The Founding of Hezbollah and The Second Lebanon War
In January and February of 1985, as Israel began slowly pulling out of Lebanon, a Lebanese sheik announced the official formation of a resistance movement named "Hezbollah." That name today is synonymous with Katushya rockets and terror. It was founded in order to combat what the Lebanese perceived as Israeli occupation; even though Israel withdrew most of its troops, Hezbollah objected to the soldiers stationed as a "security zone" in southern Lebanon. Between 1982 and 2000, Hezbollah, which means "party of God," waged guerrilla warfare against the IDF, attacking and kidnapping soldiers.
Hezbollah ideology is based heavily on the teachings of the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Kohmeini. In fact, Hezbollah and Iran are closely linked, the latter donating a tremendous amount of aid, weapons, and money to Hezbollah. Hezbollah also receives assistance from the Syrian government, as well as from donations from religious institutions around the world. Hezbollah has emerged as a well-funded, highly-organized terrorist group, evolving from a primitive cell to an organization with sophisticated weaponry and missiles. Hezbollah’s political arm is influential in Lebanese politics, and Hezbollah has wide support among the general Lebanese population, especially the Shia community. The group has been responsible for some of the world’s worst atrocities, such as the suicide truck bombings of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983; the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847; an attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992; and countless attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
During the 1990s, there were a series of attacks by Lebanon—either attacks on Israeli soldiers, or rockets fired into Israeli territory—to which Israel responded militarily, usually with air raids. When Hezbollah, in 2000, assassinated a high-ranking member of the South Lebanese Army, the army which Israel funded and supported, Israel struck at infrastructure inside Lebanon. Finally, as the SLA was beginning to dissolve, and Israel lost its ally in South Lebanon, Israel announced that it would pull out all of its troops from Lebanon. The SLA, and all of its arms, subsequently fell into the hands of Hezbollah.
However, the unilateral pullout did not stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel. Hezbollah claimed their attacks were justified due to Israel’s continued control over a disputed northern region, and because Israel was holding Lebanese citizens prisoner. Hezbollah continued raiding and kidnapping soldiers. In July 2006, Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel, as a diversionary tactic, and at the same time, a ground force moved in and attacked Israeli soldiers. Three were killed immediately, and two were captured; an additional five soldiers died in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the prisoners. In return for the soldiers, Hezbollah demanded the release of four prisoners held inside Israel. On July 12, the same day as the attacks, the Israeli cabinet, let by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, authorized military action against Hezbollah. Lebanon denied any involvement in the attacks and kidnappings, and Israel made it clear that the attacks were targeted against Hezbollah, not Lebanon, though Israel did place some of the blame on the Lebanese government.
The IDF went on the offensive, attacking targets inside Lebanon. Bridges, roads, and the Beirut airport were taken out, and the Israeli Air force targeted buildings housing stockpiles of rockets and missiles. During the course of the war, Hezbollah’s rockets rained down on Israel, hitting towns such as Safed and Nahariya, and penetrating even deeper into Israeli territory, as far south as Tiberias, located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Israeli civilians were killed indiscriminately during the rocket attacks—whether they were Jewish, Druze, Christian, or Muslim. Lebanese civilians were unfortunately killed as well, despite Israel’s careful attempts to strike only military targets. According to the IDF, one reason for the high civilian death toll in Lebanon was due to Hezbollah’s’ tactic of using civilians as "human shields" from which to fire rockets at Israel. At the height of the rocket campaign, over 200 rockets per day were fired into Israeli cities and village.
On August 13, Israel announced that it would accept the terms of the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution 1701 and cease military actions. The last day before the cease-fire went into effect, Hezbollah showered Israel with 250 rockets. On August 14, the cease-fire took effect. A total of forty-four civilians and 119 IDF soldiers had been killed. The two abducted soldiers were held in captivity for two years; their remains were returned to their family in 2008 following a prisoner swap. Many believed the prisoners had been dead from the beginning, their fate kept a secret to be used as a bargaining tactic with the Israeli government.
In addition to the lives lost, life in northern Israel was completely disrupted, businesses and schools closed, houses abandoned, and many residents facing psychological trauma. Approximately 500,000 Israelis were displaced. After the cease-fire, the pattern of Hezbollah rocket attacks and Israeli military reprisals lessened but did not stop completely.
Initially, the Israeli population was divided over the war. However, by the end, the inability of the mighty IDF to uproot the comparatively small Hezbollah army was seen as an embarrassment and a failure. Many called on Olmert to resign, and even the Chief of Staff admitted that there were flaws in the execution of the war plan and in the preparedness of the army. Many Israeli troops and civilians died, and there was no clear military victory.
This prompted a huge internal overhaul of the IDF, which has since proven itself far more prepared for provocation.
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