Hezbollah cells await Iran's orders
Melanie Phillips
At a recent Stop the West rally (yes, I know, but that's their real agenda) demonstrators waved placards proclaiming 'We're all Hezbollah now'. Really? If so, why were they allowed to parade in Trafalgar Square? In a sane society they should surely all have been arrested as a self-proclaimed army of holy warriors whose explicit aim was to murder untold numbers of innocents, destroy Britain, America and the free world and subjugate them to the dictatorship of the ayatollahs.
Because that's what Hezbollah is. Literally designated the Army of God, it is a military force funded, trained by and answerable to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iran that is pledged β as it has been since the Khomeini revolution of 1979 β to the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jews, as a prelude to destroying the West and infidels everywhere. The Iran that is steadily developing nuclear weapons so that it can achieve these aims.
But then Britain at this moment isn't really sane. It is gripped by a kind of collective derangement in which, blinded by hatred of Israel, it thinks that the current war against Israel by Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, and its ally Syria, is a war by Israel against 'innocent' Lebanon. As a result, it is quite unable to grasp that Hezbollah's war against Israel, which is desperately trying to bring Israel to an end once and for all, is a key salient in Iran's escalating war against the free world.
Because Hezbollah is Iran. Every weapon in Iran's arsenal is potentially available to Hezbollah. A few days ago the London Arabic daily, Asharq Alawsat, detailed the extensive assistance being provided to Hezbollah by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Hezbollah's commander Hassan Nasrallah leads an Iranian jihadi army that exports terror round the world. And just as it did with the rival jihadists of al-Qa'eda, Britain β a prime target of Iranian terror β is once again allowing itself to become a theatre of the Iranian jihad and a weak link in the chain of resistance against it.
Many on the British Left mistakenly believe that Hezbollah is merely another Muslim liberation movement to add to its collection. (The thinking which leads the Left to classify genocide as liberation is a story in itself.) As a result, the comrades of 'Stop the War' march behind placard images of their new hero Nasrallah, while George Galloway MP proclaimed at the demonstration, 'Hezbollah is not a terrorist group and I am here to glorify the Lebanese resistance movement.'
What was also notable at that demonstration was that Dr Azzam Tamimi was whipping up the crowd to a hysterical frenzy against Israel. Dr Tamimi is a key official of the Muslim Brotherhood and closely associated with Hamas. The Brotherhood, however, are Sunni Muslims while Hezbollah are Shia β religious and political rivals.
Hezbollah cells await Iran's orders Melanie Phillips
But now the Sunni Brotherhood and the Khomeinist Shia have united in common cause to bring murder and mayhem to the world. Iran is now helping to fund Hamas; at the demonstration the crowd chillingly roared approval when Tamimi screamed that Hezbollah, along with Hamas, was now active on their behalf. Nasrallah has become the new global poster boy for jihadis everywhere. Sunni and Shia are now marching together in the Islamist version of the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact.
In Britain there are thought to be relatively few Khomeinists compared with Sunni terrorists. But there are enough to form a serious potential security threat if Iran decides to unleash Hezbollah against targets in the UK. And that is now a real possibility.
According to German and Israeli intelligence sources, Hezbollah sleeper cells are present in more than 20 countries in Western Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia, and have been told to be ready to carry out terrorist attacks should Israel prolong its military action in Lebanon. The Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has told the Commons that 'there are indeed concerns' about Iran-backed terrorists attacking the UK.
Yet the British authorities do nothing about the most conspicuous promoter of Khomeini jihadism in the UK, the jovially named Islamic Human Rights Commission run by Massoud Shadjareh. The IHRC is said to be close to Iran. Its understanding of human rights is to extol Hezbollah, endorse an eclectic assortment of jihadis and promote the end of Israel.
It was the IHRC which sponsored the Hezbollah placards in Trafalgar Square. It is the IHRC which runs the annual 'al-Quds' day in Britain, instituted by Khomeini as an event to be held around the world on the last Friday of Ramadan. Demonstrators at this annual hate-fest on the streets of London call for the 'liberation' of Jerusalem, carry Hezbollah flags, demand the destruction of Israel, and portray its leaders as demons.
In a briefing on the Lebanon crisis, the IHRC has said that British Muslims can provide Hezbollah with 'financial, logistical and informational support' to attack Israeli installations, and calls for the 'temporary' occupation of Israel and 'regime change' by Hezbollah on 'self-defence' grounds.
As for Lebanon, it says that any support for Hezbollah there is lawful under international law. Force against Israel must be sufficient to stop 'Israeli aggression' and can include the destruction of installations 'on the territory held by Israel', as well as 'financial, logistical and informational support of Hezbollah'. The IHRC is thus inciting Iranian-sponsored terrorism against Israel on the spurious grounds that supporting the army which started hostilities by launching a slew of unprovoked rocket attacks against Israel's northern towns is 'self-defence'. Isn't such incitement to violence a crime?
Melanie Phillips (The Spectator, 5 August 2006). |