So Hezbollah Can't Be Crushed?
Last Tuesday morning a “senior (Israeli) military source” said that Israel seeks "to significantly weaken Hezbollah but not crush it, since it is impossible to crush a popular, religious movement."
Conventional wisdom is with the senior Israeli officer, but in fact popular, religious movements have been crushed by military force many times, and in all parts of the world.
The Zanj movement formed in 868 CE in the vast delta where the Tigris meets the Euphrates. Zanj autonomy flourished for 15 years under Ali bin Muhammad, who claimed descent from Imam Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. He further claimed to be the mahdi (messiah) and to have directly “received surahs of the Quran.” Tens of thousands followed him under a green and red banner that read, “God has purchased the souls of the believers and their property, for they have attained to Paradise fighting in the way of God.” The revolt was crushed in a series of battles and massacres where the dead are said to have numbered in the tens of thousands. Muslim historians characterize Ali bin Muhammad as a bloodthirsty impostor and his followers as insubordinate black slaves. It may be more accurate to think of the Zanj as Muslims who, like their contemporaries the Kharajites, were committed to a simple theology and to principles of economic leveling not unlike those of radical Protestant reformers. We cannot be certain because we do not have a Zanj version of history, only Zanj-minted coins that read “al Mahdi Ali b. Muhammad.”
The Cathar religion arose in Languedoc (Occitania), now incorporated into southern France. Whether it is conceptualized as a Christian heresy or a version of Manichaeanism, there can be no doubt that this was an intensely popular religious movement. The Catholic Church decided to wipe out the Cathars in an armed crusade. The fighting went on for twenty years and included such incidents as the massacre of 20,000 Cathars - the entire population of Béziers and its surrounding villages - on July 22, 1209. By the end, the Cathars were no more.
The Czech Hussites earned the condemnation of the Church in 1415 for adherence to doctrines that the Church called heresy, and which historians call proto-Protestant. They successfully defended an independent Czech Hussite state against large Catholic armies for twenty years, before agreeing to strike a compromise with the Church. Large numbers of devoted Hussites rejected the political compromise. Many were killed in battle with a combined Czech/Catholic army near Prague on May 30, 1434. Surviving “Warriors of God” were eliminated in a series of small battles, captures, and hangings.
On February 5, 1597, Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to crush Christianity in Japan. He considered the rapid increase, geographic concentration, and intense devotion of Christians to be threats to the state. The newly introduced religion had over 300,000 adherents, of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 were executed, many by crucifixion. Christianity as a movement was eliminated from Japan.
I could multiply examples of large populations united by intense religious commitment that have been crushed by the state power. Not obliterated – remnants of Japanese Christianity survived underground, for example – but crushed to the point where a movement no longer existed.
I am certainly not defending the morality of Hideyoshi’s actions, or the crushing of the Cathars, Hussites, or Zanj. I am simply pointing out that popular religious movements can be forcibly destroyed. If some policy makers and pundits actually believe that it is impossible to crush a popular religious movement, they are wrong. Hezbollah can be crushed as completely as the Cathars were.
What the unnamed Israeli officer might have said, is something like this:
Israel seeks to significantly weaken Hezbollah in order to reduce Hezbollah’s capacity to slaughter the innocent in community centers, embassies, and private homes.
We could crush Hezbollah if we so chose. We could do it with a combination of military actions, arrests, and trials, and through the elimination of Hezbollah schools, Hezbollah television, and the other institutions that promulgate Hezbollah’s murderous ideology.
We are making this choice not because we lack the power to destroy Hezbollah, we have that capacity. We are exercising restraint because the Jewish State —at some considerable risk to itself—values human life, even the lives of those who would destroy us. We have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but hope rather that the wicked will turn from their evil ways and live.
Conventional wisdom is with the senior Israeli officer, but in fact popular, religious movements have been crushed by military force many times, and in all parts of the world.
The Zanj movement formed in 868 CE in the vast delta where the Tigris meets the Euphrates. Zanj autonomy flourished for 15 years under Ali bin Muhammad, who claimed descent from Imam Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. He further claimed to be the mahdi (messiah) and to have directly “received surahs of the Quran.” Tens of thousands followed him under a green and red banner that read, “God has purchased the souls of the believers and their property, for they have attained to Paradise fighting in the way of God.” The revolt was crushed in a series of battles and massacres where the dead are said to have numbered in the tens of thousands. Muslim historians characterize Ali bin Muhammad as a bloodthirsty impostor and his followers as insubordinate black slaves. It may be more accurate to think of the Zanj as Muslims who, like their contemporaries the Kharajites, were committed to a simple theology and to principles of economic leveling not unlike those of radical Protestant reformers. We cannot be certain because we do not have a Zanj version of history, only Zanj-minted coins that read “al Mahdi Ali b. Muhammad.”
The Cathar religion arose in Languedoc (Occitania), now incorporated into southern France. Whether it is conceptualized as a Christian heresy or a version of Manichaeanism, there can be no doubt that this was an intensely popular religious movement. The Catholic Church decided to wipe out the Cathars in an armed crusade. The fighting went on for twenty years and included such incidents as the massacre of 20,000 Cathars - the entire population of Béziers and its surrounding villages - on July 22, 1209. By the end, the Cathars were no more.
The Czech Hussites earned the condemnation of the Church in 1415 for adherence to doctrines that the Church called heresy, and which historians call proto-Protestant. They successfully defended an independent Czech Hussite state against large Catholic armies for twenty years, before agreeing to strike a compromise with the Church. Large numbers of devoted Hussites rejected the political compromise. Many were killed in battle with a combined Czech/Catholic army near Prague on May 30, 1434. Surviving “Warriors of God” were eliminated in a series of small battles, captures, and hangings.
On February 5, 1597, Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to crush Christianity in Japan. He considered the rapid increase, geographic concentration, and intense devotion of Christians to be threats to the state. The newly introduced religion had over 300,000 adherents, of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 were executed, many by crucifixion. Christianity as a movement was eliminated from Japan.
I could multiply examples of large populations united by intense religious commitment that have been crushed by the state power. Not obliterated – remnants of Japanese Christianity survived underground, for example – but crushed to the point where a movement no longer existed.
I am certainly not defending the morality of Hideyoshi’s actions, or the crushing of the Cathars, Hussites, or Zanj. I am simply pointing out that popular religious movements can be forcibly destroyed. If some policy makers and pundits actually believe that it is impossible to crush a popular religious movement, they are wrong. Hezbollah can be crushed as completely as the Cathars were.
What the unnamed Israeli officer might have said, is something like this:
Israel seeks to significantly weaken Hezbollah in order to reduce Hezbollah’s capacity to slaughter the innocent in community centers, embassies, and private homes.
We could crush Hezbollah if we so chose. We could do it with a combination of military actions, arrests, and trials, and through the elimination of Hezbollah schools, Hezbollah television, and the other institutions that promulgate Hezbollah’s murderous ideology.
We are making this choice not because we lack the power to destroy Hezbollah, we have that capacity. We are exercising restraint because the Jewish State —at some considerable risk to itself—values human life, even the lives of those who would destroy us. We have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but hope rather that the wicked will turn from their evil ways and live.