The Unholy Trinity:
Hizbullah, Syria and Iran
Daniel Leshem
Policy Paper No. 94 (Hebrew),
Published in
Nativ, 71/6,
November 1999
Summary
Hizbullah leaders, Syria and Iran,
like to portray Hizbullah as a liberation or “resistance” movement fighting
Israeli occupation in South Lebanon, but nothing can be further from the truth.
A Saudi cell of the Lebanon-based Hizbullah helped by Iran and possibly Osama
bin Laden as well, probably carried out the 1996 bombing of the US Khobar Towers
barracks in Dhahran and the 1995 bombing of the US military training center in
Riadh. Syria seems to have allowed or a least chose to ignore senior Iranian
intelligence and Revolutionary Guards officers (like Brigadier Ahmed Sherifi)
and the Hizbullah using Damascus and Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa as recruiting,
training, logistic and operational centers for subversive and terrorist
activities in Saudi Arabia. It is quite possible that Syrian military
intelligence may have had foreknowledge of the bombing in Dhahran. Hizbullah
has also helped Iran in its terrorist and subversive activities in Bahrain.
A thorough examination of the
often contradictory statements and declarations made by Hizbullah leaders in
recent years provides ample proof that this terrorist organization posing as a
group of “freedom fighters” is devoted to the “cause” of the destruction of
Israel rather than the “resistance” to Israeli occupation in South Lebanon. The
organization’s dangerous but so far unsuccessful attempts to carry out bombing
attacks inside Israel, its recently reported increased efforts to recruit
Europeans for the “job” and its recent bombing of targets along the security
fence on Israel’s northern international border make a mockery of its declared
goal to “liberate” Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation. The belief
shared by some Israelis, mainly supporters of a unilateral IDF withdrawal from
the security zone, that Hizbullah would stop attacking Israeli targets as soon
as the IDF pulled out of Lebanon can best be described as naive.
For the complete text of this article (in Hebrew), click
here.