Oct. 17, 2006, World Politics Watch- In the Arab world, Hasan Nasrallah is an exceptional man. In an age of dull orators and boring Arab officialdom, Nasrallah, in the eyes of many Arabs, stands as one of the few charismatic, honest, and appealing figures in the Middle East.

His inflammatory speeches have done wonders for the moral of his followers since he liberated South Lebanon from Israeli occupation in May 2000. He has earned a reputation -- among enemy and ally alike -- as a man who keeps his word. He promised to liberate the South and he did in 2000. He promised to bring back Lebanese prisoners from Israel jails in 2004 and he did. He promised to strike deep into Israeli territory in 2006 and he did. Many Arabs today compare him to Gamal Abdul-Nasser, the late president of Egypt and godfather of Arab nationalism, who fought two wars against Israel in 1956 and 1967. Nasser, like Nasrallah, was young and defiant, revolutionary, and highly charismatic. Both were excellent orators and both had a massive following in the Arab world. Like Nasser in 1952-1970, Nasrallah today is viewed as a selfless and uncorrupted leader who firmly believes in a cause and has mobilized his life and country for its purpose. However, hundreds of books and articles were written about Nasser, making him a legend during in his own lifetime. And this literature increased threefold after his early death in 1970. Nasrallah also has become a legend in his own lifetime. But apart from what has surfaced in the press over the past week, little -- very little -- is known about the 46-year-old man who has just ignited a new war in the Middle East.

The Beginnings

Hasan Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960, in Beirut. His father was a vegetable vendor from the Bassouriyeh village in South Lebanon. He grew up in the 1960s, at a time when Beirut was considered the "Paris of the East" under the presidency of General Fouad Shihab. Tourism, banking, investment, and entertainment were at their peak in Beirut, but not in the Shiite suburbs of the Lebanese capital. The Shiites of Lebanon were a majority in the Muslim community who had long suffered from Sunni domination, especially during the 400-years of the Ottoman Empire. Located in the eastern Bekka Valley, they survived during the early years of the 20th century through trade with Palestine, which was cut off completely by the creation of Israel in 1948. Consecutive regimes were occupied with nation-building and attracting foreign investment to Lebanon, and all of them seemingly forgot about the Shiites. Their targets for prosperity were the Maronite Community of the Lebanese president and the Sunni Muslim one of his prime minister. The Shiites did have their deputies in the Lebanese Parliament, but even then they were absentee feudal landlords who paid little attention to Shiite grievances and were not representative of the Shiite community at a grassroot level. The Shiites, as a result, were completely forgotten during the booming years of Lebanon, becoming an underclass from the 1940s onwards. This continued well into the 1970s and in 1974, although they made up 20% of the population, the Shiites only received 0.7% of the state budget. Meanwhile, the rest of the money was pouring into Beirut.

The leader to bring them out of the ghettos and earn political recognition for the Shiite community was the Iran-born cleric Imam Musa al-Sadr, who emerged at a time when social divisions were at their peak. He called on the Shiites to unite and demand a better life in Lebanon. He demanded more government funds for the Shiite community, better infrastructure, increased representation in politics, and more access to government jobs. Sadr then created the Movement of the Dispossessed in 1974, calling for emancipation of the Shiites. When Nasrallah was first exposed to politics in the early 1970s, Musa al-Sadr was the inspiring leader of the Lebanese Shiites. The effect he had on Nasrallah was monumental. When the civil war of Lebanon broke out in April 1975, Sadr founded a military branch for his party called Amal (Hope). It was trained by the Palestinian forces of Yasser Arafat, and flourished in the suburbs of Beirut, where the Shiite community was located. This is when Nasrallah came into contact with Sadr and joined Amal.

When the civil war broke out, Nasrallah's family left Beirut and moved back to South Lebanon. He became a devout Shiite Muslim (none of his family members were clerics), joined Amal, and became a disciple of Sadr. Nasrallah would pay daily visits to the Shiite mosques of his neighborhood, where he caught the attention of a cleric named Mohammad al-Ghrawi. The sheikh advised him to study theology at an Islamic seminary in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq and gave him a letter of recommendation to the Grand Iraqi Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr (the father-in-law of current Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr). The elder Sadr welcomed Nasrallah to Najaf and placed him under the guidance of another Lebanese cleric named Abbas al-Musawi, who in future years, became the secretary-general of Hizbullah. Musawi, in turn, was a disciple of Sheikh Mohammad Husayn Fadlallah, the current grand ayatollah of the Lebanese Shiites. Fadlallah was also educated in Najaf and completed his studies in 1966. The relationship between Nasrallah and Fadlallah remains perfect until today. His relationship with the leaders of the Iraqi Shiite community explains why so much support for Nasrallah is now being shown in Sadr City for example, and other Shiite districts of Iraq. It explains why when the Shiites were allied to the Americans in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, the Bush administration was unable to push too strongly against the arms of Hizbullah. This would have upset the Iraqi Shiites.

