The 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah gave the world its clearest indication yet of the surprising strength of the "Party of God." Over more than a month of combat, Hezbollah was able to frustrate Israel's stated aims, allowing Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to declare a "divine victory" after the conclusion of fighting. Thanassis Cambanis traveled to Lebanon to tell the stories of Hezbollah's supporters, and to understand the roots of the party's strength. In this excerpt from his newly-published book, "A Privilege to Die," Cambanis visits Hezbollah's youth movement in south Lebanon.
A Privilege to Die
Inside Hezbollah's legions and their endless war against Israel By Thanassis Cambanis
In the year since the war, the Mahdi Scouts had nearly doubled its national enrollment to 60,000. They had run out of capacity to admit more, he said, but they were expanding as fast as they could. Hezbollah policed its community tightly, but not without concern for its mental well-being. Constant warfare (or mobilization for such) took its toll, especially on children and on the families of martyrs.
One goal of the scouts was to comfort the afflicted. The scouts tried to maintain a state of normalcy -- at least as Hezbollah defined it -- for its most vulnerable members. If left to their own devices, [the chief of Hezbollah's scouts] Bilal Naim said, the children of martyrs would isolate themselves and develop emotional problems. "We try to raise the children in the community and find new husbands for the widows," he said. "Otherwise the children become complicated, and develop unhealthy behaviors like aggression."
On a rainy Sunday in December, we drove to Khiam to visit the scouts in action. We were an hour late because we had trouble with military intelligence when we tried to enter the border region. The former Israeli occupation zone of South Lebanon remains officially off limits to foreigners. Anyone wishing to visit the area -- including foreign passport holders of Lebanese descent who have family homes in the South -- must get special permission from Lebanese military intelligence. Mine had expired the day before, and we had to call in a favor from a sympathetic officer who let us through the checkpoint at the Litani River.
Mohammed Dawi, the sweaty and plump scout leader, met us at the entrance to Khiam town. He was a redhead with freckles, and looked more Irish than Lebanese. The younger scouts were waiting in the basement of a high school a mile or so from the prison. The troop leader led them in a chant of welcome. Most of them wore blue shirts with epaulets, white scarves, and oversized badges featuring a photograph of a scowling Ayatollah Khomeini. Two boys who looked about ten wore full military fatigues.
It seemed the day's activities had been planned with my visit in mind. The children marched downstairs single file and broke up by age group. The "buds," six or seven years old, assembled for a puppet show, emceed by a man in a worn panda suit who sang lines from Nasrallah's speeches. The "sprouts," eight to ten years old, sat around tables at the rear of the room drawing pictures, their ideas inspired by a chubby and soft-spoken young woman named Malak Sweid. She was a graphic design student and zealous party apparatchik.
In "guided drawing," the kids drew pictures of Israelis weeping in defeat, denoted by Stars of David on their helmets, or of Israelis stepping on Lebanese. Other children, with evident direction by Malak, depicted crosses and crescents, symbolizing the Lebanese Christians and Muslims, chained by vicious Stars of David. Other pictures spoke less to the conflict with the Jews than to Islamic values. One child's picture showed women in low-cut gowns holding martini glasses and cigarettes in old-fashioned holders. "Smoking Harms Your Health" was the title.
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