cooperation provides these countries with the power of solidarity in the face of Arrogant plots and with social protection against cultural and media invasion. It also encourages them to capitalize on their own resources in the realm of exchanging various benefits among them.
In this context, Hezbollah considers Islamic Iran to be a key pivotal nation in the Islamic world. For it brought down, through its revolution, the Shah’s regime and its Zionist-American schemes, supported resistance movements in our region, and stood with courage and determination alongside Arab and Islamic causes, primarily the Palestinian cause.
The policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been clear and consistent in terms of supporting the central, primary and paramount cause for Arabs and Muslims, i.e. the Palestinian cause. This support commenced since the announcement of the victory of the blessed Islamic Revolution under the leadership of the Jurist–Theologian Imam Khomeini [may God sanctify his soul] and the establishment of the first ever Palestinian Embassy in the same place where the “Israeli” Embassy had stood. Such support has continued in all its forms to this day under the leadership of Jurist–Theologian Imam Ali Khamenei [may his life be prolonged], and has culminated in scoring significant victories for the first time in the history of the conflict with the Zionist invaders.
The fabrication of discord with the Islamic Republic of Iran by a number of Arab factions amounts to shooting oneself and Arab causes in the head. It only serves “Israel” and the United States of America.
Iran, which has formulated its political creed and built its dynamic reach on the basis of the "Centrality of the Palestinian Cause," hostility towards “Israel,” confrontation with US policies and integration with the Arab and Islamic environment, must be met with a will for cooperation and brotherhood. Iran should be dealt with as base for mobilization, strategic center of gravity, a model for sovereignty, independence and liberation supportive of the contemporary Arab-Islamic project of independence, and a force that strengthens the power and impregnability of countries and peoples in our region.
The Islamic world is strengthened by its alliances and cooperation between its states. On the basis of complementarities, mutual support and non-dependence on Arrogant powers, we stress the importance of capitalizing on those elements of political, economic and h uman power available in every country in the Islamic world.
We therefore call to mind the importance of unity among Muslims. The Almighty has said: {And hold on fast, together, to the rope of God, and be not separated}. We also call to mind the importance of being wary of the causes of division, such as confessional provocations, especially between the Sunnis and the Shias. We count on the vigilance of Muslim peoples in confronting the plots and discords that are being hatched on this level.
II.7. Lebanon and International Relations
In Hezbollah’s view and approach, the criteria for disagreement, dispute and conflict rest primarily on politico-ethical grounds, thus drawing a distinction between an arrogant and a downtrodden, an oppressor and an oppressed, a haughty occupier and a seeker of freedom and independence.
Hezbollah also believes that unilateral dominance disturbs global balance and stability as well as international security and peace.
The US Administration's unlimited support to “Israel”, inciting it to aggression, covering its occupation of Arab territories, in addition to the US dominance over international organizations, exercise of double-standards in the issuance and implementation of international resolutions, policies of intervention in the affairs of other societies, militarization of the world, espousal of the logic of mobile wars in the realm of international conflicts, and instigation of unrest and turmoil around the world, consign the US Administration to the status of an enemy to our nation and people, and place on its shoulders a primary and fundamental responsibility for the creation of imbalances and turmoil in the international system.
As for European policies, they oscillate between incapacity and ineffectiveness on the one hand, and unjustified tagging on to American policies on the other. This fact renders the Mediterranean trend in Europe hollow in favor of the Atlantic trend, with its colonialist background.
Tagging on to American policies – especially during the phase of its historical failure – poses a strategic error that will only serve to aggravate the problems, blunders and complications in Euro-Arab relations.
Europe has a special responsibility towards our region due to the colonialist legacy which inflicted grave damages on our region – damages whose consequences and effects are still causing suffering to our people.
Because some European peoples have had a history of Resistance against occupation, the moral and humanitarian – before being a political – duty of Europe makes it imperative that it recognizes the rights of other peoples to resist the occupier on the basis of a clear distinction between resistance and terrorism.
