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Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God
Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God is the first thorough examination of Hezbollah's covert activities beyond Lebanon's borders, including its financial and logistical support networks and its criminal and terrorist operations worldwide.
Hezbollah: Lebanon's "Party of God" is a multifaceted organization: It is a powerful political party in Lebanon, a Shia Islam religious and social movement, Lebanon's largest militia, a close ally of Iran, and a terrorist organization. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including recently declassified government documents, court records, and personal interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials around the world, Matthew Levitt examines Hezbollah's beginnings, its first violent forays in Lebanon, and then its terrorist activities and criminal enterprises abroad in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and finally in North America. Levitt also describes Hezbollah's unit dedicated to supporting Palestinian militant groups and Hezbollah's involvement in training and supporting insurgents who fought US troops in post-Saddam Iraq. The book concludes with a look at Hezbollah's integral, ongoing role in Iran's shadow war with Israel and the West, including plots targeting civilians around the world.
Levitt shows convincingly that Hezbollah's willingness to use violence at home and abroad, its global reach, and its proxy-patron relationship with the Iranian regime should be of serious concern. Hezbollah is an important book for scholars, policymakers, students, and the general public interested in international security, terrorism, international criminal organizations, and Middle East studies.
Hezbollah: Lebanon's "Party of God" is a multifaceted organization: It is a powerful political party in Lebanon, a Shia Islam religious and social movement, Lebanon's largest militia, a close ally of Iran, and a terrorist organization. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including recently declassified government documents, court records, and personal interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials around the world, Matthew Levitt examines Hezbollah's beginnings, its first violent forays in Lebanon, and then its terrorist activities and criminal enterprises abroad in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and finally in North America. Levitt also describes Hezbollah's unit dedicated to supporting Palestinian militant groups and Hezbollah's involvement in training and supporting insurgents who fought US troops in post-Saddam Iraq. The book concludes with a look at Hezbollah's integral, ongoing role in Iran's shadow war with Israel and the West, including plots targeting civilians around the world.
Levitt shows convincingly that Hezbollah's willingness to use violence at home and abroad, its global reach, and its proxy-patron relationship with the Iranian regime should be of serious concern. Hezbollah is an important book for scholars, policymakers, students, and the general public interested in international security, terrorism, international criminal organizations, and Middle East studies.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2013
52 people are currently reading
454 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 9, 2014
Plusses: The book has a wealth of detail on the terrorist activities of Hezbollah, how they relate to the interests of Iran, and how they relate to Hezbollah's charitable activities. It also highlighted how Hezbollah acts as a criminal group and its connections to the worldwide black market and drug trade. It also explained the Bush Administration's fear of terrorists crossing the American borders and operating in the United States.
Minuses: I know that Levitt has been lauded for his flowing narrative in other reviews, but he gives up a consistent timeline in the process. Levitt does a good job of spreading out the major Hezbollah international bombings along with more mundane activities. Levitt seems to lean towards Hezbollah being the same international terrorist group that bombed the Jewish community center in Argentina and the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, but those bombings occurred nearly 20 years ago. Even though the timeline is problematic, the book is fully worth a read to understand the international scope of Hezbollah.
Minuses: I know that Levitt has been lauded for his flowing narrative in other reviews, but he gives up a consistent timeline in the process. Levitt does a good job of spreading out the major Hezbollah international bombings along with more mundane activities. Levitt seems to lean towards Hezbollah being the same international terrorist group that bombed the Jewish community center in Argentina and the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, but those bombings occurred nearly 20 years ago. Even though the timeline is problematic, the book is fully worth a read to understand the international scope of Hezbollah.
September 8, 2014
Occasionally reads more like an intelligence report than a story, which makes it not very easy to read every now and then, but the richness of information and how well the research is done, makes more than up for it.
July 2, 2023
"El factor celestial es imprescindible en cada paso que damos (...) Nuestros intentos fueron infructuosos porque para dios todavía no había llegado el momento indicado"
Un ensayo muy completo que nos muestra de manera informativa la trayectoria de este partido de dios por el mundo. Desde sus comienzos hasta los principios de los 2000. Pasa por Argentina, Tailandia, Líbano, Arabia Saudita, Estados Unidos, entre otras países.
Es una lectura que recomiendo para los interesados del tema. Por mi parte me gusto bastante. Estaba muy interesada y enganchada.
