Hezbollah has been busy dismissing as merely symbolic the EU decision Monday to blacklist its military wing as a terrorist organization. The European Union’s move, decided unanimously by 28 nations, is neither symbolic nor meaningless: It is a warning bell that must be heeded. It wasn’t made haphazardly, having been decided only after months of deliberation and investigations into incidents in Bulgaria and Cyprus, along with rising international concern over Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria.

Let us hope this bluster from the party’s leaders is simply damage control and media messaging, and that the party does see the bigger picture of the situation. They cannot talk away the danger such a move represents not just to Hezbollah but to the whole of Lebanon.

The EU has so far been magnanimous toward Lebanon by differentiating between the military and political wings of Hezbollah. This act of charity will spare Lebanon - whose fate is so intertwined with the resistance party - the immediate, devastating consequences that could have come.

The EU has offered Hezbollah, and Lebanon, a window by announcing that the listing will be re-evaluated in six months. Regardless of the public face put forward, Hezbollah should use this time to reflect.

The resistance should reconsider the path it has embarked upon, and reclaim its mantle as freedom fighters. The party must prove to Lebanon - and the world - that the resistance is aimed solely at Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Arabs. The Arab world is divided over the conflict in Syria, and Lebanon’s only protection from being burned in that conflagration is through abiding by the Baabda Declaration, which Hezbollah itself agreed to.

But that opening - the EU re-evaluation - is a double-edged sword. If Hezbollah doubles down on its fighting in Syria, the decision can just as easily be amended to cover all Hezbollah members. This must be avoided at all costs.

Hezbollah and Lebanon cannot truly be separated. If the resistance chooses the wrong path, and instead of being delisted in six month’s time the entire party is blacklisted by the EU, Lebanon will not be spared the consequences.

Should the entire party be listed, could the state function with no interaction with Hezbollah? Will Hezbollah agree to have no representation in the Cabinet? If Lebanon is forced to choose between Hezbollah and interaction with the rest of the world, it will face the disintegration of the fabric of its society.

Everyone knows the precarious situation that Lebanon finds itself in. Any obfuscating over the reality of the situation is wasting precious time in the face of a concrete deadline. For the future of Lebanon, the resistance must refocus itself and demonstrate its commitment to the Lebanese state over foreign influences.