To the Editor:

Stephen Zunes' attempt to justify Hezbollah's terrorist activities and disassociate the organization from Palestinian terror groups completely ignores realities on the ground ("U.S. rhetoric about Hezbollah blurs reality," July 1).

Mr. Zunes' claim that Hezbollah is simply engaged in "legitimate acts of self-defense" against "foreign occupation forces" in Lebanon runs contrary to the United Nations' confirmation that Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon was complete.

Furthermore, there is no basis for Mr. Zunes' downplaying of Hezbollah's involvement with Palestinian terrorists.  In 2001, after Jordanian officials arrested three Hezbollah operatives trying to smuggle Katyusha rockets into the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the organization, proclaimed: "it is a duty to send arms to Palestinians from any possible place." In February of this year, the Palestinian Authority complained that Hezbollah was attempting to shatter the fragile ceasefire with Israel by offering extra money to Palestinian terror cells that succeed in carrying out attacks against Israel. 

Although Mr. Zunes praises the EU's supposed refusal to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, the European Union has in fact designated Hezbollah's "External Security Organization" as a terrorist group, and while the Council has yet to do the same for its political wing, on March 10, 2005, the European Parliament voted 473-33 to blacklist the entire organization.

Finally, Mr. Zunes fails to mention Hezbollah's control of the Al-Manar television station -   yet another means through which the group propagates anti-Semitism and advances its terror agenda.

The only way a terrorist organization can achieve legitimacy is if it alters its fundamental idegology, forfeits its weapons, and renounces violence as a means to a political end.