in regards to hizbollah constituting a militry threat to israel, i disagree. a couple days ago, hizbollah launched a suprise attack on the sheeba farms with the intent of distracting the bulk of israeli soldiers in the region so they could snag some israeli hostages in the golan. final score, 0 hostages, to the best of my knowledge 0 israelis dead, 5 hizbollah dead. keep in mind, this was a suprise attack, and the largest effort by hizbollah in years. military threat? me thinks not. the next day, israeli planes demolished some hizbollah outposts in southern lebanon with zero resistance. hizbollah absolutely retains the ability to inflict terroristic damgage on israel, but to label them a military threat is a stretch, no matter how loosley you define the term.
as for being a threat to the usa, it is ridiculous to compare hizbollahs capabilities to al qaeda, and them label them a serious threat. hizbollah was created after the israeli invasion of lebanon with the aim of resisting the israeli forces. due to the funding they have recieved from iran, there has been some of the usuall iran flavored rhetoric, but hizbollah aim after the withdrawl of israel is to regain what they believe is their land/provide representation for poor shia (and syria and iran) in lebanese government. Hizbollah has concrete goals, and acts within these goals. there actions are generally prudent to their aims. al qaeda on the other hand is operated by maniacss, albeit capable ones. their goals are much broader, and less defined. Al qaeda operates without the constraints of borders, everyone knows where to find hizbollah. to put them in the same league as the qaeda's in regards to their threat levle to the usa is ridiculous. Hizbollah is moving (very slowly) into the political proscess in lebanon. i believe they have a minister in the cabinet. it is the aim of the lebanese govt to incorporate them into the political process. it's hard to imagine qaeda doing the same thing. to gauge their threat level to the usa based on military capabilities is ignorant. as for operatives in the usa, the ira had/has operatives in the usa. their purpose to raise money. same with hizbollah. there are alot of rich lebanese in the us, and the "operatives" are there to get money.