the untold story of hezbollah - beirut observer · 2020. 8. 17. · speaking to 15,000 cheering...

Hezbollah, the Hidden Side of the coin The untold Story of Hezbollah

Written by : Massoud Mohamed

Hezbollah … The Hidden Side of the coin Page 1

Table of Contents:

Research Question: ........................................................................................................................... 2

Is the Media hiding the truth or rather is it mediatizing a carefully crafted Hezbollah

message? ............................................................................................................................................. 2

I. How did the Media present Hezbollah? ................................................................................ 2

II. To what extend is that true? And how Hezbollah managed to take over?.................. 2

The Story of Hezbollah which was never told: ........................................................................... 2

“Hezbollah” Significant Name: ........................................................................................... 3

The Islamic State (Shii vergin): ........................................................................................... 3

Why this specific name Hezbollah? .................................................................................. 3

Hezbollah Objectives: ........................................................................................................... 4

Our Objectives: ....................................................................................................................... 4

III. Promoting Hezbollah: ............................................................................................................ 4

IV. An Intentionally Ignored Question: .................................................................................... 7

Who initiated the resistance against Israel and what was the roll of Hezbollah in it? 7

“Lebanese National Resistance Front" against the Israeli Occupation: ................. 7

V. Lebanese National Resistance Front achievements: ....................................................... 8

VI. Marginalizing the real resistance against Israel: ........................................................... 9

Youssef Mortada former member of the political bureau in one of the interviews made

with him said the following about that period: ....................................................................... 9

VII. Terrorists Not Rebels: .........................................................................................................13

VIII. Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................15

REFERENCES: ..................................................................................................................................16


Hezbollah … The Hidden Side of the coin The Story of Hezbollah

Research Question:

Is the Media hiding the truth or rather is it mediatizing a carefully crafted

Hezbollah message?

The media’s primary duty is to present us with information and alert us when important

events occur. This information may affect what we think and the actions we take. The

media can also place pressure on government to act by signaling a need for intervention or

showing that citizens want change. For these reasons, the quality of the media’s coverage

matters.

I. How did the Media present Hezbollah?

Hezbollah was always presented by the media, in a way or another, as resistant

movement against Israel. On May 25th 2000, the Israeli army withdrew from most of

Southern Lebanon after more than two decades of military occupation. Hezbollah’s leading

role in the liberation transformed the Shiite group into a symbol and a model of resistance

in the Arab world.

A few years after the liberation, during the war with Israel in the summer of 2006, the

portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s General Secretary, could be seen in

demonstrations in major capitals in the Arab world. Hezbollah’s declared victory in 2006

consolidated its role as a regional force and established Nasrallah as an Arab icon. The

emergence of Hezbollah as a regional resistance movement was the conclusion of

decades of struggle where military, political, socio-economic strategies were carried out

alongside a complex and efficient media discourse, announcing Hezbollah as a liberator.

II. To what extend is that true? And how Hezbollah managed to take

over?

The Story of Hezbollah which was never told:

Hezbollah is a Shi’a Islamist group based in Lebanon and sponsored by Iran.


It has carried out attacks throughout the world that have killed thousands—Lebanese,

Syrians, Americans, Europeans, Israelis, and others. With a stockpile of more than

150,000 rockets and missiles, supplied by Iran and capable of hitting Israel, and with the

dual support of Iran & Syria Hezbollah announced that it is aiming to liberate Jerusalem

and ultimately eliminating Israel.

“Hezbollah” Significant Name:

Its exact translation from the Arabic language means the “Party of God”.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese group of Shi’a Muslimi militants that has developed into a political

party and a major force in Lebanese society. Hezbollah is ideologically inspired by the

Iranian revolutionii and Ayatollah Khomeiniiii.

The Islamic State (Shii vergin):

Hezbollah, led by Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallahiv, opposes the West and seeks to

create a Shi’a Muslim fundamentalist state, aiming to:

“Establish an independent Islamic state in Lebanon with Nasrallah as its leader”v

Why this specific name Hezbollah?

The Hezbollah logo shows a hand holding a machine gun aloft against a background of the

globe, its slogan is a verse from the Koran: “Only Allah’s congregation shall be

victorious.”vi Since its establishment, Hezbollah has based its policy on what he called it

“Islamic-Resistant”, “Moqawama Islamieh”vii, directed primarily against Israeli, American,

and European targets, coming together, in a very strange blend, political and religious

motives.

