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Hizbullah: The World's Most Dangerous Terrorists

(Unherd) David Patrikarakos - Hizbullah has fought Israel for almost 40 years. As Thanassis Cambanis has observed: Hizbullah has "convinced legions of common men and women that Israel can be defeated and destroyed - and not just in the distant future, but soon." Few know more about Hizbullah than IDF Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Shimon Shapira, former military secretary to ex-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and now a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Shapira told me that the architect of Hizbullah was Iranian cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur, who died on June 7 from Covid-19. "Mohtashamipur was a real revolutionary, and a close associate of the founder of the Islamic Republic [Ayatollah] Khomeini." While it is believed that the Lebanese Shia became radicalized after Israeli forces moved into Lebanon in 1982, Hizbullah was founded by Iran "in summer 1981 - before Israel even entered Lebanon." Tehran dispatched soldiers from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Lebanon, where they set up training camps. "Hizbullah is essentially an Iranian brigade in Lebanon," Shapira concludes.
2021-06-21 00:00:00
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