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from https://www.newsweek.com/why-doesnt-eu-call-hezbollah-terror-group-opinion-1818655

Why Doesn't the EU Call Hezbollah a Terror Group? | Opinion
ARSEN OSTROVSKY AND MATTHIJS SCHÜSSLER
ON 8/10/23 AT 7:12 AM EDT
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Israel Sends Message to Iran and Hezbollah in First-Ever US Army Drill

During a debate on the crisis situation in Lebanon last month, the
European Parliament, for the first time, adopted a resolution calling
for the European Union to add the whole of Hezbollah to its list of
banned terrorist organizations.

This welcome call came almost 10 years to the day after the EU added Hezbollah's so-called "military wing" to its terror list. That came in
the wake of the group's 2012 suicide bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria,
which killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver.

In the period since, several European countries, including Germany, the
United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Austria, among others, have taken
the principled decision to ban Hezbollah in its entirety. The Arab
League and Gulf Cooperation Council have done the same. The United
States has also proscribed Hezbollah in full, and a recent bipartisan resolution reiterated a long-standing call on the EU to designate the
whole group as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah Supporters
Shiite Muslim supporters of Hezbollah attend a gathering to commemorate
Ashura, a 10-day period during the Islamic month of Muharram to remember
and mourn the seventh century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson
Imam Hussein, in the southern suburbs of Beirut on July 29.
ANWAR AMRO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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So, why does the EU still maintain an artificial distinction between Hezbollah's so-called "military" and "political" wings, allowing the
group to continue operating virtually unfettered across Europe?

In case one needs a refresher, Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based jihadist
terrorist organization, funded, armed, and serving entirely at the best
of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which provides the group with some $700 million per year in funding.

Hezbollah's primary goal is not only the elimination of the State of
Israel, but of Jews worldwide. Only a few days ago, Hezbollah
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that the entire Middle
East will not rest until the "cancerous gland" that is Israel is removed.

However, Hezbollah is not only a direct threat to Israel, but also a
very real threat to the EU as well. There is a long history of terror
and terror-related activities carried out against European targets. In
addition to the Burgas bus bombing, in recent years, Hezbollah has
carried out operations in Greece, Cyprus, Belgium, France, Italy, and
Germany.

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To help underwrite their terrorist activities, Hezbollah operates an
extensive global narco-terrorism network, spanning from Latin American
to Europe. According to Europol's June 2022 European Union Terrorism
Situation and Trend Report, "Hezbollah has been using the EU as a base
for fundraising, recruitment and criminal activities from which they
obtain significant profits."

Hezbollah is now sending fighters to support Russia, in its relentless
war of aggression against Ukraine, and since the conclusion of the 2006
war with Israel, Hezbollah is estimated to have amassed more than
150,000 mostly Iranian-made rockets, aimed at the heart of the Jewish
state, in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

In addition, Hezbollah has also become a major backer of the Assad
regime in Syria, where they have sent fighters and have used as a base
to receive weapons from the IRGC in Iran, contrary to UN and EU policy
and regulations. In this regard, it should also be noteworthy, that last month's European Parliament resolution that called to designate
Hezbollah in full as a terrorist entity, also called to add the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to its list of banned terrorist organizations.

In its 2019 decision to add Hezbollah's "political wing" to its list of proscribed terrorist organizations, Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid
said the UK came to a realization that "we are no longer able to
distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party."

As far back as 2004, when Netherlands became the first country in Europe
to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group in its entirety, Dutch
intelligence determined that "Hezbollah's political and terrorist wings
are controlled by one coordinating council," and "this means that there
is indeed a link between these parts of the organization."

In case Brussels has any doubts, they need only listen to Hezbollah
leadership itself, with Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader,
reaffirming "Hezbollah has a single leadership," reinforcing that "the
same leadership that directs the parliamentary and government work also
leads jihad actions in the struggle against Israel."

The EU's intransigent refusal to designate Hezbollah a terrorist
organization in full essentially boils down to the preposterous argument
that doing so would somehow destabilize the domestic situation within
Lebanon. France is leading this position because of its historical
connection to the country.

But here is a newsflash: Lebanon is already an economic basket case,
where the majority of people live in abject poverty, in large part due
to the rampant corruption and the omnipresence of Hezbollah, which is effectively running a parallel state within a state.

According to a June 2023 report by the International Monetary Fund, in
the four years since the beginning of the economic meltdown, the
Lebanese economy has contracted by about 40 percent, the lira has lost
98 percent of its value and inflation has been in triple digits.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to profit from Lebanon's financial crisis
making it, according to Forbes, the richest terror organization in the
world, amassing a fortune of more than $1 billion.