In our view: The prerequisites for stability and cooperation in the realm of Euro-Arab relations call for devising a more independent, equitable and objective European approach. It would be impossible to construct a critical common political and security denominator without achieving such a transformation that is capable of treating those defects which produce crises and instability.
On the other hand, we regard with great interest and appreciation the liberation, independence and anti-hegemonic experience in Latin American countries. We see vast common grounds between their project and that of the resistance movements in our region which could lead to the creation of a more equitable and balanced international order.
Linking up with this experience represents a source of promising hopes on the global level, based on a unifying human identity and a common political and ethical background. In this context, the motto of the "Unity of the Downtrodden" shall remain as one of the pillars of our political thought, shaping our understanding, relationships and stands towards international issues.
III. Chapter 3 – Palestine and the Settlement Negotiations
III.1. The Palestinian Cause and the Zionist Entity
Since its usurpation of Palestine and displacing its inhabitants in 1948 – which took place under the auspices and support of the international hegemonic powers at the time – the Zionist entity has represented a direct aggression and a serious threat that have affected the entire Arab region, and a real menace to the region’s security, stability and interests. The damage and harm that it inflicted were not confined to the Palestinian people or to those states and peoples neighboring Palestine. The assaults, tensions and wars that the region witnessed due to the aggressive “Israeli” attitude and practices serve only as evidence and proof pointing to the magnitude of injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people and on Arabs and Muslims as a result of the crime against humanity that the West committed when it implanted this alien entity in the heart of the Arab and Muslim world. This entity was intended as a hostile infiltration and a forward base for the Western Arrogant project, in general, and a base for control and domination over the region, in particular.
Zionism is a racist movement both in terms of thought and practice. It is the product of an Arrogant, despotic, authoritarian mentality. Its project is at heart and essence one of settlement, Judaization and expansion. Furthermore, the entity that emerged from the Zionist movement has been established, gained power, and continued through occupation, aggression, massacres and terrorism. These were carried out with the support, adoption and under the aegis of colonialist powers, particularly the United States of America, which has forged a strategic alliance with the Zionist entity, making it a true partner in its war, massacres and terroristic practices.
The struggle in which we and our nation are engaged against the Zionist-colonialist project in Palestine is but a fulfillment of the duty of self-defense against occupation, aggression and Arrogant-“Israeli” oppression, which threatens our very existence and targets our rights and future. For us, this struggle by no means stems from religious, racial or ethnic confrontation, although the exponents of this Zionist-colonialist project have never had any qualms about using religion and employing religious sentiments as a means to achieve their goals and objectives.
Demands put forward by US President Bush, his successor Obama, and the leaders of the Zionist entity to the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to recognize the Jewishness the "State of ‘Israel’" are only the most obvious proof of this. The natural and inevitable consequence is for this usurper, artificial entity to be impaled on the horns of an existential dilemma that haunts its leaders and supporters, for it is an abnormal creation, an entity that is nonviable, incapable of continuity and prone to demise. Herein lies the historical responsibility of the nation and its peoples to never recognize this entity whatever the pressures and challenges, and to persist in exerting efforts aimed at liberating all usurped lands and the restoration of all stolen rights irrespective of how long this takes and how great the sacrifices.
III.2. Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Al-Aqsa Mosque
The whole world is aware of the status and sanctity of Jerusalem and of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Al- Aqsa Mosque is the first of the two Qiblahs1 for Muslims, the third of Islam’s holiest sites, the destination of the nocturnal journey of the Apostle of God [may peace and blessings be upon him and his household], and the meeting point of all prophets and apostles [may peace be upon them all]. No one denies the Mosque’s great standing, as one of the most sacred landmarks, amongst Muslims, or the depth of its relationship to Islam as one of the most important Islamic symbols on earth.
1 The Qiblah is the direction that Muslims face for prayer. The second Qiblah is the cubic Kaaba structure in Mecca.
The City of al-Quds [Jerusalem], the host of Islamic and Christian holy sites, enjoys high regard amongst Muslims and Christians alike.
