Hezbollah: A Brief History

The Islamic Revolution in Iran laid the seed that eventually created what is now Hezbollah. When the "King of Kings", also known as the Shah of Iran fell to a new version of Islamic ideations cast by Ayatollah Khomeini, this planted the first Islamic theocracy of the modern era. This wave essentially was an endeavor by Iran's Ayatollah to export an Islamic Revolution, but it required much more than stern rhetoric. Unfortunately for the United States and her allies, the rhetoric that Imam Khomeini had displayed fueled vast uprisings in the Middle East and not just in Iran. These emotions that the revolutionaries had were a foundation, but it would take an organization to seize authority over the region. Hence, we see the initial phase on how Hezbollah was born and its irrevocable connection to Iran.  It has been insisted by Hezbollah that they are not an "organization" due to the fact that the affiliates have no specific responsibilities. They are and were loyal to Iran’s Ayatollah known as Imam Khomeini who maintained in the beginning phase of Hezbollah that "every Muslim is a member, thus it is impossible to list its membership affiliates." That being said, Hezbollah is described as a "pure calling" and since its foundational beginning in 1982, they are referred to as the Shia equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood. Interestingly, in contradiction to what was initially claimed by Hezbollah, Iran has worked to make Hezbollah an increasingly structured, centralized, and accountable organization.

As time progressed in the revolutionary movement, Ayatollah Khomeini sought to establish "Revolutionary organizations among Shi'a populations in Lebanon, Iraq, and various Gulf Sheikhdoms, which will later become the broader Hezbollah movement." As well as, forged alliances with jihadist groups in Egypt, Algeria, and other Sunni countries and provided them with money, weapons, and technical support.

            The Ayatollah of Iran would have benefited greatly by incorporating the Sunni revolutionaries in the Hezbollah network, but due to the constant tensions between the Sunni and Shi'as this was unable to be accomplished. This is not to say that the Sunni branch was unwilling to accept the financial and technological assistance provided by Iran, but there would always be a sense of distrust amongst the groups due to religious beliefs. Regardless of how exactly Hezbollah was distributed, what the international system witnessed after Hezbollah’s birth is a long stream of violent attacks that range in kidnapping, suicide bombing, hijacking and assassinations. What we will discuss next is not so much the details of certain attacks, but the Manifesto of Hezbollah. 

The Genesis of Hezbollah

Society looks at religious terrorism through a very narrow scope. When we analyze the ramifications of a terrorist attack, we automatically look to the past in the hopes that by understanding past behavior we are able to predict future behavior. Or at least determine a path in which a cell, network or in this case an organization like Hezbollah operates. The important fact to keep in mind is that even though the underlying reasons may in fact be different, the outcome has seemingly always been the same.

We have been taught that in the history of terrorist operations, at one point something shifts and that the basic motivation is that a group of people is no longer satisfied. Whether it is through political representation, religious freedom, human rights, etc., this can be in reference to an individual or a group. In reference to this theory, I intend to conduct a literature review on the genesis of the organization known as Hezbollah. As well as the established Manifesto that outlines its primary and secondary objectives; both short and long term, and the ever-evolving threat in radical Islamic terrorism, but specifically the Hezbollah movement. This is a topic that I will be discussing in detail in future posts that emphasize the emerging threat that is becoming closer and closer to a reality in the United States.