<<In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, Hezbollah appeared as

the result of a mobilization of several groups of Islamic Shi’a militants (clerics, al-Da’wa

Party members and dissident members of Amal Movment) that wanted to go to war

against the Israeli occupier (Mervin, 2008).


The circumstances of its appearance are linked to the Iranian revolution (1979) that

provided a religious framework for the setting up of a revolutionary movement under the

banner of Shi’i Islam. It is also related to a will to resist the Israeli Defense Forces

(IDF)>>viii

Hezbollah Objectives:

Hezbollah in many ways is a classic insurgent movement with revolutionary aims, as it

claims. In an open letter published in February 1985 that is generally regarded as the

organization’s founding document, Hezbollah listed its goals as obliterating the state of

Israel, terminating the influence of “imperialist powers,” and bringing about Islamic rule in

Lebanon.

1985 in the Founding document Hezbollah announced its following objectives:

<<Our Objectives:

1. Let us put it truthfully: the sons of Hezbollah know who are their major enemies in

the Middle East - the Phalanges, Israel, France and the US.

2. The sons of our Uma are now in a state of growing confrontation with them, and will

remain so until the realization of the following three objectives:

2.1. To expel the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from Lebanon,

putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land.

2.2. To submit the Phalanges to a just power and bring them all to justice for the

crimes they have perpetrated against Muslims and Christians.

2.3. To permit all the sons of our people to determine their future and to choose in

all the liberty the form of government they desire. We call upon all of them to

pick the option of Islamic government which, alone, is capable of

guaranteeing justice and liberty for all.

Only an Islamic regime can stop any further attempts of imperialistic infiltration into our

country.ix>>

III. Promoting Hezbollah:

The Media played a significant role in promoting Hezbollah as a resistance movement; it is

a significant period where we can describe through it the path of the media from objective

observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare.


<< Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has praised Lebanon for its resistance

against Israel, while addressing a huge crowd in a Lebanese village close to the Israeli

border.

Speaking to 15,000 cheering Hezbollah supporters on Thursday in Bint Jbeil, the scene of

fierce fighting between the Iranian-backed group and Israeli soldiers in July 2006,

Ahmadinejad said the town was a symbol of resistance.x>>

<< Once again, at the hands of Hezbollah, the group responsible for more than a decade

of guerrilla resistance that saw the Israeli army literally run out of South Lebanon in 2000,

the Israelis lost.

Israel's psychology in this defeat was so much worse because people hoisted banners

around the world proclaiming: "We are all Hezbollah." With the banner came the flag,

carried by young Muslims, old Muslims, middle-aged English ladies and anti-Zionist rabbis.

It was pervasive, and it has stayed.xi>>

<< It was formed as a resistance movement during the Israeli occupation of southern

Lebanon in the early 1980s.

The militant group's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack led to a month-

long war with Israel in 2006.

But last month, its political wing was awarded three cabinet posts in the newly formed

Lebanese cabinet after it made gains, alongside its allies, in the 2018 parliamentary

elections.

The group, which is backed by Iran, has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to support

forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in battles against predominantly Sunni Muslim

rebel forces and the jihadist Islamic State groupxii.>>

Almost everyone was for a reason or another promoting Hezbollah as a ‘Resistance

Movement’, and promoting what they called the outstanding capabilities, and charismatic

character of its leader Hassan Nasr Allah, including the one who was supposed to be “The

Enemy”, of Hezbollah Israel.

The Israeli media was playing a significant role in promoting the image of Hezbollah

indirectly by publishing almost every statement of Hassan Nasr Allah the general secretary


and the Hezbollah leader, if you take “Haaretz”, “Times of Israel “two of the very reputed

Israeli newspapers and you try to Google three words (Hassan Nasr Allah- Haaretz or

Hassan Nasr Allah-Times of Israel) the result will be thousands of articles, and when you

search the newspapers archive you will find that there is high interest in all Nasr Allah

speeches, I understand that from enemy Analyses perspective, but can’t at the same time

understand drawing a heroic image of your enemy.xiii

<< Nasr Allah: I'm 'Surprised' Israel Took So Long to Discover Hezbollah Tunnels

Nasr Allah told Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV station that one of the tunnels discovered by

Israel is more than 13 years old, predating UN Security Council Resolution passed after

Second Lebanon War.xiv>>

<< Netanyahu and Nasr Allah, the Middle East’s Two Messianic Leaders

Shi’ite messianism these days is confronted by Judeo-Christian messianism. The question

is whether a countdown has started to another destructive war.xv>>

<< Hezbollah chief says Israel ‘scared,’ not ready for war

Nasr Allah claims deployment of US anti-missile system shows Israelis don’t trust their own

military capabilities; calls for supporters to give donations amid Western sanctions.

