Lebanon
It's the holiest day of the year for the Shi'ite Muslims - Ashura. They commemorate their first martyr, Ali Hussein, the grandson of the profit Mohammad who sacrificed himself in combat 1,400 years ago. This year, Ashura Day was also the first anniversary of Hezbollah's victory in forcing Israel out of Southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. The Lebanese now see Hezbollah as liberators, and the Middle East as the only Arab army to defeat the might of the Israeli forces. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, affirms their holy struggle, or Jihad, is not over. The continuation of the conflict ensures their status in the Arab world, and mobilises and motivates the rank and file.
SHEIK HASSAN NASRALLAH (Translation) We affirm our decision to continue the armed resistance and the jihad to liberate the rest of our occupied land. The enemy knows very well that this is our decision and they know our courage.
This religious fanaticism inspires Hezbollah on the battlefield, but it's also turned the Party of God into a major political force within Lebanon. Just 20 years ago, the Shi'ite Muslims were a neglected and downtrodden sect in Lebanon. With its powerful backers Syria and Iran, Hezbollah is dictating Lebanon's foreign policy - a fact the Lebanese Government is powerless to change. But not everybody agrees with Hezbollah's holy mission. The Christians, who make up a relatively rich third of the Lebanese population, fear it could drag them into an escalating regional conflict and further reduce their influence in Lebanese politics. Gilbran Tueni started a campaign against Syria's presence in Lebanon a year ago. As a powerbroker, Tueni has managed to unite all the Christian factions in this call, and in so doing is taking a stand against Hezbollah as well.
GILBRAN TUENI: We think that Hezbollah should become a normal political party like all the political parties and not be a super political party with weapons, with militias, with an army and everything.
Down south, Hezbollah acts as a de facto government. Pictures of their martyrs line the roads. The formal Lebanese Government has little presence here, and it doesn't have the money or the will to reconstruct the war-torn south. Hezbollah does. The people of Maydoun fled when the Israelis attacked and destroyed their village in 1988. Like many other villages, it's only taken Hezbollah six months to rebuild Maydoun. The Naser family is one of the first to move back.
AHMED NASER (Translation): Everything in our house was lost. It was a big tragedy. People left the village with only the clothes they were wearing. They didn't take anything, only the clothes they were wearing. This was all because of the Israeli occupation of this area.
Hezbollah is capitalising on the Government's failures, building support among the community and ensuring its position as the dominant authority in south Lebanon.
AHMED NASER: Hezbollah is helping us morally and financially. It's helping us with schools. It's helping us with construction, farming, What Hezbollah did, neither the Government nor anyone else did. Hezbollah focused on this area and also helped other areas with these things.
Hezbollah's carefully planned penetration into Lebanese society begins in the classroom. The emphasis here is on strong moral and Islamic teachings, laid on top of normal academic studies. Hezbollah has three major colleges like this one in Beirut, and another 24 in their strongholds of the south and the Bekaa Valley. The Party of God is making sure it has an army of supporters in the future.
FADIA GHABRES, SENIOR TEACHER: If you work, if you study, you can fight your enemy in the future, this is what we usually concentrate on. Study now so that you can understand your enemy in the future. You can fight them in the future. If you don't know their language, how do they think you can fight them?
Hezbollah has built a community on notions of martyrdom and sacrifice. It is every soldier's wish to die a martyr. Sanna is the widow of the famous martyr Ali al Zein. Ali was not a suicide bomber, but his mission - a kamikaze-style raid on an Israeli post - was sure to bring his death. The family's living room is now a shrine to Ali's memory. Sanna is proud of Ali's achievements.
SANNA AL ZIEN (Translation): We consider it happy, and it's not really an end. We consider it the start of a life, an eternal life. Many died normal deaths, yet this didn't affect us. For a martyr, and you might think this is an exaggeration, you feel he is still present.
Ali left behind his oldest son and triplets. They were too young to remember him. All they have are videos to revive their memories. For the moment, they can just watch and wonder about their father.
