The attempt in Brazil to arrest a discharged IDF soldier who fought in Gaza joins a series of concerning incidents where relatively junior IDF soldiers face the threat of lawfare against Israel. While in the past, the threat of arrest was limited and directed at senior officials, it has now expanded to target rank-and-file soldiers. This is certainly worrying news, but through a few simple steps, personal risks can be avoided in most cases. And don't worry – we won't remain on the defensive; we will definitely go on the offensive.

First, let's put things in order. Some countries allow criminal investigations against foreign citizens within their borders on suspicions of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in other countries. This is called "universal jurisdiction." The risk increases in certain countries where ordinary citizens can initiate criminal investigations in ways that state authorities don't fully or partially control. This was the case in Britain, for example, in the attempted arrest of Maj. Gen. (ret.) Doron Almog in 2005, about two years after his retirement from the IDF, due to an investigation initiated by citizens.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague is now joining this "celebration," having opened an investigation and issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. While the court focuses only on senior officials, this doesn't mean a soldier won't be required to testify before the court in one of the approximately 120 member countries, perhaps to establish charges against senior officials through their testimony.

The heart of the risk lies in social media: soldiers upload documentation of themselves and their comrades during combat. It's right to review accounts before traveling abroad and delete such past posts, but this doesn't solve the problem: hostile groups tracking IDF soldiers collect this information, and removing it from the internet won't eliminate information already collected.

It's important to understand that these groups aren't really interested in war crimes. They pursue IDF soldiers as such. They don't care if there's operational justification for the uploaded documentation. For them, even if it doesn't mature into an indictment, the mere detention or arrest is already a victory because it sends a problematic message to every Israeli enlisting in IDF combat roles.

Besides defense, there's also offense. We at Shurat HaDin aren't resting on our laurels. Thus, after Spanish authorities sought to investigate Israeli officers, we recruited families of victims killed in Kosovo by NATO bombings, of which Spain is a member, to file a complaint in Spain against officials. Lo and behold, the courts found a way to close the investigations against us, and the law in Spain was subsequently changed.

Meanwhile, awareness and taking steps to prevent unnecessary complications in advance are important. Israeli authorities must, of course, provide our warriors with complete and proper defensive coverage. We, for our part, will continue to stand alongside IDF soldiers.

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Those who interact with Americans know they speak "American." For us Israelis, this language isn't intuitive. Every word, action, or omission carries meaning, often indirect and hidden.

Therefore, it would be naive to examine the news about the US Department of Justice's decision to file a criminal complaint against Hamas leaders through a purely legal lens. These charges convey a message that Americans are sending, far beyond the legal process itself: It's a message to Hamas, Israel, the "mediators," regional countries, and even to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

We can point to at least three clear and cumulative indications that there's more here than just charges: First, the precedent. Over the years, we at Shurat HaDin Israeli Law Center, which leads the legal fight against terror financing, represented hundreds of terror victims who hold American citizenship. We repeatedly demanded that the administration prosecute Hamas leaders. The Americans never filed criminal indictments against Hamas terrorists for murders in Israel, even when entire American families were wiped out in suicide bombings.

Second, the timing. The news came just days after the recovery of hostages' bodies, including that of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents spoke shortly before at the Democratic Convention.

Third, the identity of the accused. The list goes beyond the three terrorists that the International Criminal Court in The Hague sought to arrest. On the other hand, it only includes Hamas members.

So what's the message? Let's start with the mediating countries and regional states, including Turkey. The message to them is along the lines of: Think twice about hosting Hamas figures. You should also increase pressure on Hamas for a deal, because extradition orders are on the way.

For Hamas leaders outside Gaza, the message is also clear: The Philadelphi speech doesn't really change anything. The "leave it" will cost you dearly. As for the International Criminal Court – not only are Hamas terrorists the real culprits here, but countries will have to choose between extradition to the ICC or to the US.

Filing the charges sends a problematic message. The minor issue here is the expression of distrust in the Israeli judicial system, which has not dealt with Hamas members so far. The main point is that America is telling us in its way: Don't count on a change in approach.

