Hezbollah: Iran's Army in Lebanon

Elias Bejjani
FrontPageMagazine.com
6/24/2008

Unfortunately, Lebanon is facing at the present time a crucial and fatal threat to the core and essence of its existence, its soul of coexistence and freedom.

The free world is apparently turning a blind eye to the threat to Lebanon, the land of the historic cedars, the home of the great Phoenicians, and the unique mosaic and multi-cultural country of the Middle East. This tragedy has been unfolding without a decisive deterrent stance from the free world.
Lebanon, the land, entity and country, was cited more than seventy two times in the Holy Bible with reference being made to it of reverence, power, beauty, tranquility, peace and divinity. Lebanon, referred to as the ‘Land of Milk and Honey’, has a deeply rooted 7000 years of history, marked by freedom and tolerance.

Lebanon’s ancestors, the Phoenicians, were the architects and craftsmen of the great Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem. The ‘Temple of the Cedars of God’, was constructed from the valuable, fragrant wood of the Lebanon Mountains. These ancestors worked in tandem with the ancient Jews and forged strong familial and cultural bonds. These seafarers explored the whole world in their ships, trading culture in the form of the alphabet, mythology, religion, knowledge in sciences and art and other exotic goods for riches of gold, silver, gems and many other items of value. In addition to the color purple, the great North Star, the art of navigation, Lebanon has left history with the great men of Hannibal the General, Astarte, Cadmus and Pythagoras. More recently, Lebanon has given the world the revered Christian saints of Charbel, Rafqa, Hardini, Yacoub and many others.

Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" is being abandoned and its followers are being starved of independence, freedom, sovereignty and peace. These words which hold much power are being emptied to be mere rhetoric and hollow slogans in the face of the axis of evil namely Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.

Lebanon is being forced through terrorism, murder, and political intimidation into a subservient regime that is modeled on the backward and repressive system imposed on the Iranian people by the Shiite Mullahs, under what is known in Islam as, "Wilayat al-Faqih." [Guardianship of the Jurists]. Wilayat al-Faqih is a religious theology that is divisive amongst the Muslims themselves. It is a bizarre, autocratic concept created and tailored by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in the early seventies. The basis of this system provides all the ruling powers and authorities with unlimited vetoes on every aspect of life and governance into the hands of one man, the Highest Shiite Imam, whose headquarters is located in the Iranian city of Qom.

Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard proxy in Lebanon, has been entrusted by the Iranian Mullahs to topple the Lebanese Free State and erect in its place an Iranian satellite state, in order to complete the sought after Shiite Crescent. This militant theocratic group fully controls 40% of the Lebanese territories and has in effect established a state within a state. They have been devouring the country piece by piece in a well thought out diabolical plan. Last month's attempted armed coup was the straw that broke the camel's back that put the entire majority of Lebanese and with them the moderate Arab countries, Israel and the entire free world at the front step of Iran's dreadful and criminal scheme.

So what did the standard bearers of democracy, the free world and the spineless Arab countries do? Sadly and pitifully, they threw to the media more empty slogans of support for Lebanon and weak condemnation, empty of substance.

They did not move a single finger while the leaders of the Cedar Revolution, the democratically elected government and pro-western politicians were rounded up and herded to the Arab Emirate of Qatar with Hezbollah's guns pointed to their heads. All the while, predominantly Sunni, west Beirut, remained occupied and under siege by Hezbollah, the Iranian-Syrian Army in Lebanon.

One may wonder why Lebanon had rejected the Israeli call for direct negotiations last week. This call was declared officially twice in a bid to reach a peace agreement between the two neighboring countries?

The answer is simple; the Lebanese government could make an independent and patriotic decision on the Israeli call because it is held captive and hostage to the Axis of Evil. Hezbollah is like a cancer that has penetrated and crept into all Lebanese governmental institutions from the Army to the Airport to various primary ministries. The Hezbollah state was erected and given a free hand during the devastating Syrian occupation that lasted for almost 27 years and ended in 2005.

The Western world and in particular Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States, need to prioritize as primary the Hezbollah dilemma before this cancerous militia lands and spreads in their own sovereign territories. Proof of this infiltration can recently be seen in the report of Hezbollah operatives canvassing the Israeli embassy and various other unidentified locations in Canada! They need to understand that Hezbollah is a serious threat to their national security and interests not only in the Middle East, but in the whole world. Based on this terrifying reality, they need to act immediately.

These beacons of freedom and democracy need not fool themselves by hoping that the UN Resolutions or the Lebanese government will handle Hezbollah's weapons and tame its schemes that aim to topple the Lebanese democratic system. The Western world ought to immediately eradicate and finish Hezbollah's military capabilities by all means available to them. Needless to say that the UN Resolutions will remain toothless, ineffective and useless unless the needed full scale military power backs fully their implementation.

Hezbollah is devouring Lebanon piece by piece and if the Western world does not come to the rescue of the Lebanese people, Lebanon will very soon be lost as an independent and free country and transformed into an Iran satellite state.

Hezbollah is not a Lebanese party by any criteria, but rather a foreign army in Lebanon. Its decision-making process, financing, ideology, training, supplies and weapons all come from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards headquarters and leadership. It has been well documented by several informed resources that Iran annually pays Hezbollah billions of dollars. This group was founded in Lebanon by the Iranian mullahs in 1982 and it is worth mentioning that Hezbollah's main mission was and still is to export, advocate and spread the Khomeini religious ideology to all Middle Eastern countries. Hezbollah's Iranian mission has never been a secret and each and every Lebanese is reminded of this Iranian agenda daily with signs of Hezbollah’s divinity on every street.

Hezbollah is purported to be the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world. The organization is trained, heavily armed and very well equipped. It is operationally supported by Syria and heavily funded by Iran. In fact, Hezbollah is so dangerous in terms of its global reach and influence, that the US Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff recently warned that the Hezbollah organization “makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.”.”(according to military analyst W. Thomas Smith Jr.)

Needless to say that force and deterrence is the only language that Hezbollah and its masters in both Iran and Syria understand.

And so the question remains; is the West ready to finally face with force and firmness that premier terrorist organization of the twenty first century?
Elias Bejjani is a human rights activist, journalist and political commentator.