From Sun-Sentinel "Expose Hezbollah's Poisonous Fare" -Editorial by Rabbi Marvin Hier & Rabbi Abraham Cooper

August 23, 2006

MIDDLE EAST

Expose Hezbollah's poisonous fare

By Marvin Hier
and Abraham Cooper

From the powerbrokers at the U.N. Security Council to the European Union spinmeisters, there is a full-fledged campaign to de-empahsize Hezbollah's terrorist misslies and focus on its kinder, gentler political, educational and social activities.

But the rush to give Hezbollah a cosmetic makeover cannot mask two facts. First, the world is validating, not punishing, a terrorist group that used the civilian populations of two nations as human shields in its proxy war for Iran against Israel. And, more ominously, it is inadvertedly helping to open the global flood gates of genocidal hate -- not seen in the world since the Nazi era.

We speak of a central pillar of Hezbollah and of its charismatic leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, which virtually no Western journalist has had the courage to confront: It's time to break the virtual media blackout of the visceral, genocidal anti-Semitism of Nasrallah, his TV outlets and Web sites.

Instead of heaping scorn on Nasrallah's bigotry, some politicians and the media, including The New York Times, present an image of a shrewd revolutionary, a courageous underdog confronting a regional goliath occupier. It adds credibility to the Lebanese prime minister's ludicrous claim that Nasrallah's only beef with the Zionists is their "occupation" of the Shebaa Farms.

But that is not who Nasrallah really is. His hate and bigotry extends to all Jews universally, wherever they may live. Here are some little-heard soundbites: "Anyone who reads the Quran and the holy writings of the monotheistic religions sees what they did to the prophets and what acts of madness and slaughter the Jews carried out throughout history … they are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment … The Jews invented the legend of Nazi atrocities … they can speak of fabricated or exaggerated massacres that occurred during the Second World War, but we must forget the massacres they committed against us which are documented and proven." (April 9, 2000)

"If the Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide …" (Oct. 22, 2002)

And consider some of the poisonous fare of Hezbollah's satellite network, Al-Manar, that fed a worldwide primetime Muslim audience during the holy month of Ramadan:

Horse Without a Horseman, a 41-episode Egyptian-produced television series featuring a grotesque throat-slitting scene validating the canard that Jews at Passover drain the blood of Christian children.

Zara's Blue Eyes, whose plot line involves the harvesting of a Muslim child's eyes by Jewish doctors, to sell on the organ-transplant market.

Al-Manar also regularly indoctrinates kids with cartoons and poems encouraging them to become "martyrs for Allah."

While always looking for an opportunity to pay lip service against racism and anti-Semitism, the European Union steadfastly spurned Israel's plea to place Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations.

In a rare expression of concern, Nasrallah, told the Arab media that European blacklisting would "destroy" Hezbollah. "The sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and material support will be destroyed."

Not to worry. Pressed by France, the EU refuses sanctions, even as President Chirac sheds bitter tears over a Lebanon paying the price for an unbridled Hezbollah.

And the media? The International Federation of Journalists condemned Israel for bombing Hezbollah's TV station, as "… a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy of using violence to silence media it does not agree with." That malicious charge would be equivalent to criticizing the Allies for bombing Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry during World War II.

In 2004, Nassrallah said this: "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death."

Whatever the fate of the current lull in fighting, given the shiek's mindset it is difficult to imagine a ceasefire in Hezbollah's war against the Jews. If the world fails to recognize and publicly denounce Hezbollah's anti-Semitic genocidal agenda, the reach and toxicity of Nasrallah's hate will impact with a ferocity potentially more devastating than the hundreds of deadly ball bearings unleashed by each Katyusha rocket.

Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean.

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