Hizbullah reelects its leader

"Hizbullah confronts America politically. If America attacks us militarily, then we have the right to self-defense. But now we consider ourselves in a political fight with America," says Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hizbullah's deputy secretary-general. "Our priority is to face Israel. This is our direction."

With the approval of Syria, the dominant powerbroker in Lebanon, Hizbullah's battle-hardened fighters square off against Israeli troops along the 70-mile Blue Line, the United Nations-delineated boundary separating southern Lebanon from Israel and Israeli-occupied Syria.

Hizbullah uses the Blue Line as a locus for direct military confrontation with Israel, constantly seeking new ways of unnerving Israeli troops patrolling the opposite side of the border fence. Since the beginning of the year, it has twice lured Israeli troops across the Blue Line and ambushed them, killing one soldier with a missile in January and another with a roadside bomb in May.

"The battle is open with Israel," Sheikh Qassem says, in justifying Hizbullah's efforts to probe and exploit gaps in the Israeli army's defenses. "We are not supposed to make them comfortable. It is a basic rule of combat to make the enemy nervous. And we try to achieve this with whatever tool we have at our disposal, be it political or military."

Yet Hizbullah's critics in Lebanon accuse the group of pursuing its own anti-Israel agenda at the expense of Lebanon's interests. During the last flare up of violence along the border in July, Israeli aircraft flew low-level supersonic runs over Beirut, a muscle-flexing gesture that came as the Lebanese capital is enjoying its biggest influx of foreign tourists since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

"I can't think of one way Hizbullah's actions along the border serves Lebanon's interests," says Michael Young, a Lebanese political commentator. "It has pitted us against the United Nations and the entire international community."

Still, analysts say that neither Hizbullah nor Israel sees any interest in escalating the simmering conflict along the border. Instead, the Israeli authorities are expressing more alarm at Hizbullah's penetration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hizbullah has been a vocal champion of the Palestinian intifada since its onset in September 2000.

Last month, Sheikh Nasrallah eulogized a slain Hizbullah official as a member of the "team that dedicated their lives in the last few years to support their brothers in Palestine."

It was the clearest admittance yet of the group's direct involvement in the intifada.

Sheikh Qassem says that supporting the Palestinians is a "religious and moral duty" for Hizbullah.

"We believe that we should stand by the side of the Palestinians because it is our cause, too," he says. "That's why we support the intifada with all the means we can."

Does that support include weapons, funds, and training?

"You can put anything you want under 'all,' " he replies. "How can Israel receive all this support from the United States but the Palestinians don't even receive the support of the countries in the region. We are not ashamed of supporting the intifada. We would be ashamed if we were not supporting it."

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