In Argentina, Lebanon and Israel, calls for justice
I joined hundreds of Argentinians and delegates from around the world outside the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in Buenos Aires last month to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the bombing on July 18, 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded 300 others.
As we stood in front of the rebuilt AMIA building — itself a symbol of Argentinian resilience and rejection of terrorism — we listened solemnly as the names of the 85 victims were read from the stage as their images flashed on a giant monitor facing the crowd, which included Jews and non-Jews. People had come from around Argentinia and the world to stand there and shout Presente! (“present”) as Argentina marked the tragedy and called for justice not just for the Jewish community of Buenos Aires but for all of Argentina.
Though investigations concluded that Hezbollah, under the direction of Iran, was responsible for this horrific act of violence — as well as the attack two years earlier, on March 17, 1992, at Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 and wounded 242 — no one has been held accountable or brought to justice. While Argentinians continue to call for justice, on the other side of the world Hezbollah continues to sow terror and death from its base in Southern Lebanon as it continues its attacks on Israel.
Before the attack in Argentina, in April 1983, Hezbollah bombed the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, followed by an attack on US Marine barracks later that same year, which resulted in 241 deaths.
For four decades, Hezbollah has wrought destruction around the world. The international community has loudly condemned the Iranian proxy and demanded that it cease its campaign of death but has failed to significantly impact Hezbollah’s behavior, except to embolden the terror group. Since Oct. 8, its operatives have launched 8,000 rockets and missiles towards Israel, displacing tens of thousands of people while Hezbollah’s leadership continues to threaten further missile strikes into central Israel.
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At the end of August, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the peacekeepers tasked since 1978 with assisting the Lebanese Armed Forces in maintaining calm along the Lebanon-Israel border. UNIFIL has been present in Lebanon for 46 years. And in that time, it has proven to be grossly ineffective, even a hindrance, when it comes to delivering peace.
In July 2006, Hezbollah launched a cross-border attack on Israel, sparking a month-long war that ended with UN Security Council Resolution 1701. In addition to a conclusion of hostilities, the resolution called for strengthening UNIFIL to facilitate the entry of Lebanese forces into the Hezbollah-controlled area to maintain a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line (the border between Israel and Lebanon) and the Litani River, effectively disarming Hezbollah within its stronghold. At least, that was the idea.
UNIFIL has remained impotent, playing the role of spectator as Hezbollah not only rearmed after the 2006 war but spread into Syria during that country’s civil war in 2011. In its 46-year existence, UNIFIL has witnessed Hezbollah’s continued violence and aggression with the group being responsible for numerous deadly attacks.
Its hostility continued with a cross-border assault on July 12, 2006, which killed eight Israeli soldiers, and led to the capture and eventual deaths of two others. The subsequent 34-day war saw Hezbollah, armed by Iran, fire thousands of rockets into Israel, resulting in the deaths of 49 Israeli civilians and 121 soldiers. Then, on July 18, 2012, exactly 18 years after the AMIA bombing, Hezbollah orchestrated a suicide bombing on an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, claiming six lives.
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Since the passage of Resolution 1701 in 2006, Hezbollah has spread into Syria, taking up arms on behalf of dictator Bashar Assad in his country’s civil war and dragging Lebanon into another regional conflict. The terror group has even led media tours of its armed positions along Lebanon’s border with Israel, displaying advanced missiles and other weaponry to journalists — all under the gaze of UNIFIL. In its decision to renew UNIFIL, the Security Council again called for the full implementation of 1701 and for all parties to end their hostilities but failed to specifically condemn or even mention Hezbollah or its history of destruction.
Members of the council must question not only the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of this strategy but also how Hezbollah has been able to maintain and grow its military power. The answer to this second question lies farther east in Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has made clear over the years that Hezbollah is a primary instrument of the Islamic Republic’s so-called “axis of resistance,” meant to expand Iranian influence and strike against its enemies. Israel, of course, is Iran’s primary enemy in the region. But since Ruhollah Khomeini first launched the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he and his disciples declared loudly that while Israel was the physically closer enemy, the United States was Iran’s primary ideological enemy, the “Great Satan.”
All of Iran’s actions in the ensuing decades, including its support for Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s global campaign of death, have been in service to the idea that the United States is the ideological nemesis of the Islamic Republic. While members of the Security Council openly recognize this and chastise Iran’s behavior, the council must take more concrete steps to punish Iranian support for its terrorist proxies.
Hezbollah has left behind death and destruction in Argentina, Bulgaria and Israel, but most of all in Lebanon, where the government has essentially remained frozen for two years because of Hezbollah’s interference. The United Nations can continue to renew UNIFIL’s mandate and make a show of pushing back Hezbollah, but none of it will matter until the Security Council takes on the root of the problem: Iran.
For the sake of Lebanon, Israel and all who seek justice, the Security Council must declare itself Presente!
