Is Hezbollah the Premier Non-State Threat?

By Douglas Farah

There is some serious re-evaluation of priorities in parts of the U.S. and European intelligence communities as to the who now poses the greatest strategic threat to the West-al Qaeda or Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has publicly emerged in recent days the premier military force in Lebanon, able to act with relative impunity while the army stands by.

But perhaps more importantly, Hezbollah has now become a public target of al Qaeda, as Osama bin Laden has explicitly stated in his most recent audio tape.

Bin Laden singled out by name Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, whose 2006 war against Israel boosted the group's popularity among Shiites and Sunnis.

Bin Laden said Nasrallah claimed he had enough resources, such as money and combatants, to fight Israel.

"But the truth is the opposite," he said. "If he was honest and has enough (resources), why then he did not support the fight to liberate Palestine."

He also attacked Nasrallah for allowing the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon "to protect the Jews."

Why the animosity? Perhaps because, for the first time in many years, the Sunni world-and the radical Sunni world in particular-are noticing how much more willing and able Hezbollah and its Shite government backers are to project a strength that at least rivals, and likely surpasses, that of its own fighting forces. My full blog is here.

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