Is hezbollah anti semitic?

[Raul Castro]

I have been seeing lots of commies support hezbollah despite thier anti-semitic and terrorist tactics

[Ibn.AL.Muqafaa]

As a Lebanese , yes. They are not aware of the difference between Jews, Zionists , and Semites.
ISIL & Hezbollah are two sides of the same coin.

[ckaihatsu]

Hmmmmm -- no.





Hezbollah (pronounced /ˌhɛzbəˈlɑː/;[14][15] Arabic: حزب الله‎‎ Ḥizbu 'llāh, literally "Party of Allah" or "Party of God")—also transliterated Hizbullah, Hizballah, etc.[16]—is a Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon.[17][18] Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council,[19][20] and its political wing is Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. After the death of Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, the group has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General.

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israel occupied a strip of south Lebanon, which was controlled by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a militia supported by Israel. Hezbollah was conceived by Muslim clerics and funded by Iran primarily to harass the Israeli occupation.[7] Its leaders were followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of 1,500 Revolutionary Guards that arrived from Iran with permission from the Syrian government,[21] which was in occupation of Lebanon at the time. Hezbollah waged a guerilla campaign in South Lebanon and as a result, Israel withdrew from Lebanon on May 24, 2000, and SLA collapsed and surrendered. Backed by Iran, Hezbollah fighters fought against Serbian forces during the Bosnian War.[22]

Hezbollah's military strength has grown so significantly[23][24] that its paramilitary wing is considered more powerful than the Lebanese Army.[25][26] Hezbollah has been described as a "state within a state",[27] and has grown into an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite TV station, social services and large-scale military deployment of fighters beyond Lebanon's borders.[28][29][30] Hezbollah is part of the March 8 Alliance within Lebanon, in opposition to the March 14 Alliance. Hezbollah maintains strong support among Lebanon's Shi'a population,[31] while Sunnis have disagreed with the group's agenda.[32][33] Hezbollah receives military training, weapons, and financial support from Iran, and political support from Syria.[34] Hezbollah and Israel fought each other in the 2006 Lebanon War.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah





The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IPA /ˈaɪsᵻl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria[note 1] (ISIS, /ˈaɪsᵻs/),[39] Islamic State (IS), and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎‎ dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]),[40][41] is a Salafi jihadist unrecognised state and militant group that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.[42][43][44][45][46][47][48] ISIL gained global notoriety in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive,[49] followed by its capture of Mosul[50] and the Sinjar massacre.[51] Its adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood.[52]

This group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many individual countries. ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings[53] of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites.[54] The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has charged the group with ethnic cleansing on a "historic scale" in northern Iraq.[55]




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

[Raul Castro]

could it be possible the leaders just don't know? Are you sure the soldiers are like that?

[ckaihatsu]

could it be possible the leaders just don't know? Are you sure the soldiers are like that?


The title of this thread is misleading to begin with, using the typical provocation of calling something 'anti-Semitic' when actually referring to anti-*Zionist* politics, from wherever.

If you're going to assert a schism between the leadership and the rank-and-file, then you should be the one to find evidence for your claim.

[Raul Castro]

I am asking a question, and btw the wikipedia article says they are anti-semitic look at the ideology

[Ale Brider]

Hezbollah is anti-semitic, end of story. Oh, they make a distinction between Zionism and Jews? Fantastic, all problems are solved. You know which other organizations do that constantly (at least in Eastern Europe)? Right-wing crypto-fascist parties. Under the guise of anti-Zionism they spread their disgusting filth. Just like Hezbollah. The fact they were formed originally to resist occupation is not an excuse. There is no excuse for anti-semitism. Look at what happens on Al-Manar, or the kind of things Nasrallah says sometimes. The Israeli state is reactionary in many ways. So is Hezbollah (in their anti-semitism, in their religious zeal and social conservatism) Why should leftists support one or the other?

[ckaihatsu]

I am asking a question, and btw the wikipedia article says they are anti-semitic look at the ideology


Okay, I see what you're referring to, and I don't dispute it.





Hezbollah is anti-semitic, end of story. Oh, they make a distinction between Zionism and Jews? Fantastic, all problems are solved.


*Everyone* should make a distinction between Zionism and Jews, because not all Jews are Zionists.





You know which other organizations do that constantly (at least in Eastern Europe)? Right-wing crypto-fascist parties.


This is a spurious argument.





Under the guise of anti-Zionism they spread their disgusting filth. Just like Hezbollah. The fact they were formed originally to resist occupation is not an excuse. There is no excuse for anti-semitism.


