Forty years after its foundation, Lebanese Hezbollah remains an organization difficult to understand. An Islamist terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel or the first Arab national Resistance to have ever defeated Tel-Aviv’s troops, a patriotic and respectable party or a fascist network having managed to control all levers of Lebanese political life…what exactly is Hezbollah? How did it acquire such an important role in the Middle-Eastern game and in Lebanese politics? This book has three purposes. It first gives an articulated definition of Hezbollah, presenting a thorough history of the party, describing its well-built internal structure, and the large scope of its social and political action. It then explains the evolution of the party’s mobilization. Finally, it illustrates another path, political but mainly identity-related, that of the Shiite community, today the main constituent of Lebanese society. Through a rigorous and richly documented study, mainly based on primary sources, amongst which hundreds of interviews with rank and file members, executives and officials of the party, and research material never examined before, the author unveils brand new aspects of this organization, thus completing, in a clear and efficient manner, our understanding of both the “Hezbollah phenomenon” and Lebanese politics of the last two decades.
