Hezbollah's German Helpers

By ALEXANDER RITZMANN and MARK DUBOWITZ
April 17, 2007

Hezbollah arrived in the European Union back in the 1980s, along with
refugees from the civil war in Lebanon. Despite its deadly track record and
a 2005 European Parliament resolution recommending the banning of the
Iranian-funded group, it is still legal on the Continent. France, Spain,
Belgium and Sweden prevent the EU from jointly designating Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization.

Holding currently both the E.U. and G-8 presidencies, Berlin would be in a
strong position to head the fight against an organization dedicated to the
destruction of Israel and the replacement of Lebanon's fragile democracy
with a Tehran-backed Islamic state. So far, however, Germany has squandered
this unique opportunity to push for a Hezbollah ban. Berlin's passivity is
consistent with its tolerant approach toward the "Party of God" over the
past two decades.

While under the watchful eye of German law enforcement and intelligence,
Hezbollah enjoys significant operational freedom. In the late 1990s, for
example, it was able to recruit in Germany Steven Smyrek, a German convert
to Islam, and train him in Lebanon as a suicide bomber. He was luckily
arrested at Tel Aviv airport before he could blow up Israeli civilians.

German security services believe that about 900 Hezbollah core activists are
in the country and regularly meet in 30 cultural community centers and
mosques. These activists financially support Hezbollah in Lebanon through
fund-raising organizations, such as the "Orphans Project Lebanon
Association." This harmless-sounding charity belongs to the Lebanese
"al-Shahid (the Martyr) Association," which is part of the Hezbollah network
that supports the families of militia fighters and suicide bombers.

According to a German government report from February, the attitude of
Hezbollah supporters in Germany "is characterized by a far-reaching,
unlimited acceptance of the ideology and policy (of Hezbollah)." Berlin is
also aware that representatives of Hezbollah's "foreign affairs office" in
Lebanon regularly travel to Germany to give orders to their followers.

* * *

So why does the German government tolerate these activities?

First, the Hezbollah leadership in Beirut recognizes the value of a German
safe haven. It demands that Hezbollah followers carefully obey German law,
which Berlin claims they do "to a large extent." Experience from attacks in
the U.S., Britain and elsewhere suggest, though, that terrorists follow the
law up and until the point they decide to strike.

Second, too many Germany policymakers uncritically accept the idea that
there is supposedly a political Hezbollah -- an Islamist but legitimate
movement independent of those Hezbollah terrorists who have murdered
hundreds of people around the world. To believe that fairy tale, they even
ignore Hezbollah's own words. As Mohammed Fannish, member of the "political
bureau" of Hezbollah and former Lebanese energy minister put it in 2002: "I
can state that there is no separating between Hezbollah's military and
political arms."

Hezbollah's leadership, the Shurah Council, controls the totality of its
activities -- social, political and what it calls "military." Funding for
Hezbollah is fungible: Money collected in Germany supposedly for social and
political causes frees up funds for terrorist attacks.

In ignoring the threat from Hezbollah, the German government puts hope above
experience. While it tries to spare German citizens from the wrath of
Hezbollah, it plays down the danger of a group that seeks to destroy both
Lebanese democracy and the Jewish state. In the end, this approach also
compromises the safety of German citizens. On July 31, 2006, two Lebanese
students, Yussuf Mohammed El Hajdib and Jihad Hamad, placed bombs hidden in
suitcases on two regional trains in Germany, but they failed to go off.
Germany's federal law enforcement agency concluded that a successful
explosion would have resulted in a tragedy on par with the London subway
attacks of July 2005. The two suspects said they wanted to take revenge for
the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Just four month earlier, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah repeatedly urged
Muslims on Hezbollah's TV-station al-Manar "to take a decisive stand" in the
cartoon controversy. He said that he is certain that, "...not only millions,
but hundreds of millions of Muslims are ready and willing to sacrifice their
lives in order to defend the honor of their Prophet. And you are among
them." The German federal prosecutor is still investigating the
organizational affiliations of the two Lebanese terror suspects.

What is well established already is that al-Manar broadcasts into Germany
(and the rest of Europe), the Middle East and North Africa. While eight out
of 10 satellite providers (including four European) have dropped al-Manar,
ARABSAT, majority-owned by the Saudi government, and Nilesat, owned by the
Egyptian government, continue these broadcasts. Hezbollah TV's deadly mix of
racial hatred, anti-Semitism, glorification of terrorism and incitement to
violence are popular among Arabic-speaking youth in Europe. Young Muslims in
Berlin recently asked in a German TV show to explain their hatred of the
U.S. and Jews cited al-Manar as one of their primary sources of information.

In the past, the German government has shown strong resolve when it saw a
threat to German security. It banned the Hamas "charity" al-Aqsa as well as
the radical Sunni Islamist Hizb-ut Tahrir group. And it joined the EU in
designating the PKK, the radical Kurdish group, as a terrorist organization.

Would branding the "Party of God" a terrorist group make any difference?
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah himself gave the answer in March 2005 when
he told Arab media that European blacklisting would "destroy Hezbollah. The
sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and
material support will be destroyed."

With so much power comes great responsibility to act.

Mr. Ritzmann, a former member of the Berlin State Parliament, is a senior
fellow at the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy. Mr. Dubowitz
is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of
Democracies and director of its Coalition Against Terrorist Media project.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117676512831571906.html




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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.