To Roni:

Roni:

Hezbollah (1982) was a response to Israeli violent transgressions/destabilizing efforts in the first place.

God, they bombed the hell out of Beirut and much of Southern Lebanon.

The whole push from Israel is to have its neighbours fighting each other. Check out the Lavon affair and the Israeli invasion of the Egypt and the Suez Canal in '56.

It's part of their M.O.

Ergo, the Lebanese Civil War.

Hezbollah are not Palestinians, indeed they are Shia, whereas Palestinians for the most part (84-87%) are Sunni.

Hezbollah were the group that helped pull the Lebanese out of the destruction after the Israeli withdrawal, when their government couldn't. Set up clinics. Repaired Infrastructure. Fed people. Lent people money.

Now of course they are religiously based. And therefore as it often is with the desperate, they are fanatical...but, no more fanatical than say the Lakota when the ghost dance was seen as a religious way to fight the genocidal avarice of the US gov't.

Or the Puritans. Or the Catholic Inquisition and the Cathars and later the Protestants and Jews.

Or the IRA and the English.

Or the current US Evangelical leadership for that matter, to say nothing of Iran's theocratic dictatorship.

So, until Islam can get off its superstitious 8th Century C.E. back foot, the 'Reformation' they so desperately need will not happen, and that's not getting into the Wahhābīya, who if not for the USA and its oil drenched appetite, would not be functional .

The bigger question is why is such illogical if not counter-intuitive dogma, so attractive that Hezbollah was democratically elected to the Lebanese parliament?

And who is keeping Islam locked in its theocratic prison-boxing ring?

Who benefits from keeping them mired in the past?

And why would some of the Lebanese be so protective of those Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank?