Hezbollah

Almost thirty years after its foundation, Lebanese Hezbollah is an organization that remains difficult to understand. What exactly is Hezbollah? An Islamist terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel? 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 levels of Lebanese political life? How did this organization acquire such an important role in the Middle-Eastern game and in Lebanese politics?

This book has three purposes. Firstly, to clearly articulate a definition of Hezbollah, presenting a thorough history of the party, describing its internal structure and the large scope of its social and political action. Secondly, to explain the evolution of the party's mobilization. And finally, to illustrate another path, political but mainly identity-related: that of the Shiite community, the main constituent of Lebanese society today.

Through a rigorous and richly documented study, based on primary sources including 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 our understanding of both the "Hezbollah phenomenon" and Lebanese politics of the last two decades.