20-Jun-13: After Wednesday's EU meeting, the terrorists of Hezbollah remain off Europe's black list

Reflecting lessons learned from Europe, Hezbollah loyalist
gives his group's traditional salute [Image Source] What is it that Europeans
find so hard to understand about these terrorists?

From Reuters (via the Lebanon Daily Star today

U.K. again fails to convince EU on blacklisting Hezbollah
June 20, 2013 12:14 PM
BRUSSELS: A British drive to put Hezbollah’s armed wing on the EU’s terror list again ran into resistance Wednesday from governments concerned it would fuel instability in the Middle East, diplomats said. Britain’s request was discussed for a second time by a special European Union group following an inconclusive meeting on June 4, but British diplomats failed to win over a number of skeptical governments. Diplomats said the discussions were not over, but Britain may escalate the issue to a higher level, possibly to a July meeting of foreign ministers... The British proposal has gained urgency – and some support – in Europe in recent weeks amid signs that Hezbollah is increasingly involved in the Syrian civil war. Several EU governments have questioned whether there is sufficient evidence to link Hezbollah to the attack in Bulgaria, according to EU diplomats. “There are legal considerations,” one EU diplomat said. “We haven’t seen the evidence.”

The Jerusalem Post's version of this syndicated Reuters report, unlike the one we quoted above, adds this:

Diplomats say a majority of the 27 EU member states, including France and Germany, back the British proposal. But unanimity is needed and Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy are among EU governments that have voiced reservations. Blacklisting the group would mark a major policy shift for the European Union, which has resisted pressure from Israel and Washington to do so for years... [Jerusalem Post]

At the Times of Israel, writing just a few hours before the Wednesday meeting, they said that

few expect delegates to agree to blacklist Hezbollah. Poland has said already that it may use the meeting to raise legal and political concerns about the move.

We suspect European diplomats will blacklist Hezbollah only when they understand, as we tried to show in "17-Jun-13: Memo to those who still think Hezbollah is some form of distant and far-off threat"
that it's not only Israelis and Jews who are in the terrorist's sights.

Evidently we're not there yet.