SANNA AL ZIEN: If there's a knock on the door, they run, shouting "Daddy, Daddy." When they hear who it is, they come back. They know his voice, even though they're young. They still say "Daddy" when there is a knock. I haven't told them yet, but I always talk about him in front of them and say, "Daddy went away. He'll be back. Call Daddy."
But as the widow of a martyr, Sanna's status in society has been elevated, and Hezbollah takes care of all their housing and financial needs.
SANNA AL ZIEN: If people know I'm a martyr's wife, you feel that they change and look at me as if to say... "You've given something. Here we are with you." I don't know. You feel that they have this beautiful and ice feeling.
Hezbollah's support has grown because it combines guns with good works. An entire social welfare network has been built by Hezbollah for the Shi'ite community. With no national health service, Hezbollah provides top-class medical care at half the price.
MOHAMMAD HIJAZI, HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR: We are trying to make it feasible to the poor, to the needy. I mean, the prices, they are very low compared to other hospitals. I can give an example - you can see a specialist physician in our hospital at half what you pay in his own clinic, and for sure it is about one-fourth of what you pay outside in other hospital like AUB, or other hospitals in Lebanon.
Most of the money for Hezbollah's social programs, like the building of this hospital, comes from Iran. For Iran, financing Hezbollah deepens its influence in the region and serves the purpose of exporting its Islamic revolution. Up until recently, Hezbollah received between $10-20 million a month from Iran. However, with the rise of the reform movement in Iran, the aid tap is being turned off, and Hezbollah is expanding into legitimate businesses - like supermarkets, the manufacturing industry, the property market and banks. What's starting to worry the Christians is that Hezbollah's growing strength will upset the fragile balance in Lebanese politics and will ultimately mean an Islamic state in Lebanon.
GILBRAN TUENI, EDITOR, 'AL HAHAR': So we think that we have the right to live here. It's our country, it's our land. We don't have to take lessons from anybody. And we think we have been here before them, and we never claimed for a Christian republic, because we always believed that we can together run a country, and it was like that. So, Hezbollah is a complete Islamic party, financed by the Iranians with a very clear program, which is implementation of Islamic republic in Lebanon and in the Arab world.
That's a claim rejected by Abdullah Kassir - a member of the Lebanese Parliament. He's the moderate face of Hezbollah. Kassir's constant companions are two bodyguards - gun always at hand - routine for a Lebanese politician. Hezbollah's military success down south translated into votes. The national election last August saw Hezbollah win eight seats in parliament. As a political party, Hezbollah is seen as honest and accountable - a rarity in Lebanese politics.
ABDULLAH KASSIR, LEBANESE MP (Translation): Many Lebanese parties and organizations used very nice and attractive slogans, but the practice, to a large extent, didn't match these slogans. Hezbollah is the first movement in Lebanon where people feel that its slogan matches its practice, and its practice does not deviate from its slogan.
As well as being driven by Islam, Abdullah Kassir says Hezbollah is pragmatic. Openly calling for an Islamic state would isolate them from the majority of the electorate and lock them out of any role in Government.
ABDULLAH KASSIR: We believe that there is no contradiction between Hezbollah and its Islamic ideology and its patriotism. Because Islam urges, through its principles and ideology, the defence of the nation, the protection of the nation and civil co-existence within the nation with the other religions or sects.
Kassir says Hezbollah is working within the system to force change, and with seven other Hezbollah MPs that's something they can do. They form one of the biggest voting blocs in the Lebanese Parliament. At this meeting with Education Minister Abdul Rahem Mourad, they have succeeded in getting some extra funding for their schools.
ABDUL RAHEM MOURAD, EDUCATION MINISTER (Translation): Which high schools in the south have been allocated the 1200? Which ones have the money to pay? The liberated area has priority.
But the real power of Hezbollah rests with clerics like leader Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Naiim Qassim, who are considered to speak with the authority of God. They are part of the Shara Council that makes all military, social and political decisions. When asked, the leaders do not deny their goal is an Islamic state. They are just careful about how they say it.
