Hezbollah, the Great Gateway of Victories

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

In May 2000, the world stood on tiptoe, stunned, before the sight of Israeli soldiers fleeing southern Lebanon, looking back over their shoulders in terror lest Lebanon’s fighters catch up with them. The Israelis fled under cover of darkness after taking every precaution to secure a safe escape, leaving behind their South Lebanon Army agents to face their fate without aid or assistance. The world was astonished, because it had grown accustomed to watching the Arab soldier clutch the hem of his garment in his teeth as he turned and fled, and accustomed to the Israeli soldier mounted proudly atop his tank, boasting of his swift victories over the Arabs. Hezbollah surprised the world with its steadfastness, its resolve, its self-confidence, and the courage of its fighters, and it offered enormous sacrifices so that the homeland and its citizens might live. The Israeli, for his part, showed his true, flimsy nature — always searching for a refuge to hide in when things grow serious — and the Israeli military and political leaderships appeared paralyzed, possessing neither the will to defy nor the patience and perseverance to endure. Hezbollah shattered all the old, conventional impressions about Israel’s courage and the flabbiness of Arab armies, and set before the world a new Arab-Islamic model deserving of respect and appreciation — except among some Arab forces, including certain Lebanese forces, who were displeased by what they saw.

Hezbollah managed to achieve a victory over the world itself — the world that had adopted UN Security Council Resolution 425, demanding Israel’s immediate and unconditional withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The world failed to enforce its own resolution, while Hezbollah succeeded, astonishingly, in expelling Israel from southern Lebanon without condition or restriction, thereby registering the first true Arab victory over Israel, and thereby also bringing to an end Israel’s string of victories.

Hezbollah rose to become the icon of Arab victory, winning the trust of Arab masses from the ocean to the gulf, and Sayyed Hassan became the new hero of the Arab nation. Despite the displeasure of many states around the world, particularly some Arab regimes, at this victory, Hezbollah won the respect of the world’s liberation forces, and became a striking example to be emulated in various regions of the world, particularly in Latin America.

The 2006 War

Hezbollah did not rest on its laurels once it expelled Israel from southern Lebanon, nor was it content to live off the memory of the great military achievement it had accomplished; rather, it continued on its path, convinced that Israel is a source of continuous aggression in the region, that it does not exist merely to solve the so-called “Jewish problem,” but was planted in this Arab region to be a factor of instability, an advanced military base for Western colonialism, and a means of draining the energies of Arabs and Muslims, plundering their wealth, and preventing their unity. Hezbollah is entirely convinced that Israel is a center of tyranny and corruption, and that there will be no rest in the Arab-Islamic region as long as it remains on the map, and that Lebanon, like other Arab states, will not be spared Israeli aggression no matter how much the Arabs abase and prostrate themselves before it. Israel does not exist merely to bring the Arabs to their knees at this particular historical moment; it exists to ensure that the Arabs remain unable to rise for many generations to come — it does not merely demolish the present, but always works to demolish the future as well. Hezbollah reads the equation well, and understands fully that a number of Arab regimes have no future without Israel, and that preserving Lebanon and the future of the Arabs requires an awareness of the active Arab role in supporting Israel and preserving its survival and continued presence in the region. This is why Hezbollah turned immediately, after its victory in May, to building a military force capable of defending Lebanon and deterring Israel independently of the Arab regimes, as far as possible.

Hezbollah began its military buildup with diligence and silence, and did not resort to the boastful habits Arabs have come to expect from Arab regimes. It is clear that Hezbollah adopted a number of steps that enabled it to build successfully, which I summarize as follows:

First: finding the appropriate political and military incubator for the party’s work against Israel. The party found no difficulty in finding this incubator, because Iran and Syria were both ready to support an Arab-Islamic orientation against Israel. For Iran, confronting Israel and restoring Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic rights is a doctrinal matter not subject to compromise, and it has always been ready to support opponents of Israel regardless of their ideological, sectarian, or partisan affiliation — confirmed when the Iranian revolution established the world’s first embassy for Sunni Palestine, in the very place where Israel’s embassy had stood in Iran, and when it supported Sunni Palestinian factions counted among the resistance. It was clear from Imam Khomeini’s thinking that the Iranian revolution did not treat the Palestinian cause as a political matter but as an Islamic one, at the very core of Islamic doctrine, and that a Muslim’s doctrine cannot be firmly complete unless he is committed to liberating the holy lands from the clutches of Zionism. Iran supported, militarily, financially, through training and armament, both the Shia represented by Hezbollah and the Sunnis represented by the fighting Palestinian factions, without adopting sectarian positions. As for Syria, it was ready to support any party that could help reinforce its nationalist positions and its adherence to the Arab identity of the land of Syria [Bilad al-Sham]. This is why Syria supported the movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, despite ideological differences, through training, armament, and scientific research. Syria transferred a great deal of military expertise to the Shia and Sunni resistance factions, and provided them with many scientific secrets, particularly regarding the manufacture of rockets.

Hezbollah began with a strong and principled incubator that eased its work in confronting Israel, but it did not relax or rely on this alone; rather, it decided to rise to the level of the responsibility, and to the level of the expectations of those who provided it with support.