Agreed.





Look at what happens on Al-Manar, or the kind of things Nasrallah says sometimes. The Israeli state is reactionary in many ways. So is Hezbollah (in their anti-semitism, in their religious zeal and social conservatism) Why should leftists support one or the other?


In a strictly *geopolitical* context -- like one regarding the state of Israel -- one should side with Hezbollah since it *is* anti-Zionist.

Also:





Social services

Main article: Hezbollah social services

Hezbollah organizes an extensive social development program and runs hospitals, news services, educational facilities, and encouragement of Nikah mut‘ah.[122][137] One of its established institutions, Jihad Al Binna's Reconstruction Campaign, is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure development projects in Lebanon.[138] Hezbollah has set up a Martyr's Institute (Al-Shahid Social Association), which guarantees to provide living and education expenses "for the families of fighters who die" in battle.[124] An IRIN news report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted:

"Hezbollah not only has armed and political wings – it also boasts an extensive social development program. Hezbollah currently operates at least four hospitals, twelve clinics, twelve schools and two agricultural centres that provide farmers with technical assistance and training. It also has an environmental department and an extensive social assistance program. Medical care is also cheaper than in most of the country's private hospitals and free for Hezbollah members."[122]

According to CNN, "Hezbollah did everything that a government should do, from collecting the garbage to running hospitals and repairing schools."[139] In July 2006, during the war with Israel, when there was no running water in Beirut, Hezbollah was arranging supplies around the city. Lebanese Shiites "see Hezbollah as a political movement and a social service provider as much as it is a militia."[139] Hezbollah also rewards its guerilla members who have been wounded in battle by taking them to Hezbollah-run amusement parks.[140]

Hezbollah is, therefore, deeply embedded in the Lebanese society.[21]

[Ale Brider]

Of course everybody has to make the distinction but you just can't deny that it is a common thing among anti-semitic organizations that they utilize this distinction to mask their hatred towards Jews. They have been doing this for a long time, it is a common tactic that is meant to confuse and make it easier to defend indefensible positions. It is outright cynicism to say that everybody needs to make that distinction because this is so basic. But just as with other forms of racism can come in more simple and radical ways (like Hammerskins) it can also come in a "family friendly" way (like most of modern KKK groups that claim they uphold "heritage" and they "respect all races"). It is the worst kind of cowardice to relativize racism or anti-semitism and trying to make it look better, as I said earlier; making easier to defend the indefensible.

I also do not accept that anyone shoudl support Hezbollah. Even if from a strict geopolitical sense. It makes me throw up since they are constantly calling my kind subhuman in different ways, yet it "just" anti-Zionism. My support (if this is a must) goes to the authentic left-wing organizations both in Lebanon and in Israel. My support goes to the largely unorganized proletariat. My support goes to those who are victims of either Israeli imperialism or the anti-semitism of Islamist militias like Hezbollah. Sorry, call me a liberal moralist or anything like that (though I know for sure I am not) but my stomach just can't take Hezbollah.

Also, declaring support for reactionary religious movements does not further the struggle by anything.

[ckaihatsu]

Of course everybody has to make the distinction but you just can't deny that it is a common thing among anti-semitic organizations that they utilize this distinction to mask their hatred towards Jews.


Well, to the extent that one harbors hatred of *any* individuals without knowing them, that *is* unjustifiable, since it's prejudice (pre-judging).

If the hatred happens to be against a sectarian and apartheid nation-state that commits daily violence against Palestinians, which happens to have a Jewish-member power structure, then that's a *justifiable* judgment against Zionist Jews.

Please note that you're implicitly *de*-politicizing the issue of Israel, and of Zionism -- which, again, is the standard provocation used ('anti-Semitism') against those who defend Palestinians and look to simply communicate the factual *politics* of what Israel does.





They have been doing this for a long time, it is a common tactic that is meant to confuse and make it easier to defend indefensible positions.


You're being vague here (which organizations?).





It is outright cynicism to say that everybody needs to make that distinction because this is so basic.


You're saying that pointing out basic distinctions in the political landscape is somehow *cynicism* (unjustifiable excessive pessimism) -- ?

It's *important*, and is *not* in any way cynical, to make distinctions between anti-Semitic (racial) attitudes, and a principled *political* stance on a particular bourgeois nation-state (Israel) that uses apartheid / adventurism / imperialism against Palestinians.





But just as with other forms of racism can come in more simple and radical ways (like Hammerskins) it can also come in a "family friendly" way (like most of modern KKK groups that claim they uphold "heritage" and they "respect all races"). It is the worst kind of cowardice to relativize racism or anti-semitism and trying to make it look better, as I said earlier; making easier to defend the indefensible.