In a televised speech, Nasr Allah pointed to the US military’s deployment this week of the

advanced THAAD missile defense system in Israel for joint exercises as proof of what he

said was Israeli insecurity over the country’s ability to counter Hezbollah rocket fire in a

future conflict.

“Every day you hear that Israel is not prepared for war in one way or another and this week

you saw Israel began using the American THAAD system. They don’t even trust the

missile defense systems they developed themselves,” he added, according to Israel’s

Channel 13.

Hezbollah is believed to possess between 100,000 and 150,000 rockets and Israel has

warned it is working to develop precision missiles with Iranian assistance. While the IDF

and the Defense Ministry have invested significant resources in aerial defense, army

officers have said that these anti-missile systems will not be able to stop all

projectilesxvi.>>


It looks like these media sources are moderately to strongly bias toward liberal causes

through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words

(wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or

stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may

damage liberal causes.

Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy, and can be misleading, was

Hezbollah resistance? Was their aim liberating Lebanon from Israeli occupation or

controlling Lebanon to establish the state of Hezbollah?

IV. An Intentionally Ignored Question:

The Question which is usually ignored intentionally is the following:

Who initiated the resistance against Israel and what was the roll of Hezbollah

in it?

Israel became re-involved in Lebanon in 1982 in order to remove the Palestinian

Liberation Organization, who historically carried out attacks against Israel from the

Lebanese border (which with time had created some resentment in the local Lebanese

population). Israel, in turn, initiate a full-fledged invasion of, the mainly Shi’a, South

Lebanon. Israel hoped that its war of 1982 (invading Lebanon), would be the end of the

PLO.

When Israel invaded Lebanon and occupied Beirut 1982, Hezbollah did not exist, initially

the Shiite population, frustrated with Palestinian presence in Lebanon, had welcomed the

Israeli army.

Ehuda Barak as a former Israeli prime minister in one of his interviews said “when we

entered Lebanon … there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and

flowers by the Shi’a in the south of Lebanon.xvii”

“Lebanese National Resistance Front" against the Israeli Occupation:

In 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon and occupied Beirut, on September 16, 1982, the

same day the Israeli army entered West Beirut, the secretary general of the central

committee of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) George Hawi xviii, the Secretary

General of the Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL) Muhsin Ibrahim xix,

announced the Lebanese National Resistance Front – LNRF.


Both parties issued that day a joint statement calling for the Lebanese people to raise up in

arms and unite into a "Lebanese National Resistance Front" against the Israeli Occupation.

Hawi called for all Lebanese, regardless of their political or religious affiliation, to join the

Lebanese National Resistance Front against the Israeli occupation.

Elias Attallah xx, the leader of that resistance, Explained how did the confrontation with the

Israeli occupation began, in one of the press interviewsxxi held with him Saturday 15

September 2015, On the 33rd anniversary of the launching of the resistance against the

Israeli occupation of Lebanon , the following is the exact translation of it .

<< When the secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party, the late George Hawi, and the

secretary-general of the Communist Action Organization, Mohsen Ibrahim, announced the

establishment of the Front on June 16, I was in a secret apartment in Beirut to launch field

operations. There is no longer room to fight Israel, where Beirut was filled with tanks, and I

went to Mar-Elias Street, and I saw thousands of soldiers lying on the sidewalks with all

their military equipment. "

On the night of the 20th of the same month, Attallah decided that "if he did not die, it would

be a shame to die a coward." "The groups carried out the first operation in Beirut with

grenades. We targeted an Israeli group stationed in front of Bestros pharmacy (The

beginning of Hamra Street in the capital). >>

V. Lebanese National Resistance Front achievements:

In an articlexxii written by former member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party,

Youssef Mourtada, the following statistics, related to the achievements of the Lebanese

National Resistance Front, were related.