Bottom line, there's nothing new under the sun. Biden paid lip service to the Democratic voter, the administration is using the charges to prepare the ground for a deal, limiting Israel but also giving it minimal backing. Even the murder of Americans won't release to Israel the bombs needed for its defense. It won't bring the administration to change its approach and finally allow Israel operational freedom to act in Gaza and Lebanon. A pity.

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Does the elimination of Marwan Issa guarantee us that Israel's far reach will catch all the terrorists wherever they are, and therefore there is no fear of releasing any terrorist in exchange for the return of the hostages, even those whose hands are covered in blood?

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"I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil" – the promise that Israel will eliminate the last of the terrorists is based on the operation "Wrath of God" for the elimination of the planners of the attack at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

The success of the operation is more PR than God's vengeance. Even though it was portrayed as a brilliant operation for those days and depicted heroically in Steven Spielberg's film "Munich", it took seven years – and several expensive and embarrassing failures – for Israel to eliminate Ali Hassan Salameh, the "Red Prince" and the mastermind behind Munich. Salameh's commander, the head of the Black September organization, Mohammad Daoud Odeh, was not only saved from the Wrath of God squads, but was allowed to live in Ramallah following the Oslo Accords. Odeh, who did not regret until the end of his life, declared the massacre in Munich - an attack in which Israeli hostages were tortured and beheaded - as a great victory for Palestine, one that would be repeated.

Another example is the Schalit deal in which Saleh al-Arouri was released. Not much time had passed since his release, and Al-Arouri began commanding Hamas in the West Bank and carried out murderous attacks. When he became wanted by Israel, he fled to Turkey. He opened a headquarters there and managed the array of attacks from there. The most famous and cruel of them was the kidnapping of the three teens, Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah and their murders. As long as he was in Turkey, Israel refrained from killing him.

An attack in Turkey, a member of NATO and maintaining a level – and even the lowest – of relations with Israel, is impossible. It was only when he made the mistake of his life and arrogantly visited Lebanon, that Israel laid hands on him. It took ten years, during which al-Arouri spilled too much blood.

Yahya Sinwar was also released in the Schalit deal. Until Oct. 7, for unclear reasons that brought the terrible disaster upon us, Israel refused to eliminate him. Now it is too late. Unlike Marwan Issa, who came and went in the tunnels, Sinwar does not take his nose out of the burrow and surrounds himself with hostages who serve as a human shield. When he'll leave Gaza as a condition for the return of the hostages and hide in Qatar, Israel will not carry out an operation there to eliminate him for the same reasons as Turkey.

He won't be the only one to get immunity. Mohammed Deif, whom Israel has repeatedly failed to eliminate, and Khaled Mashaal, whose embarrassing elimination attempt cost us the release of Ahmed Yassin and 70 other terrorists, will go with him to Qatar. They will spend their days safely and peacefully in this terror-supporting country. We should not live in an illusion that those who brought Oct. 7 upon us will ever pay the price.

If we agree to release the senior terrorists and mass murderers in accordance with Hamas's demand – at least we will do so with our eyes open. We will know that we will not be able to revenge the perpetrators of the atrocity. That what the Israeli government is conducting now is all we will get, and what the terrorists are extracting from us now is what they will be allowed to keep.

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The PA's use of these international forums, however, is cynical and manipulative. The one motivation it lacks is any true intent to comply with and respect human rights. Anyone looking at the human rights situation in the Palestinian Authority will see an appalling reality, with torture in Palestinian prisons being just one example of its egregious violations of basic human rights. The situation for women, children, homosexuals, and minority groups in the PA is even worse. According to Palestinian law, a husband is allowed to rape his wife. Women are forced to marry the rapist who impregnated them. Homosexuals are brutally persecuted and so-called "honor killings" are still prevalent. These and many other injustices are commonplace in the Palestinian Authority and are met with leniency by the authorities.

Particularly disturbing is the conspiracy of silence on the part of other countries, the international media, and international human rights groups. Not only do they perpetually turn a blind eye to these violations – which they know about – they mainly pin the blame obsessively on the "Israeli occupation." Indeed, the issue of torture in Palestinian prisons is nothing new. As early as 2015, the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center filed a detailed complaint on the matter to the ICC.

Despite the complaint, the matter evaporated into thin air when the prosecutor announced the issues she was willing to investigate. Torture in the Palestinian Authority was not one of them. Topping her list of priorities were "crimes against humanity" perpetrated by Israel. From the perspective of other countries, the world would keep on spinning: The PA would continue its gross violations of human rights, continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually, keep opening embassies and consulates across the globe as if it were a country, and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, would continue being greeted by honor guards on official visits. From their point of view, the hundreds of people murdered and tortured to death by the PA aren't worth one Jamal Khashoggi.

This conspiracy of silence exposes the hypocrisy of other countries, the ICC, the international press, and human rights organizations – all derelict in their duties and willing to sacrifice their principles on the altar of slandering Israel, so long as not one hair falls from the head of Mahmoud Abbas. For them, those disenfranchised, defenseless people in Palestinian society are just a minor inconvenience.

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The fourth Durban Conference will convene on Sept. 22, in South Africa and it is likely to be a reflection of the first Durban Conference, held in 2001.

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The summit held 20 years ago purported to discuss human rights violations and the fight against racism, but was taken over by Muslim countries hostile to Israel and they carried out a diplomatic lynching of the Jewish state. Then, like now, Israeli diplomacy was surprised, beaten and unresponsive.

Among the resolutions that were put to a vote in 2001 were ones labeling Israel an apartheid state, meaning it and its allies must therefore be subject to boycotts; Israel commits genocide and crimes against humanity, and therefore an armed struggle must be waged against it; and that the Zionist movement is essentially a racist movement.

The conference was a festival of with antisemitic venom. The guest of honor was then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

The first Durban conference birthed The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and all of its familiar activities. From Durban, European countries began to condemn Israel for any action it takes to protect itself from the deadly surges of terrorism.  Durban was what led to the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council, where 50% of the resolutions are against Israel. Durban is what inspired the International Court of Justice in The Hague to go after Israel for war crimes.

Durban was also the catalyst that drove the UN to obsessively and biasedly engage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2018 alone, the UN General Assembly passed 21 resolutions condemning Israel, compared to six criticizing other countries combined.

Between 2001 and 2018 the United States, using its veto power in the UN Security Council, thwarted 12 resolutions censuring Israel. In the current composition of the Biden administration, it will be very challenging to extract an American veto on anti-Israel resolutions.

Today, the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of the ICC and the various UN councils, has been vigorously working to fully exploit the forthcoming Durban IV for yet another savage attack. Israel's tactics, however, have remained unchanged: plead with the countries participating in the conference to abstained from voting. Lashing back at our detractors isn't even an option lest we incur the wrath of the rest of the world.

The assumption that in any war against radical human rights organizations we will face another wave of anti-Israel hatred - must be shattered.

In the face of relentless lies one must take decisive steps, and stop stuttering. We must prevent the entry of BDS activists into the country, just as France, the United States, Britain and Canada bar entry to their soil from those who threaten to prosecute them.

We must also exact a price from UN envoys who pen false reports on IDF operations.

Still, how can complain about steps taken by other countries if Israeli authorities themselves become active partners in the boycott of Israel and turn their backs on the fight against antisemitism?

The attorney general is currently preventing Jewish business owners in Judea and Samaria from suing the UN Human Rights Council for its "blacklist," even though it is a discriminatory and racist list.

The Jerusalem court has asked Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to rule on the matter six times since August 2020, but he refuses to rule for fear of upsetting the UN, claiming that his representatives are negotiating to soften the decisions.

So before we point the finger of blame at countries worldwide, it would be better for the country's top officials to stop behaving like exiled Jews who do not believe in our right to the state.

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The State of Israel has demands that Europe and the United States impose financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority due to the fact that it insists on maintaining a policy of payments to terrorists. What are we supposed to tell them now, when we are doing the exact same thing?

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The lax policy towards eradicating terrorism in Gaza has been in place for years, long before the current government was installed, and it has been promoted in various and bizarre versions by all seemingly right-wing governments.

These days, however, this absurdity has reached new highs: state authorities are now actually in the process of forming an agency that will skirt state laws in order to enable the Palestinian Authority to pay terrorists. Yes – this is exactly as it sounds.

In 2015, Bank Hapoalim and Discount Bank informed the Finance Ministry that they were severing their business ties with Palestinian banks that transfer PA payments to terrorists, for fear of being prosecuted by victims of terrorism for financing acts of terror.

The decision was not made in a void: the same year saw a US federal court order the PA to pay $655 million in damages to victims of terrorism. The ruling was partially based on the financial assistance Ramallah affords terrorists and its monthly payments to security prisoners jailed in Israel. Soon afterward, a verdict was handed down against the Arab Bank for financing terrorism, also in a federal court in the United States, which concluded in a $1 billion settlement in favor of the victims.

Israel's response to the local banks' decision was to force its financial institutions to keep up the practice, i.e. fund terrorism. The Finance Ministry urged Israeli banks to continue maintaining business relations with Palestinian banks, assuring them of state indemnity for any lawsuit they may face, as well as full state assistance in the event they are prosecuted. Is there a greater absurdity than this?

Yes, there is.

After victims of terrorism appealed to the High Court of Justice against the decision, the state exempted commercial banks from providing services to Palestinian banks. But Israel did not give up and in a move that can only be described as morally bankrupt, the state recently announced that it would establish a new mechanism, in the form of an independent company that would provide financial services to Palestinian banks.

In doing so, the state will, in effect, allow and endorse the transfer of payments from Palestinian banks to Palestinian prisoners and the families of terrorists.

Can you comprehend the magnitude of this absurdity? This is the same State of Israel that requires European Union member-states and the United States to impose financial sanctions against the PA over its pay-for-slay policy. What are we going to say now, when we adopt the exact same policy?

 The constant fear of Israeli governments of a flare-up of violence on the ground has become the agenda, and it blows up in our face time and again. A payment mechanism for murderers is nothing short of national humiliation. How can we look the families of the victims in the eyes?  

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The dust over the ruins in Gaza hasn't had the chance to settle and Israeli media is already talking about the "mechanism" - not the one by which Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip, will be destroyed, but the one that will allow the continued transfer of funds to coastal enclave without it falling into Hamas' hands.

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Funds appropriated by Gaza's rulers have gone toward the manufacturing of the 4,360 rockets fired on Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls and the 100 kilometers (62 miles) of underground tunnels destroyed by the IDF during the fighting – and it seems we have learned nothing.

The truth is simple: money transferred to the Gaza Strip cannot be monitored. No by international organizations whose functionaries answer to Hamas, not by charities – as their infrastructure is an integral part of Hamas and the public sympathy for it, and certainly not by the Palestinian Authority, which has no power over the Strip whatsoever.

When will we understand that any cash that goes into Gaza finds its way to Hamas' military goals?

Israel must now inform Qatar and European countries that if they want to support the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza, they are more than welcome to send as many containers of food, medicine, clothing, toys, textbooks, furniture, etc. as they want. Want to pay for fuel and electricity? Excellent. But keep the cash. Cash dollars only buy ammunition and Israel will no longer allow it inti Gaza.

A terrorist organization has an Achilles heel: one leg is rooted in the world of terrorist attacks, but the other leg is rooted in the legitimate world. A terrorist group cannot pay operatives without banks, communicate without technological means or operate in general without lawyers and accountants.

When Israel destroys Hamas weapons depots and demolishes entire buildings that serve as headquarters, it is exposed to constant international criticism and pressure to stop the fighting. But it keeps missing the legitimate options for action, namely stifling the organization financially.

The Israeli public expect the government to wage a financial campaign against terrorism and dry up its resources, but $360 million in Qatari cash each year proves that the Israeli government is not in sync with itself.

Hamas is first and foremost a financial enterprise. The thousands of rockets it has developed, the missiles it purchased, the underground city it dug, the stipends paid to terrorists and their families – all cost more than a billion dollars. The bribe paid to Hamas for mock calm goes beyond a loss of national dignity but, as Operation Guardian of the Walls has proven, it is borderline security suicide.

The government must not continue to err in illusions about arrangements over Hamas' head. Once the operation is over, we must initiate and move the war to economic lines. Yes to donations – but not in cash. We must not dissolve the military achievements of the operation. If we do not dry up the egg of terrorism now, we will lose the next war.

The government must not continue to delude itself about its ability to broker deals that go over Hamas' head. Now that fighting on the ground has concluded, we must move the war to the economic battlefield. Donations to Gaza are welcome – but not in cash. We must not miss out on the opportunity to leverage the military achievements in full. If we fail to dry up the terrorism swamp now, we will lose the next war.

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The decision of the International Court of Justice in The Hague to launch an investigation against Israel affirms Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's anti-Israel bias, despite her statements that the investigation will be "independent."

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Bensouda ignored evidence presented to her by Israeli officials on the crimes committed by the heads of Palestinian terrorist organizations since the beginning of the intifada: suicide bombings, systematic indiscriminate shooting of civilians, the thousands of missiles fired at civilians- all crimes that under international law are as defined as genocide.

The prosecutor loses sleep over the issue of the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise, but has yet to even consider promoting any review, let along an investigation, of the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus, despite the dozens of complaints filed on the matter with the ICC and despite the fact that Cyprus is signatory to the Rome Statute from which The Hague derives is power.

Cyprus, in should be noted, joined the ICC  upon its inception in the early 2000s, while the Palestinian Authority only joined it in 2015.

Worse, Bensouda has refrained from investigating the grave crimes that have been and are being committed around the world, in Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere. True, Syria is not a member of the Roman Statute, but the thousands of jihadists who have gathered there from all over the world – from countries that are party to the ICC treaty are undoubtedly under The Hague's authority. So is Yemen.

Alas, genocide, beheadings, kidnappings and rapes, Islamic State's reign of terror in Syria and the Houthis' one in Yemen – none of these are as important as the return of Israelis to the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem.

Israel has filed dozens of complaints with the ICC over war crimes and they have been consistently and persistently ignored, all while Bensouda had regularly met with pro-Palestinian "rights groups."

It seems that Palestinian officials have immunity in her court, while Israeli complaints over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas complicity in Fatah rocket fire on Israel during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 is still pending, as is the Israeli demand that the PA be made to cease its pay-for-slay policy.

Bensouda met with Abbas – that is a fact. How is it possible that the chief ICC prosecutor met with an individual against whom complaints she has to rule on have been filed and discusses them?

The bias continues in her appeal to The Hague to affirm "Palestine's" membership in the ICC while fully adopting the Palestinian narrative regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and siding with disputed rulings by political bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council, or resolution passed by the UN General Assembly, where the pro-Palestinian majority is automatic.

The Palestinian petition also seeks to serve specific political interests. It is not for nothing that the Palestinians sought to investigate the events of Operation Protective Edge starting after June 20, 2014, when three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorism. The Palestinian want the tribunal to investigate the final outcome – not the cause for the recovery operation that eventually evolved into the Gaza conflict – and the ICC obliged.

It is also not a coincidence that the ICC's decision on the investigation came only after a new American president took office, as it was the long reach of the Trump administration and the threat of US sanctions on ICC officials that kept it at bay.

Israel has to pass laws to protect its security personnel from The Hague, similar to the US policy on the matter, which was adopted immediately after the establishment of the ICC in 2002, which bars any type of cooperation with the ICC.

Israel must also work with the US, which faces the same risk following the ICC's announcement that it plans to look into alleged American "war crimes" in Afghanistan; and Jerusalem should also work with its allies worldwide and take a firm stand against any nation that cooperates with the ICC's investigation. The battle to pervert an investigation has failed. The war for Israel's vindication has begun.

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The fact that the international criminal court has decided to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes must serve as a wake-up call – perhaps it is time to stop acting like we don't really have a right to the Jewish state.

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Despite the Military Advocate General's efforts to investigate any infringement, big or small, by IDF soldiers, and despite the military forming a unit the mission of which is to prevent human rights violations and to ensure compliance with international law, Israel is still facing an international investigation.

The Hague, it seems, it utterly unimpressed by High Court of Justice decisions preventing the expansion of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

As so many among us do not believe in our right to this land, we will be hard-pressed to convince the ICC of it. Nor will we be able to convince the court that the IDF is an ethical military and that at times, its preoccupation with not placing innocent Palestinians in harm's way costs Israeli lives.

The radical Left and human rights groups are so steeped in hypocrisy that their glee over the ICC's ruling blinds them to the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists.

Israel must take resolute action, or it risks its officers and politicians hesitating before embarking on any military operation designed to protect the Israeli public.

Israel's leadership continues to insist on realizing defunct leftist ideas among other things for fear of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

This is what prompted the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 – a failed experiment that turned Israeli cities into hostages for Hamas and its missiles.

Israel has also decided not to decide on the issue of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria – for fear of incurring the ICC's wrath – thus leaving the Jewish residents there in limbo.

The lack of a government decision on the future of Judea and Samaria prevents the area's development. While Israel remains passive, the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of the EU and the ICC, plans to exploit the Biden administration to the point that Israel will miss the Obama presidency.

Israel's efforts here must include applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. It must stand up to its detractors and proudly proclaim: This land is our and no court will tell us where our borders run.

One way to deal with the decision in The Hague is to immediately adopt US policy on the issue. Immediately after the establishment of the ICC in The Hague, in 2002, the US Congress passed The American Service-Members' Protection Act, which has come to be known as the "The Hague invasion law.

The law also bars any US authority from giving the ICC information about US nationals, civilians or in uniform, it may deem as persons of interest in an investigation. It also allows the American president to use all means at his disposal to free an individual detained or tried by the ICC – including invading The Hague.

True, only a superpower like the US can back a law that gives the president the authority to stage military action on foreign soil to free soldiers held over their service to their country, but apart from that draconian article, the law is very sensible and includes provisions barring any financial assistance to the court, cooperation with it or the transfer of confidential information.

Israel must therefore adopt the legislative arrangement that exists in the United States, and ensure that no authority in Israel directly or indirectly assists the Hague to gather evidence against our civilians and soldiers.

This should be anchored in legislation and the law must be enforced as one that applies to Israelis everywhere.

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Legendary American broadcaster Edward R. Murrow once stated, "No one can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." Morrow's warning, while talking about the dangers of McCarthyism, sounds prophetic for the tragedy unfolding in today's Lebanon. The government in Beirut is an accomplice to Hezbollah's terrorizing of an entire nation. The Shi'ite Party of God has used the barrel of a gun, the bomb and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take over the entire country. Hezbollah's malignant hand touches every facet of life in Lebanon – from the banking system to the courts – and it has left the nation's infrastructure economy teetering on collapse, endangering everyone who lives and visits the country.

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Nowhere is the criminal deconstruction of Lebanon more evident than in the case of the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport – the country's sole international access point for civil aviation and an airport named after a Lebanese prime minister who himself was assassinated by Hezbollah. In the 1960s and 1970s, the airport was the launching pad for some of the world's most notorious airline hijackings and terrorist operations. In the 1980s, Hezbollah terrorists blew up aircraft on the tarmac; they hijacked American airliners and murdered the hostages they seized.

Beirut airport, located in the southwest part of the Lebanese capital, is adjacent to the slums and refugee camps that are Hezbollah's historic stronghold. Hezbollah uses the airport as its own – skirting border controls and security protocols to ferry people, weapons and other forbidden items into Lebanon. In June 2018, The Washington Post reported that Hezbollah's takeover of Beirut airport is so rampant that the organization moves weapons and drugs, in addition to pro-Iranian fighters to other countries from the civil wars in the Middle East, without any consequences. Hezbollah allows the IRGC to use the airport as a base for Iranian regime operations against Western interests.

