GEORGE NEGUS: This dramatic footage shows Hezbollah fighters in action six years ago. Hezbollah was formed after Israel invaded Lebanon back in 1982 to combat that occupation. In 2000, Israel finally withdrew after years of relentless attacks by Hezbollah's obviously highly skilled and disciplined Shi'ite fighters. Under UN Resolution 425, the Lebanese Army was to have taken control of the border after the Israelis left, but this has never happened.
In May 2001, at a press conference under camouflage, a senior Hezbollah commander appeared behind a veil to explain that this would be the new front line.
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."
Hezbollah is far more than just an army. It's acted as a de facto government in southern Lebanon. The fact is that in those days the national government in Beirut wasn't helping the villagers in their war-torn south, but Hezbollah was.
AHMED NASER (Translation): Hezbollah is helping us morally and financially. It's helping us with schools. It's helping us with construction, farmingÂ…
When Dateline reported the political rise of Hezbollah back in 2001, it had built an entire social welfare network for Lebanon's Shi'ite community, much like Hamas does in the Occupied Territories. Hezbollah provides and runs schools, clinics, orphanages, war widows aid centres and surprisingly high-tech hospitals.
MOHAMMAD HIJAZI HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR MOHAMMAD HIJAZI: 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.
The money for these non-military programs originally came from fellow Shi'ite Iran. But these days, much of its income comes from a business empire that includes a chain of supermarkets, hotels, a bank, travel agency and taxi companies. On top of this, the so-called Party of God has become a major political force within Lebanon. In last year's elections, Hezbollah candidates won 11% of the seats in the national parliament and has two ministers in the cabinet. Abdullah Kassir was elected to the Lebanese Parliament in 2000. He told Dateline that 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.
Last year - despite the fact that Syria, one of its major backers, was forced by the UN to withdraw its armed forces - Hezbollah actually increased its share of the vote. On the eve of their historic departure from Lebanon, the Syrian Army and intelligence chiefs met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who, hardly symbolically, presented them with a captured Israeli assault rifle. At that time, General Rustum Ghazale, Syria's head of military intelligence in Lebanon, made it clear that the Syrians might be withdrawing, but they would not be far away.
GENERAL RURGSTOM GHAZALE (Translation): We have come to affirm to this great warrior that Syria was, still is and will always be with the resistance. As we leave Lebanon today, we affirm that we may be outside its borders but Lebanon is in our hearts and so is in the resistance.
That was last year. Today, in the Syrian capital of Damascus, smiling portraits of Hezbollah's leader Nasrallah side by side with Syrian President Assad - cannon fodder for those who see Hezbollah as a puppet operation sponsored by George Bush's so-called 'axis of evil'
In May 2001, at a press conference under camouflage, a senior Hezbollah commander appeared behind a veil to explain that this would be the new front line.
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."
Hezbollah is far more than just an army. It's acted as a de facto government in southern Lebanon. The fact is that in those days the national government in Beirut wasn't helping the villagers in their war-torn south, but Hezbollah was.
AHMED NASER (Translation): Hezbollah is helping us morally and financially. It's helping us with schools. It's helping us with construction, farmingÂ…
When Dateline reported the political rise of Hezbollah back in 2001, it had built an entire social welfare network for Lebanon's Shi'ite community, much like Hamas does in the Occupied Territories. Hezbollah provides and runs schools, clinics, orphanages, war widows aid centres and surprisingly high-tech hospitals.
MOHAMMAD HIJAZI HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR MOHAMMAD HIJAZI: 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.
The money for these non-military programs originally came from fellow Shi'ite Iran. But these days, much of its income comes from a business empire that includes a chain of supermarkets, hotels, a bank, travel agency and taxi companies. On top of this, the so-called Party of God has become a major political force within Lebanon. In last year's elections, Hezbollah candidates won 11% of the seats in the national parliament and has two ministers in the cabinet. Abdullah Kassir was elected to the Lebanese Parliament in 2000. He told Dateline that 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.
Last year - despite the fact that Syria, one of its major backers, was forced by the UN to withdraw its armed forces - Hezbollah actually increased its share of the vote. On the eve of their historic departure from Lebanon, the Syrian Army and intelligence chiefs met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who, hardly symbolically, presented them with a captured Israeli assault rifle. At that time, General Rustum Ghazale, Syria's head of military intelligence in Lebanon, made it clear that the Syrians might be withdrawing, but they would not be far away.
GENERAL RURGSTOM GHAZALE (Translation): We have come to affirm to this great warrior that Syria was, still is and will always be with the resistance. As we leave Lebanon today, we affirm that we may be outside its borders but Lebanon is in our hearts and so is in the resistance.
That was last year. Today, in the Syrian capital of Damascus, smiling portraits of Hezbollah's leader Nasrallah side by side with Syrian President Assad - cannon fodder for those who see Hezbollah as a puppet operation sponsored by George Bush's so-called 'axis of evil'