A Privilege to Die

The world does not need more books on Hezbollah. The question of how and why an organization with little more than two million — largely impoverished Shia — among its support base has been able to sting the world’s only superpower and its closest ally has been pondered in literature by many. Undeterred by the panoply of former and current esteemed Hezbollah-watchers in whose footsteps he follows, Thanassis Cambanis, a New York Times and Boston Globe journalist, has thrown his hat into the ring with his new book “A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah’s Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel.”  This work of narrative journalism focuses on personal testimonies from Hezbollah fighters, active members and supporters. The reader is introduced to such figures as Rani Bazzi, a Hezbollah fighter who cannot stop revealing the organization’s secrets; Cambanis’ translators and interlocutors, among them Issam Mousa and Dergham Dergham, the former