Last week the EU rejected Israel’s request to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. The recent attack in Bulgaria, in which five Israeli tourists were killed and 30 others wounded, and the concern that Syria may provide Hezbollah with chemical weapons, added urgency to Israel’s request. Nonetheless, Europe, which is vulnerable to terrorism on its own soil, refused the request, in part on the grounds that Hezbollah is also a political party.
Hezbollah does indeed play on both fields: it is a terrorist organisation operated by Iran and a Lebanese political party. But the EU’s stance, whereby political activity is regarded as sound defence against being declared a terrorist organisation provides legitimacy to terrorism, encourages violence, and fatally harms moderates.
Europe, the cradle of democracy, should have stated unequivocally: one cannot be involved in terrorism and enjoy the legitimacy of a political party….
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A similar debate once raged about distinguishing between Sinn Fein (a political party) and the IRA (a terrorist organization), when the boundaries between the two became excessively porous. I still find it remarkable that the IRA was for years able blatantly to raise money in the US through NORAID and even enjoy the backing of Congressmen like Peter King.
This brings back the echoes of the conciliation and compromise that Europeans and Britons made with Hitler and his National Socialists just prior to WW2.
Their folly was to presume that there could be “peace in our time” with people who were clearly ‘bent on’ going to war if they didn’t ‘get their way.’