‘Once again, Europe displayed its bias against Arabs’

A European decision to include the military wing of Hezbollah in its list of terror organizations leads the news in all major Arabic-language media on Tuesday.

“Hezbollah’s military wing is a terror organization according to European decision,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, saying that the declaration runs counter to earlier expectations that the EU would not come through with the move. Hezbollah, in response, has tacitly threatened the international forces stationed in southern Lebanon, warning that the European decision “may lead to lack of trust between the international forces and residents of the south.”

Europe will find it difficult to differentiate between the movement’s public political wing and its secret military wing, claims A-Sharq Al-Awsat in a separate article.

London-based daily Al-Hayat leads with Israel’s congratulation to Europe and with a statement by a French diplomat telling the newspaper that the decision was a penalty for the party’s participation in fighting in Syria. The French diplomat added that the EU decision does not impose immediate sanctions on Hezbollah by member states, claiming that each state is now free to act independently in including specific names in its terror list.

The lead editorial in London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claims that Europe has “succumbed” to months of Israeli and American pressure, echoing an accusation voiced by Hezbollah itself in a statement published Monday night.

“It seems like what settled this decision is an EU decision from last week to stop cooperating with Jewish settlements… following the quake that struck Tel Aviv as a result of the decision, it looks like the EU wanted to appease Israel and America. The Israeli and American pressure utilized the public anger over Hezbollah’s participation in fighting in Syria alongside the Assad regime to enhance its effectiveness.”

Europe has never managed to prove that Hezbollah qualifies as a terrorist organization by blindly targeting innocent civilians, claims Ibrahim Al-Amin in pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar. Even Israel has never argued that Hezbollah kills arbitrarily, he adds.

“Once again, European states display their bias against the Arabs and their legitimate rights, foremost among them the right to armed resistance to liberate the land and regain stolen rights,” writes Al-Amin.

Even Hezbollah’s staunchest opponents in Lebanon try not to gloat on Tuesday, but stick to a “we told you so” line of argumentation.

“Lebanese, and especially those who had warned Hezbollah of the repercussions of its policies and behavior, have nothing but sorrow for the European decision to include the party’s military wing in its list of terror organizations,” claims the editorial of opposition daily Al-Mustaqbal.  “This decision will harm Lebanon and the Lebanese as much as it will harm its direct targets.”

“The sad truth is that Hezbollah is one organization with multiple policies. One foreign, the other domestic, a third bellicose, and others overt and covert. All these policies have nothing to do with Lebanon and the interests of the Lebanese. This truth can no longer be hidden by raising voices or pointing fingers and covering all the flaws under the cloak of resistance, or by always laying responsibility on others,” reads the editorial.

Meanwhile, a member of Al-Mustaqbal, former MP Mustafa Alloush, tells Lebanese daily Al-Nahar Tuesday that regardless of Hezbollah’s acts abroad, he considers the movement a terrorist group for its activities inside Lebanon, especially its involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

“It seems like the West is trying to create some sort of distinction [within Hezbollah] by speaking of a military wing. But we are convinced that Hezbollah is essentially a military wing and a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” Alloush told Al-Nahar, adding that Europe created an artificial distinction within Hezbollah only in order to continue cooperating with the Lebanese government.

Al-Hayat columnist Elias Harfoush argues that the European decision represents first and foremost a failure of Lebanese diplomacy. Critics of Europe must remember that Hezbollah was not singled out for its attacks against Israel, but for those perpetrated on European soil.

“Lebanese diplomacy has failed in its campaign waged against the EU in defending Hezbollah and preventing the inclusion of its ‘military wing’ in the list of terror organizations. All that this campaign did was to expose the extent of control Hezbollah exerts on the Lebanese government, and show how impossible an independent Lebanese decision is, even when it comes to accusing the organization of attacks that Europeans define as terrorist on the territory of two states which are not hostile to Lebanon, namely Bulgaria and Cyprus.”

“This European decision, unprecedented in terms of its unanimity, does not fault Hezbollah for acts it committed as part of its resistance to Israeli occupation, for which Hezbollah claims to have been founded.”