A veces me resultaba un poco pesado ya que nos muestran mucha información en pocas páginas. Se me hizo un poco largo y ya al final lo quería terminar. Te pide atención en todo momento. No es para leerlo tranquilo en un momento, si no para leerlo con papel y lápiz e ir anotando lo que te interesa.
Yo no conocía del tema, me atrapo la portada y no me pude resistir. Fue una linda experiencia. Y aprendí de Hezbolá.
El ensayo es un nuevo genero que me empezó a interesar. ¿Me recomiendan alguno?
Un ensayo muy completo que nos muestra de manera informativa la trayectoria de este partido de dios por el mundo. Desde sus comienzos hasta los principios de los 2000. Pasa por Argentina, Tailandia, Líbano, Arabia Saudita, Estados Unidos, entre otras países.
Es una lectura que recomiendo para los interesados del tema. Por mi parte me gusto bastante. Estaba muy interesada y enganchada.
A veces me resultaba un poco pesado ya que nos muestran mucha información en pocas páginas. Se me hizo un poco largo y ya al final lo quería terminar. Te pide atención en todo momento. No es para leerlo tranquilo en un momento, si no para leerlo con papel y lápiz e ir anotando lo que te interesa.
Yo no conocía del tema, me atrapo la portada y no me pude resistir. Fue una linda experiencia. Y aprendí de Hezbolá.
El ensayo es un nuevo genero que me empezó a interesar. ¿Me recomiendan alguno?
September 18, 2013
Iran’s long arm reaches virtually everywhere on the globe and therefore everywhere the United States has interests, including here at home. This is a good book for everyone to read.
March 7, 2022
Very good description on organisation and operations. Detailed and colorful. A good read, if you are interested in this organization.
March 22, 2026
This was a very dense read. It could have been a book like Jason Burke’s The Revolutionists, but it sorely lacked the hook of personality, a central protagonist… something, anything, to give the reader something to hang on to.
Instead, the book is like a series of disjointed intelligence reports. Levitt drew on declassified government documents, court records, and personal interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials around the world to write the book. And there is little effort to give a narrative arc to any of it.
That said, Levitt knows his stuff. He is a former FBI counterterrorism analyst and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But knowing your stuff and making your expertise accessible to readers are two different things.
The biggest criticism out of the way, what does the book tell us?
More or less what we already know: that Hezbollah is a fucking batshit crazy bunch of lunatic suicidal maniacs from hell who exist solely to hunt and kill Jews.
What awful, horrendous, chilling stories. One after another. International drug smuggling, arms dealing, money laundering, bombings, kidnappings… there is nothing this organization won’t do to raise money for its cause. And, as the title suggests, its footprint is global.
Hezbollah receives over $350 million annually from Tehran to support their activities. The Party of God is nothing but a godless, violent, murderous hate machine. Before the September 11 attacks, Hezbollah was responsible for more terrorism-related American deaths than any other terrorist group.
The group established itself in Lebanon with embassy bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, hijackings, and the US Marine barracks attack, the largest non-nuclear explosion since World War II—two hundred and thirty-nine Americans killed in a single morning.
There was the TWA 847 hijacking. Then Buenos Aires, the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing killing 29 people, and then the bombing of a Jewish community center, killing 85... Eighty-five people. At a community center. And on and on it goes.
It’s all over the world. Africa is a big focal point for finance and logistics: Hezbollah operates in the Horn of Africa, West Africa, and anywhere an ethnic Lebanese community exists, using mafia-style shakedown techniques to tap expatriate networks, financing cover companies, tax fraud, money laundering, blood diamond transactions, recruiting, and arms dealing.
Then there’s the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, South America, North America. There’s no corner of the globe this terror organization hasn’t poisoned.
The story of German convert to Islam Steven Smyrek pissed me off the most. The 26-year-old arrived in Israel looking like an ordinary tourist, with a video camera, maps, $4,000 cash; but Israeli intelligence knew he’d been trained as a suicide bomber, planning an attack in either Haifa or Tel Aviv for Hezbollah. He’d left Lebanon for Europe and flew from Amsterdam on his legitimate German passport, using his appearance as a non-Arab European to slip through security. He received 10 years in prison.
