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Hezbollah, the Hidden Side of the Coin the Untold Story of Hezbollah

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Hezbollah, the Hidden Side of the Coin the Untold Story of Hezbollah Hezbollah, the Hidden Side of the coin The untold Story of Hezbollah Written by : Massoud Mohamed 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 Page 1 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. Hezbollah … The Hidden Side of the coin Page 2 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). Hezbollah … The Hidden Side of the coin Page 3 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. Hezbollah … The Hidden Side of the coin Page 4 << 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
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