A WAR ON TWO FRONTS: The History and Goals of Hezbollah and HamasBy James Finck, Ph.D.Over the past year I have written several articles dealing with the war between Israel and Hamas. While that war is still ongoing, a more recent conflict has begun between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. While Hamas and Hezbollah have a shared goal to destroy Israel, they are very different organizations and populated by different people. With the attacks between the two and a possible invasion of southern Lebanon, it is worth explaining the difference between the two groups and giving some background on Hezbollah.To understand Hezbollah, it is necessary to understand a quick, and I mean very quick, history of Lebanon. Lebanon was created by the French as a safe haven for Christians who lived in a predominately Islamic world. As such, the law required that the head of the Lebanese government be Christian. Over time, as Muslims became the majority, fights broke out between Christians and Muslims as well as between Shia and Sunni Muslims in what became known as the Lebanese Civil War.Tensions in Lebanon were ratcheted up in 1971 when the Palestinian Liberation Organization, under the control of Fatah moved their headquarters to southern Lebanon. The PLO was organized in 1964 and was considered by Muslims as the legitimate government of Palestine. To put this in American terms, the PLO is the government, but there are parties within the government like the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The largest party, however, is Fatah and so it governs the PLO, and Fatah’s leader, Yasser Arafat, was like the president because his party was in control.From 1967 to 1971 the PLO operated out of Jordan in its attacks against Israel. When the PLO launched an unsuccessful coup against the Jordanian government in 1971, it was kicked out of Jordan and moved to Lebanon. They continued their attacks on Israel as well as began infiltrating Lebanese politics. The PLO teamed up with Lebanese Muslims, most Sunni, in a growing war with Christians that saw massacres against civilians by both sides. In 1982 Israel had had enough and launched an invasion of southern Lebanon pushing the PLO out which moved its headquarters to Tunis, Tunisia. With the PLO’s expulsion, the Israeli army remained behind, and with Lebanese Christian militias, committed their own acts of brutality ...
