Contemporary Effects and Situations & Impacts
This section aims to describe the contemporary effects and situations along with the varied impacts of decisions and actions taken by institutions or individuals. The terrorrist focus groups are Hezbollah and Hamas.
HEZBOLLAH
The ideology of Hezbollah has been summarized as Shi’i radicalism. Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers in the early 1980s in order to spread Islamic revolution and follows a distinct version of Islamic Shi’a ideology developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the “Islamic Revolution” in Iran. Although Hezbollah originally aimed to transform Lebanon into a formal Faqihi Islamic republic, this goal has been abandoned in favor of a more inclusive approach. “Who are Hezbollah”. BBC News. May 21, 2008.
Recent Attacks
Tuesday November 18. Israel’s military said the soldiers patrolling the Shebaa Farms region were injured by an explosive device planted along the border by Hezbollah. On Sunday, soldiers fired on at least two people who had crossed the border from Lebanon. On Tuesday, the army said it believed that incident was linked to an effort by Hezbollah to target Israel in the border region.A statement by the Hezbollah-controlled Al Manar news agency claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, which came on the 14-year anniversary of the Iranian-backed, Shiite group’s kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers in the same region.
SOCIAL, ECONOMIC & POLITCAL CAUSE/EFFECT
Hezbolla’s social demand for more government representation dates back to the birth of Lebanon. The country’s division between Christians, Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims and the establishment of PLO headquarters in the 1970’s allowed for the creation of Hezbolla, whose main social purpose was to give a voice to the unrepresented Shia and spread anti-Sematic sentiments.
Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon has brought them support from not only Shia but also Sunni Muslims. Hezbollah has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, programs for social development and large-scale military deployment of fighters beyond Lebanon’s borders. The organization has been called a state within a state. Defense Industry Daily. September 13, 2013.
Lebanon has never adhered to any of the norms of state function, existing as it does as a proxy country heavily influenced by external powers, and hosting a party in Hezbollah which is stronger militarily, financially and logistically than the state. Mackreath for Open Democracy.
HAMAS
Hamas is a Palestinian militant movement that also serves as one of the territories’ two major political parties. A nationalist-Islamist spinoff of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas was founded in 1987, during the first intifada, and later emerged at the forefront of armed resistance to Israel. The United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Its rival party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has renounced violence. Council on Foreign Relations
Recent Attacks
Tuesday November 18- two Palestinian cousins wielding a gun and butcher knives attacked during morning prayers, killing four rabbis and a policeman. Characterizing the attack as “blood libel” fanned by Palestinian leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a strong response for the deaths. The terror attack — the deadliest in Jerusalem since a man with an automatic weapon killed eight seminary students in March 2008 — came at a particularly tense time in that city and the region at large. It follows a series of recent deadly stabbings and vehicle incidents that, while not the large-scale suicide bombings that defined last decade’s second intifada or the rocket attacks from Gaza earlier this year, have left Jerusalem on edge. CNN
Social, Political and Economic Effect
Hamas, was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were occupied by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six Day War.
Hamas’ primary base of operation is in the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians, where it has remained the de facto authority since shortly after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005. The following year, Hamas surprised Western observers by winning a majority of seats by a narrow margin and forming a government. It may have earned votes as a protest movement and for the social services it provided, but the win was likely more a rejection of the incumbent Fatah, which was widely perceived as having grown corrupt at the helm of the PLO and delivering little to Palestinians with its program of negotiation.
Egypt and Israel’s closed borders with Gaza have perpretated resentment among Gazaans, that have suffered as a result of adequate food, shelter and clothing. Hamas gets must of it’s funding by “taxing” anyone that crosses through their tunnels and by donations.
The Palestinian Authority has not provided salaries for the more than forty thousand Gazan public servants hired by Hamas, which many analysts believe was a contributing factor to the latest outbreak of violence.
Hamas has lost politcal support of Iran and other Middle Eastern regions mainly because of the conflict in Syria has divided opinions.
Hamas continious to be a strong threat to the state of Israel and contributes to most of its armed and military conflict. Council on Foreign Relations
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