Groups CENTCOM

This detailed analysis follows the rise and evolution of Hezbollah from an Islamic resistance movement to its role as a governing force in Lebanon, exploring the group's impact on the security and power dynamics in the Middle East.

Understanding resistance movements and armed militias in the Middle East is key in unravelling this complex and sensitive region. This book focuses on the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, combining extensive ethnography with critical insights drawn from a range of disciplines including sociology, psychology and philosophy. Instead of approaching resistance or violence through received macro-formulations, the book concentrates on micro-narratives and spatial dynamics of two critical spaces - namely, Dahiya, a Shia-majority suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah's stronghold, and training camps, where volunteers metamorphose into militants.

Friedman, who twice garnered the Pulitzer as a New York Times correspondent in Lebanon and Israel, further delineates the two countries in this provocative, absorbing memoir cum political and social analysis. A condensed, incisive history of the Middle East is proffered, as well as personal reflections on his 10-year sojourn: the issue of Friedman's Jewishness in Beirut, the fact that he was the Times 's first Jewish reporter in Israel, the bombing of his apartment in Beirut by the PLO, which took the lives of his Lebanese news assistant's children. A top-flight observer and interpreter, the author elucidates the complex religious factions obstructing Lebanese and Israeli politics; the agendas of various posturing, media-loving Arab and Israeli leaders; the perversity of daily life in 'Wild West Beirut;' the wanton murder in Lebanon of U.S. marines and Palestinian refugees; America's fascination with Israel; the waning romance between Israeli and American Jews; and the Palestinian intifada.

Hezbollah and Hamas are major players in Middle Eastern politics and have a growing involvement in global events. Despite their strikingly different beginnings, they share a common denominator-an adversary in Israel. Hezbollah and Hamas draws from primary interviews and documents coupled with a thorough review of current scholarship. This is a portrait of the organizations' roots, histories, ideologies, relationships, tactics, political outlooks, and futures. Joshua L. Gleis and Benedetta Berti present organization charts, maps, and a case study of the TriBorder Area in South America, which frequently serves as an operational center for terrorist groups.