Originally Posted by roachboy

hezbollah is effectively a living expression of the self-defeating character of israeli military policies---left to itself, without israeli actions, i doubt seriously that hezbollah would be a particularly prominent group--but in the context of (repeated) israeli invasions of lebanon hezbollah has taken on considerable importance. the israeli military is the best recruiting tool hezbollah could ask for. right now, for exampe, hezbollah is being seen as a symbol of resistance to israeli actions.

i posted the monbiot piece earlier in part to see if debate could be shifted away from the fairly simplistic frame within which it was started, which eliminates all context around the emergence and ongoing nature of hezbollah by eliminating any consideration of the israeli role in creating and maintaining it.

you cannot understand what is going on in the region if you begin with pollyanna premises about the role played by the regional military superpower in israel. you cannot understand what is going on if you only think of israel as a fantasy, or of you only consider israel as it presents itself in wartime propaganda (the illusion that the invasion of lebanon is purely defensive, say)..based on this type of fundamental ignorance of the empirical situation, only false questions can be posed, like whether hezbollah "has the right" to exist in lebanon.