I’m against capital punishment, but in the case of international antisemitic terrorism, I’ll make an exception. Nothing less than a death sentence is enough for these people.
Levitt’s book is the first comprehensive examination of Hezbollah from its beginning to the present, and it’s likely to remain the definitive work on the subject. Nevertheless, unless you’re a Middle Eastern studies scholar with a particular interest in terrorism and security, I wouldn’t recommend it… unless you enjoy dense writing and sleepless nights worrying about loved ones in the region.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Instead, the book is like a series of disjointed intelligence reports. Levitt drew on declassified government documents, court records, and personal interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials around the world to write the book. And there is little effort to give a narrative arc to any of it.
That said, Levitt knows his stuff. He is a former FBI counterterrorism analyst and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But knowing your stuff and making your expertise accessible to readers are two different things.
The biggest criticism out of the way, what does the book tell us?
More or less what we already know: that Hezbollah is a fucking batshit crazy bunch of lunatic suicidal maniacs from hell who exist solely to hunt and kill Jews.
What awful, horrendous, chilling stories. One after another. International drug smuggling, arms dealing, money laundering, bombings, kidnappings… there is nothing this organization won’t do to raise money for its cause. And, as the title suggests, its footprint is global.
Hezbollah receives over $350 million annually from Tehran to support their activities. The Party of God is nothing but a godless, violent, murderous hate machine. Before the September 11 attacks, Hezbollah was responsible for more terrorism-related American deaths than any other terrorist group.
The group established itself in Lebanon with embassy bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, hijackings, and the US Marine barracks attack, the largest non-nuclear explosion since World War II—two hundred and thirty-nine Americans killed in a single morning.
There was the TWA 847 hijacking. Then Buenos Aires, the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing killing 29 people, and then the bombing of a Jewish community center, killing 85... Eighty-five people. At a community center. And on and on it goes.
It’s all over the world. Africa is a big focal point for finance and logistics: Hezbollah operates in the Horn of Africa, West Africa, and anywhere an ethnic Lebanese community exists, using mafia-style shakedown techniques to tap expatriate networks, financing cover companies, tax fraud, money laundering, blood diamond transactions, recruiting, and arms dealing.
Then there’s the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, South America, North America. There’s no corner of the globe this terror organization hasn’t poisoned.
The story of German convert to Islam Steven Smyrek pissed me off the most. The 26-year-old arrived in Israel looking like an ordinary tourist, with a video camera, maps, $4,000 cash; but Israeli intelligence knew he’d been trained as a suicide bomber, planning an attack in either Haifa or Tel Aviv for Hezbollah. He’d left Lebanon for Europe and flew from Amsterdam on his legitimate German passport, using his appearance as a non-Arab European to slip through security. He received 10 years in prison.
I’m against capital punishment, but in the case of international antisemitic terrorism, I’ll make an exception. Nothing less than a death sentence is enough for these people.
Levitt’s book is the first comprehensive examination of Hezbollah from its beginning to the present, and it’s likely to remain the definitive work on the subject. Nevertheless, unless you’re a Middle Eastern studies scholar with a particular interest in terrorism and security, I wouldn’t recommend it… unless you enjoy dense writing and sleepless nights worrying about loved ones in the region.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
February 13, 2025
3.5/5 (hey Goodreads, fix that feature please). This is a well researched book that acts as a fantastic reference guide to Hezbollah and IRGC plots and outposts dating back to the mid-1980s. However, the book too often reads as a 300+ page intel report than a gripping narrative. Also, from what I can see, there is not a depth of Arabic language sources in this. However, it is clear that the author has fantastic sourcing in several intelligence agencies ranging from the Five Eyes to the Gulf.
December 5, 2018
If you want to know something about Hezbollah then read this. Levitt is one of the greatest experts on Hezbollah.
May 5, 2023
Fascinating analysis. In the blizzard of information from the 24/7 news cycle we can easily forget how active and present Hezbollah is in the U.S. and the Western hemisphere in general.
March 26, 2026
Rik på detaljer, fattig på kontekst og forklaring. Fungerer som et supplement til Hezbollah-litteraturen, men står ustøtt alene.
October 17, 2020
Felt like reading a textbook. 3 stars for the content ....
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October 14, 2013book tv sounded fascinating and scary
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August 25, 2014324.25692 L6667 2013
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews