What is Hamas & Hezbollah?
Middle Eastern Politics With an Uneducated American
I have been feeling pretty dumb anytime I hear about this conflict in the Middle East. I have found some comfort in the fact that I at least don’t get myself involved in the conversation. And, if I had, I’d claim ignorance. It is definitely easier to just say ,“all war bad”, then move on.
After finishing, Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World, Mark Fritz had more than convinced me I wasn’t alone in claiming ignorance. There have been countless abominations ignored, unknown, or exacerbated by people like me far before I was born and long after. I quickly began to think the troves of media I had previously sat aside were being taken for granted. Even if it meant sifting out the vast amount of bullshit from the sparsely found, non-sensationalized facts, I felt I at least had the responsibility to try and sympathize with the many people who are not afforded that oppurtunity.
My first question was who are these Hamas and Hezbollah groups I kept hearing about.
Let’s start with the ones who’s walkie-talkies blew up.
That was the first I had heard of Hezbollah, a political party within the country of Lebanon. They only hold 13 of the 128 seats in the Lebanese parliament, although their military presence is more substantial. Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group, Shia’s constitute roughly a third of the Lebanese population. James Gelvin, a professor from UCLA that specializes in the Middle East, participated in a very helpful interview with Andrew Callaghan. Gelvin states that although religious factors drive a lot of Hezbollah’s recruitment, Lebanon’s exceptionally poor economy and post-civil war “government” create an environment in which a gang mentality can take hold of it’s citizens, especially young men in Southern Lebanon. This mentality is what naturally leads people to join the strongest force available to them, for torn young men hunting for an identity in a country which hasn’t yet found it’s own, Hezbollah is their answer.
Among religion and lack of identity are the claims to land. One such example is a line of seven villages in Northern Israel. Hezbollah claims that these territories are Lebanese and belong to them. In 1948 Lebanese people would be driven from these villages as Israeli forces stepped in. A 1949 truce between Lebanon and Israel would result in Lebanon relinquishing these villages to Israel, right along the border of the two countries. Present day Hezbollah, wants those villages back, enacting multiple engagements with Israel along their border because of them.
I was first introduced to Hamas when they were recorded gliding into Israel, they crossed the Gaza Strip’s border and were landing in the precariously placed Nova Music Festival, barely into Israeli territory. What followed was mass murder and the seizing of multiple hostages, some American. Religion and land disputes had been bubbling between Hamas and Israel since Hamas’s creation in 1987, this was when they sorted themselves out from the Muslim Brotherhood within Palestine. The overarching conflict between the Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims has much more history, consisting of generation after generation of periods of turmoil and also co-existence dating back to biblical times. Hamas claims their Israeli invasion was justified, a defensive action to be taken against Israel and their machinations against Islam.
Hamas has suffered incredible losses at the expense of their explosive entrance into Israel on that widely televised day in October 2023. They hadn’t stayed in Israel very long before they were pushed back to their home base, the Gaza Strip. It was then Israel began sending troves of ground forces and bombs into the strip. That has continued well into the present. Hamas hasn’t fared too well against the widely debated response of Israel. Their leadership has been turned into a carousel of death by the IDF (Israel Defense Force), this has resulted in a steep decline in their fighting force, and a weakening grasp on the Gaza Strip.
Besides backing from Iran and a common hatred for Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah normally wouldn’t be working together in their current capacity. Their main conflict is that of a disagreement over who is the rightful successor to their religious prophet, Muhammed. Sunni groups like Hamas believe the decision is up to the Muslim people, whereas Shiites, like Hezbollah, believe their leader needs to be a descendant of Muhammed himself. This disagreement has led to consistent bloodshed and generational hatred. What happens if both sides actually do rid themselves of Israel? Time may tell, but without their combined enemy and shared Iranian support, I am left to question how well their current relationship would hold up.
Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has asserted Iran would strike U.S. military bases in the Middle East if there was any more aggression from President Trump and the American war machine. It was 5 days after the United States dropped bombs on multiple Iranian nuclear sites and 3 days after a ceasefire was enacted. Clearly tensions haven’t relaxed during the current talks of peace. Citizens of every nation involved are left to wait; waiting to see how the tiny percentage at the top of the food chain will decide the future of the great masses beneath them. Speak your voice and pay attention to the important shit, who knows if or how long you’ll be able to.