Full of bluster

The European Union decision to blacklist not all of Hezbollah but only the Shiite organization’s “military wing” last month was a mid-way solution intended to convey displeasure toward the Lebanese group and mollify Israel and the United States while not going so far as to jeopardize EU interests in Lebanon. Distinguishing between different “wings” of Hezbollah was a display of diplomatic finesse first conjured up by the United Kingdom in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC. While the US and Israel were the only countries at the time (but later joined by The Netherlands) to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety, London chose originally to list Hezbollah’s purported “External Security Organization”. There is no ESO, per se, but it was a useful moniker to cover the party’s alleged less savory activities beyond the more legitimate theater of direct Hezbollah-Israel confrontations in Lebanon. In