The Islamic Revolution of Iran broke out in February 1979, sending shockwaves in the Baathist regime of Iraq. Iraq's strongman Saddam Hussein, who came to power in July 1979, accused the Iraqi Shiites of working with their co-religionaries in Iran to topple his secular regime and replace it with a theocracy in Baghdad. It might have been true, since this is what Ayatollah Ruhollah al-Khomeini wanted, and for a rising generation of ambitious Shiites, no figure was more inspiring or influential than Khomeini. Saddam began a witch-hunt of Shiites throughout Iraq, forcing Hasan Nasrallah to return to Lebanon in order to avoid persecution. Back in South Lebanon, Nasrallah began to teach at an Islamic institute in Baalbak, founded by his mentor Abbas al-Musawi. The young Nasrallah (19) was very influential and his lessons attracted a large following of Shiite males. An impassioned lecturer, he taught Islamic history, way of life, and conduct. His students began to look up to him for guidance and leadership, especially after he started expressing his own political views about revolutionary Islam, Lebanese politics, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He was expelled from Amal in 1982 for criticizing the weakness and indecision of its leaders during the Israeli invasion of Beirut. By 1985, he had joined Hizbullah.

The Creation of Hizbullah

Hizbullah was created from the failures of Amal. The party had splintered and lost orientation when its leader and founder Imam Musa al-Sadr disappeared (presumably killed by Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi) while on a state visit to Libya in 1978. He was replaced by Husayn al-Husayni, an uncharismatic political Shiite notable. At the time, Amal needed military and political leadership, which Husayni could not provide. In turn, Husayni was replaced in 1981 by Nabih Berri, a secular lawyer who was pro-Syrian and who had dabbled with the Syrian Baath Party during his early political career. Both Berri and Husayni, however, lacked Sadr's leadership, charisma, and following in the Shiite community. Berri became a cabinet minister in 1984 and Husayni became speaker of parliament in 1985, two jobs that diverted Amal's attention from the daily needs of the Shiites, and preoccupied them with political affairs, while neglecting the military wing of the party. Opposed to Berri's leadership, radical young elements of Amal broke away in 1984. With money from Iran, and an initial agenda to create a Iran-like theocracy in Lebanon, they established themselves -- in a press release distributed to the Beirut dailies -- as Hizbullah (The Party of God).

It is unknown if the name "Hizbullah" was created by the young Shiites based on a verse in the Holy Quran that says that "The party of God (Hizbullah) will defeat" or if it was taken from a small and obscure party that operated briefly in Syria in the late 1940s and was called "Hizbullah." The Syrian Hizbullah, headed by the Aleppine Bashir Kamal, was a Ghandian party that referred to God's name as a symbol of non-violence and tolerance. Regardless, Nasrallah became involved in the military affairs of Hizbullah, which immediately clashed with Amal and, in 1987, he succeeded in driving Amal militias out of Shiite districts in the suburbs of Beirut. In June 1985, Hizbullah highjacked TWA Flight 847, forcing it to land at Beirut airport and taking hostages, who were only released after Israel released 700 Lebanese prisoners. In February 1988, Hizbullah attracted more supporters by kidnapping Lieutenant-Colonel William Higgens, an American working with UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFL). During this time, Nasrallah became famous in Hizbullah. He realized the strength of his abilities and decided to become a Shiite leader in his own right. He could not do that, however, with his limited religious training, so he temporarily laid down his guns and went to Qom in Iran to complete his education in Shiite Islam. Religious credentials were -- and still are, a must for an ambitious Shiite wanting to lead in his community. Nasrallah returned to Lebanon in 1989 and led battles against Amal in Iqlim al-Tufah in South Lebanon. He was wounded in battle, further enhancing his reputation, and became a member of the party's central committee at the age of 29 in 1989.

