On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” NBC News Foreign Correspondent Matt Bradley stated that Israel struck banks in Lebanon “which do a lot for charitable donations, providing financing to ordinary people,” but also “particularly those of Shiite Muslim faith, those who are mostly adherents to Hezbollah,” and also said that “The United States put this bank under sanctions all the way back in the 2000s.”
Bradley said, “So, these were basically targeting banks. They were targeting Islamic banking institutions, which do a lot for charitable donations, providing financing to ordinary people, particularly those of Shiite Muslim faith, those who are mostly adherents to Hezbollah, but these are also people who are not necessarily Shiite Muslims or of any sect here in Lebanon. Particularly after Lebanon’s 2019 financial crisis, that’s what got people really going to some of these banks. And they lend on Islamic terms to people, which means, essentially, without interest.”
He continued, “But the Israelis have said that this was a front used by the Iranians in order to provide financing for Hezbollah through Iran. Now, it’s no secret that Iran really lavishly funds Hezbollah and that Hezbollah owes a lot of allegiance to the Iranians. This is not a secret. But whether or not this particular bank plays an essential role, the Israelis seem to think so. The United States put this bank under sanctions all the way back in the 2000s. But these strikes, the fact that they’re targeting these banks right now and that they’re no longer just targeting what they were doing before, which was decapitating the upper leadership of Hezbollah, a couple of weeks ago, they hit a medical unit that was — or like a hospital in downtown Beirut…they really are showing that they’re expanding their targets beyond simply Hezbollah’s leadership, its rank and file, and its military targets like missile silos and other military installations throughout the country. Now, they’re going after medical institutions and banks.”
Bradley concluded, “This goes to show that the Israelis really are not going to be leaving any stone unturned this time when it comes to overthrowing Hezbollah. They really want to make sure that they don’t commit some of the mistakes they have in the past, this cliche when it comes to these Islamic groups, whether it be Hezbollah, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hamas, that, just because you cut off the head of a snake, doesn’t mean it’s [not] going to grow back. Well, looks like the Israelis are trying to kill the whole snake this time. They do not want to just decapitate the leadership of Hezbollah. They want to make sure that they are completely destroying and even dismembering the group by cutting off health and financial institutions that, actually, a lot of folks here in Lebanon rely on.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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