Hezbollah views the airport as a safe bet for its weapons storage, hoping that Israel or any other country that might need to act against the terror group will be reticent to strike a nation's sole aviation access point, even though, according to International Humanitarian Law, the dual-use of an airport for both for civilian purposes and military purposes renders it as a legitimate military objective.

In stark violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Hezbollah has obtained an arsenal of hundreds of thousands of rockets and other weapons, making it today the most powerful non-state actor in the world. Many of the launchers are hidden inside population centers within a few yards of the airport terminal. According to a recent report in Eurasiareview, a Hezbollah missile factory is located underneath a nearby soccer field, and a "Fateh 110" missile launch site is located near the runway.

One only need to look at the Aug. 4 explosion at the Port of Beirut – a blast due to incompetence, corruption, negligence and Hezbollah's control of Lebanon's infrastructure – as a harbinger of catastrophic destruction on a massive scale. Hundreds were killed, billions of dollars of damage incurred and a good part of the city destroyed as a result of the massive detonation. The disaster, which is still under investigation, occurred when a fire triggered the ignition of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been haphazardly warehoused. Only a month later, a huge blast ripped through a housing area in southern Lebanon caused by Hezbollah munitions hidden in buildings that were ignited.

International powers have been unsuccessful in thwarting Hezbollah. But perhaps US law, and the prospect of criminal and civil liability for the foreign airlines that negligently and recklessly endanger the lives of their passengers by flying them into the airport, might be a game-changer.

In 2019 alone, before the COVID-19 pandemic crippled civil aviation, the airport handled close to 9 million passengers. It is the hub for Middle Eastern Airlines, Lebanon's flag carrier. Eighteen other international airlines, including Emirates, Air France, Alitalia and Lufthansa, fly in and out of Beirut, and those carriers – knowing Hezbollah's control of the airport and its surrounding areas – places their passengers and their planes in direct peril. Commercial airlines flying into Beirut are not only morally and legally responsible for the safety of their passengers, but they are inadvertently aiding and abetting the continued use of the airport by terrorists.

Hezbollah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, or FTO, by numerous countries around the world, including the United States. Under provisions of Chapter 113B of Title 18 of the US Code, it is a federal crime for an individual or a corporation to provide "material support or resources" to a designated FTO such as Hezbollah – material support or resources is broadly defined to include any type of service, personnel and transportation. In 2018, the US Congress has passed the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act, focusing on Hezbollah's and Hamas's illicit use of this tactic. By operating routes to Beirut's airport, one is knowingly flying passengers and crew into a hub of terror activity.

Airlines flying in and out of Beirut risk the potential of their aircraft being blown out of the sky by MPADS (man-portable air-defense systems), either purposely or accidentally launched at a civilian aircraft, such as in the case of the Ukrainian airliner shot down by an IRGC missile near Tehran in January 2020.

Lebanon, teetering on bankruptcy, desperately needs the foreign revenue that business, expatriate and tourist travel brings to the country. Perhaps by pressuring the airlines that they face substantial civil and criminal exposure to legal action courtesy of American counterterrorism laws, this will force the carriers to pressure the Lebanese government to once and for all eradicate Hezbollah's control of their country.

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The Shurat HaDin Law Center has taken an active role in attempting to obstruct Hezbollah from utilizing the airport and its passengers as human shields of its rockets and weapons. We have sent warning letters to the airline carriers that service the Beirut airport, as well as the insurance companies that provide them insurance. Shurat HaDin has revealed the reckless and cynical danger Hezbollah's strategy of stockpiling the weapons in civilian facilities entails. And it demands that the airlines and insurance companies not allow themselves, their passengers and their planes be co-opted in this manner.

They have been placed on notice, and they have been warned.

To do nothing, as Edward R. Murrow warned, makes anyone facilitating travel through the airport an accomplice to terror.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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