SHEIKH NAIIM QASSEM, DEPUTY LEADER, HEZBOLLAH (Translation): The Islamic state is a project that is linked to the approval of the people. If we assume that the people agree to establish an Islamic state, then it will be established. If they don't agree, then we will be unsuccessful in establishing it and we'll work hard to come closer to realising it, but on the basis of freedom of choice.
At the Lebanese border with Israel, it's not Lebanese flags that mark the reclaimed territory, but Hezbollah's symbol. Under UN Resolution 425, which set the framework for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army was meant to replace Hezbollah at the border. A year on, this has not happened. Hezbollah is still fully armed. And to prove the point, it took 130 journalists to show them the new frontline against Israel at the Shebaa farms. The Shebaa farms is a small parcel of Lebanese land taken by Israel when it won the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. A press conference was held under camouflage, while Israeli planes circled high above. From behind a veil, a senior commander appears to explain the strategy.
COMMANDER (Translation): The enemy knows for every action they take, there will be a reaction. This will happen in several ways as the enemy knows from our past successes.
For the press, it was a rare chance to talk with the fighters the Israelis call 'terrorists'. It was a meticulously organised tour, and the guerrillas talk about their fight to liberate the Shebaa farms, using the right mix of religious and nationalist terms.
FIGHTER : Because we believe in Allah. We believe that we have to fight to free our country. We saw a lot of massacres against our people, against our children and against our women, so we believe that we have to fight to free our country. And as you see right now, we have freed a part of our country and there is still a little part. OK, we'll go again.
But this show of strength is set up for the cameras. To outsiders, Hezbollah would never reveal the true nature or location of its operations. This is Hezbollah in action, attacking the Israeli militia - the South Lebanese Army, or the SLA - just before the withdrawal last May. Their relentless attacks against Israeli forces and the SLA turned Israeli public opinion against the occupation of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters are highly disciplined and organised, sometimes doing months of preparation before an attack. Unlike Hamas or the armed factions of the PLO, Hezbollah's operations have a high success rate. As part of the leadership of the UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon or UNIFL, Timor Goksel knows Hezbollah intimately. For 18 years he has had daily contact with the Hezbollah fighters.
TIMOR GOKSEL, UNIFIL: 500 would be the core fighters. They had no baggage to carry - I mean they had no logistics, they had nothing - everything was prepared for them. Four or five guys would go out for an operation, Certainly their intelligence gathering network was different, they used local sources, whatever, but when it came to execution, they were never very crowded.
Goksel says they are successful because they have the support of the people and maintain their security.
TIOR GOKSEL: Hezbollah is a very successful in the sense that it hides itself very well. It doesn't have any bases. I have been watching them since 1983 here, and in south Lebanon, everybody says so and I guess they're right, I basically knew where everything was, but until this day, after 18 or 19 years, I still haven't discovered a single Hezbollah base or an office. They don't go around advertising it. They are very careful. They do the guerrilla business at its best. So nobody can tell you in exact terms how many Hezbollah bases are there. They don't keep bases, if there had any bases this side, well, they would have destroyed them years ago.
Hezbollah was the first guerrilla group to realise the camera can be more powerful than the gun. Every attack was filmed and released to the press within a couple of hours. In the Arab world, it gave Hezbollah celebrity status. Israel also found it increasingly difficult to deny their impact. With each broadcast, Hezbollah gained newfound respect and an influx of recruits. Hezbollah built on that success, and now own and control one of the biggest satellite networks in the Arab world - al Manar. It's their main voice of support for the Palestinian uprising, or the intifada. Nayef Krayim used to be a Hezbollah guerrilla, but now is running al Manar's multimillion-dollar operation.
NAYEF KRAYIM, AL MANAR NETWORK (Translation): Through highlighting, in a concentrated manner, the persecution and repression that the Palestinian people are subjected to inside occupied Palestine, through urging the Palestinians to be steadfast, to hold on to their rights, to their land, and their right to establish an independent state.
Al Manar has huge appeal in the Arab world, also because of its strict moral code. No scantily clad women or bad language, but plenty of intifada. Half their air time is devoted to it - news on the hour, specially composed songs and provocative propaganda clips. They regularly broadcast their battles to show to the Palestinians how it's done. Krayim says they need Hezbollah as a role model if they are to achieve a homeland.
