An international pat on the back is owed to Bulgaria, which, in a rare act of European political courage and moral clarity, put the blame for last summer’s bombing of a bus in Burgas on Hezbollah.
This might seem like a no-brainer to most Americans, who already know all too well the bloody modus operandi of the Lebanese terrorist group and ostensible political party; or to Israelis, who have done combat with Hezbollah on any number of occasions.
But by European standards, the attribution of the bombing, which killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian, to Hezbollah is quite unusual. Despite the fact that Europeans have themselves been the victims of Hezbollah’s murderousness, most European nations have been disgracefully weak-kneed in their response.
While the US, Australia, Canada and Israel have all defined Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, only one European nation — the Netherlands — has followed suit. Britain has gone halfway, declaring the military wing of the organization to be terrorist.
One of Hezbollah’s greatest victims has been France, which lost 58 soldiers in 1983 to a Hezbollah bombing in Beirut. But Paris has shied away from any declarations concerning Hezbollah, not necessarily because it is cowardly regarding jihadist terror — its current fighting in Mali belies that notion — but for purely mercenary reasons: France does a lot of business with Lebanon, its former colony.
French intransigence on the issue has effectively prevented the European Union, or any other credible European collective, from declaring Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
This is, tragically, much more than a symbolic problem. International analysts have made it clear that Hezbollah needs Europe for its economic well-being. Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch legislator and observer of Middle Eastern terror, has called Europe Hezbollah’s “money laundromat and piggy bank.”
Severing economic ties with Hezbollah, and perhaps even with Lebanon, would severely hamper these terrorists’ ability to spread death and destruction, not only in Europe but around the world.
It is no secret to anyone that Hezbollah — with its expertise and proven ability to strike targets across the globe — has long served as a proxy agent of terror for Iran. This should be of no less concern to Europe than to Israel, the US and Argentina.
This week’s clear statement from Bulgaria — not to mention Hezbollah’s decades of bloody attacks against innocents — should serve as an impetus to Europe to muster its courage and integrity to define Hezbollah as what everybody already knows it is: A terrorist organization, plain and simple. The line between right and wrong, and between good and evil, would be made considerably more clear. Infinitely more important, lives would be saved.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
