Captured booklet links Iran to Lebanon war

Cover of 'jihad' booklet captured by Israel forces in Lebanon

A booklet captured by Israeli forces in the recent war against Hezbollah provides more documentation of the influence of Iran upon the terrorist group's operatives in Lebanon.

On Aug. 27, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of the Center for Special Studies in Israel released an analysis of a booklet entitled "Al-Jihad" (Holy War) that was found in the possession of Hezbollah operatives in front-line outposts in Lebanon during what Israel is terming the "Second Lebanon War."

The 64-page booklet was published in 2004 in Iran by the Imam Khomeini Culture Center, named after the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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According to the ITIC analysis, the booklet is considered "an ideological guidebook" that presents jihad to be "a doctrine and a program of action" encouraging Muslims to sacrifice their lives "for the sake of Allah and to attain paradise."

The ITIC report concluded:

This radical Islamic worldview is spread and disseminated in Lebanon among Hezbollah in particular and the Shi'ite community in general, through the use of intensive indoctrination activities (da'wa). In our assessment, it comprises the Islamic religious ideological basis on which Iran's armed forces are indoctrinated, as well as the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah in Lebanon, also serves as Ayatollah Khamenei's top representative in Lebanon, with authority including "religious matters." Ayatollah Khamenei, as supreme leader in Iran, also is the supreme commander over Iran's military forces, including the Revolutionary Guard.

According to the analysis of Yoram Kahati, a senior researcher and deputy director of the ITIC, the booklet is a call for martyrdom in a battle against the enemies of Islam:

The booklet ends with an emotional, dramatic and direct plea to "the believer who fights the holy war against the infidels" to take pride in being "the element of power for restoring truth and eradicating lies." This is an expression which describes, in fact, the main purpose of the universal message of Islam according to Khamenei. Therefore, the "warrior-believer" is told that he is part of revolutionary Islam, which stands for the "abolishment of deprivation" and encourages the various peoples (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) to do away with "dominance" (i.e., foreign rule).

The cover of the booklet displays a photograph of Ayatollah Khamenei overlooking an insert of three fighters who most likely represent Hezbollah fighters. The back cover shows the Lebanese main branch of the Imam Khomeini Culture Center in Harat Hreik, in Beirut's southern Shi'ite suburb that was heavily bombed by the Israeli Air Force during the Second Lebanon War.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is an information project of the Center for Special Studies, a non-governmental organization located near Gelilot north of Tel Aviv, headed by retired Lt. Col. Reuven Erlich.

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