The world can’t lose sight of Hizbullah’s final goal

Max L. Kleinman
executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

As Israel is receiving criticism from the United Nations for a “disproportionate” response in Lebanon (and the UN failed to implement its own resolutions on disarming Hizbullah), we must remember that Hizbullah stores and transports its missiles and munitions in civilian areas and vehicles. Israel attempts to destroy them with as much accuracy as possible. But civilian casualties will, unfortunately, inevitably result. Meanwhile, Hizbullah missiles are indiscriminately launched into civilian areas with the intent of causing as many fatalities as possible.

Who is this group Hizbullah? Americans in particular should recognize that Hizbullah has been engaged in violence against the United States, and has held the United States to be its enemy, throughout its entire existence. Begun in 1982, Hizbullah was formed by fighters sent into Lebanon by Iran shortly after its Islamic revolution brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power and led to the holding of American hostages in our embassy for more than a year.

Along with its continual attacks on Israelis, Hizbullah has repeatedly targeted Americans. The best-known incident was the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marines headquarters in Beirut, in which 241 servicemen were killed. Hizbullah has also assassinated American diplomats and bombed U.S. embassies, among other atrocities.

The violence against Israel and the United States is not just for the sake of eradicating the Jewish state and for punishing its principal ally. Hizbullah was created for the express purpose of ending any democratic ambitions in Lebanon and establishing an Iranian-style Islamic theocracy in the country. Yet, clearly, this is but the first step. With the “destruction” of the State of Israel, the Iranian-style Islamic theocracy can be spread further.

Iran and Islamofascism share the same vision of the return to the glory days of Islam. This vision goes even further and is about the return to the Caliphate, the political organization that was established by the first followers of Muhammad, which led to one of the largest empires in the history of the world, encompassing the Middle East, North Africa, and half of Europe. It was an empire in which there was no separation between religion and politics, in which the minority Christians and Jews were persecuted.

It is a vision of the most fundamentalist interpretation of the Muslim religion imposed as tyranny. It is Taliban Afghanistan writ large.

It is not enough for the world to recognize that Israel has a right to exist, as imperative as that recognition is. It is crucial that the world — particularly the moderate Arab regimes — recognize that Israel is fighting a war that much of the world has already been drawn into: the war against Islamofascism. As we are increasingly frustrated by Iran’s aggressive nuclear ambitions, it is imperative that we show strength and unity of purpose by supporting the defeat of Iran’s proxy, Hizbullah, so that the nascent democracy in Lebanon can finally bloom as the forces of Iranian fascism are blunted. That is what this war is all about.