The
horrendous attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria a few days ago (July 18th,
2012) has yet again raised the discussion of whether Hezbollah is in fact a
terrorist organization. The State of Israel and American security agencies argue
that it is, and Hezbollah asserts that its connection to terrorism is a myth.
The attack in Bulgaria can only be classified
as a terrorist attack, as it targeted civilians and was conducted in a civilian
place. Hezbollah might argue that the attack should be classified as an act of
resistance, but this argument would be entirely unreasonable. The common definition of a resistance act is that it
must be executed against an occupying force on occupied soil, or on that occupier's
soil. To the best of the author’s knowledge, even if the first section of the
definition was left open to discussion, Bulgaria has yet to be occupied by
Israel.
A few hours after the attack, Matthew Levitt
from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy stated that “Hezbollah
is the leading suspect, and for good reason… this attack is much alike as the
AMIA building attack in Argentina in 1994.” This is what the Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared minutes after the attack occurred – Hezbollah
and Iran were natural and evident suspects because they have repeatedly
declared that Israel is their mortal enemy.
Hezbollah does not have a long history of
terrorist attacks like Hamas, but the organization was held responsible (and never
claimed responsibility) for some of the deadliest attacks on Americans during
the 1980's, such as the bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks, both
in Lebanon in 1983. The U.S. Government blacklisted Hezbollah as a foreign terrori st organization in 1997, after the Khobar Towers
attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996, and gave it Specially Designated Global Terrori st (SDGT) status in October 2001.
The Khobar Towers attack, one should note,
was the last apparent terrorist attack Hezbollah executed against Western
targets. All other attacks were executed against Israeli targets, on Israeli or
Lebanese soil. The last terrorist attack Hezbollah executed against
Israeli targets, i.e. was held responsible for, was the AMIA building attack in
Argentina in 1994, the 18th anniversary of which was only a few days
ago.
It seemed as the organization had changed
through the years and the terrorism tag was left only in the Western beholder's
mind, most noticeably in Israelis and Americans. Hezbollah’s leadership called
it the terrorist myth. Judith Palmer Harik referred the American approach
as “settling old scores with Hezbollah” and the Israeli approach “calling Hezbollah
terrorists in order to halt the war of attrition being waged against them.”
The organization became a legitimate part of
the Lebanese municipal and national political system and a provider of wide social
institutions to the Shiite community. However, with the generous funding of
Iran, Hezbollah concentrated its military efforts in resistance-defined actions
against Israel. The party occasionally used a limited amount of political violence
against domestic political enemies. It seemed as though Hezbollah's leadership
was determined to prove to the world that its terrorism was not more than the myth
its enemies created.
The attack in Bulgaria has blown up all
efforts Hezbollah made to be a legitimate organization in the eyes of the
world, and proved that the terrorist is not a myth anymore. It is the reality.
