Europe Still Doesn't Get It

By Ilan Weinglass

In a development worthy of a longer post, the U.K. Home Office has classified the military wing of Hizballah as a terrorist organization.  This is certainly a positive move, but a deeply flawed one reflecting a conceptual blind spot on the U.K.'s part.

Most significantly, "Home Office minister Tony McNulty said the ban does not apply to the political, social or humanitarian activities of Hezbollah."  The U.K. still clings to the notion that there is a meaningful difference between the political/humanitarian branch of a terrorist group and its actual terrorist activities.  This dichotomy has been shown to be dangerously false and misguided, by Matthew Levitt among others. A detailed examination of the facts, in the case of Hamas, can be found in Levitt's book Hamas, with relevant excerpts here.  The TF Blog's Avi Jorisch has explored the role of Hizballah's TV station, Al Manar, in supporting terrorism in his book Beacon of Hatred.  If a television station does not count as "political, social or humanitarian" and therefore exempt from this ban, I don't know what does.

Further, it is worth looking further at the language used by the Home Office:

"Hizballah's military wing is providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs," he said.

"Hizballah's military wing also provides support to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

"It is because of this support for terrorism in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories that the Government has taken this action."

There were no words about Hizballah actually carrying out terror attacks against Israel, such as launching a missile barrage against Israeli civilians in 2006. This is a curious omission for a group whose flag features a hand holding a Kalashnikov over the words "The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon." 

Hizballah's support to Palestinian groups is also noted as a reason for the ban.  But this support has been going on for years - why did the U.K. just acknowledge it now?  And if providing support to terror groups is criteria for being listed, why the blind spot in noting the actual terror acts performed by Hizballah?

So this is a very limited positive development. I fear that regarding terrorist groups such as Hizballah,  our progress will be like approaching a mathematical limit - we know what the necessary results are, but the closer we approach, the slower we get and we will never get to where we need to be.