U.S. vs. Eurabia. “U.S. presses Europe to shun Hezbollah,” from the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune, :
WASHINGTON Opening up a new divide in trans-Atlantic relations, the Bush administration is increasing the pressure on Europe to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and impose economic sanctions.
But it has been rebuffed by France and other countries concerned that such an action will anger Iran and backfire.
A European diplomat said that Israel, with U.S. backing, made the case for listing Hezbollah at a meeting Wednesday in Brussels of the so-called Clearing House, a unit of the European Union.
The Clearing House decided against acting because of a lack of consensus on the issue, the diplomat said.
The United States got the European Union to list Hamas as a terrorist organization in the autumn of 2003, but in a measure of continuing disagreement about how to handle the Middle East, some European countries are questioning whether Hamas should remain listed now that some of its members have won elections in Gaza.
Oh, they’ve won elections? Well, then that makes all those murders of civilians on buses and in restaurants all right.