Hezbollah in a Nut Shell

Below is a short summary (nut shell summary) of Hezbollah:

Hezbollah

Hezbollah means the Party of God.

It is made up of Lebanese Shiites and its original purpose was to fight members of the Israeli army occupying southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Hezbollah never disarmed and resisted the Israeli army. After Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon, it continued to oppose Israel and was very popular in Lebanon.

The Shiites are the largest religious group in Lebanon.

The civilian wing of Hezbollah has 18% of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament. It also runs hospitals, news services and educational facilities. Hezbollah is supported financially by Syria and by Iran.

Members of Hezbollah are integrated in the Lebanese army and control certain ministries in the government making it virtually impossible for Lebanon to act without knowledge of the Hezbollah party.

The Lebanese army does not operate in Southern Lebanon and that area is exclusively controlled by the armed wing of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has continuously attacked Israel and has tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers hoping to trade them for Hezbollah prisoners, supplies and information.

Hezbollah operates a satellite TV station called Al-Manar (the “Lighthouse”) and a radio station, al-Nour (the “Light”). The media outlets encourage hatred against Jews and Israel.

Hezbollah desires an Islamic government similar to the one in Iran. It strongly supports the destruction of Israel and cooperates with other militant Islamic groups, including Hamas. It also opposes any western oriented institutions.

Hezbollah has missiles that can reach into Israel.

The current leader of Hezbollah is Hassan Nasrallah.