BERLIN – Hossam Taleb Yaacoub’s admission in a Cypriot criminal court on
Wednesday that he was a member of Hezbollah and that a handler had assigned him
to track the movements of Israeli tourists on the small island opened a new
floodgate of alleged evidence that the Lebanese group had been engaging in
murderous acts within the EU.
On Thursday, leading Israeli analysts
weighed in on whether the new revelations in the Limassol court would push the
EU’s so far hesitant approach toward Hezbollah into the sphere of
sanctions.
“The details revealed by Hossam Taleb Yaacoub regarding
Hezbollah’s activities in Europe surely put the final nail in the coffin of the
credibility of any further equivocation regarding Hezbollah’s status as a
transnational Islamist terror group,” Dr. Jonathan Spyer, a senior research
fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, told
The Jerusalem Post by email.
“But that doesn’t mean that the EU will now
add the organization to its list of designated terror groups,” continued Spyer,
whose book The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict
delves into the ideology and jingoism of Hezbollah. “This is because European
reluctance in this regard does not relate to the facts, but rather to the fear
in some European countries of antagonizing Hezbollah. Sadly the desire to avoid
possible repercussions may well continue to override responsibility to the
victims of the Burgas bombing [in Bulgaria], and indeed plain common sense in
this regard.”
The disclosures in Cyprus have added greater urgency to the
EU debate over banning Hezbollah since Bulgaria accused the group earlier this
month of blowing up an Israeli tour bus in July. The terrorist attack in the
Black Sea resort of Burgas killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver,
and wounded over 30 Israelis.
Many European governments, particularly
major continental powers Germany and France, have blocked a designation of
Hezbollah as a terrorist entity, fearing Hezbollah attacks against EU troops in
south Lebanon or on European soil, and a destabilization of Lebanon’s
government.
Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan
University, told the Post that “the leaders of the European Union claim to
promote moral foreign policies, but the cynical excuses used to avoid
designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization are anything but moral. For
years, the EU turned a blind eye to Hezbollah’s role in rocket and mass terror
attacks – every one a war crime – and allowed this organization to raise funds
and operate freely.”
Steinberg, who runs the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor
watchdog group, added, “After the Burgas attack, and then the official Bulgarian
report with the evidence of Hezbollah’s role, EU leaders still ignored the
evidence and the need to take a principled position.
And now, the
testimony in the Cyprus trial of a Hezbollah operative caught aiding in the
preparation of yet another attack on EU territory adds to the overwhelming case
for banning all activities of Iran’s main ally. Every day that the EU delays
this decision further tarnishes its attempt to sell the lofty images of
morality, and turns the automatic condemnation of Israeli anti-terror actions
into a farce.”
Tommy Steiner, a senior research fellow at the Institute
for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, told the Post
that “the apparent objection of some EU member-states to list Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization is really hard to comprehend.
There is now clear
evidence that Hezbollah carried out a deadly terrorist attack in one EU
member-state and perpetrated another terrorist attack in a second EU
member-state.”
Steiner, a close observer of EU-Israeli relations, asked,
“What exactly would the objecting EU member-states require in terms of evidence
for them to consent to listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization? [Hezbollah
leader] Hassan Nasrallah nailing an ‘I am an international terrorist’ sticker to
his forehead?”
According to an Israeli source who wished to not be identified
because of the sensitivity of the EU talks to ban Hezbollah, the assessment was
that “for the first time, Hezbollah is in a European court to be determined as a
criminal organization, not a political organization.”
Also Thursday,
Israel Radio cited Dutch Ambassador to Israel Caspar Veldkamp as saying that the
Burgas attack strengthened the need for the EU to brand Hezbollah a terrorist
organization.
The ambassador said there were efforts among the EU nations
to come to a unanimous decision on the issue. He further stressed that his
country had already declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization five years
ago.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.