<< What is worth mentioning is that between September 1982 and April 1985, the Israeli

occupation forces withdrew from 2,600 km 2 of the 3,450 km 2, the total area occupied by

the Israeli enemy in its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

According to official figures announced by the occupation authorities, the losses of the

army as a result of the operations of the resistance front reached between September 16,

1982 and the end of 1985, 386 dead out of 657 dead until May 24, 2000. The Israeli army

casualties in that period amounted to 2326 out of 2966 until the day Editing. >>


In 1985, Hezbollah officially announced its establishment by publishing an "open letter"

that identified the US and the Soviet Union as Islam's principal enemies and called for the

"obliteration" of Israel, which it said was occupying Muslim lands.

It also called for the "adoption of the Islamic system on the basis of free and direct

selection of the people, not the basis of forceful imposition".

VI. Marginalizing the real resistance against Israel:

The resistance struggle was launched and Led by the Left from 1982 to 1987 as I

explained after that the sectarian forces working with Syria sidelined the left and killed

several of its leaders.

There have been many assassinations carried out by Hezbollah against the Lebanese

intellectuals, the only reason being their intellectual and political opinions, as if there is a

desire not to have any voice of opposition.

The great thinker and prolific writer Suhail Tawileh was assassinated in 1986, after he was

kidnapped from his home next to the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

The intellectual writer Dr. Hussein Mrouweh had his appointment with death at the hands

of supporters of backward ideologies, on 17 February of the following year in his home,

where his pen was silenced with bullets from a gun equipped with a silencer, so he never

attained eighty-years of age.

Mahdi Aamel (Hassan Hamdan), who held a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Sorbonne, he

met baseball bats in the darkness on 18 May 1987, which succeeded in assassinating him

in cold blood on his way to his university lectures in Beirut.

Youssef Mourtada former member of the political bureau in one of the

interviews made with him said the following about that period:

<< Speaking about the resistance against Israel, Murtada reveals a meeting he had with

Mr. Hawi with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in 1998 to present an idea

or initiative aimed at securing a national cover for the resistance after the idea of

establishing the Resistance Brigades failed. Achieve this goal.

The initiative came after the Communist Party and the factions of the National Resistance

Front (NRF) were prevented from the resistance action.


The funding springs were drained by a regional, international and local political decision,"

he said. The idea of the initiative stems from giving a national dimension to the resistance

again, fearing that it will remain sectarian and sectarian and become a factor of division in

the country instead of being a factor of unification.

In order to prevent this trap from falling, we suggested that Nasr Allah establish a supreme

council of resistance that includes all the parties and parties who participated in the

resistance, in addition to two Maronite figures, the late MP Nassib Lahoud and the former

minister Jean Obeid. But he replied: "You have to ask the Syrians first if they agreexxiii.">>

Syria and Iran wanted to have full control, and Hezbollah was the right tool.

They found in Hezbollah a group that was not only inspired by the Islamic Revolution and

subsequent Islamic revolution, but also a group whose political interests (with regards to

Israel and the United States) were similar to those of Iran and Syria.

Namely, Iran and Syria can use Hezbollah as a proxy to fight Israel, and others groups

opposing them to extend their control on Lebanon and Syria. For Syria, Hezbollah being a

party in the Lebanese internal conflict, it became an important focal point for its future

policies and its regional role in the region.

As a result, it agreed to support Hezbollah, supply it with weapons, and re-draw the map

of power in Lebanon in harmony with Syria’s vision of the international and regional

transformations.

As a result, Syria contained or marginalized, through a series of procedures, most of the

Lebanese national forces (leftist and nationalist) which at that point had an active role in

resisting the occupation since the early 1970’s.

<< Lebanon's small but highly active Communist Party was disastrously hurt by the

recent fighting in West Beirut, with many of its leaders and members killed or

missing.

Party members said that nine of the group's main leaders were killed here and in

southern Lebanon and that 32 members were killed and 17 were kidnapped and

were still missing in the street fighting in Beirut.

The daily newspaper of the Soviet-backed party, AL-Nidaa, reported that Shiite

Moslem clerics in the Nabatiye area of southern Lebanon had issued a religious

edict urging the killing of all Communists in that area.


