Purchase
A Short History
Princeton University Press
March 2007
On Sale: March 1, 2007
183 pages
ISBN: 0691131244
EAN: 9780691131245
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Political
Most policymakers in the United States and Israel have it
wrong. Hezbollah isn't a simple terrorist organization--nor
is it likely to disappear soon. Following Israel's war
against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, the Shi'i
group--which combines the functions of a militia, a social
service and public works provider, and a political party--is
more popular than ever in the Middle East while retaining
its strong base of support in Lebanon. And Hezbollah didn't
merely confront Israel and withstand its military onslaught.
Hezbollah's postwar reconstruction efforts were judged
better than the U.S. government's response to Hurricane
Katrina--not by al-Jazeera, but by an American TV
journalist. In Hezbollah, one of the world's leading experts
on Hezbollah has written the essential guide to
understanding the complexities and paradoxes of a group that
remains entrenched at the heart of Middle East politics. With unmatched clarity and authority, Augustus Richard
Norton tells how Hezbollah developed, how it has evolved,
and what direction it might take in the future. Far from
being a one-dimensional terrorist group, Norton explains,
Hezbollah is a "janus-faced" organization in the middle of
an incomplete metamorphosis from extremism to mundane
politics, an evolution whose outcome is far from certain.
Beginning as a terrorist cat's-paw of Iran, Hezbollah has
since transformed itself into an impressive political party
with an admiring Lebanese constituency, but it has also
insisted on maintaining the potent militia that forced
Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 after almost two
decades of occupation. The most accessible, informed, and balanced analysis of the
group yet written, Hezbollah is essential reading for anyone
who wants to understand the Middle East.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy