Does The UN Really Think Hezbollah Is Democratic?

Syrian security forces on Monday raided areas adjacent to the Lebanese border looking for activists who have been rallying against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, activists based in northern Lebanon told the German Press Agency DPA.
Syrian forces raid area near Lebanon in hunt for anti-Assad activists, Haaretz, September 5, 2011

Someone should perhaps mention that raid to the UN--specifically to UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams--because if we are to go by what Williams says, the question arises is the UN oblivious to Syrian raids into Lebanon:

Commenting on the Syrian situation he [UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams] predicted that the uprising, which has been ongoing since mid-March, will not spill into Lebanon.

“The crisis in Syria will not be transferred to Lebanon…because Lebanon is different than Syria since [the former] is democratic.”

Wait a minute!


If Lebanon is a democracy, what does that make Hezbollah...Republicans?

Williams himself does appear cognizant at least to some degree of the situation in Lebanon:

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams told Al-Jumhuriya newspaper it is unlikely that Israel will wage war on Lebanon, adding that Lebanon is “probably the only country in the world whose sovereignty is violated almost every day.”

He said what is important for Israel is that the issue of Hezbollah and its arms is resolved because “in all countries, the state completely controls its territories and its arms, while the situation in Lebanon is different.” [emphasis added]

So the question boils down to whether a country that does have control over its own arms--and what we mean is that there is an armed group with political control that is a law unto itself and a threat to its neighbor: can such a country really be a democracy?

Can a country be a democracy and yet have a terrorist group like Hezbollah that dictates to it--and unilaterally starts a war?

In a Washington Post review of Natan Sharansky's book The Case for Democracy, Jack Snyder, Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, confirmed:

True, no two democracies have ever fought a war against each other.

So, Mr. Williams--just how democratic are the Hezbollah terrorists?

Technorati Tag: Lebanon and Hezbollah and UN.