An unidentified clergyman in the village of Jebsheet, near Nabatiye, the main

market town in the south, was quoted as saying, ''No Communist must be allowed to

remain in southern Lebanon,'' A Refuge in Mideastxxiv.>>

After Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah claimed that a tiny bit of land called

Sheba'a farmsxxv, part of the Golan heights and some other places that are on the Israeli

side of the border are really Lebanese, though the United Nations claims it is not so.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in August 2006, called for the delineation of

the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is

disputed or uncertain. It also called on the Lebanese government to “secure its borders

and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or

related material”.

In August 2008, in a meeting between then President Michel Suleiman and President

Bashar al-Assad, it was announced that Syria would establish formal diplomatic ties with

Lebanon for the first time and that steps would be taken to jointly demarcate their border,

also another first for the two countries.

The decision required in the beginning the demarcation along Lebanon’s northern border

and ending with the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area in the south.

However, to date no steps have been taken to begin the process of demarcation, and none

are likely in the foreseeable future given the situation in Syria.

<< .. Asked whether that includes the Shebaa Farms, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid

al-Moualem said: “The demarcation of the Shebaa Farms cannot happen under

occupation.”

The Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, cites the

occupation of the Shebaa Farms by Israel as one reason for keeping its weapons.

Israel considers Shebaa Farms part of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory which it

has occupied since 1967. Syria and Lebanon say the land is part of south Lebanon,

from which Israel withdrew in 2000.

The United Nations declared Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon complete. A

2006 U.N. Security Council resolution urged Syria to demarcate its borders,

especially in areas where they are uncertainxxvi. >>


Shebaa Farms were a safe rope for Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah, they needed a

reason to legitimize Hezbollah armed presence, Syria never gave Lebanon an

official document, announcing these farms as part of Lebanon, and kept the issue of

this farms Identity vague to give Hezbollah the excuse, to continue its struggle

against Israel to liberate these farms.

Following the expulsion of Syrian forces from Lebanon, the Hezbollah were

supposed to have been disarmed under the terms of UN resolutions 1559

and 1680. Instead, the Lebanese government allowed Hezbollah to keep its arms

and to participate in Lebanese elections. Once they entered the government,

Hezbollah paralyzed attempts at reform and reducing Syrian influence.

From the moment Hezbollah stepped into the Syrian conflict alongside the pro-Assad front

in May 2013, the Lebanese Shiite party and armed group has undergone a big

transformation.

In 2012, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from Lebanon and took over eight villages

in the Al-Qusayr District of Syria, (15 kilometers Southwest of the Lebanese border) in

2013, when the party made official its involvement in the conflict – Hezbollah has

undoubtedly taken on a new role, one that goes beyond the traditional “resistance” against

Israel in Southern Lebanon, Nasr Allah said that Hezbollah fighters have died

in Syria doing their "jihadist duties".

To justify Hezbollah’s right to continue to bear arms, Nasr Allah aimed in particular at

a Christian and Shiite audience, it carved out for itself the role of security guarantor on the

Lebanese border to prevent any movement of what he called them Syrian Terrorist from

crossing Lebanese border and use Lebanon as a stage against Assad regime.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria and against Israel risk drawing all of

Lebanon into regional conflicts. Although the United Nations has tasked Lebanon’s military

with supervising Hezbollah’s disarmament, Hezbollah has managed to build up its military

capabilities and presence in Lebanon under the eyes of the Lebanese army. Hezbollah

and the Lebanese military have also coordinated against Syrian rebel groups.

Hezbollah has also created its own parallel institutions within Lebanon’s educational,

social, and economic sectors. International sanctions targeting Hezbollah have also


complicated the Lebanese economy due to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Lebanese

business sector.

Hezbollah has become a State inside the Lebanese State, with 150,000 rockets, and

thousands of Armed Militants, Hezbollah was and still looking forward to announce his

Islamic State, without taking in consideration the diversity of Lebanon where it is the only

Arabic country with a Christian president.

This is a small part of Hezbollah story, and it is the internal Lebanese part where the party

built its position, with bullets from a gun equipped with a silencer. At the international level

the story of Hezbollah needs more than 5,000 words to explain its role as an international

terrorist organization, including the assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-

Haririxxvii.

