Jerusalem Post: Banning Hezbollah: A welcome and overdue step/حظر حزب الله في ألماني خطوة مرحب بها ومتأخرة/Israeli Ambassador to the UN: No need for a UNIFIL paralyzed by Hezbollah/ السفير الإسرائيلي في مجلس الأمن: لا حاجة لقوات يونيفل مشلولة من حزب الله

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon: No need for a UNIFIL paralyzed by Hezbollah/Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/May 05/2020
السفير الإسرائيلي في مجلس الأمن: لا حاجة لقوات يونيفل مشلولة من حزب الله

Banning Hezbollah: A welcome and overdue step/Jerusalem Post Editorial/May 05/2020
الجيروساليم بوست: حظر حزب الله في ألماني خطوة مرحب بها ومتأخرة
Hezbollah’s record as the perpetrator of major terrorist atrocities around the world has been known for decades.
In a welcome step, Germany last week banned all activities of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. Announcing the move, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared that Hezbollah’s activities “violate criminal law, and the organization opposes the concept of international understanding.”
The ban was long overdue. Hezbollah’s record as the perpetrator of major terrorist atrocities around the world has been known for decades: Its history includes the bombings, orchestrated by Imad Mughniyeh, of the US Embassy and the military barracks in Beirut in 1983; the bombing attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the AMIA Jewish center there in 1994; the bombing attack against US military forces stationed in Saudi Arabia in 1996; the murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri; the bombing of a tour bus carrying Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012; not to mention the myriad attacks against and kidnappings of Israelis, Europeans and Americans; its role in provoking the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and its part in the Syrian civil war, where it helped Iran create a corridor of terror from Tehran to Beirut.
Hezbollah’s ongoing efforts to obtain precision-guided missiles and the discovery of a warren of terrorist attack tunnels crossing from Lebanon into Israel are yet more indications that it has not given up its dreams of death and destruction.
The US and Israel for years urged Europe to ban Hezbollah, but it was only after Hezbollah carried out the attack in Burgas that the European Union was moved to act. In July 2013, EU governments agreed to partially blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but they made an artificial and dangerous distinction between the “military” arm of Hezbollah and the “political” arm. This is a distinction that the terrorist organization itself does not make. It is ridiculous and counterproductive to pretend there is a difference between the “political” and “military” activities of an organization whose terrorists have caused such high death tolls and suffering globally.
As The Jerusalem Post’s Benjamin Weinthal noted on Sunday, in an analysis of the long-overdue nature of the German decision, this newspaper has reported on hundreds of Hezbollah’s activities in Europe, including a Hezbollah member declaring last year in a Hezbollah-controlled mosque in the German city of Münster: “We belong to the party of Ruhollah [Khomeini]…. We are proud of terrorism.”
The US, Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, the Arab League and now Germany have all taken the step to ban Hezbollah.
As Weinthal noted, a major change in attitude in Germany occurred with the appointment of Richard Grenell as US ambassador in 2018. Last week, Grenell welcomed the German measure, saying: “The world is a little bit safer with this German government ban of Hezbollah. The entire US Embassy in Berlin has worked with the German government and the Bundestag for two years to push for this ban. It’s an incredible diplomatic success that we hope will motivate many officials in Brussels to follow suit with an EU-wide ban.”
The Post’s Yonah Jeremy Bob, in an analysis published on Monday, noted the role of the Mossad in supplying European countries with intelligence that has helped prevent attacks by Hezbollah and its Shi’ite allies (as well as Sunni ISIS). This includes intel on warehouses in southern Germany belonging to Hezbollah operatives, where hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate – used to make explosives – were stored. Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has revealed that an Iranian diplomat in Vienna headed a bomb plot in France, and was nabbed presumably with the help of Israeli intelligence.