Okay, now you're introducing far-right attitudes -- the anti-Semitism of which is definitely *not* on par with a principled anti-Zionist / anti-imperialist politics.





I also do not accept that anyone shoudl support Hezbollah. Even if from a strict geopolitical sense. It makes me throw up since they are constantly calling my kind subhuman in different ways, yet it "just" anti-Zionism.


You're overgeneralizing, though -- I would think that they're referring specifically to the *Zionist* Jews of Israel.





My support (if this is a must) goes to the authentic left-wing organizations both in Lebanon and in Israel. My support goes to the largely unorganized proletariat. My support goes to those who are victims of either Israeli imperialism or the anti-semitism of Islamist militias like Hezbollah. Sorry, call me a liberal moralist or anything like that (though I know for sure I am not) but my stomach just can't take Hezbollah.

Also, declaring support for reactionary religious movements does not further the struggle by anything.


I, too, would rather see gains made by the organized, anti-Zionist proletariat in the region.

I dispute, though, that Hezbollah just has some gauzy undistinguished 'anti-Semitism' against the Jewish diaspora as a whole.

Unfortunately there are often circumstances / situations like the 2006 Lebanon War where the proletariat does not have its own collective and organizational independence to intervene on a strictly *class* basis -- this is where things then are at the default bourgeois-geopolitical level, and can be somewhat dealt with as such from without.





The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War[4] (Arabic: حرب تموز‎‎, Ḥarb Tammūz) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War (Hebrew: מלחמת לבנון השנייה‎‎, Milhemet Levanon HaShniya),[52] was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, Northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war, some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.[2]




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War


Ideologies & Operations -- Left Centrifugalism



http://s6.postimg.org/3si9so4xd/110211_Ideologies_Operations_Left_Centrifug.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/zc8b2rb3h/full/)

[Raul Castro]

So they give free shit is what you are saying? That is not a good reason, the nazis gave free education, college was free in nazi germany but should we support them?

[willowtooth]

So they give free shit is what you are saying? That is not a good reason, the nazis gave free education, college was free in nazi germany but should we support them?

The nazis never gave free education what are you talking about? Hitler once said
Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction there were indoctrination classes at one point, but actually learning and schooling were reserved for the aryan elite. I'm pretty sure they even said people in wheelchairs couldn't go to school. I dont know what fee system was worked out, I know the germans had some form of free high school for a number of years before hitler but thats it

to answer your original question lebanese communists allied breifly back in 2006 to fight israel. they attempt to filter out the islamist influences from hezbollah, and push for united lebanon and national liberation, but thats all. Theyve murderd many communists in the past including professors and children. They're not the best of friends, to say the least

[ckaihatsu]

So they give free shit is what you are saying? That is not a good reason, the nazis gave free education, college was free in nazi germany but should we support them?


Yeah, I'm not flag-waving here -- certainly social services should be provided on a *secular* basis, to everyone. It looks like Hezbollah is able to benefit from a system of patronage due to its specialized anti-Zionist turf in the vicinity of Israel.

Also just found this from a search:


Communists form guerrilla group in Lebanon to fight back against ISIS

Published time: 5 Sep, 2015 20:20

https://www.rt.com/news/314535-lebanon-communist-guerrilla-isis/

[Ale Brider]

Communists form guerrilla group in Lebanon to fight back against ISIS

Now this is something I would declare my support way faster than I would for Hezbollah. (even mentioning the little possibility of me supporting Hezbollah makes me feel bad). Even if I probably need to look into this group more, (if there is more information about them ofc) they seem sympathetic. Especially if they are secular, communist, and fight ISIS.

As for Hezbollah, I still maintain my views. When I said a lot of far-right political groups in Europe are doing the same thing (calling themselves anti-Zionist) as Hezbollah, I was primarily referring to Hungarian ones because I have the most experience with Hungarian far-right. The Jobbik Party was doing this since their founding, declaring their anti-Zionism; until recently, almost all of their leaders (notably Csanád Szegedi and Előd Novák) made a lot of anti-semitic remarks. And their voters are even worse because they don't even feel like they need to hide their anti-semitism. There are also, several smaller organizations that are like them, for example Identitesz or the various paramilitary groups that were prominent in 2009-2012. Or I could say the Slovakian L'SNS. As far as I know, the "anti-Zionism" code word is pretty popular with Nazbol or Nazbol-like people too (if they are not straight about their anti-semitism, that is). So yeah. I would not make the mistake to think every mention of anti-Zionism is hiding anti-semitic sentiments, especially within the left. But forgive me if I conclude from my experience that reactionary groups which have a religious and ethnic (or racial) antagonism towards Jewish people I think that their proclaimed anti-Zionism is perhaps a bit more than just anti-Zionism.