In short, the EU's ongoing refusal has only further emboldened
Hezbollah, providing the whole group legitimacy, while giving Iran a
stronger foothold in Europe. Hezbollah is a genocidal terrorist group,
not a rational actor that has Lebanon's best interests at heart. It is
not only naïve, but foolish and reckless to believe they can be reasoned
with.

It is long past time the EU designates the entire group as a terrorist organization. Doing so will make Europe, Lebanon, and the Middle East
safer, plus deliver a major blow against Iran's malign influence in the
region and Europe.

Arsen Ostrovskyis a human rights attorney and CEO of The International
Legal Forum, a global network of lawyers and activists combating
antisemitism and terror in the legal arena. You can follow him on
Twitter at: @Ostrov_A.

Matthijs Schüssler is the Executive Director of ELNET EU & NATO, a non-partisan policy organization dedicated to strengthening relations
between Europe and Israel. You can follow ELNET on Twitter at @elnetwork_eu.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.


comments include

RadicalCentrist
10 August, 2023

One of the unintended consequences of history is that when Israel won in
'73, they chased most of the Palestinian fighters into Lebanon,
upsetting a long held religious and political balancing act.

As a result, Lebanon ceased to be the most progressive and educated (AND majority Christian) ME country, and became the failed state it is today.

Many lessons to be learned here.


RadicalCentrist
10 August, 2023

Fully agree here. Hez believes any atrocity is OK in the name of Allah.

Not exactly a fan of collective punishment Israeli style either, but
I can guess what would happen if Hez had the upper hand.


John Prudden
10 August, 2023

OK Hezbollah is, in whole, a terrorist organization.

Why doesn’t EU label ISrael a terrorist state? Why isn’t Israel
standing before the ICC in violation of 24 Security Council Resolutions,
of multiple Geneva Code violations, of multiple aggressions against her neighbors, of War Crimes, of Apartheid?

Why not determine what to call Israel?

replies include

William Gibbons
2 days ago

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. It is smaller than Lake Michigan and occupies less than one-tenth of one percent of the entire
Middle East. It has a thriving Arab Middle class, and 200,000
Palestinians cross into Israel daily to work, earning twice as much as
they would in Palestinian businesses. A two-state solution can easily
become a reality if Hamas drops its determination to destroy the state
of Israel, which is part of its 1988 founding charter.

John Prudden
2 days ago

Your reply is full of platitudes about Israel that are plainly not true
if they are not carefully qualified. As such, they are disputable.
Like a thriving Arab Middle class -

"In 2019, approximately 37% of Arab families were living below the
poverty line, compared with around 19% of Jewish families. Similarly,
the average monthly available income for Arab households (NIS 14,600)
was much lower than for Jewish households (NIS 21,500)."

from the Israeli Democracy Institute report. I


Show 1 more reply


Giorgios Culofakis
10 August, 2023

They are the chosen people. They are never wrong.

Your Other Left
10 August, 2023

The Islamist mentality is very different from the West's. Islam is both
their government and their social structure. While we have a
representative government, they have dictators posing as clerics. The
terror aspect of Hezbollah's government is so ingrained that there's no
way to cure it. It's more like a diseased limb.

1 reply


P Span
10 August, 2023

Who will be the first here to defend the repugnant terrorist hezbollah?

Cmon jihadi show us who you are!

2 replies


whosonfirst
10 August, 2023

Hezbollah's primary goal is not only the elimination of the State of
Israel, but of Jews worldwide.

Newsweek runs another pro-n azi drama queen liar article. Not all Jews
are zionists and so not given attention by anti-n azi groups.

Rohan
2 hours ago

I just listened to David Hoffman in video titled "Revisionists of
Biblical Amalek (2001)" - it is a frightening world that he portrays in
which leading Jewish members like Deborah Lipstadt promote genocide for
any opposition or challenger. They are labeled the biblical "Amalek"
which were wipe out for simply being born an Amalek. That includes all
pets and cattle that belonged to them. This has to be understood as to
why it is even around

Lysander
10 August, 2023

"Hezbollah's primary goal is not only the elimination of the State of
Israel, but of Jews worldwide."

Just because someone says that doesn't mean its true. When did Hezbollah
say that? Source?

If I posted that all Europeans eat worms, would you just accept that as
fact?

Do you believe that Israel wants to kill all Christians because some
Israelis recently said "death to Christians"?

It's called tap dancing.

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