So where do Hamas and Hezbollah come from?

These two Islamic resistance movements were born in the 1980s in reaction to Israel’s invasion, occupation and oppression. 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told Wright that he joined Hezbollah after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982

When the civil war in Lebanon ended, Hezbollah became a political party, winning seats in Parliament, and it continues to function in mainstream Lebanese society.  Hezbollah was successful in 2000 in forcing Israel to withdraw from the southern strip of Lebanon which Israel had occupied since its 1982 invasion.

Before 1994, Hamas restricted its guerrilla actions to political and military targets in the occupied Palestinian territories.  On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler, shot and killed 29 Muslim worshippers in the Mosque of the Patriarch in Hebron.  Hamas took revenge with a new weapon – the suicide bomber. 

One of the deadliest attacks was a Tel Aviv bus bombing in October 1994 that killed 23 people.  Posters at universities in the West Bank and Gaza read: “Israel has nuclear bombs, we have human bombs.”  Indeed, Sheik Hassan Yousef of Hamas told the Journal of Middle East Affairs in 2002, "We do not have F-16s, but we do have one weapon that is more powerful than the F-16 or anything else.  It is a weapon that is unconventional and at the same time mightier than any nuclear bomb.  It is the martyrdom bomber.” 

James O. Goldsborough, a former columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, correlated increases in the number of suicide bombers with Israel’s stepped up violence against the Palestinian people.
 
Hamas and Hezbollah enjoy widespread popular support because they stand up to Israeli aggression.  Both combine political action and militant jihad with humanitarian, social and educational programs.

We used to discuss issues among ourselves," he said.  "If we are to expel the Israeli occupation from our country, how do we do this?  We noticed what happened in Palestine, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, in the Golan, in Sinai.  We reached a conclusion that we cannot rely on the Arab League states, nor on the United Nations,
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told Wright that he joined Hezbollah after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.  "We used to discuss issues among ourselves," he said.  "If we are to expel the Israeli occupation from our country, how do we do this?  We noticed what happened in Palestine, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, in the Golan, in Sinai.  We reached a conclusion that we cannot rely on the Arab League states, nor on the United Nations," he added.  "The only way that we have is to take up arms and fight the occupation forces."

There is tremendous support for Hezbollah among Arabs.  Abdel-Menem Mustapha, Egypt bureau chief of the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, said, "The Arab street feels strong sympathy with Hezbollah and Nasrallah, because its pride has been battered, and it is weary of decades of concessions made to Israel by Arab governments."

Journalist Dahr Jamail, reporting this week from the Lebanese/Syrian border, said tens of thousands of Arab protestors took to the streets, condemning Israel's invasion of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.  Jamail also reported that thousands of angry Iraqis marched in Baghdad in solidarity with Nasrallah and denounced Israel and the United States for the attacks.

Bush is determined to control the entire Middle East - propelled by the neo-cons who seek economic and political hegemony over the region, and the Christian Zionists who await Christ's second coming in Israel.  William Kristol, editor of the neo-con Weekly Standard, said, "It's our war."

Bush has been itching for an excuse to expand his war on Iraq to Iran and Syria.

"The U.S. Strategic Command, supported by the Air Force, has been drawing up plans, at the President's direction, for a major bombing campaign in Iran," Seymour Hersh wrote in last week's New Yorker.  Senior military commanders have warned the administration that "the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran's nuclear program" and "could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States," including endangering our troops in Iraq, Hersh added.