Second: organization and consciousness-raising. Hezbollah began a campaign of organization and awareness-raising among the ranks of its supporters. Hezbollah did not do what might be called an “Arab gathering” [a loose, undisciplined rallying of people]; rather, it tried to be precise in selecting the members who would form its hard core and constitute the essence of Hezbollah’s human strength. Here a distinction must be made between ordinary party members and those committed to the party’s activities relating to confrontation with the enemy. The party’s members and supporters are far more numerous than the members committed at the security and military level. The party was careful to establish an education and awareness program made up of two parts: one relating to public relations with the Lebanese and Arab surroundings, and one relating to Islamic doctrine. It raised and educated its sons about the problems and challenges facing Arabs and Muslims, instilled in them awareness of what can be done and what can be deferred, and raised their level of commitment to the causes of the nation, foremost among them the cause of Palestine. Hezbollah differed from all other Arabs in its educational programs in that it did not teach its sons commitment to the Palestinians’ cause, but commitment to their own cause — which is the cause of Palestine. A Hezbollah member never felt that he was fighting someone else’s battle, but rather his own battle, because Palestine belongs to him just as it belongs to the Palestinians. This is why no Palestinian will ever hear a Lebanese reminding him condescendingly that he fought on his behalf, the way other Arab states do — states that made the Palestinians taste bitterness because of their own defeats before Israel.

Hezbollah’s fighters were subjected to a harsh, professional training program that made them among the best, if not the very best, at the global level.

Third: security fortification. Hezbollah focused on security fortification and the secrecy of its work, so as not to give the enemy the chance to wage theoretical wars armed with abundant information about security and military targets. Hezbollah scrutinized the background of every one of its members, and established professional security apparatuses aimed at purging Hezbollah and its surroundings of spies and agents, and at gathering security and intelligence information about the enemy. Experience has proven that the party was meticulous and managed to keep the enemy in a state of near-total ignorance about its activities; Hezbollah is now the most opaque entity as far as Israel is concerned, and Israel lacks the means to reach its secrets, and lacks spies and agents within it. And if Hezbollah’s security performance is compared with that of the Arab regimes, we find that the party was far more precise from a security standpoint, and far more capable of protecting itself from infiltration. If the party has a problem, it is the problem posed by a segment of the Lebanese interior that insists on dealing with Israel and works hard and diligently to weaken, choke, and besiege the party. We have seen how certain Lebanese insisted on dismantling the party’s communications network and folding it into the Lebanese communications network that Israel had already infiltrated.

Fourth: scientific progress. From the outset, the party abandoned entirely the Arab mentality of improvisation, cunning, randomness, magical thinking, and chaos, and adopted the scientific method in social, political, and economic construction. Scientific thinking is the shortest path to correct treatments, whether for confronting crises or achieving progress, and it is the scientific method that ultimately leads to discovery and invention, and from there to progress. This is why the party developed research centers and brought in experts in various fields, and the final word came to belong not to the political leaders but to the people of knowledge and learning. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is not an Arab know-it-all; rather, he is a leader who listens and tries to gather information in order to make decisions on scientific grounds. It has been proven that Hezbollah’s leadership is an enlightened leadership that carries out its work with sound, scientific methodology, and always works to remain within the limits of its capabilities and resources. It does not lie, does not mislead, and does not stir up feelings and emotions. This is why both enemy and friend have come to trust its statements, and Sayyed Hassan’s words have become a standard of truth regarding the conflict with Israel.

Fifth: the moral level. Arab leaders rarely pay attention to the moral dimension of their words and deeds. The matter is different with Hezbollah, which has proven itself a moral example. It differs with others, but it is not willing to engage in activities that fall outside the etiquette of disagreement, or to throw itself into positions it might later regret. It deals with others with a refined moral energy befitting Islamic ethics, and does not try to impose itself, act arrogantly, or lord favors over others. The Lebanese interior may sometimes drag it into positions that draw criticism, but the necessities of self-defense require that it not be negligent. Hezbollah established social, cultural, health, and economic institutions in order to achieve a measure of life stability for its community, and when Lebanese villages were destroyed in 2006, the party paid compensation to Christians before Muslims, and to Sunnis before Shia.

Sixth: the party presented a brilliant tactical military model that will remain a lesson in the annals of military science at the global level throughout history — the neutralization of Israel’s powerful air force. The party managed to strip the Israeli air force of its effectiveness in the July 2006 war by using tunnels and a primitive communications network. In 2006, Israel’s air force was unable to strike fighters, weapons depots, or military positions; its war-fighting effectiveness was crippled, so it turned to striking civilians and destroying homes instead. Because of its tunnel network and advanced armament, the party managed to cripple the Israeli armored corps, forcing Israel to accept a ceasefire without achieving a single one of its war aims.

Hezbollah’s Victory

Hezbollah triumphed in the 2006 war, and that was the second victory the Arabs achieved against Israel, though it was not a victory that led to Israel’s disappearance. It was an important step along the way and a strong indicator that the ascending Arab count that began in 2000 had been confirmed, and that the descending Israeli count continued. As far as Israel is concerned, its army failed in 2006, but the Arabs still insist that Israel was victorious and that the party was defeated. This is not strange, because official Arab circles hate victory, and regard the victorious as rivals who might one day replace them. But it is certain that the future belongs to the resistance, and disgrace to the Arab regimes and their accomplices.

The Gaza Experience

It is clear from the course of events in the Gaza Strip in the wars of 2008/2009, 2012, and 2014 that Gaza has benefited greatly from Hezbollah’s experience, whether in the matter of tunnels, weapons manufacturing, neutralizing air power, or security fortification. Hezbollah has not been stingy with the Palestinian resistance, neither with information nor with experience, and despite its disagreement with some parties within the Palestinian resistance over the situation in Syria, it remains always ready to offer every possible assistance to the Palestinians. The party’s popularity has been affected to some degree following the events in Syria, but the party still dominates the military situation, and it would not be surprising if it were to liberate part of the Palestinian Galilee in the future — something that would revive hope in the hearts of the people of the West Bank and Gaza that they, too, might be rid of occupation and siege. God is greatest, and praise be to God.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “حزب الله رتاج الانتصارات العظيم” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.