Europe's meaningless declaration

We've heard a lot of noise over the past week about Britain, France and Germany - key countries in the European Union - finally being willing to ban Hezbullah as a designated terror organization. But only the 'military wing.' That's outrageous, says Benny Weinthal.

In short, Hezbollah is a monolithic terror entity. There is simply no prudent way to take a cookie-cutter approach to its so-called political and military wings. This is why the United States, Canada, Israel, and the Netherlands have listed Hezbollah’s entire apparatus as a terror entity. Separating Hezbollah into military and political wings, in fact, sparked objection from one of the few voices in Europe that strongly supports outlawing Hezbolla, British member of parliament Michael McCann, who vehemently opposed the half-hearted listing in the House of Commons in early May.

“While the last [British] government proscribed Hezbollah’s military wing, its significant role in Lebanese politics is the often cited reason for why the U.K. has not gone further and proscribed the whole organization, which even its own leader says operates under a single command. The misplaced belief that Hezbollah’s politicians are legitimate and independent from its deadly terrorism is also behind the EU’s inaction,” McCann said.

Europe being Europe, the major powers have retreated to a stance of appeasement at a moment when Hezbollah is on the ropes. The organization has suffered major combatant losses in its bloody campaign to aid Syria’s Bashar Assad; the Washington Post reported that Syrian “opposition groups say that at least 28 Hezbollah members were among 90 people killed since Sunday.”

Their lifeline from Iran is being squeezed, too: David Cohen, the U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, recently said that “the sanctions on Iran are hurting Iran’s ability to support its militias and malign activity around the world. It’s affecting their ability to support Hezbollah for instance . . .”

European powers refuse to confront the interplay between Hezbollah and its chief financial sponsor, Iran’s radical clerical regime....

Back to Europe: The vast network of Hezbollah operations in Europe is best seen in Germany. The European Foundation for Democracy published a 2009 report titled ”Hizbullah’s Fund-raising Organization in Germany,” showing that Orphans Project Lebanon (Waisenkinderprojekt Libanon e.V.), situated in Göttingen, is “the German branch of a Hizbullah suborganization” which “promotes suicide bombings” and aims to obliterate Israel. This Hezbollah “charity” still operates today.

Years of European inaction against Hezbollah were part of the porous counterterrorism strategy that permitted Hezbollah operatives to blow up an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, last July. That Hezbollah-Iran joint operation killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian national, and injured 32 Israelis.

Related interview with Hezbullah #2, Naim Qassem, denying the military/political distinction, here.