It is absurd to tolerate terrorism for fear of upsetting Hezbollah’s patron – the Islamic Republic of Iran. And it should be remembered that – like ISIS and other Sunni jihadists – many of the victims of the Shi’ite terrorist organization have been Muslims.
Hezbollah cannot be considered a legitimate political movement. Its record shows that it is a terrorist organization that shamelessly targets innocent civilians. Hundreds have died as a result. It needs to be clearly acknowledged that Hezbollah’s terrorist activities are not a “Middle Eastern” issue, but a threat that knows no borders, aimed against the international community. As long as the political wing is considered legal, Hezbollah will be able to continue fundraising and recruiting freely in Europe and elsewhere. This financial pipeline and recruitment system is the oxygen that keeps Hezbollah alive.
When tackling terrorism, you can’t do things by half. It is time for all countries that believe in peace and security to ban both Hezbollah’s political and military wings. There can be no shades of gray in blacklisting Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon: No need for a UNIFIL paralyzed by Hezbollah/Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post/May 05/2020السفير الإسرائيلي في مجلس الأمن: لا حاجة لقوات يونيفل مشلولة من حزب الله
The UN Security Council plans to hold further meetings to discuss a necessary change to UNIFIL’s mandate, ahead of its renewal in August.
Israel may change its mind about the need for a UN Interim Force in Lebanon if it continues to let Hezbollah run rampant in southern Lebanon, Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday.
“If Hezbollah continues to paralyze UNIFIL’s actions and reinforce its terrorist positions in the area, there will be no choice but to draw conclusions about the necessity of the forces in its current format,” Danon warned.
UNIFIL is a UN peacekeeping mission on the border of Israel and Lebanon, established in 1978 after Operation Litani, when the IDF responded to the Coastal Road massacre in which a Palestinian terrorist killed 38 Israelis, including 13 children, by attacking PLO positions in southern Lebanon, attempting to push them away from the border with Israel.
Since the 2006 Second Lebanon War and UN Security Council Resolution 1701– the topic of Monday’s meeting – UNIFIL’s mandate has been to help the Lebanese Armed Forces maintain the Lebanese government’s sovereignty in the area.
Danon’s comments come in light of Hezbollah’s attempts in recent weeks to breach the fence on the Israel-Lebanon border and infiltrate Israel.
The UN Security Council plans to hold further meetings to discuss a necessary change to UNIFIL’s mandate, ahead of its renewal in August.
Danon called on the Security Council to take action to “significantly improve UNIFIL’s effectiveness, especially when it comes to limiting access and freedom of movement for the forces in southern Lebanon.”UN Secretary-General reports on the implementation of Resolution 1701 repeatedly show that UNIFIL has difficulty accessing areas with a connection to Hezbollah terror activities.
Sarit Zehavi, founder of the Alma Research and Education Center, whose expertise is in security along Israel’s northern borders, said of Danon’s declaration: “It’s about time. This is the first time I’ve heard an Israeli official consider whether the [UNIFIL] force is necessary.
“We have been saying for a long time that we need to examine the force’s missions, and if they cannot fulfil them, they should be smaller or new expectations should be set,” Zehavi continued. “There are about 10,000 soldiers there who aren’t managing to prevent Hezbollah’s spread in southern Lebanon.”
Zehavi pointed to the incident last month in which Hezbollah cut holes in the border fence in three locations: “Where was UNIFIL in this story?”
“They aren’t managing to stop Hezbollah’s military activity,” she warned.
In February, the Alma Center reported Hezbollah blocked UNIFIL’s access to Baraachit, a pro-Hezbollah Shi’ite town in southern Lebanon.
Residents of the village blocked French UNIFIL forces from entering to conduct a mapping and photography assignment, and Hezbollah confiscated the soldiers’ cameras. The UNIFIL force’s commander sought assistance, as women and children threw stones at the soldiers. Residents accused UNIFIL of “doing Israel’s work,” saying “the Israeli enemy mobilizes them against the residents of the south and the resistance.”