Hizballah Role in a Unified Middle East

The Monroe Doctrine was developed because the United States and Britain were concerned over the possibility of European colonial expansion in the Americas. Hizballah, or party of god, was developed along the same lines of separationism, because originally the Shiite Muslims began the organization as a revolt against Western influences and the Israeli's occupation of Lebanon. The future of the Hizballah and the Islamic Resistance (the parties militant wing) is unclear as well as the future of the entire Middle East. The Hizballah will be forced to either adjust to the rest of the Middle East, or the organization will have to be eradicated. In the event that the Middle East is unified and the Hizballah organization is able to adjust, the Hizballah will try and influence the rest of the area to take on a "Monroe Doctrine" approach to foreign affairs as well.

The Islamic Resistance could remain a terrorist force even under a unified Middle East as long as the militia is able to work with other armed forces. In the past the Islamic Resistance has worked with the Irish Republic Army (IRA) in order to purchase arms, including surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machine guns, explosives, and detonators (Thomas 118). Although both of these groups have been known terrorist organizations (The IRA working for Sinn Fein), the "birds of a feather" policy was upheld because of mutual interests. Just like in the Monroe Doctrine the Hizballah worked with a once adversary, the IRA-a Western influence, in order to grapple with Israel over the colonization of the Lebanese land.

Even under a Unified Middle East, the Hizballah party will continue to hold on to the belief that the Middle East is better off without any influence from the godless West. The party has already successfully conducted aims at the United States under the sponsorship of Iran and with the blessings of Syria (Jaber 21). In a Unified Middle East with two countries backing the party, the Hizballah is already steps ahead of other political organizations. The principle of ridding Lebanon of the Israeli and Western influence will simply spread to ridding the Middle East of any outside influence. With this type of policy, an attack on one nation in the region will bring the other nations online to deal with and intervene if necessary to rid the area of outside influences.

In order for the Hizballah party to build this modern Middle East doctrine, a strong political presence must be on hand to implement the policy. In recent Lebanese parliamentary elections, Hizballah party members took 8 parliamentary seats, giving them the largest party bloc in the 128-seat chamber (Harik 17). Already influenced by the Hizballah enough to ask for a representation in the government, the people have expressed an interest in the organization's cause. The message that Hizballah sends is that the Muslims are not in need of the Western civilization, the Muslims only need to be left alone to build their civilization.

The ultimate mission of the Hizballah in a Unified Middle East will be to rid the entire area of all other religious practices. Responsible only to God and scripture, the Hizballah feel absolved from the laws and values that govern the rest of the world. The Hizballah's willingness to kill and die for Allah in the name of jihad (Kaplan 291-292), will keep them from ever becoming a mainstream religion; thus, the Unified Middle East will more

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