NAYEF KRAYIM: There's no doubt that Hezbollah's resistance and its success in the liberation gave a strong incentive to the Palestinian people to revert to armed resistance against the occupation in the hope that they would be able to emulate Hezbollah's result in liberating south Lebanon.
A major part of al Manar campaign is to whip up support in the Arab world for the intifada. For the Palestinians, it serves as an important morale booster to keep the conflict going.
TV CLIP: O Arab, Rise up! - The Arab nation inhabitants, 300 million Arabs. In occupied Palestine, 5 million Jews. What are you waiting for?
GHADA ASSAF, AL MANAR JOURNALITS: We've got our holy message as I told you before, to feel what others are passing through, their pain, their panic, their strong desire to get back their land. We know these feelings. We've been through this feeling before.
ALI HAJ YOUSSEF, AL MANAR JOURNALIST: They were able to witness this kind of resistance, a successful resistance, a fully dedicated resistance, that is ascending from heavenly dimensions, from Islam, to fight the enemies of the humanity embodied and presented by the terrorists and the Israelis.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of directly funding and training militant Palestinian factions. It's a claim disputed by the UN.
TIMOR GOKSEL: I know Hezbollah, and it's very, very difficult for these people, who are so security minded to share their own experience or their operations anybody else. It just doesn't sound like it. But as I said, but I don't know Hamas, so I shouldn't talk. But I know Hezbollah...there would be a lot of common things. There would be a lot of spiritual support, moral support, but physically, it just doesn't seem possible to me.
High in the mountains in southern Lebanon, the UN has stationed 5,000 soldiers to keep the peace between Hezbollah and the Israelis. The UN knows Shebaa farms is the place where the Israeli Palestinian conflict could widen into a regional war. Syria is not confronting Israel through its own borders, but using southern Lebanon and Hezbollah as a way into the conflict. But the UN is set to cut half its forces here, leaving greater control to Hezbollah and its Syrian backers to continue their conflict with Israel. Opening the border to war was not a decision taken by the Lebanese Government.
GILBRAN TUENI: And if there is a decision to open the border, let it be real Arab decision, but until now there have been no decision taken in any Arab summit to open the borders for any military operation against Israel. So why do you want me to open a war on my own? And if I want to open a war on my own in Lebanon, the declaration of war, our responsibility is not only taken by the president, or a political party alone or a government. It is something so important, you have to refer to the people.
The Syrian presence is creating bigger divisions in Lebanese society. In April, the streets of Beirut were brought to a standstill. Thousands called for Syria to go, to take their 25,000 troops home and stop their political interference in Lebanon. And in taking this stand against Syria, the Christian groups were effectively coming out against Hezbollah. In the heat of all of this, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah rallied behind Syria, saying its powerful ally was needed because Lebanon was still at war with Israel.
HASSAN NASRALLAH: If Syrian leadership decided to remove its forces and army from Lebanon, we, as Lebanese, would say to them, "You are wrong. What you are doing is not in the interests of Lebanon, not in the local sense, nor in the regional sense."
Soon after, tensions came to a head, with both sides calling their supporters onto the streets to confront each other. Many were fearful another civil war would erupt. Bloodshed was avoided - a widespread Lebanese security crackdown was successful. But some pro-Syrian Muslim groups were allowed to demonstrate, while the anti-Syrian Christian groups were stopped. The way the Lebanese security forces only attacked the Christian demonstrators confirmed to many that Syria is still pulling the strings in Lebanon.
GILBRAN TUENI: Until now, we still think that Syria doesn't recognise them as an independent country, and wants us to be a satellite country, and we are not a satellite country to anybody.
For the moment, both sides have averted armed confrontation and called for dialogue. But tensions could surface in the future. How soon, depends upon whether Hezbollah embraces Lebanon's democratic system, or moves further towards an Iranian model of an Islamic state. If they choose the Islamic path, Lebanon will not see peace, because Hezbollah will not accept the existence of Israel and the Christian political power within Lebanon.
