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| Yes, that's really him. |
Germany announced last Thursday that it was declaring all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Räsänen went on a rant about this on Sunday:
Räsänen used as source material a CNN report that the reason for the ban was Hezbollah's anti-Israel stance. But Hezbollah's terror activities are widely documented:
Germany's ban on Hezbollah is a perfect illustration of how terrorist lists are tools of power politics.
Hezbollah is banned because it "calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questions the right of the State of Israel to exist".
Replace Israel->Palestine, and this describes most Israeli parties.
Admittedly, there is the difference that most Israeli parties have been implementing the elimination of Palestine, not just called for it.
Yet Likut, Yesh Atid, Shas, Labour etc. are valued partners for Germany and the EU, instead of being labeled terrorists.
Also Syrian islamist rebel groups, which not only called for but fought to bring down the Syrian government were not labeled terrorists by the EU.
Instead they were supported by European states, in line with official EU policy.
Hezbollah was behind a bombing in Istanbul in May 2011 that wounded eight Turkish civilians in an assassination attempt on the Israeli consul to Turkey, Moshe Kimchi.
In July 2012, a Lebanese man who admitted working for Hezbollah was detained by Cyprus police for planning attacks against Israeli tourists.
The 2012 Burgas bus bombing terrorist attack against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria, which killed six, was done by Hezbollah.
These are only the European attacks since 2010. Hezbollah has been involved in attacks and attempts in Singapore, Argentina and elsewhere. Denying that they are terrorists is the worst kind of pandering.
Oh, and Germany seems to have acted after the Mossad helpfully informed German authorities of the locations of warehouses in Germany where Hezbollah was storing explosives. But that's a minor detail to someone as big-brained as Syksy Räsänen.
But Räsänen, the human rights activist, has nothing bad to say about these attacks - because the intended target was Israeli civilians, and to him, Israelis are not human.
In fact, one does not need a PhD. in psychology to understand that the only reason Syksy Räsänen supports an Islamist terror group that is anti-woman, anti-gay and antisemitic is because Hezbollah is also anti-Israel, and therefore a partner.
And then he goes on to defend the Assad regime, of barrel bombs and poison gas - a truly strange position for a supposed human rights activist to take. But Assad is also anti-Israel so it all makes sense.
Isn't Amnesty the slightest bit embarrassed by their prominent members condoning terror and supporting groups that are against everything Amnesty pretends to stand for?
(h/t Tomer Ilan)