More Hezbollah

Wedenesday nights Hezbollah links follow.

I've been really quite suprised by how little people in both Finland and the UK who I've talked about this with know about Hezbollah. What Hezbollah is sets the context for Israel's actions and also explains the limited potential-next steps that the rest of the Lebanese government can take. It also is the reality-check for those who say flippantly that an international peacekeeping force is the answer; it may well be but it would not be an easy mission.

So here is some more good background stuff. On "Fresh Air" (you can listen via realplayer from the linked page), from National Public Radio in the U.S., today Vali Nasr was interviewed about Hezbollah and the rise in power of Shia Islam (Hezbollah being a Shia group) centred around Iran's desire to be recognised as a regional superpower. Nasr is a Professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. It's a good interview stuffed full of facts that connect what seems like disparate events. They also interview Jeffrey Goldberg who wrote an award winning two part article on Hezbollah for the New Yorker magazine in 2002. You can read it here (part I) and here (part II).