I never denied that Israeli politics towards Palestinians are shameful and I never said that the critique of the Israeli state is inherently anti-semitic or antyhing like that. But I hate when the two following things happen. Pro primo, I hate when the critique if Israeli government becomes a meme. On this level, it is useless and it is only repeating the old talking points without any substantial revolutionary leftist critique of the Middle Eastern situation in general, because what Israel does, is a part of that and cannot be treated as a separate issue. Pro secundo, I hate when because of this critique, anti-semitic organizations become, even if a little, but acceptable. No they are not. People need to learn to recognize anti-semitism, even if it comes with a somewhat "politically correct" face. Look, if I see that the political stance of supporting Palestine and being anti-Zionist is sincere and genuine without any suspicious history of anti-semitic remarks, I can accept it. But I refuse to accept it from a socially conservative, militant, reactionary Islamist group that has leaders with such history of anti-semitic remarks. You just can't know whether members of Hezbollah are largely anti-semitic or not. But I would go with the cautious way and suppose they are.

[ckaihatsu]

Now this is something I would declare my support way faster than I would for Hezbollah. (even mentioning the little possibility of me supporting Hezbollah makes me feel bad). Even if I probably need to look into this group more, (if there is more information about them ofc) they seem sympathetic. Especially if they are secular, communist, and fight ISIS.

As for Hezbollah, I still maintain my views. When I said a lot of far-right political groups in Europe are doing the same thing (calling themselves anti-Zionist) as Hezbollah, I was primarily referring to Hungarian ones because I have the most experience with Hungarian far-right. The Jobbik Party was doing this since their founding, declaring their anti-Zionism; until recently, almost all of their leaders (notably Csanád Szegedi and Előd Novák) made a lot of anti-semitic remarks. And their voters are even worse because they don't even feel like they need to hide their anti-semitism. There are also, several smaller organizations that are like them, for example Identitesz or the various paramilitary groups that were prominent in 2009-2012. Or I could say the Slovakian L'SNS. As far as I know, the "anti-Zionism" code word is pretty popular with Nazbol or Nazbol-like people too (if they are not straight about their anti-semitism, that is). So yeah. I would not make the mistake to think every mention of anti-Zionism is hiding anti-semitic sentiments, especially within the left.




But forgive me if I conclude from my experience that reactionary groups which have a religious and ethnic (or racial) antagonism towards Jewish people I think that their proclaimed anti-Zionism is perhaps a bit more than just anti-Zionism.


Understood, and understandable.





I never denied that Israeli politics towards Palestinians are shameful and I never said that the critique of the Israeli state is inherently anti-semitic or antyhing like that. But I hate when the two following things happen.




Pro primo, I hate when the critique if Israeli government becomes a meme. On this level, it is useless and it is only repeating the old talking points without any substantial revolutionary leftist critique of the Middle Eastern situation in general, because what Israel does, is a part of that and cannot be treated as a separate issue.


This is rather vague, and I'll remind that Israel (with U.S. / Western backing) is the *hegemon* of the Middle East.

What's wrong with repeating indisputable facts about a nation-state's bullying behavior -- ?





Pro secundo, I hate when because of this critique, anti-semitic organizations become, even if a little, but acceptable. No they are not. People need to learn to recognize anti-semitism, even if it comes with a somewhat "politically correct" face. Look, if I see that the political stance of supporting Palestine and being anti-Zionist is sincere and genuine without any suspicious history of anti-semitic remarks, I can accept it. But I refuse to accept it from a socially conservative, militant, reactionary Islamist group that has leaders with such history of anti-semitic remarks. You just can't know whether members of Hezbollah are largely anti-semitic or not. But I would go with the cautious way and suppose they are.


Well the world is far from perfect and I don't think we can expect local-to-Israel militant anti-Zionist organizations to be paragons of equanimity. I'll again contend that Hezbollah is probably most familiar with the *Zionist* type of Jewish person, and that that's what they're battling (as distinct from a far-right stereotyping anti-Semitism by racial identity as a whole).

[badger2]

No, the schizoid nature of the question also links to the founding of the Ukraine as a viking kingship with Eastern Rite catholicism: Karmon, Hezbollah America Latina: "after Vatican II, Judaism was rendered incompatible with Catholicism."