VII. Terrorists Not Rebels:

The situation in Lebanon changed dramatically in 2005. On February 14, Rafic Hariri, the

immediate past prime minister, was assassinated along with eight of his bodyguards when

a car bomb detonated next to his motorcade. The murder ignited a wave of protests across

Beirut. Residents and media alike pointed at Syria as the culprit. In the face of international

pressure to implement resolution 1559, Syrian president Bashar Al Assad announced in a

televised speech on March 5 that Syria would withdraw its forces to Bekaa in eastern

Lebanon and thereafter to the Lebanese-Syrian border. In late June 2011, the UN Special

Tribunal for Lebanon issued arrest warrants for four suspects in the killing of Rafiq al-

Hariri, who were identified by Lebanese officials as Hezbollah commanders and

operatives.

In response, Nasr Allah condemned the tribunal and swore never to turn over the

suspects. A fifth suspect, also a member of Hezbollah was identified in 2013. In January

2014, the trial of the suspects in absentia began. From Lebanon, to Iraq, to Syria, to

Palestine, to Africa, to Europe, to Argentina Hundreds of Hezbollah Stories related to

international terror, and yet they call themselves “Liberation Movement”, “Resistance”,

members of such organization can be called by one significant name “Terrorists”.


Not only Rafic Hariri there are serious doubts that Hezbollah has facilitated the

assassination of George Hawi the Founder of the Lebanese National Resistance Front"

against the Israeli Occupation. Beirut Lebanon June 21- 2005 - A car bomb killed a sharp

critic of Syria. The assassination was done just hours after a new Parliament with an anti-

Syrian majority formally took office.

George Hawi, the former head of the Communist Party who had been campaigning for

opposition candidates in the final round of elections, died after being ripped apart by a

small bomb around 9:30 a.m. Only about a pound of explosives was used, the police said,

placed beneath the passenger seat of his black Mercedes and detonated as it drove out of

his house where he was going to meet the elected member of the new parliament Elias

Attalah the First leftist who managed to be part of the Lebanese parliament since it was

established Elias was the Operational leader of the Lebanese National Resistance Front"

against the Israeli Occupation at its time, and was the general secretary of the democratic

left which was part of the 14 March Alliance. Both men wanted to discuss future plans after

being in the Parliament, and how can they unify all left wings to be part of a liberation

movement toward a new Lebanon a sovereign, free, and independent country.

The blast appeared to be identical to the one that killed a prominent journalist, Samir

Kassir, the member of the Democratic Left Leadership who was assassinated on June 2-

2005.

Since 2004, a series of bombings and assassinations have struck Lebanon, most of them

occurring in and around the capital, Beirut. This wave of bombings began with the

assassination attempt on Marwan Hmade, and then peaked with the assassination of

former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on 14 February 2005, which touched off the Cedar

Revolution and the withdrawal of Syrian troops. After the massive protests sparked by

Hariri's killing, several more bombings hit Lebanon.

These bombings and assassinations came after September 2004, when the Lebanese

Parliament was forced to extend the term of pro-Syrian former president Emile Lahoud, a

move that was unconstitutional. The MPs, journalists, and activists that opposed this term

extension were then subject to a series of slander campaigns and eventually assassination

attempts, all where planed approved by Syrian and Iranian regimes while executed by

members of Hezbollah.


VIII. Involvement in International Terrorism:

The assassinations carried out by Hezbollah have spread beyond the borders of Lebanon

and targeted Iranian opponents, on 17 September 1992 members of Hezbollah where part

of the assassination team Murdered Dr. Sadegh Sharafkandi the general secretary of the

Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran with other Iranian-Kurdish insurgent leaders Fattah

Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi at the Mykonos Greek

restaurant in Berlin, Germany. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi,

an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty

of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and

Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling,

the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-

Islam Ali Fallahian after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with

knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Ayatollah

Rafsanjani. Rhayel is a member of Hezbollah, he was released from prison in an exchange

operation between Hezbollah and Israel intermediated and sponsored by Germany.

IX. Conclusion:

<<The growing intrusion of media into the political domain in many countries has led critics

to worry about the approach of the "media-driven republic," in which mass media will usurp

the functions of political institutions in the liberal state. However, close inspection of the

evidence reveals that political institutions in many nations have retained their functions in

the face of expanded media power. The best description of the current situation is

"mediatization," where political institutions increasingly are dependent on and shaped by

mass media but nevertheless remain in control of political processes and functions.>>xxviii

Republic of Lebanon, Resistance, Liberation, Independence, Sovereignty, keeping the

Syrian Islamists outside Lebanon and away from our borders, all above where titles used

by Hezbollah Propaganda.

