Will Hizbullah reconsider its raison d’être?

By Kamal Sanjakdar

March/April 2004

BEIRUT - The latest prisoners’ exchange between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel marked another success for the radical Shiite party in its struggle against the Zionist state. Nevertheless despite this additional success the party still refrains from ‘‘investing’’ in internal Lebanese politics based on its successes in the struggle against Israel.

This has been a crucial question for many in Lebanon. Some Shiites, eager of increasing their community’s share in the apparatus of the Lebanese state, have always pushed the party to assume a bigger role on the internal level. Others, mostly leftists, argued that the liberation of the land is meaningless without that of the people, meaning that fighting Israel shouldn’t be at the expense of the internal political struggle.

For the party, a successful resistance couldn’t be concretized without it being fully independent from the turmoil of internal politics shattered by sectarianism and struggles for power. Despite being the most modern in Lebanon in terms of infrastructure and capabilities, the party seems satisfied by a limited representation in the Lebanese parliament and in other civic society institutions such as municipalities or syndicates, much less than what it could achieve.

This wise choice has been coupled with constant advancements on the resistance level. Over the years, operations became more and more sophisticated and the media outlets of the party became more and more developed, providing international support for the cause of the resistance. Today, in the west, no credible argumentation can be made to depict the Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The visits of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other foreign officials to the party’s headquarters are there to prove it.

Over the years also, the party also managed to establish its reputation as a credible institution. Destroyed houses on the front line were mostly rebuilt by ‘‘Jihad al-Binaa’’ the contracting arm of the party. Prisoners, wounded and families of martyrs were taken in charge by the various social institutions of the Hezbollah. On the other hand, the assassination of former Secretary General Abbas Moussawi didn’t affect the party’s struggle that had become by that time an institution to the opposite of most other Lebanese political formations. But most of all, the martyrdom of Hadi Nasrallah the son of the current Secretary General was the cherry on the cake which came to stress that the party’s leadership also abided by the set agenda which is rarely the case in Lebanon.

This professionalism in conducting the war against Israel is also reflected in the party’s practical dropping of its own raison d’être: the launching of an ‘‘Islamic revolution in Lebanon’’ which is also a manifestation of sensibility towards Lebanon’s weak equilibriums.

Towards all the above, the party seems only to ask for one thing, popular backup of the resistance. Even now, when the backup is not total for the liberation of the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah is refraining from launching frequent and daily attacks over the area.

I think this professionalism is costing the Lebanese people much less than a single illicit transaction like those taking place daily in Lebanon. It is true that Hezbollah is the result of our political system that needs to be eradicated as a whole, but surely, it is what is best in this status quo that we all want to abandon.

Would the South had been liberated and the prisoners’ brought back home if it weren’t for the resistance? The answer would be, definitely not. Would we have preferred to have another type of secular resistance, also struggling for an internal social economic and political reform of our system? Ideally, yes, but due to its non-existence, one has definitely to take the only other option. What did the Lebanese people have to bear for the liberation of the South and of the prisoners? Much less than what they suffered from frauds and other corruption deals.

Finally, congratulations for the prisoners I hope they can ever forget the hard times they had in Israeli prisons as we the Lebanese people can ever learn from the resistance as well as from our enemy.

Kamal Sanjakdar is the Editor in Chief of Alternative