In the cloud of hysteria that surrounds the post-911 world, scapegoating is commonplace. Foreigners have increasingly been portrayed as crusaders for the destruction of Western civilization. Sometimes the threats are real, other times they’re exaggerated, and more often than not they’re used solely as a fear tactic to push forward an agenda—harsher immigration laws, for instance. In some cases, scapegoating can frame certain groups as victims of a campaign against their own kind. The “fear card” seems to be at work here in Toronto: Israeli officials and news outlets claim that a Hezbollah cell has been monitoring the actions of El Al crew members in the city.
It is difficult to tell if any of these threats are verifiable, especially when the security and intelligence unit of the Toronto Police Service, which maintains contact with the RCMP and CSIS, has stated that there’s no evidence that the surveillance took place. Of course, these threats were assumed, not substantiated. These threats aren’t clear, which shows that intelligence agencies do not want to make any assumptions that would cause mass panic and hysteria. Thus far, a convenient measure has been to portray groups as threats to global prosperity. Sure, there are real threats in some instances, but causing panic and hysteria over an unproved rumour is something which is all too common these days.
The likelihood of Hezbollah launching an attack outside of the Middle East is questionable. Judging by the historical tendencies of militia or resistance groups like Hezbollah—unlike al-Qaeda, they do not strive for international political recognition—targets remain at home, not abroad. In the unlikely event that Hezbollah will attack targets outside of the Middle East, the attackers would likely be splinter groups. It seems unrealistic for Hezbollah to initiate attacks that aren’t directly related to their goals.
The possibility of a Hezbollah attack in Canada is overblown. It is easy to speculate on an attack from a group that is widely criticized. However, there is a difference between suspicion of a threat and evidence of one. It goes without saying that intelligence agencies and services should take action on imminent threats, but this assumed threat lacks any substance.
