Articles
World Just Waking to Hezbollah Threat
By Boston Herald
Jul 22, 2008 - 10:36:09 AM

The two Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah guerrillas two summers ago have been laid to rest at last, but it's the reaction in Lebanon that should be a wake-up call to the civilized nations of the world.

The five terrorists released by Israel - including Samir Kantar, convicted of four murders in 1979 - were given an official welcome in Beirut not just by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, but also Lebanon's president, prime minister and Parliament speaker.

"Your return is a new victory, and the future with you will only be a shining march in which we achieve the sovereignty of our land and the freedom of people," President Michel Suleiman said.

So for now, Hezbollah, which controls 11 of the 30 seats in Lebanon's Cabinet, is the tail wagging the Lebanese dog. Nasrallah's strategy of capturing the two Israeli soldiers has seemingly worked - that is, not counting the property destroyed and the lives lost in the month-long bombardment of Lebanese territory by Israel that followed.

If that is a calculation being made by the political leaders of Lebanon, it is not one being shared on the public stage - a stage where the Hezbollah and Lebanese flags are displayed side-by-side.

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence reports that Hezbollah has tripled the number of rockets it had on hand in the summer of 2006 and its arsenal is now believed to include more powerful weapons than the Katyushas that rained over northern Israel that summer.

And Hezbollah's newfound political power may mean that U.N. peacekeepers assigned to border areas under Security Council Resolution 1701 may be kicked out when their mandate expires this August.

But there are some in the international community committed to putting the brakes on these purveyors of terror. Britain, which had five of its citizens kidnapped from the Iraqi Finance Ministry in May 2007 (believed to have been planned and overseen by Hezbollah), has banned fundraising and support for Hezbollah. It would be helpful if the European Union followed Britain's lead.

Meanwhile, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, lawsuits filed in the U.S. and Canada are aimed at both the activities of Lebanese banks used by Hezbollah and the various "charities" used as fundraising front groups.

So Nasrallah and his henchman may savor their moment of political triumph, but the world will not sit idly by and allow his brand of terror to flourish.

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