Israel Matzav

The Hezbullah anti-terrorism act of 2011?

Legislation has been introduced in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, with bi-partisan support, which would guarantee that organizations like Hezbullah will not benefit from US funds.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a committee hearing on the political turmoil sweeping across the Middle East that trends in Beirut were troubling.

“In Lebanon, we have witnessed the takeover of the country by the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis,” she said in her statement.

“Even now, when the Lebanese government has been overthrown, the United States has still failed to indicate that it will cut off assistance to a proxy government for Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah,” she complained.

She called for the adoption of Berman’s Hezbollah Anti-Terrorism Act which guarantees that organizations like Hezbollah do not benefit from American taxpayers funds.

During the hearing House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Howard Berman announced that he would be introducing the new bill entitled the “Hezbollah anti-terrorism act of 2011.”

The bill would bar U.S. assistance to Lebanon unless President Barack Obama certifies to the Congress that no funds will go to Hezbollah or any of its entities under its control and that the Lebanese government is actively working to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capability.

This will be watered down to be like the provision in US assistance to the 'Palestinians' that requires the President to certify every year that they're fighting terrorism. Of course, it gets certified every year even though it's not true. What could go wrong?

Labels: Hezbullah, Howard Berman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, US aid

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 AM