It is long past time for the European Union (E.U.) to call Hezbollah what it is—a terrorist organization.  

For more than 20 years, Hezbollah has terrorized and wreaked havoc across the Middle East and beyond. This Lebanon-based, radical Shiite Muslim group has made its motives clear from the start. With the backing of Iran, Syria, and pseudo-charities around the world, Hezbollah has the means and the motive to carry out its brand of death and destruction wherever it chooses.  

As Hezbollah's brief, but bloody, spring takeover of West Beirut underscored, the  group is not stepping down from its campaigns of terror and intimidation. Clashes between Hezbollah and government opponents left many dead and exacerbated Sunni-Shiite tensions, with the populace fearing open civil war.  

In Egypt during his May visit, President Bush called on the world to back Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and labeled Hezbollah "the enemy of a free Lebanon and all nations." 

Currently, six nations—the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom—have all designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization. What is the European Union waiting for?  

Hezbollah is an organization that gloats when it kills. According to news reports, on January 18, during a rare public appearance, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said, "Oh, Zionists, your army is lying to you…your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields. Our mujahadeen used to fight these Zionists, killing them and collecting their body parts. I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, and we have legs."  

This abhorrent "boasting" goes against any and all standards of human decency. 

The group is infamous for using suicide attacks and Katyusha rockets against Israel—civilians and soldiers alike. Kidnapping civilians and soldiers is a common tactic.  

Many of these tactics were implemented by Imad Mughniyeh, a long-time Hezbollah leader recently killed in Syria by a car bomb.  

Hezbollah carries out the dirty work of dangerous regimes that call for Israel's destruction and work to destabilize the Middle East. It is hypocritical for the E.U., on the one hand, to join with the United Nations in calling for sanctions against Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons, while, on the other, to ignore Iran's flourishing terror arm. 

 Since its inception in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has had a gruesome track record of violence. Most experts "credit" the earliest incarnation of Hezbollah with the October 1983 bombing of the Beirut barracks filled with American soldiers. Two-hundred-and-forty-one sleeping American servicemen died in that attack and about 60 were injured. Until the September 11, 2001, attacks, Hezbollah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group. 

Hezbollah is also believed to be responsible for the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 Argentina-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building bombing attack, also in Buenos Aires, that killed 85 and wounded about 300. In October 2006, the Argentine state prosecutor investigating the AMIA bombing confirmed what was long suspected: Iran worked through its terrorist arm, Hezbollah, to kill Jews in Buenos Aires. 

In the summer of 2006, Hezbollah terrorists crossed the internationally recognized border from Lebanon into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, starting a monthlong war. Their fate is still unknown.  

Many in the European Union argue that Hezbollah cannot be labeled a terrorist organization, as it is part of an elected bloc in the government of Lebanon. But the secret to Hezbollah's ascension to "legitimate" political party lies in its duplicity. The group cynically funds the social needs of an impoverished community. Funds it collects from Iran and front charities are used for both guns and butter. What better way to ensure support at home? 

Hamas, with its own "political" wing, engages in the same terror tactics as Hezbollah. But, correctly, Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization and its assets have been frozen. It is absurd to have Hamas on an E.U. terror list, but not Hezbollah. 

Having the E.U. recognize and label Hezbollah as the terrorist organization it is would help impede the group's successful fundraising efforts. Raising money and undertaking international travel become more difficult once the terror label is applied. It takes huge amounts of money to fund a global terror operation. With more nations monitoring Hezbollah's fundraising machine, the steady flow of funds could quickly turn to a trickle. 

In testimony before the U.S. Congress last year, James Phillips, a Middle East and terrorism expert at the Heritage Foundation, noted, "Hezbollah poses a direct threat to E.U. citizens at home and those traveling abroad, especially in the Middle East. Hezbollah established a presence inside European countries in the 1980s amid the influx of Lebanese citizens seeking to escape Lebanon's brutal civil war and the recurring clashes between Israel and Palestinian terrorists based in Lebanese refugee camps. The terror group took root among Lebanese Shiite immigrant communities throughout Europe." 

Hezbollah also has developed an extensive web of fundraising and logistical support cells spread throughout Europe. With intelligence experts certain there are Hezbollah cells across Europe, it is easy to envision its followers and supporters preying on young Muslims feeling dissociated and disconnected from their adopted homes.  

This can only increase Hezbollah support and membership—a compelling argument for the E.U. to act now.  

What more will it take for the European Union to see Hezbollah as a terrorist organization?  

The evidence is overwhelming—the European Union must act now.