Official corroboration of Hezbollah's involvement in last year's attack in Burgas, Bulgaria - in which five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian citizen were killed - shows just how that organization has adapted and nearly perfected a methodology of plausibly deniable terror. Not only do the recent revelations show how Hezbollah has turned, once again, to international terrorism as its calling card, it points to its use of new terrorist cells that enhance plausible deniability. The transatlantic community would be best served by displaying political courage, naming names, and holding both the perpetrators and their sponsors accountable.
While presenting itself credibly as the main political voice of the Shi‘a community in Lebanon, Hezbollah (Arabic for "the Party of God") was created - and remains - in an advanced position to support the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hezbollah's rise to prominence within the Shi‘a community in Lebanon was the result of its determined resistance against the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon - an occupation that ended in 2000, with Israel compelled to withdraw and Hezbollah claiming victory. Hezbollah extended its reach to the rest of Lebanon in subsequent years by maintaining a well-trained and well-equipped paramilitary force that proved its resilience in the Second Lebanon War of 2006, a confrontation that ended in a stalemate, despite Israel's qualitative military edge and superior firepower. By navigating internal rivalries in Lebanon's fractured politics, and through factional mobilization, Hezbollah further solidified its Lebanese base.
Hezbollah's ascension to power also benefited from the continuous stream of political assassinations of its rivals. With investigations linking its operatives to some of these murders, Hezbollah seemed to adopt a more brazen, less cautious attitude, allowing fear to compensate for ambiguity in silencing its opponents. In fact, with corruption, embezzlement, trafficking, and the blatant abuse of power irreversibly tarnishing its image, and with its support for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus exhausting its revolutionary credibility, Hezbollah seems to have abandoned its attempt at presenting itself as the embodiment of the resistance against "[United States] arrogance and [Israeli] occupation." At the same time, Hezbollah did not initially shy away from resorting to international terrorism. Its role in terrorist attacks, from Argentina to Saudi Arabia, is well documented. However, international terrorism served either as a means of advancing its declared goal of fighting Israel, or as a fulfillment of its duty as an Iranian asset. But as the United States focused its attention on targeting international terrorism, Hezbollah mostly opted out of such operations.
The Bulgaria attack reveals two grave developments. Evidently bolstered by the elimination of its political rivals in Lebanon, Hezbollah decided to rehabilitate international terrorism as a tool of its trade. Hezbollah apologists dismissed accusations of its involvement in attacks in Thailand and India last year by invoking its image of grandeur: the plots and operatives, they argued, were too amateurish for them to be the product of Hezbollah's well-oiled machine. In fact, the Bulgaria attack does not seem to have gone according to plan either, with the bomb exploding prematurely. The amateurish character of these attacks seems to be the result of their delegation to new terrorist cells structured to enhance plausible deniability. This means the recruitment of individuals who would normally not be profiled as Hezbollah members or sympathizers.
In other words, Hezbollah seems to be incorporating the terrorist tactics it honed in the domestic sphere to its newly re-invigorated international operations. With the terrorist cell in Bulgaria led by an Australian and a Canadian, Hezbollah benefits from plausible deniability. Hezbollah's Iranian sponsors, it seems, are even further removed from any association with the Burgas attack. The current diplomatic landscape may be too brittle to be shaken by these new variables. Still, as the Bulgarian investigation reveals, it was not an off-shoot of Hezbollah that committed the crime, it was Hezbollah itself. And Hezbollah - backed to the hilt by Iran - is no independent agent.
