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.
Labels: designated terror organization, European Union, Hezbullah, Naim Qassem
Nasrallah appears on Lebanese television, denies Qassem killed
In a bid to quash rumors that he is severely ill, Hezbullah leader Hassan
Nasrallah appeared on Lebanese television on Wednesday night.
Nasrallah also repudiated reports that he was ill, saying “the
rumors… pushed me to move forward a media appearance,” in reference to
Turkish Anadolu news agency’s report Tuesday night that the Hezbollah
chief had been rushed to Iran after facing a medical emergency.
“The rumors prove that there has been a media war against Hezbollah in the past years.”
But JPost reports that
Nasrallah does have cancer....
Nasrallah also
denied reports regarding his deputy, Naim Qassem.
He also denied reports claiming his deputy Naim Qassem was seriously
injured in an explosion that occurred near a convoy in Syria earlier in
the day calling them "lies." Qassem was said to have assumed command of
the organization while Nasrallah was away.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Free Syrian Army, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbullah, Naim Qassem
Syrian rebels kill Hezbullah #2?
Lebanese news portal Now Lebanon is reporting that Hezbullah's second-in-command,
Naim Qassem was killed in an attack by Syrian rebel forces on Tuesday.
Russia Today on Wednesday cited Hezbollah sources as denying rebel
claims that party deputy chief Naim Qassem had been seriously injured or
killed in an attack on a convoy Tuesday in Syria.
Syria rebels had posted on Twitter that Qassem had been targeted in
an attack on a convoy that killed Syrian regime general Mohammad Ali
Durgham.
The sources told Russia Today that they expect Hezbollah Secretary
General Hassan Nasrallah would tackle the "false rumors" in the speech
he is set to give Wednesday evening.
The same sources also stressed that some media outlets as well as
social networks were recently trying to release false statements in an
attempt to implicate Hezbollah in the Syrian crisis.
Meanwhile, Free Syrian Army spokesperson Louay Almokdad told NOW that
the rebels do not have enough information on the Jdeidat Yabous
explosion, in reference to an attack that purportedly hit a convoy of
high ranking Syrian and Hezbollah officials Tuesday.
A rebel group had said
in a statement that they attacked a convoy transporting Syrian general
Mohammad Ali Durgham, injuring the officer and killing a number of
Hezbollah members.
The rebels also uploaded a video showing an IED detonation amid a series of cars driving on a winding road.
It doesn't appear to have started yet, but Now Lebanon is going to be carrying Nasrallah's speech live
here. Warning: Nasrallah's speeches last for hours....
UPDATE 6:45 PM
JPost adds:
Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal
quoted the Syrian rebels as saying mines placed on the Beirut-Damascus
highway had detonated as the convoy returned from a high-level security
meeting in Lebanon. The explosion reportedly took place near the town of
Jdeidet Yabous near the Lebanon-Syria border.
The al-Mustaqbal report made no mention of Qassem being killed in the attack, saying that he had merely been injured.
Labels: Free Syrian Army, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbullah, Naim Qassem
EU to ban Hezbullah?
If this actually happens, it would be big.
Really big.
Austria appears to be the first EU country to
acknowledge that that the 27- member body has begun a process to designate the
Lebanese Shi’ite group as a terrorist organization.
Spokesman Alexander
Schallenberg, a seasoned Austrian diplomat, couched the process with caveats. “A
possible listing of the entire Hezbollah within the EU as a terror organization
must consider various political aspects,” he wrote.
He noted that
Hezbollah is not only represented in Lebanon’s parliament but is part of its
government, with two ministers in the cabinet.
“A listing of the
Hezbollah could, therefore, have immediate effects on the security of the
country and the stability of the government,” Schallenberg continued.
He
noted that Lebanon President Michel Suleiman seeks to create a “national
dialogue” in his country, with the goal of, for example, integrating Hezbollah’s
fighters and weapons into the state’s security forces. Schallenberg said that
the EU has up until now clearly supported Suleiman’s efforts.
He stressed
that it is important that the EU find a “joint position, especially in light of
the situation in Syria.”
News organizations reported that Hezbollah’s
militias joined forces with Syria’s regime to suppress the Syrian
rebellion.
The division among EU countries revolves around whether to
designate the entire Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, or just parts of
it.
Michel Malherbe, a spokesman for the Belgium Foreign Ministry, told
the Post on Thursday: “We believe that it could make sense, instead of qualifying Hezbollah
as a whole, to isolate armed subgroups, or individuals. This method has proven
its merits, and deserves a try.”
Critics of this approach (treating armed
wings separately from political branches) point to a statement from Hezbollah’s
No. 2 leader, Naim Qassem, who said in 2009: “Hezbollah has a single
leadership,” and “All political, social and jihad work is tied to the decisions
of this leadership.”
Qassem added, “The same leadership that directs the
parliamentary and government work also leads jihad actions in the struggle
against Israel.”
The United Kingdom classifies Hezbollah’s military wing
as a terrorist organization, but recognizes its political wing as a legitimate
political party. The Netherlands designated Hezbollah as whole to be a terrorist
group. Both Dutch and British foreign ministers have urged their EU counterparts
to place Hezbollah on the EU terror list.
According to one of my contacts in Germany, if all four of the stronger members of the EU (Britain, France, Germany and Italy) agree to designate Hezbullah as a terrorist organization, the other countries like Belgium will be forced to go along. As of now, the only holdout among those four is France.
Here's a
JPost editorial on the subject.
Yet
besides the Netherlands, which recognized Hezbollah as a terrorist organization
a few years ago, and Britain, which since 2001 makes a distinction between
Hezbollah’s political wing – which the UK does not consider a terrorist
organization – and its military wing – which the UK does consider terrorist – no
other European country has followed the US’s – and Canada’s – lead.
As a
result, Hezbollah is free to operate in Europe raising money, recruiting
supporters and plotting terrorist attacks.
Of all places, it is Germany
that has become a center for Hezbollah’s rabidly anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist
activities, with 950 members and supporters last year, up from 900 in 2010,
according to an annual report put out by Germany’s domestic intelligence
agency.
In August 2009, for instance, Alexander Ritzmann, a senior fellow
at the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy, found that a German
charity for Lebanese orphans was really a front organization raising money for
Hezbollah suicide bombers. Dozens of other similar “charities” continue to
operate freely on European soil.
And in many cases donations to these
charities are tax deductible, which means Germany and other European states are
subsidizing a terrorist organization.
Ritzmann and others also suspect
that the Hezbollah maintains trained military operatives throughout Europe who
act as “sleeper cells” that can become active when called upon.
A
European blacklist would undoubtedly have an adverse effect on Hezbollah. Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, admitted that such a ban “would dry up the
sources of finance” and “end moral, political and material support” for the
terrorist organization.
In contrast, refraining from issuing such a ban
would allow the Hezbollah to continue to operate freely on European soil. Just
last month, White House counter-terrorism chief John O. Brennan said that
European failure to join the US in designating Hezbollah a terrorist
organization is undermining international counter-terrorism efforts. “Let me be
clear,” Brennan said in a speech in Dublin, European resistance “makes it harder
to defend our countries and protect our citizens.”
Its about time Europe
takes seriously the threat that Hezbollah represents.
Hezbullah currently raises funds and procures weapons freely in most of Europe. It's time to put a stop to it.
Labels: designated terror organization, European Union, Hezbullah, Naim Qassem
