Understanding the Anti-Israel Ideology of Hezbollah
MAYS AL-JABAL, LEBANON - AUGUST 24: Men wait at the towns cemetery for the arrival of the coffin of Hezbollah fighter Husein Mohamad Choukair who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on August 23, during his funeral on August 24, 2024 Mays Al-Jabal, Lebanon. The recent assassination of a Hezbollah military commander in Lebanon, as well as the killing of the political leader of Hamas in Iran, has heightened concerns of a wider regional war between Israel and Iran-backed enemies like Hezbollah. Israel and Hezbollah have traded regular cross-border fire since Oct. 7, although both sides have seemed to calculate their attacks to avoid all-out war.
In a recent article, I explained that the founders of Hezbollah looked to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for their inspiration. This also helps to explain the intensity of their anti-Israel ideology, which is similar to the anti-Israel hatred of Hamas, which is both ideological and territorial.
In the case of Hamas, its leaders and fighters are of Arab-Palestinian descent, meaning that in many cases, their parents or grandparents were displaced when the modern State of Israel was established in a portion of of its ancient territory in 1948. Many others would also claim that they are victims of Israeli oppression to this day, be it in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) or in Gaza.
Along with this, they are radical Muslims and therefore have no interest in a two-state solution, viewing Israel as completely and entirely illegitimate. This also separates them from the leaders and members of the Palestinian Authority, who are more moderate Muslims and, in many cases, would embrace a workable two-state solution.
As for Hezbollah, while it was not birthed out the soil of Palestinian refugees, it was “founded after the Israeli military seizure of Lebanon in 1982, which resulted in immediate formation of the Islamic resistance units for the liberation of the occupied territories and for the expulsion of the aggressive Israelis forces.” And it took its inspiration from the rhetoric of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who became the national leader after the fall of the Shah in 1979.
History Is Helpful
Current Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated in an August 2, 2013 Jerusalem Day speech , “As the Imam Khomeini described it, Israel is a cancerous tumor! It is a cancer and everybody knows the nature of a cancer is to spread itself in the body and destroy it. The only solution to heal is to eradicate the cancer. Never surrender to it! Never give an opportunity!”
He continued,
“Israel represents a constant danger to all the people of the region. Israel is a danger to Jordan and its elimination serves the national interest of Jordan. Israel is a danger to Egypt and its elimination serves the national interest of Egypt. Israel is a danger to Syria and its elimination serves the national interest of Syria. In the same spirit, Israel is a danger to Lebanon and its elimination serves the national interest of Lebanon.
“The least we can do on this Al-Qods day is to not recognize the state of Israel, not to recognize its existence and legitimacy.”
To this the crowd responded, “Death to Israel!” after swearing its allegiance to him.
It’s also important to remember that Islam divides the world into the Dar al-Islam, the world of Islam, and the Dar al-Harb, the world of war (literally, the world of the sword). The former applies to countries and regions under Muslim dominance; the latter refers to the unconquered territories of the world.
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And what happens to territories that were once under Islamic rule and no longer are? They are considered a blight and a stain, a slap in the face to the prophet of Islam and his God. That’s why, many centuries after Spain freed itself from Muslim rule, Islamic leaders can still refer to this loss as a “bleeding wound.”
How much more grievous is the loss of Palestine to Israel?
A Prayer for the Muslims
The land was first conquered by Islam in the seventh century, shortly after the death of Muhammad — and in Islamic lore, Jerusalem was the city from which Muhammad ascended to Heaven, making it in the third holiest city in the religion. Yet today, both Jerusalem and the land of Israel are controlled by the Jews. How can this be? And how can it be that the Muslims, who are to be the rulers and the conquerors, are under the heel of the despised Israelis?
A well-known Islamic tradition (Sahih Muslim Book 41, Hadith 6985) states:
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.
The fires of Hezbollah are fueled by radical rhetoric like this.
As for Khomeini, he actually distinguished between the Jews who lived in his country from “those godless, bloodsucking Zionists.”
But without a doubt, for him, the evil entity of Israel was a dangerous tumor that had to be eradicated and destroyed.
It is that ideology, coupled with territorial disputes, that fuels the fires of Hezbollah’s murderous hatred.
May God awaken their hearts!
Dr. Michael Brown is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. He is the author of more than 40 books, including Can You be Gay and Christian?; Our Hands Are Stained With Blood; and Seize the Moment: How to Fuel the Fires of Revival. You can connect with him on Facebook, X, or YouTube.
