Hezbollah
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
 |
The English used in this article may not be easy for everybody to understand. You can help Wikipedia by making this page or section simpler. |
Hezbollah (in Arabic: حزب الله, meaning Party of God) is an Islamic political party and paramilitary organization.
Contents |
[change] History
It was formed in Lebanon in 1982, during the Lebanese Civil War. Its main goals then were to fight Western influences and create an Islamic state like Iran in Lebanon. The leader of Hezbollah is Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah is a Shi'ite Moslem body, representing the largest Islamic faction in Lebanon. It is supported by Syria and Iran.
[change] Origin
Hezbollah is an Arab nationalist movement and wants freedom for the Palestinian people. Because of this, it believes that the State of Israel should not exist, and fights it. Over the years, the Hezbollah militia has fought a guerrilla war against the Israeli army (IDF) in Southern Lebanon. It also attacks Israel's military positions by firing Katyusha rockets across Israel's northern border.
[change] Opposition
To destroy Hezbollah bases, Israel has responded in different ways. These have included air strikes on sites in Lebanon and sending ground troops into Southern Lebanon. In 2000, Israel withdrew its troops from the "security zone" in Southern Lebanon,but not from a sliver of land called Shebba Farms.This fertile area was kept under Israeli occupation. The border was relatively quiet,not taking into account Israeli targetted assasinations and kidnappings, until July 2006, when Hezbollah kidnapped two IDF soldiers. This led to the 2006 Lebanon War, in which Hezbollah rockets reached deep into Israel and the IDF bombed civilian locations in Beirut.Israeli military doctrine has alaways been to target civillian concentrations.With it's ever muscular public relations outlets,it can spin civilian casualities as errors and fighters hiding behind non combattants.With the US being the major supplier of arms,and Israel flouting US laws of Not using US munitions against non combattants, this has created a credibility problem amongst other mideast countries.
Israel's 1980's illegal use of US supplied cluster bombs in Lebanon and it's imprisionment of large numbers of Shias in it's 19 year occupation gave birth to Hizbollah and mideast suicide bombing. The US weapon of choice for the Israeli armed forces in the 21st century are munitions known as Flechettes. It literal rips a body to shreds.
[change] View points of other countries
Few countries see Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, the majority do not. Among those who consider it to be terrorist are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel, among those who do not are the European Union and Russia. Lebanon sees Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance movement. This view is shared by Syria, Iran and all other countries in the Arab World.