The continued “Israeli” occupation of this holy city and the accompanying plots and designs aimed at its Judaization, the expulsion of its people, the confiscation of their homes and properties are all rejected and denounced atrocious measures. So are the encirclement of Palestinian neighborhoods by Jewish neighborhoods and settlement blocks, and asphyxiating them by the Apartheid Wall. Add to this the ongoing US-“Israeli” efforts aimed to lay down the groundwork for declaring Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Zionist entity enjoying international recognition.
Furthermore, the serious and incessant attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the excavations undertaken in its vicinity, and the plots being drawn for its destruction, all pose a serious and genuine threat to the Mosque’s existence, and portend serious repercussions for the entire region.
The duty of providing succor to and liberating al-Quds [Jerusalem] and of defending and protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque is a religious duty, as well as a human and ethical responsibility for every free and honorable son of our Arab and Islamic nation and all free and honorable people in the world.
We urge and call upon Arabs and Muslims, at both the official and public levels, and upon all countries devoted to world peace and stability, to exert their efforts and resources for the sake of the liberation of al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the yoke of Zionist occupation, and to preserve the city’s true identity, and Islamic and Christian sacred sites.
III.3. The Palestinian Resistance
By waging a battle of self-defense and struggling to restore their legitimate national rights in Palestine, with its historical significance and geographic realities, the Palestinian people are merely exercising a legitimate right recognized and prescribed by all divine messages, international laws and human values and conventions.
Such a right encompasses resistance in all its forms – primarily, armed struggle – and by all the means that the Palestinian resistance factions can use. That is especially true in light of the prevailing imbalances of power that tip the scales in favor of the Zionist enemy, which is armed to the hilt with the latest arsenal of death, destruction and murder.
Experience has, throughout the course of conflict and confrontation between our nation and the Zionist entity since its usurpation of Palestine to this day, presented clear-cut, categorical and indisputable evidence. This evidence demonstrated the significance and feasibility of the option of Jihadi resistance and armed struggle in facing up to aggression, liberating occupied land, restoring rights, instituting a balance of terror, and bridging the gap of strategic superiority through equations imposed by the resistance with its available resources, will, and resolve in the field of confrontation.
The successive victories achieved by the Resistance in Lebanon, as well as the field, military and moral achievements that it accumulated throughout its Jihadi march, provide the best evidence and proof of this. That was especially the case with the forcing of the Zionists to engage in a substantial “Israeli” withdrawal from most of the occupied Lebanese territories in May 2000. It was also the case with the resounding fiasco of the Zionist army in the July 2006 aggression on Lebanon when the Resistance recorded a divine, historic and strategic victory that dramatically changed the conflict equation. This inflicted the first defeat of its kind on the “Israeli” enemy and shattered the “invincible army” myth.
Another evidence of this is represented by the uninterrupted string of achievements by the Resistance in Palestine through the experience of the Palestinian Revolution and its adoption of the option of armed struggle. Through the first Stone Intifada and the second Al-Aqsa Intifada, an ignominious defeat was inflicted on the “Israeli” army embodied in its full, unconditional, and un-negotiated withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It retreated without an agreement and without reaping any political, security, or geographical gains. This was to represent the first field – geographic – victory of such magnitude, scale and significance for the resistance option in Palestine, for it was the first “Israeli” withdrawal imposed by the Resistance within Palestine’s historical borders. Such an accomplishment speaks volumes in the course of our conflict with the Zionist entity at the strategic level. The superb steadfastness of the mujahid Palestinian people and its resistance in Gaza in the face of the Zionist invasion in 2008 is an exemplar for future generations and a lesson for invaders and aggressors.
If this was the outcome of resistance in Lebanon and in Palestine, what were the benefits of the option of settlement negotiations? What were the results, interests and gains derived from negotiations across all stages and all the resulting agreements? Were they not further “Israeli” arrogance, insolence and intransigence, as well as additional “Israeli” gains, interests, and conditions?
As we affirm our permanent and consistent stand by the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause, with its historical, geographical and political principles, we hereby affirm, unequivocally and unambiguously, our support for the Palestinian people, the Palestinian resistance movements, and their struggle in the course of confronting the “Israeli” project.
