The Rise of Hezbollah: What it Means

Joel Rosenberg has written a very interesting commentary on the recent developments in the Middle East and he provides some insights that are unique. This is definitely worth reading; here are a few quotes:

Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah, Obama and the 2010 Elections

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Beirut Wednesday morning for a highly provocative trip to Lebanon. He was greeted by tens of thousands of Radical Muslims as a hero of the Islamic Revolution and on Thursday visited the border with Israel. His mission: to rally the terrorist forces of Hezbollah for an apocalyptic war with the Jewish state that will set the stage for the coming of the Shia Islamic messiah known as the “Mahdi” or the “Twelfth Imam.”

But annihilating Israel is not the ultimate objective for Ahmadinejad or Hezbollah. Israel, in the End Times theology of both Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, is only the “little Satan.” The U.S., they believe, is the “Great Satan” and must be annihilated, too.

Mr. Rosenberg also provides some interesting polling data, but our interest lies in his view of Hezbollah and their goals:

Americans are right to be worried. With Iran’s help, Hezbollah has become the most dangerous Shia Muslim terrorist organization in the world. Consider a sampling of Nasrallah’s statements in recent years:

“Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute. . . . Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, ‘Death to America’ will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: ‘Death to America.’”

“We do not believe in multiple Islamic republics; we do believe, however, in a single Islamic world governed by a central government.”

“Jerusalem and Palestine will not be regained with political games but with guns.”

“America will remain the nation’s chief enemy and the greatest Satan of all. Israel will always be for us a cancerous growth that needs to be eradicated.”

“I ask Almighty Allah . . . to make you the men who would clear the way for the Mahdi of this earth to establish divine justice.”
Nasrallah is not just talk. He practices what he preaches. That’s why Ahmadinejad counts him such a close and reliable ally.


Now, with Ahmadinejad’s encouragement and financing, Nasrallah is building what he believes will be the ultimate fighting force to destroy the U.S. and Israel in the “End of Days.”

According to Hezbollah documents captured by Israeli soldiers during the 2006 war, Nasrallah has recruited 42,000 Muslim children ages eight to sixteen into a jihadist youth movement known as “the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts.” The children are immersed in understanding Shia eschatology—End Times theology—about the coming of the Twelfth Imam. They study the lives and teachings of Nasrallah and current Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei, whom they refer to as their “commander-leader.” They wear camouflage suits, paint their faces black, and swear an oath to participate in jihad against Jewish and Christian infidels. According to official organization documents, 120 members have already died in terrorist actions, including as suicide bombers. Once they turn seventeen, they are encouraged to join Hezbollah’s formal military units.


Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad has helped Hezbollah build up a force of more than 30,000 missiles and rockets aimed at Israel, despite a U.N. Security Council resolution forbidding the rearmament of such terror groups after the 20-6 war with Israel. Now imagine both Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah with nuclear warheads.

Thats a lot of missiles.

In other news (and I must admit, this one slipped by me but a good friend forwarded this article), DEBKA has a fascinating article on the partial or complete destruction of an Iranian military installation which is deeply embedded in Iran and heavily guarded:

Blasts hit secret Iranian missile launching-pad for U.S., Israeli targets

A top-secret Iranian military installation was struck by a triple blast Tues. Oct. 12 the day before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon. DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report the site held most of the Shehab-3 medium-range missile launchers Iran had stocked for striking US forces in Iraq and Israel in the event of war - some set to deliver triple warheads (tri-conic nosecones).

The Imam Ali Base where the explosion occurred is situated in lofty Zagros mountain country near the town of Khorramabad in the western Iranian province of Lorestan. This site was selected for an altitude which eases precise targeting and the difficulty of reaching it for air or ground attack. It lies 400 kilometers from Baghdad and primary American bases in central Iraq and 1,250 kilometers from Tel Aviv and central Israel. Both are well within the Shehab-3 missile's 1,800-2,500-kilometer operational range.

Our Iranian sources report that Tehran spent hundreds of millions to build one of the largest subterranean missile launching facilities of its kind in the Middle East or Europe. Burrowed under the Imam Ali Base is a whole network of wide tunnels deep underground. Somehow, a mysterious hand rigged three blasts in quick succession deep inside those tunnels, destroying a large number of launchers and causing enough damage to render the facility unfit for use.

In actual fact, DEBKAfile's military sources report, Iran's missile arsenal and the Revolutionary Guards have also suffered a devastating blow. Worst of all, all their experts are a loss to account for the assailants' ability to penetrate one of Iran's most closely guarded bases and reach deep underground to blow up the missile launchers.

That is fascinating. First we saw the computer virus which continues to plague Iran's nuclear facilities, and now, in what must have been a highly covert operation, deep inside Iran, an entire missile base partially or completely destroyed. It is hard to imagine that anyone other than Israel would have done this.

Regardless, Israel's military capabilities are incredible. They have to be - after all, their very existence is on the line.