Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Christians for Hizbullah

Hizbullah is trying to train brigades including those of all Lebanon's religions for the fight against ISIS, and has had some success at recruiting Christians:
The sources close to Hezbollah told Al-Monitor that nearly two years ago Hezbollah opened training camps in the area outside the city of Baalbek in the Bekaa, close to the Syrian border, to train youth from different denominations in preparation to face radicals, and although the highest percentage of the trainees in these camps are Shiites, the recent acts by IS against the Christians of Syria and Iraq have pushed dozens of young Christians hailing from the towns adjacent to the Syrian border to join them. Today these [Christian youth] represent a form of "people’s protection committees" in their hometowns similar to those formed by Christian youth in Syrian towns...
With the growing expectation that IS is coming to Lebanon, Hezbollah’s military preparations have evolved towards promoting a plan to establish Lebanese Resistance Brigades, which gather all denominations, to face IS. Steadily, this plan has started to be accepted by youth from other denominations, particularly the Christians of the north and the Bekaa.
A Christian youth explained why he joined the local protection committee: “What has happened in Mosul has been a message to all Christians of the East that the world will not protect them and that they need to rely on themselves to defend their existence..."
The new development is succeeding by establishing it in environments where there are existential concerns among Christians in areas close to IS and Jabhat al-Nusra positions at the Syrian border. Hezbollah has actually succeeded in establishing “people’s protection committees” that consist of dozens of Christians from the northern Bekaa towns.
I'd be interested in finding out if these Christians are Maronites or Orthodox. Either way, it isn't as surprising as it might be.  Michel Aoun, a prominent Maronite, heads a Hizbullah-allied Christian political party called the Free Patriotic Movement.

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