(Gatestone Institute) Douglas Murray - Speaking in Dublin last Saturday, the chief counter-terrorism adviser to President Obama, John Brennan, criticized the European Union for its complete failure to stand up to the terrorist group Hizbullah. It will be amazing to many Americans - and indeed to many Europeans - that the group remains able to operate, recruit and raise funds within the EU. In America, the organization has long been banned in any and all of its guises. The EU claims that there is a difference between the "political"' and the "military" wings of Hizbullah, though nobody outside the EU believes there is any such internal distinction. The American government does not see it; the Canadian government does not see it. The governments of Iran and Syria do not see it. The people of Lebanon do not see it. And of course Hizbullah itself does not see it. Where would Hizbullah be without the EU? The Secretary General of Hizbullah, Hassan Nasrallah, has already made it very clear. A few years back he said that if the EU designated Hizbullah as a terrorist group in its entirety, it would "destroy" the organization. "The sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and material support will be destroyed." That the EU should continue to permit such terrorists to recruit and fundraise on EU soil is an utterly unsustainable position. The writer is associate director of the Henry Jackson Society in the UK.
2012-11-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive