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Hezbollah’S Combined Stra T- Egy of Accommodation and Resistance

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Hezbollah’S Combined Stra T- Egy of Accommodation and Resistance STOCKHOLM STUDIES IN POLITICS 1 4 9 A LEBANESE VANGUARD FOR THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION: HEZBOLLAH’S COMBINED STRA T- EGY OF ACCOMMODATION AND RESISTANCE 1 2 A Lebanese vanguard for the Islamic revo- lution: Hezbollah’s combined strategy of accommodation and resistance Mats Wärn 3 ©Mats Wärn, Stockholm University 2012 ISBN 978-91-7447-604-0 Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice AB, Stockholm, 2012 Distributor: Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden 4 Contents Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................. 9 1.1 Post-islamism: accommodation instead of rejection ................................. 13 1.2 The aim of the thesis ....................................................................................... 15 1.3 ‘Post-Islamism’ and Hezbollah’s “Lebanonization” process ...................... 18 1.4 How it all started, and why............................................................................. 26 1.5 Interviews: meeting with Hezbollah ............................................................. 28 1.6 The way to go about ........................................................................................ 31 1.7 Use of material ................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 2. A theoretical approach to Islamism .................................. 40 2.1 ‘Terrorism’, structures of violence and Frantz Fanon ................................ 40 2.2 The deceptive notion of ‘fundamentalism’ ................................................... 45 2.3 Islamism: permeating all spheres of life ...................................................... 50 2.3 Islamism as expression of grievances .......................................................... 54 2.5 Strategies of pragmatism and accommodation .......................................... 57 2.6 The historico-dynamical process of resistance ........................................... 59 2.7 ‘Nativism’ and ‘counter-othering’ as resistance .......................................... 61 2.8 Self-strengthening Shi’ite activism: the Kerbala narrative ....................... 64 2.9 The nativism and counter-othering of Khomeinism ................................... 68 2.10 The constitutive dimension: function and meaning ................................. 73 2.11 Khomeini’s Islamic state, the Welayat al-Faqih........................................ 80 2.12 The failure of accommodation ..................................................................... 83 2.13 A Gramscian approach .................................................................................. 86 2.14 Risks and pitfalls ............................................................................................ 93 2.15 The so-called ‘Lebanonization’ of Hezbollah .............................................. 99 2.16 The changing character of a national identity ........................................ 101 2.17 Concluding remarks and empirical chapters ........................................... 105 Chapter 3. The battle for Lebanon ...................................................... 111 3.1 The formation of the Lebanese state and civil war .................................. 112 3.2 Civil war, divisions and invasions ................................................................ 121 3.3 Shi’ite divisions: national versus transnational ........................................ 125 3.4 More radicalization, deepening cleavages ................................................. 135 3.5 The emerging resistance in the south ........................................................ 145 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 150 Chapter 4. The rise of Hezbollah .......................................................... 152 4.1 Hezbollah’s ideological manifesto to the world ......................................... 153 4.2 A Fanonian logic: the ontology of violence ................................................ 159 5 4.3 1985-1990: fighting for turf and survival .................................................. 166 4.4 The unsteady formation of “Pax Syriana” .................................................. 170 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 182 Chapter 5. The new era of the Ta’if Accord ....................................... 185 5.1 The nature of the Ta’if Accord ...................................................................... 187 5.2 Hezbollah takes a stand towards the new order ...................................... 194 5.3 ‘Infitah’: Entering the political system ....................................................... 201 5.4 No ambitions to establish an Islamic state ................................................ 208 5.6 Protecting the resistance .............................................................................. 212 5.7 Consolidating a chord with the Syrians ...................................................... 221 5.8 Developing a modus operandi with the regime ........................................ 225 5.9 Assailed and accused ..................................................................................... 232 5.10 Hezbollah responds to the accusations .................................................... 238 5.11 The ambiguity of resistance: national or Islamic? ................................. 245 5.12 Escalation and efficiency of resistance in the south .............................. 253 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 260 Chapter 6. The post-Israeli withdrawal phase .................................. 262 6.1. The Israeli withdrawal .................................................................................. 263 6.2. Maintaining the conflict in the border zone and beyond ........................ 270 6.3. Digging into the ‘resistance society’ .......................................................... 279 6.4 Resistance embedded in faith and transcendence ................................... 285 6.5 Reaching out: a conditional appeal for unity ............................................ 296 6.6 Post- 9-11: dreading and daring schemes of division ............................. 305 6.7 Assailed, again ................................................................................................ 309 6.8 Nationalist resistance with a transnational commitment ........................ 315 6.9 The conflict over UNSC Resolution 1559 .................................................... 324 6.10 Countdown to Showdown – the ‘July War’ 2006 .................................... 335 Chapter 7. Summary and conclusion .................................................. 347 Sammanfattning på svenska ................................................................ 361 Teori och metod ..................................................................................................... 364 Material ................................................................................................................... 366 Avhandlingens struktur och kapitel .................................................................... 366 Slutsats ................................................................................................................... 369 References ................................................................................................ 370 6 Abbreviations DFF De Facto Forces GATT General Agreements of Tariff and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product LBC Lebanese Broadcast Cooperation LCP Lebanese Communist Party LNM Lebanese National Movement MNF The Multinational Force NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization PFLP GC Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Com- mand PLO Palestinian Liberation Organization SLA South Lebanese Army UN United Nations UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 7 Acknowledgements Looking back, I’m struck by the kindness and help I have encountered dur- ing the course of this work. Many people have assisted me in accomplishing this study and they all deserve my deepest respect and gratitude: my dear tutors Lasse Lindström (who pushed me to make it through) and Björn Beckman; the members of Politics of Development Group at Stockholm University (PODSU) (especially Sofie Tornhill, Magnus Lembke and Mer- rick Tabor for their reading of this script in its final stages); the friends and colleagues at the Department of Political Science, not to forget those who I shared offices with at Frescati Backe and Skogstorpet ‘all those days’; my dear friend and colleague Anders Strindberg, Naval Post Graduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security; Clive Jones, Leeds University; Haytham Muzahem; Talal Atrissi, Lebanese University; Linda Butler, Insti- tute for Palestine Studies, Washington; Michel Nawfal, al-Mustaqbal; Saqr Abu Fakhr, Institute for Palestine Studies and as-Safir, Beirut; Nizar Ham- zeh, American University of Beirut; Mona Harb American University of Beirut; the Lebanese Communist Party; Soheil Natour; Asaam Namaan; Ali Fayyad and his staff at the Consultative Center for
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