(Wall Street Journal Europe) Daniel Schwammenthal - The EU's continued refusal to put Hizbullah on its terror list is simply indefensible. Not designating the group as a terrorist organization gives the pioneers of Islamist suicide bombings the opportunity to organize, recruit and raise funds throughout the Continent. There are about 950 Hizbullah members and supporters in Germany alone, according to Berlin's domestic intelligence service. Hizbullah has also sent operatives from Europe to Israel for terror attacks. Can there really be any reasonable doubt among EU officials about the true nature of Hizbullah? Syrian regime defectors have revealed that thousands of Hizbullah men (and Iranians) are in Syria as "military consultants" for President Bashar Assad, keeping themselves busy killing protestors. They supplied the same murderous services to Iran to put down the 2009 "Green Revolution." And for decades Hizbullah has terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians, indiscriminately raining missiles on men, women and children, murdering scores in the process. This is why the U.S., Canada and Australia, as well as the Netherlands and the UK, have already added Hizbullah to their terror lists. Likewise, the European Parliament passed a resolution in 2005 by a vote of 475 to 8, stating "that clear evidence exists of terrorist activities by Hizbullah. The [EU] Council should take all necessary steps to curtail them." That the EU still hasn't done so must be due to a lack of political will, rather than a lack of evidence. The writer is director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute in Brussels.
2012-08-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive