After claiming victory in its war against Israel, Hezbollah wasted no time in turning its hand to consolidating its win. The August 16New York Times reported:

As stunned Lebanese returned Tuesday over broken roads to shattered apartments in the south, it increasingly seemed that the beneficiary of the destruction was most likely to be Hezbollah.A major reason—in addition to its hard-won reputation as the only Arab force that fought Israel to a standstill—is that it is already dominating the efforts to rebuild with a torrent of money from oil-rich Iran.

As the New York Times reports, Hezbollah continues to grow in stature in Lebanon—and elsewhere in the Muslim world. And why not? By all accounts, Hezbollah is the big winner in the war between itself and Israel: It has drawn a ceasefire, manipulated world media against Israel, weakened Israel’s confidence, and drawn both Shiites and Sunnis behind its cause. On top of all this, it lives to fight another day.

And living to fight another day has already begun in earnest with Hezbollah leading reconstruction efforts. The Times wrote,

In his victory speech on Monday night, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, offered money for “decent and suitable furniture” and a year’s rent on a house to any Lebanese who lost his home in the month-long war.”Completing the victory,” he said, “can come with reconstruction.”

Hezbollah owes its deep pockets to oil-rich Iran. The Times reported, “Nehme Y. Tohme, a member of parliament from the anti-Syrian reform bloc and the country’s minister for the displaced, said he had been told by Hezbollah officials that when the shooting stopped, Iran would provide Hezbollah with an ‘unlimited budget’ for reconstruction.”

Armed with Iran’s war chest, Hezbollah has sent out an army of men to help Lebanon return to a semblance of normalcy. Hezbollah officials can be found in one city after another, speaking with families, clearing roads, burying the dead, offering financial services. In one city, according to the Times article, a Hezbollah official said the organization would “offer an initial $10,000 to residents to help pay for the year of rent, to buy new furniture and to help feed families.”

This strategy has been used to great effect by other terrorist organizations: Rally people to the cause by providing social services that an inept government is not making available. Consider the popularity of Hamas: Its giving of financial aid and provision of housing and community services was the perfect complement to its violence against Israel to propel it to success in Palestinian elections at the beginning of this year. And to make it all the sweeter for Hamas, all the blame for the Palestinians’ plight was pinned on the enemy, Israel. Hezbollah is using precisely the same strategy. This is nothing new. As National Review Online has commented, “All terrorist organizations engage in this kind of beguiling propaganda” (April 14, 2005).

As Hezbollah exploits the suffering of the Lebanese for its own purpose, we can expect this terrorist organization, and its sponsor Iran—the very entities that triggered the destruction in the first place—to further secure the hearts of the Lebanese and of Muslims around the world.