It's the holiest day of the year for the Shi'ite Muslims - Ashura. They commemorate their first martyr, Ali Hussein, the grandson of the profit Mohammad who sacrificed himself in combat 1,400 years ago. This year, Ashura Day was also the first anniversary of Hezbollah's victory in forcing Israel out of Southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. The Lebanese now see Hezbollah as liberators, and the Middle East as the only Arab army to defeat the might of the Israeli forces. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, affirms their holy struggle, or Jihad, is not over. The continuation of the conflict ensures their status in the Arab world, and mobilises and motivates the rank and file.
SHEIK HASSAN NASRALLAH (Translation) We affirm our decision to continue the armed resistance and the jihad to liberate the rest of our occupied land. The enemy knows very well that this is our decision and they know our courage.
This religious fanaticism inspires Hezbollah on the battlefield, but it's also turned the Party of God into a major political force within Lebanon. Just 20 years ago, the Shi'ite Muslims were a neglected and downtrodden sect in Lebanon. With its powerful backers Syria and Iran, Hezbollah is dictating Lebanon's foreign policy - a fact the Lebanese Government is powerless to change. But not everybody agrees with Hezbollah's holy mission. The Christians, who make up a relatively rich third of the Lebanese population, fear it could drag them into an escalating regional conflict and further reduce their influence in Lebanese politics. Gilbran Tueni started a campaign against Syria's presence in Lebanon a year ago. As a powerbroker, Tueni has managed to unite all the Christian factions in this call, and in so doing is taking a stand against Hezbollah as well.
GILBRAN TUENI: We think that Hezbollah should become a normal political party like all the political parties and not be a super political party with weapons, with militias, with an army and everything.
Down south, Hezbollah acts as a de facto government. Pictures of their martyrs line the roads. The formal Lebanese Government has little presence here, and it doesn't have the money or the will to reconstruct the war-torn south. Hezbollah does. The people of Maydoun fled when the Israelis attacked and destroyed their village in 1988. Like many other villages, it's only taken Hezbollah six months to rebuild Maydoun. The Naser family is one of the first to move back.
AHMED NASER (Translation): Everything in our house was lost. It was a big tragedy. People left the village with only the clothes they were wearing. They didn't take anything, only the clothes they were wearing. This was all because of the Israeli occupation of this area.
Hezbollah is capitalising on the Government's failures, building support among the community and ensuring its position as the dominant authority in south Lebanon.
AHMED NASER: Hezbollah is helping us morally and financially. It's helping us with schools. It's helping us with construction, farming, What Hezbollah did, neither the Government nor anyone else did. Hezbollah focused on this area and also helped other areas with these things.
Hezbollah's carefully planned penetration into Lebanese society begins in the classroom. The emphasis here is on strong moral and Islamic teachings, laid on top of normal academic studies. Hezbollah has three major colleges like this one in Beirut, and another 24 in their strongholds of the south and the Bekaa Valley. The Party of God is making sure it has an army of supporters in the future.
FADIA GHABRES, SENIOR TEACHER: If you work, if you study, you can fight your enemy in the future, this is what we usually concentrate on. Study now so that you can understand your enemy in the future. You can fight them in the future. If you don't know their language, how do they think you can fight them?
Hezbollah has built a community on notions of martyrdom and sacrifice. It is every soldier's wish to die a martyr. Sanna is the widow of the famous martyr Ali al Zein. Ali was not a suicide bomber, but his mission - a kamikaze-style raid on an Israeli post - was sure to bring his death. The family's living room is now a shrine to Ali's memory. Sanna is proud of Ali's achievements.
SANNA AL ZIEN (Translation): We consider it happy, and it's not really an end. We consider it the start of a life, an eternal life. Many died normal deaths, yet this didn't affect us. For a martyr, and you might think this is an exaggeration, you feel he is still present.
Ali left behind his oldest son and triplets. They were too young to remember him. All they have are videos to revive their memories. For the moment, they can just watch and wonder about their father.