In October 1989, Hizbullah supported the Taif Accord, a Saudi-Syrian-Lebanese agreement to end the Lebanese Civil War. Since it was close to Iran, Hizbullah automatically became close to Syrian President Hafez al-Asad. Hizbullah agreed to release Western hostages it had captured during the war and support Syria in its final war against General Michel Aoun, the army commander and prime minister of Lebanon, who was ruling against Syria's will from Baabda Palace. In return, Syria and Iran refused to disarm Hizbullah, as the case with all other military groups that laid down their weapons in the post-war era. Hizbullah was not a militia, they argued, but a resistance group created to liberate South Lebanon from Israel. Since the South remained occupied, they claimed, then Hizbullah would remain armed. Wanting to put an end to the bloody war, most parties agreed -- although most did so unwillingly. It was not fair, in the eyes of the Christians, that Hizbullah remain armed while the Phalange Party of the Lebanese Forces had to give up their weapons. The decision to keep Hizbullah armed was made by Syrian President Asad and Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Hardliners in Iran, like Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, wanted Hizbullah armed and committed to creating a Shiite theocracy in Lebanon. Rafsanjani refused, however, claiming that its role was to protect the Shiites and liberate South Lebanon. He insisted that it had no other ambitions in Lebanon.

Nasrallah 1989-2000

It was during this time that Hasan Nasrallah emerged as one of Iran's favorites in Lebanon. He traveled to Iran in September 1989 to meet with Rafsanjani and worked as Hizbullah's "ambassador" to Tehran. In 1991, his mentor Abbas al-Musawi became secretary-general of Hizbullah but his tenure was brief because he was ambushed and killed by the Israelis in February 1992. The Iranian command, headed by President Rafsanjani and the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, nominated the young Nasrallah, then 31, to succeed Musawi. Within the party's hierarchy, the second-in-command was Sheikh Naiim Qasim, a dedicated nationalist who nevertheless lacked Nasrallah's charm and charisma. The support of Khamenei and Rafsanjani secured the job for Nasrallah, and Qasim remained his deputy, a post he holds until today, 14-years later.  The ascent of the young Nasrallah was surprising to a majority of veteran leaders in the Shiite community, notably Nabih Berri (by now speaker of the Lebanese Parliament). Only 31 years old, Nasrallah was many years younger than most clerics, regarded politically and religiously inexperienced. He was 22 years younger than Berri. He had spent only two years studying Islam in Najaf, for example, while Musawi had spent nine.

The young leader of Hizbullah started his new career by promising to avenge Musawi's blood. He lived up to his word and on March 17, 1992, a car bomb went off at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people. Nasrallah had sent off a clear message to the world: Hizbullah was a key player in Lebanon that could not be dismissed or eliminated. Musawi's death will be avenged -- but it does not mean that Hizbullah will disappear from after him.  In May 1994, Israeli commandos penetrated into Lebanon and captured Mustapha al-Dirani, a pro-Hizbullah member of Amal. An infuriated Hizbullah responded in July 1994 with a suicide bomber blowing himself up at the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people. Hizbullah denied involvement, however, to avoid international pressure to limit its casualties to the battlefield, but everybody knew that Nasrallah was behind the bombing, in retaliation for the capturing of Dirani. For the next 10 years, Nasrallah insisted on mentioning Dirani in every single one of his speeches, telling his audiences: "We do not forget our captured fighters!" Every single time he spoke he hailed Dirani's steadfastness in jail, and promised to have him released. Again, Nasrallah proved true to his word when he conducted a massive prisoner exchange with Israel in January 2004 and among the released Lebanese prisoners was Mustapha al-Dirani.

In July 1993, Israel carried out a massive offensive against Hizbullah, which lasted for an entire week. Nasrallah responded by showering Israel with 142 Katyusha rockets. In April 1996, war broke out again, for 16 days, and Hizbullah responded with 489 Katyusha rockets. In September 1997, Nasrallah's 18-year-old son Hadi was killed in combat, and Nasrallah received news of his death while giving a televised speech with great calm—an act that earned him widespread respect in the Muslim World. The Cairo-based al-Ahram reported on the incident saying:

"Sayed Hassan Nasrallah entered the hall in solemn dignity accompanied by Jawad, his teenage son. He stopped before each coffin and offered the Fatiha [the Muslim equivalent of the Lord's Prayer] until he reached the one marked 13. He beckoned an aide and spoke to him in a whisper. The aide summoned two workers of the Islamic Health Association, a Hizbullah outfit. They opened the coffin, exposing a body wrapped in a white shroud. Sheikh Nasrallah's eyes closed, his lips trembled as he offered the Fatiha. Slowly, he bent over and tenderly stroked the head of Hadi Nasrallah, his eldest son, who was 18 years old when he died in battle on September 13 [1997]. Jawad, the younger son, stood still and pale next to his father. A deep silence fell on the room while his right hand rested on his son's chest. It was broken by the clicking of a reporter's camera, but promptly returned when Sheikh Nasrallah looked up in cold surprise."

