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On the road with Hezbollah

Mark MacKinnon, August 7, 2006 at 7:52 AM EST

Beirut – These days, you don’t find Hezbollah, they find you.


Even when travelling through the battlefield cities of southern Lebanon, you don’t see the well-armed Islamic militia that Israel is fighting. Just weaponless men on motorcycles who follow you at a distance.


Sometimes they pull up alongside you and ask you who you are and where you are going. They consult by walkie-talkie with someone you can’t see and then, usually, they let you go on your way. They do the interviewing, not you.


Sometimes, colleagues of mine have been told they can’t travel any further on a specific road. Some have been detained for short periods, something that has terrifying potential considering Hezbollah’s habit of kidnapping journalists during the latter stages of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.


It wasn’t always this way.


As it moved into politics after the civil war ended, Hezbollah set up a sophisticated media-relations department that was run out of an office in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a building that has now been reduced to rubble by an Israeli air strike.


Foreign journalists would be ushered into the building and be served tea under a giant portrait of Iran’s ayatollah Ruhollah Khomaini while we waited for meetings with Hezbollah’s politicians and spiritual leaders. As a colleague of mine once joked, it was far better than when they used to chain our lot to radiators.


But even then, reminders would surface of the kind of organization you were dealing with. Last year, while attending a Hezbollah rally in the now-flattened town of Bint Jbeil, I was asked to hand over my digital camera for inspection, since Hassan Nasrallah, the movement’s leader, was going to be speaking and security was tight. It was returned a short while later, and I initially thought nothing of it.


A few days later, in Cairo airport, I was pulled aside and interrogated by security staff about where my camera had been. It was covered in explosive dust, they told me, meaning that whoever had handled my camera in Bint Jbeil had also been engaged in bomb-making.


Even in times of relative peace, it seemed, the Party of God was getting ready for war.

  1. Jeremy Mercer from Marseille, France writes: These blogs are sliced bread. I check in five times a day for updates. Utterly addicted. They have surpassed IHT as my number one war news source.
  2. Yvonne Wackernagel from Woodville.Ontario, Canada writes: Hizbolah - Terrorists, of course. Who has designated them as Terrorists. Because, if you were to take a proper poll of the citizens of the real world, i.e. Hong Kong, South Africa, Indionesia, Pakistan, India, South America, the Phillipines - you get the idea - you would find that the citizens of these countries consider Israel and the United States as the real terrorists. I, personally, object to the American and Canadian and the British TV stations referring to the 'International Community' when they actually mean just their own countries. They are not fooling most of the world citizens.
  3. Greg Ptashny from Canada writes: Very interesting and nformative article. Good example of objective and balanced reporting. Thank you, Mark
  4. Laser Laser from Madison, United States writes: Mark Mackinnon hits it right on the spot. The Hisb'Allah is a dangerous Iranian proxy that must be defeated. As they have lobbed over 3,000 rockets and other missiles--the purpose of which is only to maim and kill civilians--on the civilian Israeli population, the time for a cease fire approaches. There are certain essential terms that must be agreed upon. The Hisb'Allah must be completely disarmed. They must be distanced by 50 kilometers at least from the Israel-Lebanon border. An international force (not observers, but fighters) must enforce any cease fire. If there still is a Lebanese government, it must assume responsibility over southern Lebanon, and it is conceivable that the Lebanese army may be part of the international force. But the bombardment by the Hisb'Allah must be brought to a stop, no matter what it takes to do so.
  5. Ola Sweif from cairo, Egypt writes: if you know that you have an Insane neighbour with history of violence and have been going arround the neighbourhood slaying other neighbours and their children right infront of the police.. so knowing u have no other choice, and no authorities to go to... you have to buy urself a gun and get trained to be able to defend yourself and your family when your time comes.... Since when was self Defense a shameful act? its quite Obvious that Israel had planned this war and just used the two kidnapped Israelis as an excuse.. Hezbollah was ready to negotiate and free them in return of freeing some of the Lebanese hostages Israel have.. which sounds fair to me... but Israel doesnt really care for these 2 and they are being sacrificed for other Agendas and are used as an excuse to promote war and justify the murder of innocent children and civilians
  6. Cherubina de Gabriak from Ottawa, Canada writes: Dear Mark, You write: 'Even in times of relative peace, it seemed, the Party of God was getting ready for war.' I have found other, astonishing, confirmations to these words. Hizbullah has a huge network of bunkers, tunnels and munitions depots built either next to, or right under cities and villages in Southern Lebanon. This work must have taken years to be done. I fail to understand why the Lebanese government has allowed Hizbullah to endanger lives of thousands of Lebanese citizens.
  7. Carol Yost from New York, United States writes: Israel is wrong to attack Lebanon. You don't fight terrorism by bombing cities and infrastructure. I don't care what Bush says. Yes, I know it's his whole rationale for continuing the war on Iraq now. Guess what--he's wrong, too. Sometimes, if you criticize Israel in the United States, no matter how much evidence exists for your position, you are accused of anti-Semitism. This means that Israel can do anything at all. Especially distressing is the fact that, as the United States continues to send bombs to Israel, it keeps delaying and stalling the peace process. Obviously, Bush and his cronies want the war to continue. They are vicious.
  8. david alexander from Montréal, Canada writes: You have been selected by the Ziobots of the Israeli fog machine for special attention. That is, to quote the TImes 'A student team in Jerusalem [which] combs the web in a host of different languages to flag the sites so that those who have signed up can influence an opinion survey or the course of a debate.' has flagged this humble forum. In your case, you are a good guy and enthusiastic amateurs of zionist persuasion have been asked to ' talkback and support Mark MacKinnon for showing Hezbollah for what it is' http://giyus.org/ Your comments may never be the same. Cheers.
  9. Khalid Rahim from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada writes: #5 Ola, how right you are. The two tin soldiers were deployed as scapegoats just as Mossad has been using Palestinians and Israelites for vile purpose of creating extreme tension with Israel's neighbors and Palestinians under their subjugation since 1967. I wonder if you have watched google video- Peace, Propaganda & the Promised land. 98 percent of media in US-Canada marches to the '' Pied Piper's tune ie Israel. If the world has lost the moral courage to confront Israel's atrocities with her neighbors. They have no right to call Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist, for the two are only fighting to maintain their nations dignity. US-Israel along with their ardent supporters are sheerly coercing other nations to support them on maintaining Israel's hegemony over Lebanon.
  10. shawn bull from writes: Ola Sweif from cairo: Sorry Ola we are not buying your conspiracy propaganda over here. Save it for your own people when they have to come up with yet another excuse as to why the Arabs started the war but Israel finished it...convincingly....as usual.
  11. Jim Goodwin from Canada writes: Well Shawn you are aptly named, and not just for the comments here. Cherubina there was no Lebanese government until recently, the Syrians were running that show. It is amazing how the US government was such a cheerleader during the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon, did nothing to help it in this fiasco. The reaction of the Israelis is as if the UK had flattened half of Ireland because the IRA came out of there. There is lots of blame to go around here, and neither side is innocent, even as we are waiting the final hours for a ceasefire the fighting intensifies from both sides. However poor Lebanon, it is the victim here, helpless to do anything, had its major airport bombed when they do not even have an airforce. Please people read many different viewpoints before making up your mind. Not just the propaganda from either side. Read it all and somewhere in the middle of that you will figure out the truth.

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