SANNA AL ZIEN: If there's a knock on the door, they run, shouting "Daddy, Daddy." When they hear who it is, they come back. They know his voice, even though they're young. They still say "Daddy" when there is a knock. I haven't told them yet, but I always talk about him in front of them and say, "Daddy went away. He'll be back. Call Daddy."
But as the widow of a martyr, Sanna's status in society has been elevated, and Hezbollah takes care of all their housing and financial needs.
SANNA AL ZIEN: If people know I'm a martyr's wife, you feel that they change and look at me as if to say... "You've given something. Here we are with you." I don't know. You feel that they have this beautiful and ice feeling.
Hezbollah's support has grown because it combines guns with good works. An entire social welfare network has been built by Hezbollah for the Shi'ite community. With no national health service, Hezbollah provides top-class medical care at half the price.
MOHAMMAD HIJAZI, HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR: We are trying to make it feasible to the poor, to the needy. I mean, the prices, they are very low compared to other hospitals. I can give an example - you can see a specialist physician in our hospital at half what you pay in his own clinic, and for sure it is about one-fourth of what you pay outside in other hospital like AUB, or other hospitals in Lebanon.
Most of the money for Hezbollah's social programs, like the building of this hospital, comes from Iran. For Iran, financing Hezbollah deepens its influence in the region and serves the purpose of exporting its Islamic revolution. Up until recently, Hezbollah received between $10-20 million a month from Iran. However, with the rise of the reform movement in Iran, the aid tap is being turned off, and Hezbollah is expanding into legitimate businesses - like supermarkets, the manufacturing industry, the property market and banks. What's starting to worry the Christians is that Hezbollah's growing strength will upset the fragile balance in Lebanese politics and will ultimately mean an Islamic state in Lebanon.
GILBRAN TUENI, EDITOR, 'AL HAHAR': So we think that we have the right to live here. It's our country, it's our land. We don't have to take lessons from anybody. And we think we have been here before them, and we never claimed for a Christian republic, because we always believed that we can together run a country, and it was like that. So, Hezbollah is a complete Islamic party, financed by the Iranians with a very clear program, which is implementation of Islamic republic in Lebanon and in the Arab world.
That's a claim rejected by Abdullah Kassir - a member of the Lebanese Parliament. He's the moderate face of Hezbollah. Kassir's constant companions are two bodyguards - gun always at hand - routine for a Lebanese politician. Hezbollah's military success down south translated into votes. The national election last August saw Hezbollah win eight seats in parliament. As a political party, Hezbollah is seen as honest and accountable - a rarity in Lebanese politics.
ABDULLAH KASSIR, LEBANESE MP (Translation): Many Lebanese parties and organizations used very nice and attractive slogans, but the practice, to a large extent, didn't match these slogans. Hezbollah is the first movement in Lebanon where people feel that its slogan matches its practice, and its practice does not deviate from its slogan.
As well as being driven by Islam, Abdullah Kassir says Hezbollah is pragmatic. Openly calling for an Islamic state would isolate them from the majority of the electorate and lock them out of any role in Government.
ABDULLAH KASSIR: We believe that there is no contradiction between Hezbollah and its Islamic ideology and its patriotism. Because Islam urges, through its principles and ideology, the defence of the nation, the protection of the nation and civil co-existence within the nation with the other religions or sects.
Kassir says Hezbollah is working within the system to force change, and with seven other Hezbollah MPs that's something they can do. They form one of the biggest voting blocs in the Lebanese Parliament. At this meeting with Education Minister Abdul Rahem Mourad, they have succeeded in getting some extra funding for their schools.
ABDUL RAHEM MOURAD, EDUCATION MINISTER (Translation): Which high schools in the south have been allocated the 1200? Which ones have the money to pay? The liberated area has priority.
But the real power of Hezbollah rests with clerics like leader Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Naiim Qassim, who are considered to speak with the authority of God. They are part of the Shara Council that makes all military, social and political decisions. When asked, the leaders do not deny their goal is an Islamic state. They are just careful about how they say it.
