This week we are killing not two, but three birds with the same stone! This Wednesday, we will host the first of our three-part Crisis Simulation Series with the Hezbollah committee from BarMUN III, which is just a mere two weeks away! This simulation is designed to train our BarMUN staff, our CMUNNY travel team, and to give the rest of our members but a taste of BarMUN! So join us, Wednesday, September 23rd, at 7.30PM, in room CAS 222 to part-take in the Hezbollah Crisis.
Hezbollah, or the “Party of God,” is a powerful political and military organization in Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims. It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon. Hostility to Israel has remained the party’s defining platform since May 2000, when the last Israeli troops left Lebanon due in large part to the success of Hezbollah’s military arm, the Islamic Resistance. Hezbollah’s popularity peaked in the 2000s, but took a massive dent among pro-Western Lebanese people when it was at the centre of a huge, destructive war with Israel following the capture of two Israeli soldiers in 2006.
Lebanese Divisions
Hezbollah is the strongest member of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian opposition bloc, which has been pitted against the pro-Western government led by Saad Hariri. It has several seats in parliament and has ministers in a national unity government formed in late 2009. Washington has long branded Hezbollah
a terrorist organization and has accused it of destabilizing Lebanon in the wake of Syria’s withdrawal of its troops from the country following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The movement long operated with neighboring Syria’s blessing, protecting its interests in Lebanon and serving as a card for Damascus to play in its own confrontation with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights. Hezbollah leaders have continued to profess its support for Syria, while stressing Lebanese unity by arguing against “Western interference” in the country.
Passionate and demanding
Hezbollah adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number of freelance hostage taking cells. In 1983, militants who went on to become members of Hezbollah are thought to have planned a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines in Beirut. Hezbollah has always sought to further an Islamic way of life. In the early days, its leaders imposed strict codes of Islamic behavior on towns and villages in the south of the country – a move that was not universally popular with the region’s citizens. But the party emphasizes that its Islamic vision should not be interpreted as an intention to impose an Islamic society on the Lebanese.
Hezbollah and Israel
Last year, Hezbollah made some changes to its political strategy. In this new manifesto, Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah 
called Israel “a constant threat and an impending danger to Lebanon,” and that Hezbollah’s “(resistance) is a permanent national necessity that should last as long as the Israeli threat, and in the absence of a strong, stable state in Lebanon.” Nasrallah continued, however, by saying that “Our problem with them (the Israelis) is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places.” Hezbollah has been provided both physical and ideological support from Syria and Iran. Both of these states have expressed the desire to see the elimination of Israel, and Iran has even been host to conventions for people who deny the holocaust. With ideological backing like this, the stance of Hezbollah is not difficult to believe.
Although Hezbollah’s stance toward the Jewish population remains ambiguous at best, their resistance to the Jewish state is quite clear. Nasrallah has made comments suggesting that the main goal of Hezbollah is to see the eradication and complete destruction of the Jewish state. Although it was originally hoped that Israeli withdrawal from the state would be sufficient, the Secretary General’s statements have made it clear that Hezbollah will not lay down its weapons until Israel ceases to exist.
Statements like this and Nasrallah’s continuous reaffirmation of his hard-line stance bring into question whether Israel and Hezbollah will ever be able to reach an agreement. As ideology now stands, the two groups seem irrevocably estranged from each other. However, Hezbollah’s stance has changed multiple times since its original Manifesto in 1985. It seems that only another change in the Hezbollah’s opinion could bring about a dialogue to what is currently a nearly thirty-year conflict that still has no end in sight.
Sources
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4314423.stm>
<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5AT3VK20091130?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=11621&sp=true>
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6610013>
<http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1158>
For the complete BarMUN III Hezbollah Background Guide, click here.
Announcements
– IBUCS: Congratulations to our Suzanne Schiavone for organizing a very successful IBUCS II! With around 14 delegates in each committee, we were able to conduct a very realistic and exciting simulation of the Lebanese Parliament and the FARC in Colombia. We would also like to congratulate the winners of the awards in each committee:
FARC: Eric Kashdan (Best), Katrina Trost (Outstanding), Stan (Honorable).
Lebanese Parliament: Young Woo Nam (Best), Alex Ingram (Outstanding), Laura Bachmann (Honorable).
The video of the final crisis for the FARC committee can be seen below! Photos from IBUCS can be seen on our Facebook page, here.
– BeanMUN 2011 Secretary-General applications are open. Click here to fill one out. The deadline for applications is Thursday, September 23, 7pm.
– BarMUN is fast approaching but it’s not too late to get involved! Apply to join the staff of this innovative crisis conference here. The next training session is on September 25 from 12-2 in Photonics 205. Lunch will be provided.
– The BosMUN Army is already gearing up! Apply to join the staff here.
– The International Relations Review is still accepting submissions. To submit an entry or inquire about joining the team, email irr@buiaa.org.
– CMUNNY Training session times and locations are below. All sessions are mandatory for members of the CMUNNY Travel Team. If you cannot attend any of the training sessions for whatever reason, email travel@buiaa.org, and we will figure something else out. We also encourage all other members to attend if you are new to Model UN and/or are interested in applying to be on the travel team for another conference.
Training Session 1: September 22nd, 8:30 -9:30 pm CAS 222,
Training Session 2: September 25th, 3 – 6 pm GSU 310-11,
Training Session 3: September 29th, 8:30- 9:15 pm CAS 222,
Training Session 4: October 6th, 8:30- 9:30 pm CAS 222.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn7Df31EdNY]
