A nice dream

Benny Weinthal and Claudia Rosett suggest that now that Europe has banned Hezbullah as a terror organization it's time for the United Nations to do the same.

Slapping a U.N. terror designation on Hezbollah will be no easy task: Washington would have to make a big push for the United Nations to seriously consider acting. But nobody can know whether it's possible -- so far, the United States has barely raised the issue. It has limited itself to the occasional grumble, such as Acting Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo's comment at the Security Council on July 23 that "Iranian and Hezbollah-backed fighters and advisers" have supported the Syrian regime's assault on its own people. U.S. diplomats have been unwilling to comment publicly on this omission, and a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to comment for this article.

The United States may be reluctant to campaign for sanctions on Hezbollah for fear that such a bid would not get past veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China. Witness China's continued business dealings with Iran, Russia's backroom dilution of the recent condemnation alluding to Hezbollah, as well as both nations' refusal to allow U.N. sanctions on Syria.

But the free world invests billions of dollars in the United Nations every year -- not to mention its credibility in the name of promoting international peace and security. Should the U.N. Security Council prove simply too craven or morally crooked to take actions against Hezbollah, there would still be benefits to airing the case against the "Party of God." This is surely a debate worth having at the United Nations -- and soon.

Having the UN designate Hezbullah a terror organization is a dream - a dream that is quite unlikely to come true. Weinthal and Rosett hint at one reason why.

The global body has thus far limited itself to doling out ineffective wrist slaps and euphemisms in addressing Hezbollah's global terrorist reach. In a typical example, the U.N. Security Council on July 10 called for "all Lebanese parties" to refrain from involvement in the Syrian crisis -- a bland reference to Hezbollah's murderous role. (According to Reuters, the reference to Hezbollah was watered down due to objections from Russia.)

But it's more than just Russia and China. Even the Europeans could only bring themselves to cut off Hezbullah's 'military wing' and not its 'political wing' as if the two were somehow distinguishable. The Security Council has other members. The current members include Azerbaijan, Argentina, Morocco, Pakistan, Rwanda and Togo, all of whose votes I would count as less than certain. Not to mention France itself which might not be willing to go further than it has gone already. And then, there are the quid pro quos that might be demanded as part of such a vote. For example, is it really hard to envision the UN saying that they will only designate Hezbullah a terror organization if Israel is designated a terror supporting state?

The problem with the UN - and with the billions of dollars that are sunk into it every year - is not that it won't declare Hezbullah a terror organization or even that it cannot define terrorism. The rot goes far deeper than any individual UN decision. The only way to change it would be for the US and other civilized countries to threaten to withdraw if the UN cannot get its act together, and to be willing to follow through on that threat. So far, there is no sign of that happening, and it's unlikely to happen at least so long as the current administration is in power in Washington.