Hezbollah Threat: Lebanon Watches Gaza Fight

Israeli Defense Force troops mobilize on Jan. 3, 2009 on the Gaza/Israel border.

(Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
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Hamas: A Hezbollah Partner and Pupil

Saad-Ghorayeb describes the relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas as a mix of partner and pupil. "Hamas is learning from Hezbollah as a resistance model. They are close partners with a very close relationship, but it is one where Hamas is clearly autonomous," she said. What Hamas has learned reflects Hezbollah's strengths: its hallmarks of indiscriminate rocket fire and guerilla warfare.

"Hezbollah is very optimistic that Hamas would perform well in urban warfare," said Saad-Ghorayeb, who believes Hezbollah has trained Hamas in urban fighting tactics. Hezbollah's confidence that Hamas would do well against Israeli ground forces is another reason analysts say Hezbollah has not joined the battle.

Sunni Hamas and Shiite Hezbollah share an ideology and a set of strategic goals that have superseded their religious difference. Both groups were founded on the fight against Israel and their alliance, along with the support of Iran, has accelerated the buildup of Hamas' firepower and fighting tactics.

"Israel is discovering that [Hamas] capabilities are much more sophisticated than they expected," said Dan Senor, a Middle East expert with the Council on Foreign Relations. Senor believes Hamas has gained tremendously from its ties to Hezbollah and Iran.

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"Hamas would never have been able to launch a rocket into Beer Sheba had it not been for Iran," he said. "That puts a much larger range of the Israeli population within reach of Hamas."

By Senor's count, using the rockets into Beer Sheba as an indicator, Hamas rockets can now reach up to 700,000 Israeli civilians.

"It's very discouraging, obviously, though Israelis would argue it's very vindicating. It vindicates their decision to take action," Senor said.

Tony Cordesman, a security expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says both Hamas and Hezbollah require "fighting a very asymmetric war. Israel has to use conventional military means to defeat an opponent that is more an ideological one than a military one."

Syria, another player in the Hamas-Hezbollah partnership, has shown a mixed record in the last years. At one point expelling Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal and opening indirect talks with Israel, Syria has poked holes in what some Western observers had seen as an intractable alliance.

"This is a region in which everyone tries to use everyone else. There can be quick division toward their own interest," Cordesman said. "But certainly we have seen an alliance between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah that has changed the security equation in the region." In other words, Saad-Ghorayeb said, "each one stands to benefit from the victory of the other."