Modern propaganda uses all the media available to spread its message, including: press,

radio, television, film, computers, fax machines, posters, meetings, door-to-door

canvassing, handbills, buttons, billboards, speeches, flags, street names, monuments,


coins, stamps, books, plays, comic strips, poetry, music, sporting events, cultural events,

company reports, libraries, and awards and prizes.

Hezbollah did not hesitate using all mentioned means to promote his version of the story,

but that was not the real story, because there was another story describing the same

events, and can be summarized by the following few words:

Partnering with Iran and Assad regime and practicing oppression against Syrians,

changing Lebanon ethnical and religious identity, promoting Terror locally and

internationally, acting as an insurgent of Iran in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria,

Palestine, and many European, African and Latin American countries.

REFERENCES: i Shiites are the second-largest branch of Islam, after Sunnis. A Shiite believes that Mohammed's son-in-law, Ali, was his legitimate successor as political and religious leader and prophet. ii Iranian revolution was a series of events that involved the overthrow of the monarch of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah

Pahlavi, and the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the Ayatollah Khomeini.

iii He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that saw

the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989(WIKIPEDIA). iv He is the third and current Secretary General of the Lebanese political party Hezbollah since his

predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel in February 1992. v COUNCIL on FOREIGN RELATIONS, Profile: Hassan Nasrallah, by Eben Kaplan, August 11, 2010,

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/profile-hassan-nasrallah. vi Kuran, Sourat Al Maaida, the Aiet 56.

vii Arabic Term its exact translation in English is (Islamic resistance).

viii Daniel Meier. (B)ordering South of Lebanon: Hizbullah’s identity building strategy. Journal of Borderlands Studies,

Taylor, HAL Id: halshs-01337732 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01337732 Submitted on 27 Jun 2016, https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01337732/document. ix Web Archive, 1985 founding document of Hezbollah,

https://web.archive.org/web/20071029000205/http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/hezbollah_program.pdf x Al Jazeera, News MIDDLE EAST, 15 October 2010, Iran leader in Hezbollah stronghold, Thousands flock to hear

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Lebanon village close to Israel border on second day of his visit, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101416133587181.html . xi Middle East Eye, Is the UK pushing a false narrative on Hezbollah?, Arzu Meraly, 28 February 2019 16:36

UTC, https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-pushing-false-narrative-hezbollah. xii

BBC News, 27th

Feb 2019, Labour row erupts over Hezbollah ban, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47380311. xiii

Haaretz, Hassan Nasrallah, https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/TAG-hassan-nasrallah-1.5598889.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/profile-hassan-nasrallah

https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01337732/document

https://web.archive.org/web/20071029000205/http:/www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/hezbollah_program.pdf

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101416133587181.html

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-pushing-false-narrative-hezbollah

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47380311

https://www.haaretz.com/misc/tags/TAG-hassan-nasrallah-1.5598889


Times of Israel, Hassan Nasrallah, https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/hassan-nasrallah/. Checked Sunday, March 31, 2019. xiv

Haaretz, Checked Sunday, March 31, 2019, Adar II 24, 5779, Article by Jack Khoury, published Jan 26, 2019 9:02 P. xv

Haaretz, checked Sunday, March 31, 2019, Adar II 24, 5779,Opinion, Article by Salman Masalha, Dec 11, 2018 3:16 AM, https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-netanyahu-and-nasrallah-the-mideast-s-two-messianic-leaders-1.6729277. xvi

Times of Israel, By TOI STAFF and AFP, 8 March, 2019, 7:30 PM, https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-chief-says-israel-scared-not-ready-for-war/. Checked Sunday 31 March, 2019. xvii

Time, Hizballah, by Alyssa Fetini, Monday, June 08, 2009, http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1903301,00.html. Link checked 31st March 2019. xviii

Lebanese politcal leader. Born in the village of Bteghrine Lebanon, Hawi spent his early years engaged in student politics and in 1955 became a member of the Lebanese Communist Party. He was imprisoned several times for supporting strikes against the Lebanese Government. In 1979, he was elected General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist Pary and held that position until 1993. Hawi became a critic of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon late in his life, after having left the LCP in 2000. In 2004, he supported the foundation of the leftist Democratic Left Movement (DLM), which opposed the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and participated in the independence uprising of 2005. He was assassinated when a bomb planted in his car was detonated by remote control, as he travelled through Beirut. xix

