Customer Reviews

Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism

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With 'Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism' Judith Palmer Harik has achieved a comprehensive and highly detailed history of the militant group. Her stated goal is to determine whether Hezbollah is a legitimate fighting force, as many in the Arab world believe, or simply a terrorist organization. While it is clear that the author leans toward the former, she does, to her credit, give an ample amount of attention to the view held by Israelis and Americans. So while her conclusions are certainly debatable, she essentially sticks to the facts. She thoroughly discusses Hezbollah's origins as a direct offshoot of the Iranian Revolution, for the purpose of combatting Israel. She discusses at length, their political objectives, their religious beliefs, and their transformation from radical militia, to mainstream political party. She also effectively puts the movement into the context of the general Mid-East conflict. My only criticism of the book, aside from the author's bias, is that it is severely academic in tone. The average lay reader might find it a bit too tedious. That being said, I would still recommend 'Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism' as a solid introduction to the the subject.

Harik is an American Political Science professor at the American University of Beirut and as such has had an upclose and personal perspective on Hezbollah for some time now. But rather than using her relatively unique perspective as an American academic to provide a revealing look at Hezbollah, Harik has written a fairly straightforward history of the group that does not go into enough detail and is hampered by her obvious sympathy for the group.

The basic thesis of the book is that Hezbollah has transformed itself from what some would call a terrorist organization in the early 80s, to a legitimate Lebanese political party that is capable of compromise. She takes the reader through Hezbollah's early days and describes the domestic political context that led to the group's rise. She also places a fair amount of weight on the regional context and goes into great detail to explain to her audience how Hezbollah is affected by Israel, Syria, Iran, and the U.S. This is the book's greatest strength since these outside actors have a huge impact on Hezbollah and no book that ignores the regional context would be complete.

However, Harik presents Hezbollah as if it were a homogenous actor that has no internal struggles. The only key figures of Hezbollah that Harik takes the time to descirbe are Hassan Nasrallah (some Americans will remember him from the war w/Israel in the summer of 06), and Mohammed Fadlallah. This is problematic because no political organization is without internal divisions or debates, but Harik never really acknowledges this. Presumably, she would have access to many members of Hezbollah and would be able to present a much more detailed look at the internal dynamics of the group, but unfortunately she never does. It seems odd that she would spend so much time describing the history of the group (which was already well-known) and not take the time to tell her audience how the group really functions.

The other main problem with the book is that Harik is plainly a "fan" of Hezbollah and it is hard to tell at times whether or not she is leaving out a wealth of information that does not affirm her perception of the group. This becomes clear when she describes actions by the U.S. or Israel as always being negative in nature, when they're really just acting out of their own perceived interests in the same way that Hezbollah does. You don't have to agree with or like what the U.S. does or with what Hezbollah does, but when you clearly pick a side and cannot be critical of your side, the argument ceases to be a serious academic study.

Anyone wanting to learn more about Hezbollah should read this book. For the most part it is well-written and easy to follow. At the same time, the reader should be aware that Harik is presenting a very one-sided look at her subject and that additional research will certainly be necessary after reading her book.

Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism offers a history of Hezbollah that is now outdated, so as with Hamas this should not be the only book you read, but it provides a good starting point for learning about the basic origins and mission of Hezbollah offering a look at the clanistic regional politics of Lebanon. As noted by a previous reviewer, one man's terrorist group is another's resistance movement. The Lebanese people have been trying to drive Israel from land that they feel belongs to them, but they hadn't had a capable force to do it until Hezbollah emerged dealing Israel two surprising defeats leading to partial pullouts. Beyond wins on the battlefield, Hezbollah conducted similar social service programs to Hamas and won hearts and minds by providing food, housing, jobs, education, etc. Israel and its' Western allies would consider Hezbollah a terrorist group because of their attacks on areas within Israel, but a large section of Lebanese people would consider them a legit resistance movement for resisting an unjust Israeli occupation. The lines between terrorism and resistance movement are often gray and blurry.

This book is pretty good in that it gives a third-party, yet sympathetic look into Hizballah. The author's bias toward them permits her access, which leads to a very interesting read. The problem is that her bias also opens up the door to misinformation. I recommend this book, but I also recommend "The Voice of Hizballah" (English translations of Sayyad Hassan Nasrallah's interviews and speeches - an unvarnished view at his thoughts and motivations) and maybe an anti-Hizballah book sprinkled in.

In the book, the author argues that Hizballah has basically removed itself from the business of terrorism since the early 1980s. She claims the Party of God has transitioned to a political party and social service provider for disaffected Lebanese Shia. The book provides incredible detail about Hizballah's social service programs (a hospital here, a water-purification facility there, schools, etc - how many people the services are helping, where the money is coming from, etc).

Bottom line: This is a good source, but it shouldn't be your only source.

Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism provides detailed history of Hizbu'llah, especially insightful, when it comes to the Lebanese context and politics. It does not aim to cover all features of this organization, but rather focus on the transformation, in the opinon of author, from fundamentalist group to resistence and moderate potical actor.

+ an unorthodox point of view on Hizbu'llah, author tries to proove that it is not in fact a terrorist group. Debatable, but very interesting.

+ greatly covers the Syrian influnce on Hizbu'llah and the double track Syrian policy towards Lebanese government and the Party of God.

+ presents pluralistic political system of Lebanon and puts Hizbu'llah in it's framework.

- biased, favouring Party of God.

- does not cover changing relationship between Tehran and Hizbu'llah

- slightly outdated, Hariri's assassination, Syrian withdrawal, July war or recent skirmish between Hizbu'llah and government are not included. These events shed diffrent light on Hizbu'llah than Palmer-Harik presented.

Summed up, great book that presents new insights, facts and ideas about Hizbu'llah. When read the shortcoming should be kept in mind to prevent biased and uncomplete image of Hizbu'llah. Still a must for anynone interested in Party of God.

Petr Zelinka,
Journal of Security Issues

Dr. Harik provides an in depth analysis of the struggle between Hezbollah and the Israelis as well as the roles of the U.S., Syria and Iran. I learned more in the first few pages than in hours of mainstream media. HIGHLY recommend it!

Judith Palmer Harik has written an entirely descriptive book on Hizbullah.I read her book extremely carefully and searched for a glimpse of originality, but to no avail. Even when she talks about Hizbullah's transformation from a fundamentalist military orgainization into a mainstream political movement--to fit the requirements of political activity in the Lebanese domestic context--she fails to recognize the dynamics of this lively process of transformation. Harik's books in rich in information, but alas it is mostly unprocessed and unintegrated.