Hizbullah's massive popularity in the 1990s was a result of two factors, both devised by Nasrallah. One was the media propaganda shown on the party's al-Manar TV. The other was the countrywide educational and social network of schools, charities, hospitals and mosques that they operated, under Nasrallah's direct supervision. Hizbullah put a lot of money into rebuilding poverty stricken neighborhoods of the Shiite community, and subsidizing housing in South Lebanon, after the Israeli withdrawal in 2000. Much of the money initially came from Iran, but after gaining nationwide popularity in 2000, Hizbullah began to raise a lot of money on its own. Friendly roadblocks peppered the streets of Beirut and South Lebanon in the 1990s, and were adorned with the yellow flag of Hizbullah, pictures of Nasrallah, and charity boxes. At one point, particularly after liberating the South in 2000, it became politically incorrect not to donate to the South. These petty donations added up and pretty soon larger donations came in from the emigrant Shiite community in Africa, the United States, and Europe. Needy families in the Shiite community received sealed envelopes with a decent stipend, signed off by Hasan Nasrallah. This explains why the residents of the Shiite suburbs of Beirut have refused to leave their homes since the Israeli bombing began on July 12. In all, over 500,000 Shiites live in these areas -- and all are supporters of Hasan Nasrallah. They love him and they feel they owe him their loyalty and goodwill.

Al-Manar television began to transmit by satellite in 2000. Nasrallah wanted Hizbullah propaganda and his speeches to be heard by millions of Arabs and Muslims around the world. By 2004, it was estimated that 10 million viewers watched al-Manar. The secret of al-Manar was that it never showed the Arabs in defeat. It only showed them striking at Israeli targets, or returning from battle in triumph. It planned operations then filmed them in detail while striking at Israeli locations, much to the pleasure of Arab audiences. It also showed a lot of training of Hizbullah commandos, who would be greeted by Nasrallah before carrying out a dangerous operation. Before seeing them off, Nasrallah would give them a strong farewell message, in case they did not meet again, and say: "Give my greetings to the Prophet of God (Mohammad)." He was saying that if they died in combat, they were surely going to heaven as martyrs, to be in the company of the Prophet -- a dream for any Muslim.

Post-2000 Hizbullah

Nasrallah's day in the sun came when after eight years of guerilla warfare with Israel, the Israeli Defense Army (IDF) withdrew from South Lebanon in May 2000. It was the first time in the history of the Arab-Israeli Conflict that the Israelis had left territory at will that they had occupied from the Arabs. Nasrallah immediately transformed into a pan-Lebanese leader, praised by every end of the Lebanese political spectrum, for liberating the South. He was received as a guest of honor at the Presidential Palace by President Emille Lahhoud, and in 2000 met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan while the latter was visiting Lebanon. Annan was reviewing the situation in Lebanon and meeting with all decision-makers. It was impossible for him in 2000 to sidestep Hasan Nasrallah.

Many speculated that the liberation of the South meant the end of Hizbullah. Nasrallah had always said he would keep his arms until the South was liberated. Nasrallah now argued, however, that the Sheba Farms were still under Israeli control, and that Hizbullah would not disarm until the Farms were returned to Lebanon and all Lebanese prisoners were returned from Israeli jails. To legitimize himself in Lebanese politics, however, his party joined parliamentary elections in 2000. Five years later, after the murder of Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafiq al-Harriri in February 2005, they became members in the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora. Nobody in Lebanon could do much to get Hizbullah to disarm after 2000. Nasrallah, after all, was one of the strongest forces in Lebanon. Many speculated that his power would fade after the Syrians left Lebanon in April 2005 but, again, he proved himself to have become totally independent from the Syrians. During the troubled 1990s, Nasrallah needed Syrian support to keep his arms in post-war Lebanon. After liberating the South, and operating charity and PR campaigns since 1992, he no longer needed Syria to survive. In fact, on the contrary, Syria started to lean on Nasrallah for support after an international choir assembled calling on it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. Nasrallah conferred with the Syrians, and took their advice on political matters, but he did not receive orders, funds, or arms, from Damascus. On March 8, 2005, Nasrallah organized a massive march thanking Syria for its services to Lebanon. This was in response to the anti-Syrian sentiment in Lebanon. Nasrallah was showing the world that not everybody in Lebanon was opposed to Syria (and Iran). He was telling them that Hizbullah, whose members are the majority among the country's 40 percent Shiites, are still allied to Damascus. He insisted that he would not disarm Hizbullah, as UN Resolution 1559 had called for, citing the Israeli threat in the South. Now that a war in Lebanon between Hizbullah and Israel, which started on July 12, has commenced, Nasrallah can claim he was right, and that Israel is indeed still a threat to Lebanon.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst. He is the author of "Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000" (Cune Press, 2006).