SHEIKH NAIIM QASSEM, DEPUTY LEADER, HEZBOLLAH (Translation): The Islamic state is a project that is linked to the approval of the people. If we assume that the people agree to establish an Islamic state, then it will be established. If they don't agree, then we will be unsuccessful in establishing it and we'll work hard to come closer to realising it, but on the basis of freedom of choice.
At the Lebanese border with Israel, it's not Lebanese flags that mark the reclaimed territory, but Hezbollah's symbol. Under UN Resolution 425, which set the framework for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army was meant to replace Hezbollah at the border. A year on, this has not happened. Hezbollah is still fully armed. And to prove the point, it took 130 journalists to show them the new frontline against Israel at the Shebaa farms. The Shebaa farms is a small parcel of Lebanese land taken by Israel when it won the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. A press conference was held under camouflage, while Israeli planes circled high above. From behind a veil, a senior commander appears to explain the strategy.
COMMANDER (Translation): The enemy knows for every action they take, there will be a reaction. This will happen in several ways as the enemy knows from our past successes.
For the press, it was a rare chance to talk with the fighters the Israelis call 'terrorists'. It was a meticulously organised tour, and the guerrillas talk about their fight to liberate the Shebaa farms, using the right mix of religious and nationalist terms.
FIGHTER : Because we believe in Allah. We believe that we have to fight to free our country. We saw a lot of massacres against our people, against our children and against our women, so we believe that we have to fight to free our country. And as you see right now, we have freed a part of our country and there is still a little part. OK, we'll go again.
But this show of strength is set up for the cameras. To outsiders, Hezbollah would never reveal the true nature or location of its operations. This is Hezbollah in action, attacking the Israeli militia - the South Lebanese Army, or the SLA - just before the withdrawal last May. Their relentless attacks against Israeli forces and the SLA turned Israeli public opinion against the occupation of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters are highly disciplined and organised, sometimes doing months of preparation before an attack. Unlike Hamas or the armed factions of the PLO, Hezbollah's operations have a high success rate. As part of the leadership of the UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon or UNIFL, Timor Goksel knows Hezbollah intimately. For 18 years he has had daily contact with the Hezbollah fighters.
TIMOR GOKSEL, UNIFIL: 500 would be the core fighters. They had no baggage to carry - I mean they had no logistics, they had nothing - everything was prepared for them. Four or five guys would go out for an operation, Certainly their intelligence gathering network was different, they used local sources, whatever, but when it came to execution, they were never very crowded.
Goksel says they are successful because they have the support of the people and maintain their security.
TIOR GOKSEL: Hezbollah is a very successful in the sense that it hides itself very well. It doesn't have any bases. I have been watching them since 1983 here, and in south Lebanon, everybody says so and I guess they're right, I basically knew where everything was, but until this day, after 18 or 19 years, I still haven't discovered a single Hezbollah base or an office. They don't go around advertising it. They are very careful. They do the guerrilla business at its best. So nobody can tell you in exact terms how many Hezbollah bases are there. They don't keep bases, if there had any bases this side, well, they would have destroyed them years ago.
Hezbollah was the first guerrilla group to realise the camera can be more powerful than the gun. Every attack was filmed and released to the press within a couple of hours. In the Arab world, it gave Hezbollah celebrity status. Israel also found it increasingly difficult to deny their impact. With each broadcast, Hezbollah gained newfound respect and an influx of recruits. Hezbollah built on that success, and now own and control one of the biggest satellite networks in the Arab world - al Manar. It's their main voice of support for the Palestinian uprising, or the intifada. Nayef Krayim used to be a Hezbollah guerrilla, but now is running al Manar's multimillion-dollar operation.
NAYEF KRAYIM, AL MANAR NETWORK (Translation): Through highlighting, in a concentrated manner, the persecution and repression that the Palestinian people are subjected to inside occupied Palestine, through urging the Palestinians to be steadfast, to hold on to their rights, to their land, and their right to establish an independent state.
Al Manar has huge appeal in the Arab world, also because of its strict moral code. No scantily clad women or bad language, but plenty of intifada. Half their air time is devoted to it - news on the hour, specially composed songs and provocative propaganda clips. They regularly broadcast their battles to show to the Palestinians how it's done. Krayim says they need Hezbollah as a role model if they are to achieve a homeland.
