The German government, however, can unilaterally designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but Merkel has vehemently opposed a full ban of Hezbollah. The German government and the EU have merely outlawed Hezbollah’s so-called military wing.
By admitting millions of Muslim economic migrants into Germany (with one million arriving in 2015 alone), Merkel has done great damage to the country she presumes to protect. It is particularly shameful that she has admitted people who, because of their faith, spread the virus of antisemitism; she has thus contributed to endangering Germany’s Jews. And her politicking on behalf of Hezbollah, a terrorist group intent on destroying the Jewish State, is even more intolerable.
Merkel has visited Yad Vashem twice, in 2008 and 2018. During her 2018 visit she wrote in the Yad Vashem Guestbook:
“Nearly eighty years ago, during the Kristallnacht pogroms on the 9th of November, the Jewish people of Germany were confronted with hate and violence in an unprecedented manner. What followed was the unparalleled crime that ruptured civilization, the Shoah. It is from this point that Germany’s everlasting responsibility to remember this crime and oppose antisemitism, xenophobia, hate and violence arises.”
Does Merkel oppose the murderous antisemitism, the hate and violence toward Jews Hezbollah? Apparently not, to judge by her deference of Hezbollah’s “political wing.” What do all those speeches about the need to atone for the Nazi genocide, those solemn visits to Yad Vashem, with those pledges written in the Yad Vashem Guestbook, to oppose antisemitism, those endless remarks about “Never Again” amount to, if Germany refuses to ban the terrorist organization that, together with its ally Iran, now constitutes the greatest threat to the well-being and survival of the people and state of Israel? Some atonement, some solemn promises, some “everlasting responsibility…to oppose antisemitism.”
Hezbollah’s “political wing” operates in Germany by raising funds, recruiting new members and spreading antisemitic and jihadi ideologies.
Without that foreign fundraising by the “political “ wing, without its ability to recruit new operatives and to spread propaganda for the cause (including antisemitic propaganda worthy of the Nazis), the supposedly separate and distinct “military wing’” of Hezbollah could hardly exist.
Benjamin Strasser rejected the anti-Hezbollah bill on behalf of the Free Democrats. His Free Democratic colleague Frank Müller-Rosentritt tweeted on Saturday in response to the pro-Iranian regime, pro-Hezbollah al-Quds Day march: “Thousands demonstrate for the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem and the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah and Nasrallah are celebrated. Because Germany does not classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, it may continue to collect donations and propaganda. That must have an end.”
The United Kingdom outlawed all of Hezbollah in February. The US, Canada, the Arab League, Israel and the Netherlands have classified all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The US Congress has called on Europe over the years to designate all of Hezbollah a terrorist entity.
The 192-page intelligence report authored by the intelligence agents from Lower Saxony’s state security service noted 150 Hezbollah operatives are situated there. The report covering 2018 was released on May 22.
“Hezbollah denies the right of existence of the State of Israel and fights it with terrorist means,” the intelligence report stated. “In Germany, the followers of Hezbollah maintain organizational and ideological and cohesion in local mosques associations that are financed primarily by donations. Hezbollah is against the idea of international understanding and the peaceful coexistence of peoples. The ‘party’ of Hezbollah was founded under the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran, representing the most radical party of the Lebanese Shi’ite community.
Hezbollah is an organization with a single obsession, which it has repeatedly stated: the complete destruction of the Jewish state. It has been crystal clear about this goal; its leader Hassan Nasrallah repeats it on every conceivable occasion.
The banning of Hezbollah’s “political wing” has not been a merely symbolic gesture of disapproval. Such a ban has real consequences, preventing Hezbollah from conducting propaganda, planting operatives, gaining new members, and most importantly, raising funds, in the countries where it has been banned. Among those countries that have imposed a total ban — aside from Israel and the United States — are the U.K., Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the members of the Arab League. The E.U., having banned the military wing six years agonies now discussing a total ban.
Because of Iran’s economic woes, following the reimposition of American sanctions, And it has had to cut way back on aid to Hezbollah. A report in The New York Times this March painted a desperate picture:
Even employees of Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that has long served as Iran’s closest Arab ally, say they have missed paychecks and lost other perks.
Iran’s financial crisis, exacerbated by American sanctions, appears to be undermining its support for militant groups and political allies who bolster Iranian influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere.
“The golden days are gone and will never return,” said a fighter with an Iranian-backed militia in Syria who recently lost a third of his salary and other benefits. “Iran doesn’t have enough money to give us.”
This makes the terrorist group much more reliant on foreign fundraising. A total ban on Hezbollah by Germany — which might then convince the E.U. to do the same — would damage Hezbollah, already reeling from financial problems, still further. It also would make it harder for Hezbollah to recruit new members — who would have to be paid — among the Shi’a communities in Europe, and to spread its anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.
Hassan Nasrallah has always been clear about Hezbollah’s intentions. He has said the “Israel is an illegal usurper entity, which is based on falsehood, massacres, and illusions.” He considers that the elimination of Israel will bring peace in the Middle East: “There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel.” In an interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah said, “I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called ‘Israel.’ I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful.” Apparently those remarks, and many others of that murderous ilk, were insufficient evidence for German politicians to ban the organization.
It is shameful and indecent that only one of Germany’s political parties, the AfD, supported a complete ban on Hezbollah, a terror group dedicated to destroying the Jewish state. Those Yad Vashem remarks by visiting German politicians, their heads bowed in expressions of deep remorse, who then write in the Yad Vashem Guestbook about Germany’s special responsibility to fight antisemitism, do not impress. If the Germans in the Bundestag cannot even bring themselves to ban Hezbollah, the terrorist organization that is the greatest current threat to the Jewish state, then they should at least have the decency not to pretend to care so much about what happens to Jews in Israel today and tomorrow, because of what happened to Jews in Europe yesterday, thanks to Mr. Hitler and his many enthusiasts.