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| “ | We take up arms and fight against the occupation of our land. | „ |
| ~ Hassan Nasrallah |
Hezbollah is a violent radical Shi'ite Militant Islamic organization and political party based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is well known for launching dozens of terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and is backed by Iran, having been given dozens of rockets and funding from the Iranian Government.
The group, along with its military wing is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, Canada, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Argentina, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and the European Union.
Overview
Ideology
Hezbollah is a radical Shi'ite political party and has followed the ideology that the Iranian Leader has created himself. Hezbollah was formed by the followers of Ruhollah Khomeini and plans to spread the Iranian Revolution. When the Hezbollah Manifesto was first created, the goal was to force all French, American and their allies out of Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. Hezbollah is also one of Israel's enemies as both sides have been at war for many years now. Hezbollah has huge majorities in Shia dominate areas of Lebanon especially in the south where they have control over five southern provinces.
Military Power
Hezbollah is rumored to have around 65,000 Active Fighters and is considered to be more powerful than the Lebanese Military as a whole. Hezbollah has over 33,000 Rockets and many of them are powerful enough to reach the city of Tel Aviv.
Historry
Hezbollah was founded in the early 1980s as part of an Iranian effort to aggregate a variety of militant Lebanese Shia groups into a unified organization. Hezbollah acts as a proxy for Iran in the ongoing Iran–Israel proxy conflict. Hezbollah was conceived by Muslim clerics and funded by Iran primarily to harass Israel. Its leaders were followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of 1,500 Revolutionary Guards that arrived from Iran with permission from the Syrian government, which was in occupation of Lebanon at the time. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its objectives as the expulsion of "the Americans, the French and their allies definitely from Lebanon, putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land", submission of the Phalangists to "just power" and bringing them to justice "for the crimes they have perpetrated against Muslims and Christians", and permitting "all the sons of our people" to choose the form of government they want, while calling on them to "pick the option of Islamic government".
Hezbollah waged a guerilla campaign in South Lebanon and as a result, Israel withdrew from Lebanon on 24 May 2000, and the SLA collapsed and surrendered. Hezbollah organised volunteers who fought on the Bosnian side during the Bosnian War. Hezbollah's military strength has grown so significantly that its paramilitary wing is considered more powerful than the Lebanese Army. Hezbollah has been described as a "state within a state", and has grown into an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite TV station, social services and large-scale military deployment of fighters beyond Lebanon's borders. Hezbollah is part of the March 8 Alliance within Lebanon, in opposition to the March 14 Alliance. Hezbollah maintains strong support among Lebanon's Shi'a population, while Sunnis have disagreed with the group's agenda. Hezbollah also finds support from within some Christian areas of Lebanon that are Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah receives military training, weapons, and financial support from Iran, and political support from Syria. Hezbollah and Israel fought each other in the 2006 Lebanon War.
After the 2006–08 Lebanese protests and clashes, a national unity government was formed in 2008, with Hezbollah and its opposition allies obtaining eleven of thirty cabinets seats, enough to give them veto power. In August 2008, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which recognized Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to "liberate or recover occupied lands" (such as the Shebaa Farms). Since 2012, Hezbollah has helped the Syrian government during the Syrian civil war in its fight against the Syrian opposition, which Hezbollah has described as a Zionist plot and a "Wahhabi-Zionist conspiracy" to destroy its alliance with Assad against Israel. It has deployed its militia in both Syria and Iraq to fight or train local forces to fight against ISIL. Once seen as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab world, this image upon which the group's legitimacy rested has been severely damaged due to the sectarian nature of the Syrian Civil War in which it has become embroiled.