Europe Still Doesn't Get It By Ilan Weinglass
In a development worthy of a longer post, the U.K. Home Office has classified the military wing of Hizballah as a terrorist organization. This is certainly a positive move, but a deeply flawed one reflecting a conceptual blind spot on the U.K.'s part.
Most significantly, "Home Office minister Tony McNulty said the ban does not apply to the political, social or humanitarian activities of Hezbollah." The U.K. still clings to the notion that there is a meaningful difference between the political/humanitarian branch of a terrorist group and its actual terrorist activities. This dichotomy has been shown to be dangerously false and misguided, by Matthew Levitt among others. A detailed examination of the facts, in the case of Hamas, can be found in Levitt's book Hamas, with relevant excerpts here. The TF Blog's Avi Jorisch has explored the role of Hizballah's TV station, Al Manar, in supporting terrorism in his book Beacon of Hatred. If a television station does not count as "political, social or humanitarian" and therefore exempt from this ban, I don't know what does.
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