“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” So said Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik revolutionary and the first leader of the Soviet Union. This philosophy seems to be the same model of indoctrination we now find the terrorist group Hezbollah using in Lebanese schools that are linked to their network. In the sixth-grade textbook Us and History, students learn that the characteristics of Jews that make them anathema to the rest of the world are “their unjustness, their arrogance, their greed, and their monopolizing.”[1] In another text, Islam Is Our Message, the young readers are told that “the Zionists are the enemies of humanity in the past, present, and future because of their attributes: deceit, treason, treachery, and breaking pacts.”[2] This type of vitriolic anti-Semitism—racial and religious slander of such a repulsive nature—ensures an ongoing supply of radical young men and women with a murderous hatred of Israel and a desire to destroy the Jewish nation.

Many have heard of the terrorist group Hezbollah, but few know who they really are. They will when they read my next international political thriller, The Beirut Protocol, for Hezbollah plays a critical role in the story.

Here are some things to know for now. This Shia Muslim extremist group was birthed out of the Lebanese civil war of the late 1970s and 80s. Its name means “Party of God.” It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, receiving its arms, training, funding, and marching orders from the mullahs in Tehran.

Violent from its beginnings, Hezbollah came to global prominence after several attacks directed at the United States—the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut killing 63, the suicide bombing attack that same year of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut slaughtering 305 people, and the 1984 car blast at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut that took 24 more lives.[3] Over the years, this bloodthirsty organization has continued to grow in strength and prominence to where it has now become something akin to a state within a state in Lebanon.

This group of terrorists masquerading as a Lebanese political organization is not only dangerous but too often ignored by the civilized world and fast becoming a powerful and very dangerous actor in the Middle East. For the last several years, they have focused on killing and maiming in Syria to defend the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But increasingly they are turning their attention back toward Israel. According to a report by Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, in the last couple years Hezbollah has begun “setting up cells and recruiting militants in the Syrian Golan Heights . . . [creating] systems of underground tunnels that would allow Hezbollah militants to enter Israel undetected . . . [and acquiring] missile capabilities [that] were advanced enough to reach any Israeli town or city.”[4] These military tactics are backed by heavy financing from Iran and a growing, passionate force of fighters.

All signs point to the fact that Hezbollah—and its puppet masters in Iran—is preparing for a major war against Israel. My next Marcus Ryker thriller, The Beirut Protocol, will take you deep inside this genocidal group. Unless they are stopped, their destabilizing actions in the region—from Syria and Lebanon to Iraq and Yemen to the borders of Israel—will only continue. A mere glance at their elementary school textbooks reveals just how dangerous they are and how determined they are to build a new generation of millennial murderers. They must be neutralized before it’s too late.

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[1] “Analysis of Hezbollah Textbooks Shows Lengths Group Will Go to Indoctrinate Hate against Jews,” ADL (Anti-Defamation League), June 18, 2020, www.adl.org/news/press-releases/analysis-of-hezbollah-textbooks-shows-lengths-group-will-go-to-indoctrinate

[2] “Analysis of Hezbollah Textbooks,” ADL

[3] Kali Robinson, “What Is Hezbollah?” Council on Foreign Relations, January 22, 2020, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hezbollah

[4] Mapping Militant Organizations, “Hezbollah,” Stanford University, last modified July 2019, https://stanford.app.box.com/s/iikbi6e3xn9azsfo7lntmdnk291zp1tr