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Berlin and Washington – A year
ago Hezbollah operatives destroyed the lives of innocent Israelis and
Bulgarians when they blew up a tour bus in Burgas. “The wound in my heart will
never heal,” said one of the survivors, the survivor Gilat Kolengi, who lost
her husband Itzik during the bombing. She was speaking earlier this month to an
Israeli news outlet about the trauma of the terror attack, along with another
survivor, Natalie Menashe, who lost her husband, Amir.
The tragedy of these Israeli widows
cannot be separated from that of a Bulgarian widow, Emine Kyosev, whose husband
Mustafa was also killed in the attack. The Hezbollah terrorists murdered five
Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver and wounded more than 30 Israeli tourists
on that horrific day in July.
With this atrocity staring them in the
face, the European Union’s foreign ministers – with prodding from the likes of
Austrian-born former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- finally
capped months of dithering by announcing on Monday that they are declaring Hezbollah’s
so-called military wing to be a terrorist organization. That exempts
Hezbollah’s so-called political wing, though as noted this week by Israel’s
ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, “Not even Harry Houdini could
pull off the illusion that there is a difference between these two groups.”
There is a
rising mountain of evidence that Hezbollah’s terrorism, which is animated by
Iran’s revolutionary Islamic ideology, crosses all boundaries and
nationalities.
While the EU’s halfway measure should
be welcomed as progress, it does not go anywhere near far enough to bring
justice to Hezbollah’s victims, not only in Europe, but around the globe – nor
does it address the true scope of the threat.
The Burgas attack is part of a rising
mountain of evidence that Hezbollah’s terrorism, which is animated by Iran’s
revolutionary Islamic ideology, crosses all boundaries and nationalities.
Shiite fundamentalist Hezbollah, like its mirror image Sunni fundamentalist Al
Qaeda, is a monolithic entity that cannot be divided into political and
military wings.
Indeed, Hezbollah’s growing global
terrorism has at times surpassed Al Qaeda's reach. National Counterterrorism
Center Director Matthew Olsen said last year, “When we are briefing the White
House, Hezbollah, coupled with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds
Force, are the terror threats at the top of the list.”
Canada, the United States, the
Netherlands and recently Bahrain have outlawed Hezbollah’s entire organization.
And while sanctions alone may not be enough, the counter-terrorism track record
of the countries that sanction Hezbollah suggests that blacklisting every
aspect of their organization can at least help. By contrast, inaction, or half
measures serve to embolden Hezbollah’s terror activities and the money-raising
rackets behind them.
All of which raises the question: Where
in this scene is the erstwhile defender of global peace and security, the
United Nations? While Europe has been wobbling its way toward the current half
measures, the UN has confined itself to the occasional hollow statement,
condemning from time to time the carnage resulting from Hezbollah’s activities,
but omitting entirely any sanctions on Hezbollah itself.
Surely it’s time the U.N. Security
Council at least entertained a debate over the walloping case for branding
Hezbollah as a pariah organization, and placing it under U.N. sanctions. While
the U.N. itself has no clear definition of terrorism, the Security Council has
the authority, should its members choose to exercise it, to target specific
terrorist organizations. The U,N. did this years ago with al Qaeda,
If, as looks likely, Samantha Power is
confirmed as the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N., there could be few better
tests of her intentions and leadership than whether she is willing to pioneer
sanctions on Hezbollah at the world body. If she gets there before the end of
this month, there would be every reason to seize the advantage that the U.S.
holds the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for the month of July.
Hezbollah itself has provided plenty of
grist for such a move. Its attacks, and the networks and rackets behind them,
have by now struck close to home for every region represented on the Security
Council.
In Africa, an official with Nigeria’s
security services recently called Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist
organization.
That is a first for Africa, where
Hezbollah has been expanding with near impunity, What inspired this Nigerian
official to sound the alarm was the arrest of three dual Lebanese-Nigerian
nationals, Mustapha Fawaz, 49, Abdullahi Thahini, 48, and Tahal Roda, 51, who
were allegedly planning to strike Israeli and American targets. These suspects
had stockpiled enough weapons, ranging from land mines and AK 47 rifles to
anti-tank rocket launchers, "to sustain a civil war," according to
the public prosecutor.
In Asia, a similar case is now
before a Thai court, involving a Swedish-Lebanese man, Atris Hussein, believed
to be connected to Hezbollah, Hussein is on trial for allegedly planning to
blow up sites favored by western tourists in Bangkok, having equipped himself
for this task with six tons of an explosive material, ammonium nitrate.
Central and North America have long
been infested with Hezbollah’s narcotics trade, illicit sales of used cars and
cigarette smuggling. Hezbollah operatives were implicated in attacks in the
1990s in Argentina. Recent signs of trouble include the entry of an alleged
Hezbollah operative into Texas.
It is also worth recalling that prior
to Al Qaeda’s attack on 9/11, Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of more
Americans than any other terrorist entity. In 1983, Hezbollah executed a
double-suicide attack against U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut,
killing 241 American servicemen and 58 French paratroopers.
Nor has Hezbollah lost its appetite for
American blood. In January 2007, Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq played a
vital role in the killings of five U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The Iraqi government
snubbed President Obama’s request not to release Daqduq from detention.
Hezbollah’s Daqduq left Iraq and now enjoys a cozy existence in Lebanon.
The growing list of Hezbollah’s plots
and killing sprees warrants maximum justice. For the EU, this ought to mean
going beyond half measures, to immediately evict Hezbollah operatives from its
territories, including the closure of Hezbollah-run mosques, associations and
other fundraising operations that advance their terror operations in Syria and
around the globe. For the U.N., there is no excuse by now for treating
Hezbollah as any more benign than Al Qaeda. What is the civilized world waiting
for? Where’s the backbone?
Benjamin
Weinthal is a Berlin-based fellow at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies
.
Follow him on Twitter@BenWeinthal.
.
Follow him on Twitter@BenWeinthal.
Claudia
Rosett is journalist-in-residence at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies
.
.
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