III.4. Settlement Negotiations
Our standpoint towards the settlement process – as well as towards the agreements produced by the path of the Madrid negotiations through the Wadi Araba Accord and its annexes, the Oslo Agreement and its annexes, and, before them, the Camp David Accord and its annexes – was, continues to be, and will remain one of absolute rejection of the very foundation and principles of the option of settlement with the Zionist entity. This option is founded on legitimizing the Zionist entity’s existence and relinquishing to it the lands which it has usurped from Arab and Islamic Palestine.
This standpoint is fixed, permanent and final, one that is not subject to retractment or compromise, even if the entire world were to recognize "Israel".
As such, and from a standpoint of brotherhood, responsibility and concern, we call upon Arab leaders to commit themselves to the options of their peoples, and to re-examine the option of negotiations.
We call upon them to reevaluate the outcomes of the agreements signed with the Zionist enemy, and to abandon resolutely and once and for all the illusory and unjust settlement process that is falsely and dishonestly labeled as the "peace process". That is especially the case since those who have wagered on successive US administrations to play the role of an honest and impartial partner and broker in this process have witnessed firsthand – and without a shadow of a doubt – how such administrations have failed, pressured and blackmailed them, shown hostility towards their peoples, their issues and their interests, and sided fully and shamelessly with the US’s strategic ally – the Zionist entity.
As for the Zionist entity, which is erroneously thought of as being capable of acting as a peace partner, it has demonstrated throughout all the stages of negotiations that it neither asks for nor seeks peace.
It also demonstrated that it employs negotiations to impose its own conditions, strengthen its position, promote its own interests, and reduce the intensity of enmity and psychological barriers that the peoples of the region harbor towards it. The Zionist entity seeks, through these negotiations, to achieve a free, open-ended, official and popular normalization that would ensure for its normal coexistence and natural integration into the regional system. It also seeks to impose itself as a fait accompli in the region, enjoying an accepted, recognized and legitimate existence after relinquishing to it the Palestinian territory which it has usurped.
Consequently, we call upon, expect of, and hope that all Arabs and Muslims, at both the official and popular levels, to revisit Palestine and Jerusalem as a central cause for them all and around which they all unite. We call upon them to commit themselves to liberating Palestine and purging it from the defilement of oppressive Zionist occupation, to fulfill their religious, fraternal, and human duty towards their holy sites in Palestine and its oppressed people. We call upon them to make all sources
of support available in order to strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and enable them to persist in their resistance. We call upon them to reject and bring down all schemes for normalization with the Zionist enemy, to uphold the right of return of all Palestinian refugees to their lands and homes from which they were expelled, and to unequivocally reject all proffered alternatives, including the resettlement, compensation or relocation of Palestinians. We urge them to work immediately towards breaking the siege imposed on the Palestinian people, particularly the total blockade of the Gaza Strip, to take up the cause of thousands of prisoners and detainees in “Israeli” prisons, and to draw up plans and practical programs for releasing them from incarceration.
Epilogue
Such are our views and visions. In our quest for them, we were keen on being seekers of truth and reality. These are our standpoints and commitments. In enunciating them, we sought to be truthful and faithful, for we are believers in righteousness, proclaim it, defend it and offer sacrifices for its sake to the extent of martyrdom. In doing this, we seek only the contentment of our Creator, our God, Lord of the heavens and earth, and hope only for the rectitude, well-being, and happiness of our kith and kin, people, and nation, both in this world and in the Hereafter.
Our Lord, You know that our deeds were intended neither to engage in competition over power nor in pursuit of any of the vanities of this world, but were meant for the purposes of reviving righteousness, abolishing falsehood, defending Your oppressed followers, upholding justice in Your land, and pursuing Your contentment and nearness. It was for the sake of this that our martyrs have died, and it is on this basis that we forge ahead and continue to act and strive. You have promised us one of the two most glorious things: either victory or the honor of meeting You while we are drenched in our own blood.
Our promise to You, O Lord, and to all Your oppressed servants is that we shall remain men who are true to their covenant, who await Your promise, and who stand firm and unswerving in their commitment.
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