Meet Hizbollah

The Party of God's MP talks about Islam, Iraq, and the war on terror. A Reason interview

Tim Cavanaugh | March 11, 2004

(Page 3 of 5)

reason: What about relations with Israel? You've conducted complicated negotiations over exchanging prisoners with the Israelis. Would you be willing to negotiate with them on other matters?

Fneish: The party has its own belief and its own founding vision. Israel was formed at the expense of the Palestinian people and their rights. For us, this existence is immoral and illegitimate, because it creates great hardship and suffering for a downtrodden people. And all this is so Europeans can ease their own guilt about what they did to the Jews. So indirectly, the Europeans are the cause of the Palestinians' suffering. Of course, not all of this was done for moral reasons; there was also a predetermined political plan for the region. Therefore, as long as the Palestinian people can't go back to their land, there will be a problem in the region. So for sure, Hizbollah can't have relations with an entity formed out of crimes against other people.

We are seeing negotiations and discussions. Despite all the circumstances, the Arabs have always tried to negotiate, but those efforts have always been ridiculed and undermined. All we see are more settlements, more hostility, more evictions, and more destruction of homes.

reason: It sounds like you could never have normal relations with Israel under any circumstances.

Fneish: We as a party have our own opinion and our own role. Our views are for the interest of the whole country, and we oppose any relations. But we're only speaking for the party; the government speaks for itself.

reason: When you say you oppose, do you oppose Israel's existence, or just having relations?

Fneish: Both.

reason: Would you continue to fight Israel just on the basis of that existence?

Fneish: That's another issue. We're trying to make Israel step back as an enemy that is attacking us. We fought the Israelis only on Lebanese soil. Before we talk about fighting their existence, there is a problem here. There's a Zionist project. Let's be realistic. It's clear there is a Zionist mentality, which is clannish, sectarian, and belligerent.

I didn't say I want to fight Israel on the basis of its existence. I spoke of a position. There is a difference. If today a country in the world occupied another country, and I said that country is aggressive and I want nothing to do with that country, that doesn't mean I want to fight that country. The subject of war is a different thing. But nobody can force me to say that country is legitimate.

reason: Lebanon is a pretty permissive society, where people drink alcohol, women do whatever they want, people wear whatever they want, and so on. Would you like to change that?

Fneish: In Lebanon there is freedom. We respect the freedom of the Lebanese, and the freedom of any people. We have our own views about personal conduct, but those views concern us. We try to convince others of our views, but we don't impose them on anybody. It's our right to try to persuade others of our views, but it's also the right of others to share their own views and opinions.

But that does not mean that if we disagree we will resort to imposing our views. For example, right now people see us as dominant in a particular region of the country. Did we impose our way of living on anybody? You see in the [majority Shi'ite] suburbs of Beirut those who are committed and those who are not. You find women with hijabs and others without, and we have no problem with that.

reason: If you could, would you establish an Islamic state in Lebanon?

Fneish: Nobody can force a political system on a society that doesn't have the characteristics proper for that system. Lebanon is a country with freedoms and a variety of ways of living. We respect that variety and we live with it. The Lebanese political system will reflect that variety. We can exchange views on what we believe, but not once has our party said it wants to create an Islamic political system in Lebanon. All we ask for is a government that has the principles I've mentioned: respect for people's freedom, justice, equality, and leadership that express the will of the people.