Western Intellectuals Who Praised Hezbollah
The Israeli air strike on Iranian missiles intended for Hezbollah on May 2 and May 3, 2013, highlights the increasing role of Iran and Hezbollah in the Syrian conflict. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a report on May 2, 2013, by retired Israeli general Shimon Shapira describing Iranian plans to take over Syria. Two days earlier, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah pledged that the Syrian regime’s friends would not allow it “to fall into the hands” of America, Israel and Islamic extremists.
Arab commentators too are increasingly blunt about how they view Hezbollah. Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, general manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, wrote,
Hezbollah is merely an Iranian brigade which has been founded for more than 30 years to serve the aims of the Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran.
In this new spirit of refreshing openness about the Iranian-backed group, it is worth recalling the praise heaped on it by Western intellectuals when its main target was Israel.
There’s former U.S. ambassador and Gaza flotilla spokesman, Edward Peck, who was effusive in his praise for Hezbollah and its current leader Hassan Nasrallah. In a July 2006 interview with Fox News, Peck equated Hezbollah fighters with American soldiers parachuting into Germany during World War II.
Former professor Norman Finkelstein told a Lebanese Future TV “I do want to express solidarity with them…I am going to honor Hezbollah… they show discipline, I respect that…”
But no one tops radical icon Noam Chomsky, who, with his wife in tow, paid a visit to Hezbollah in 2005. Chomsky has long been comfortable embracing genocidal groups; he was a defender of the Khmer Rouge during their brief murderous reign in the 1970s. Hezbollah leaders warmly embraced the beaming Chomsky. He in turn made a point of exclaiming that he didn’t care what his fellow American citizens thought of his visit and support for Hezbollah.
One wonders what the Syrians facing the Hezbollah onslaught would have to say to professor Chomsky.
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