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Hezbollah 101: Who is the militant group, and what does it want?

What does Hezbollah want?

  • By Nicholas Blanford Correspondent
  • Arthur Bright Correspondent

Hezbollah seeks the end of the state of Israel, the liberation of Jerusalem, and an Islamic state in Lebanon.

Those ideological pillars remain unchanged since Hezbollah issued a 1985 manifesto of its ideology, although the group today acts more pragmatically than its stated goals would suggest. While it still advocates the destruction of Israel and has offered to help Palestinians from Lebanon, it says that Palestinians must take the lead in securing their freedom. Hezbollah officials also openly admit that Lebanon's many sects make the creation of an Islamic state there impossible in practice.

"Its public manifesto from 1985 simply reflects the times of militancy and uncompromising revolutionary fervor," Magnus Ranstorp, research director at the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm, told the Monitor in Nov. 2009. "In fact, Hezbollah has declared the idea of an Islamic state in Lebanon as a utopian ideal that should not be imposed in Lebanon as long as the country is so diverse."

Hezbollah champions the interests of Lebanon's Shiites, the lar­gest but traditionally most underrepresented sect in Lebanese politics. It provides an impressive range of social, health, and educational services in impoverished Shiite rural areas, guaranteeing broad grass-roots support.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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