Is the leader of the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon In 1970 two minor extreme left-wing groups, the Socialist Lebanon and the organization of Lebanese Socialists merged to form the Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL) The organization, led since its inception by Muhsin Ibrahim, The OCA represented itself as an independent, revolutionary communist party and, in the early 1970s, strongly criticized the LCP, accusing its leaders of "reformist" tendencies. xx

He joined the Lebanese Communist Party in 1971, and was a prominent member in the Lebanese National Movement that included George Hawi, Kamal Jumblatt and other Lebanese leftist politicians and intellectuals. In 1982, he took part in the resistance against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His fierce criticism against the Lebanese Communist Party's policies, especially its positive attitude towards the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and his rejection of the communist ideology,

led him in 2004 to form, with a group of Lebanese

intellectuals including Samir Kassir, The Democratic Left Movement. In which, he was elected as its chairperson on 17 October 2004 and was reelected in April, 2007. After the Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon, he was elected as the representative of the Maronite seat in Tripoli, during the 2005 Lebanese parliamentary elections. In which, he became the first MP to represent a leftist secular political party in the Lebanese parliament. (WIKIPIDIA) xxi

AlSouria.Net, Atallah: Hizbullah has used the sacrifices of the Lebanese people to defend the Assad regime in Syria, Saturday, 19

th September, 2015, https://www.alsouria.net/content/%D8%B9%D8%B7%D8%A7-

%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%88%D8%B8%D9%81-%D8%AA%D8%B6%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9. Link checked the first of May 2019. xxii

Lebanon Tower, By Yousef Mourtada, 11 September, 2014, Article in Arabic, exact translation of the title (on the anniversary of the Lebanese national resistance, this is Jamoul, whose achievements have been confiscated) http://lebanontower.com/New_Desc.aspx?NewsID=416, Link checked on the 1

st of May 2019.

xxiii Al Ray Newspaper, Kuwait, By Ali Husseini, 23

rd March, 2015, Translation from Arabic, In Lebanon did the Left miss

the train, interview with Former Leaders of the Lebanese Communist Party Youssef Mourtada and Sadallah Mazrani, http://www.alraimedia.com/Home/Details?id=861d64a4-775d-4d14-a4f3-afeff9f28b41, Link checked on the first of March 2019. xxiv

The New York Times, Archives 1987, COMMUNIST PARTY IN LEBANON HURT, By IHSAN A. HIJAZI and SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 4, 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/world/communist-party-in-lebanon-hurt.html, link checked on the 1

st of April 2019.

xxv Is a small strip of disputed land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan

Heights. The territory is about 11 kilometres (7 mi) long and 2.5 kilometres (2 mi) wide xxvi

Reuters, world news, August 14th

2008, By Khaled Yacoub oweis, Syria Lebanon to cooperate on demarcating boarder, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-lebanon/syria-lebanon-to-cooperate-on-demarcating-border-idUSLE11520220080814, link checked on the 1

st of April 2019.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/hassan-nasrallah/

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-netanyahu-and-nasrallah-the-mideast-s-two-messianic-leaders-1.6729277

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-netanyahu-and-nasrallah-the-mideast-s-two-messianic-leaders-1.6729277

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-chief-says-israel-scared-not-ready-for-war/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-chief-says-israel-scared-not-ready-for-war/

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1903301,00.html

https://www.alsouria.net/content/%D8%B9%D8%B7%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%88%D8%B8%D9%81-%D8%AA%D8%B6%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9






http://lebanontower.com/New_Desc.aspx?NewsID=416

http://www.alraimedia.com/Home/Details?id=861d64a4-775d-4d14-a4f3-afeff9f28b41

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/world/communist-party-in-lebanon-hurt.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/world/communist-party-in-lebanon-hurt.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-lebanon/syria-lebanon-to-cooperate-on-demarcating-border-idUSLE11520220080814

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-lebanon/syria-lebanon-to-cooperate-on-demarcating-border-idUSLE11520220080814


xxvii

Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut. Four Hezbollah members were indicted for the assassination and are currently being tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but others have linked the assassination to the Syrian government. xxviii

Political Communication Journal, "Mediatization" of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy?, By: GIANPIETRO MAZZOLENI &WINFRIED SCHULZ, Received 01 Sep 2001, Published online: 06 Aug 2010, Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/105846099198613, Checked 5

th of June 2016.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/105846099198613

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