NAYEF KRAYIM: There's no doubt that Hezbollah's resistance and its success in the liberation gave a strong incentive to the Palestinian people to revert to armed resistance against the occupation in the hope that they would be able to emulate Hezbollah's result in liberating south Lebanon.
A major part of al Manar campaign is to whip up support in the Arab world for the intifada. For the Palestinians, it serves as an important morale booster to keep the conflict going.
TV CLIP: O Arab, Rise up! - The Arab nation inhabitants, 300 million Arabs. In occupied Palestine, 5 million Jews. What are you waiting for?
GHADA ASSAF, AL MANAR JOURNALITS: We've got our holy message as I told you before, to feel what others are passing through, their pain, their panic, their strong desire to get back their land. We know these feelings. We've been through this feeling before.
ALI HAJ YOUSSEF, AL MANAR JOURNALIST: They were able to witness this kind of resistance, a successful resistance, a fully dedicated resistance, that is ascending from heavenly dimensions, from Islam, to fight the enemies of the humanity embodied and presented by the terrorists and the Israelis.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of directly funding and training militant Palestinian factions. It's a claim disputed by the UN.
TIMOR GOKSEL: I know Hezbollah, and it's very, very difficult for these people, who are so security minded to share their own experience or their operations anybody else. It just doesn't sound like it. But as I said, but I don't know Hamas, so I shouldn't talk. But I know Hezbollah...there would be a lot of common things. There would be a lot of spiritual support, moral support, but physically, it just doesn't seem possible to me.
High in the mountains in southern Lebanon, the UN has stationed 5,000 soldiers to keep the peace between Hezbollah and the Israelis. The UN knows Shebaa farms is the place where the Israeli Palestinian conflict could widen into a regional war. Syria is not confronting Israel through its own borders, but using southern Lebanon and Hezbollah as a way into the conflict. But the UN is set to cut half its forces here, leaving greater control to Hezbollah and its Syrian backers to continue their conflict with Israel. Opening the border to war was not a decision taken by the Lebanese Government.
GILBRAN TUENI: And if there is a decision to open the border, let it be real Arab decision, but until now there have been no decision taken in any Arab summit to open the borders for any military operation against Israel. So why do you want me to open a war on my own? And if I want to open a war on my own in Lebanon, the declaration of war, our responsibility is not only taken by the president, or a political party alone or a government. It is something so important, you have to refer to the people.
The Syrian presence is creating bigger divisions in Lebanese society. In April, the streets of Beirut were brought to a standstill. Thousands called for Syria to go, to take their 25,000 troops home and stop their political interference in Lebanon. And in taking this stand against Syria, the Christian groups were effectively coming out against Hezbollah. In the heat of all of this, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah rallied behind Syria, saying its powerful ally was needed because Lebanon was still at war with Israel.
HASSAN NASRALLAH: If Syrian leadership decided to remove its forces and army from Lebanon, we, as Lebanese, would say to them, "You are wrong. What you are doing is not in the interests of Lebanon, not in the local sense, nor in the regional sense."
Soon after, tensions came to a head, with both sides calling their supporters onto the streets to confront each other. Many were fearful another civil war would erupt. Bloodshed was avoided - a widespread Lebanese security crackdown was successful. But some pro-Syrian Muslim groups were allowed to demonstrate, while the anti-Syrian Christian groups were stopped. The way the Lebanese security forces only attacked the Christian demonstrators confirmed to many that Syria is still pulling the strings in Lebanon.
GILBRAN TUENI: Until now, we still think that Syria doesn't recognise them as an independent country, and wants us to be a satellite country, and we are not a satellite country to anybody.
For the moment, both sides have averted armed confrontation and called for dialogue. But tensions could surface in the future. How soon, depends upon whether Hezbollah embraces Lebanon's democratic system, or moves further towards an Iranian model of an Islamic state. If they choose the Islamic path, Lebanon will not see peace, because Hezbollah will not accept the existence of Israel and the Christian political power within Lebanon.