Hezbollah and Hamas are players in Middle Eastern politics and have a growing involvement in global events. Despite their different beginnings, they share a common denominator in Israel. This title offers an analysis of their histories and political missions that moves beyond reductionist portrayals of the organizations' military operations.

How does a group that operates terror cells and espouses violence become a ruling political party? How is the world to understand and respond to Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that Palestinian voters brought to power in the stunning election of January 2006? This important book provides the most fully researched assessment of Hamas ever written. Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert with extensive field experience in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, draws aside the veil of legitimacy behind which Hamas hides. He presents concrete, detailed evidence from an extensive array of international intelligence materials, including recently declassified CIA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security reports. Levitt demolishes the notion that Hamas’ military, political, and social wings are distinct from one another and catalogues the alarming extent to which the organization’s political and social welfare leaders support terror. He exposes Hamas as a unitary organization committed to a militant Islamist ideology, urges the international community to take heed, and offers well-considered ideas for countering the significant threat Hamas poses.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Islamist organizations' conceptions of political order based on a comparative case study of the Shiite Lebanese Hezbollah and the Sunni Palestinian Hamas. Connecting Islamism research, Critical Constructivist norm research, and resistance studies from the field of International Relations Theory, it demonstrates that resistance constitutes both organizations' core norm and is relevant for their conceptions of political order. Based on primary Arabic data the book illustrates that the core norm of resistance, deeply intertwined with both organizations' interactions towards power preservation and the specific political context they are engaged in, characterizes Hezbollah's and Hamas' respective conceptions of political order and explains the differences between them. In contrast to common perceptions presented in research, politics, and the media, the book shows that in the case of both Hezbollah and Hamas the religious orientation, i.e. Shiite and Sunni Islamist political thought, plays a secondary role only when it comes to explaining Islamist organizations' political orientation. Bringing new insights from cases that lie beyond the Western liberal world order into Critical Constructivist norm research and resistance studies, the book establishes a theoretical framework that enables scholars to comprehensively analyze Islamist organizations' political orientation in different cases without being caught in limited analytical categories. It will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations Theory, Middle East Studies, and Global Governance.

Essay from the year 2021 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, grade: 1,3, , language: English, abstract: In the mid-twentieth century, new types of warfare have emerged that are fought asymmetrically between a state and one or more nonstate actors (Ganor, 2015; Hoffman, 2007). The struggle now takes place not only on traditional military battlefields and is characterized by need to now also win a psychological war and a war for public opinion in and through the media has given rise to a new type of non-state actor: the Hybrid Terrorist Organization (Ganor, 2015; Hoffman, 2007). According to professor Boaz Ganor, a Hybrid Terrorist Organization is one that stands on two or, in many cases, three legs: The first one is that of the classic terrorist organization, that is a military or paramilitary organization that engages in terrorist acts. The second one extends the Da`wa system, which means the support of social welfare by offering consistently, over time and free of charge (or heavily subsidized) social services to its potential supporters. This provision of essential services leads to the seeding of the hearts of the public, an expansion of supporters and the generation of sympathy for terrorism. The third one involves the establishment of a political organization, which may merely represent its ideology, or it may compete in free and democratic campaigns and elections. The Hybrid Terrorist Organization uses democratic electoral processes to establish and strengthen its political power. This pillar is closely related to that of the Da`wa. People who have received financial support and welfare services from the terrorist organization are most likely to vote for representatives of the organization with which they have long been identified (Ganor, 2015). The three pillars complement each other and are smit interdependent. In the following, I will show how exactly the individual pillars interlock in practice, using the examples of the Hybrid Terrorist Organizations Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Resistance Movement). Founded in 1987, Hamas is a militant Sunni Palestinian organization operating primarily in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The group's followers are opposed to the existence of Israel, and believe that it is the religious duty of every Muslim to assist in the return of all Israeli-controlled territory to the Palestinians. Hamas is part militant fighting force, part Sunni political party and part social service organization that has a growing influence in its OE. An overarching Shura council provides organizational guidance and over­sight for the organization as a whole. Hamas is composed of three overlapping "wings" or sections-the social services/welfare section, the political bureau and the military wing. The political bureau is led by Khalad Mashal. Mashal's deputy, Mousa Abu Marzouk, operates in the Gaza Strip. The political bureau, which is the public political face of Hamas, is composed of 8-12 members and oversees the combat elements (Qassam Brigades) and social services section. Despite public pronouncements of such organizational boundaries, the divisions are operationally less significant. Missions, personnel and resources flow between the sections with the military component ultimately garnering the most attention and funding. The fighting section, as the group's name states, defines it is the heart and soul of Hamas.

Examines the political party's activities beyond the Lebanese borders, from its financial and logistical support networks to its covert criminal and terrorist operations around the world.