Here is part of the Wikipedia entry on Hezbollah. There are numerous references to more "official" statements. It seems that more recently Hezbollah recognises Israel's rights to exist given that it withdraws from occupied territories etc. but not otherwise so the position is more nuanced than the typical western propoganda admits. However this article for the most part counters any official softening of anti-semitism by quoting various "authorities" on Hezbollah. There are numerous responses questioning the neutrality of the article.
Cheers, Ken Hanly Position on Israel Hezbollah's founding primary aim is resistance against the occupation of Lebanon by Israel, which Lebanon government claims it continuous up to now.[46] From the inception of the organization to the present [7][5][47] [48][49] the elimination of the state of Israel has been Hezbollah's primary goal. Secretary-General Nasrallahs has stated that Israel is an illegal usurper entity, which is based on falsehood, massacres, and illusions.[50], and considers that the elimination of Israel will bring peace in the middle east: "There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel."[51][52] In an interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah said "I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called "Israel." I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle.". [53] Israel's occupation of the Shebaa Farms (along with the presence of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails) is often used as a pretext and stated as justification for the organization's continued hostilities against Israel even after Israel's verified withdrawl from Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah's spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin, however, had this to say about the Farms: "If they go from Sheba'a, we will not stop fighting them. Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine...[Jews] can go back to Germany or wherever they came from;[54] In a 1999 interview, Nasrallah outlined the groups three minimal demand[s]: an [Israeli] withdrawal from South Lebanon and the Western Bqa Valley, a withdrawal from the Golan, and the return of the Palestinian refugees.[50] An additional objective is the freeing of prisoners held in Israeli jails[55][56][8], some of whom have been imprisoned for eighteen years.[57] Hezbollah's desire for Israeli prisoners that could be exchanged with Israel led to its abduction of Israeli soldiers which triggered the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.[58] After the successful conclusion of a "war of liberation", Hezbollah's spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin has stated that, "[Jews who lived in Palestine before 1948] will be allowed to live as a minority and they will be cared for by the Muslim majority".[59] In contrast to the above, in recent interviews Nasrallah has answered questions concerning the establishment of a Palestinian state established alongside an Israeli state in a way which suggested that the organization no longer has the intent to destroy the state of Israel. . Hezbollahs present leadership disclaims any interest in contesting Israels right to exist outside of disputed territories.[5] In a 2003 interview, Nasrallah stated that "at the end of the road no one can go to war on behalf of the Palestinians, even if that one is not in agreement with what the Palestinians agreed on."[60] "Of course, it would bother us that Jerusalem goes to Israel... [but] let it happen. I would not say O.K. I would say nothing."[60] Similarly, in 2004, when asked whether he was prepared to live with a two-state settlement between Israel and Palestine, Nasrallah said he would not sabotage what is a Palestinian matter.[5] He also said that outside of Lebanon, Hezbollah will act only in a defensive manner towards Israeli forces, and that Hezbollah's missiles were acquired to deter attacks on Lebanon.[61] Position on Jews Hassan Nasrallah has a history of making anti-Semitic statements (e.g. if they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide[62]). Despite Nasrallah's remarks, Hezbollah's official Web site marks a distinction between "Zionist ideology" and Judaism. It sees the rejection of Zionism as an attitude hold across "races, religions, and nationalities". It likens Zionism to "the concept of creating 'Israel' by the use of force and violence, by stealing the Arabs lands and killing Palestinians". "[O]pposing the Zionists ideology is not opposing setting a home for Jews".[63] Amal Saad-Ghorayeb a Shiite scholar and Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University, however, argues that Hezbollah is not anti-Zionist, but actually anti-Jewish. She quotes Hassan Nasrallah as saying, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli." Regarding the official public stance of the organization as a whole, she argues that while Hezbollah, "tries to mask its antiJudaism for public-relations reasons..a study of its language, spoken and written, reveals an underlying truth." In her book, "Hezbollah: Politics & Religion," she examines the, anti-Jewish roots of Hezbollah ideology, arguing that, "Hezbollah believes that Jews, by the nature of Judaism, possess fatal character flaws, and that their", "Koranic reading of Jewish history has led its leaders to believe that Jewish theology is evil.[64] " In 2004 the Hezbollah-owned television station Al-Manar was banned in France on the grounds that it was inciting racial hatred. The court cited a 23 November broadcast in which a speaker accused Israel of deliberately disseminating AIDS in Arab nations.[65] --- Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > does anyone know what Hezbollah's officially-stated > attitude toward > Israel's "right to exist" is? > > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le > genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing > Dante. >
