Commenter Phil (below) points us to the latest edition of The Socialist Worker, featuring (among other gems) this article based on an interview with Hezbollah spokesman Mustafa Haj Ali “by phone from Beirut.” The SWP seems to be putting its money on Hezbollah to finish strongly in Lebanon’s current political struggle.
Hezbollah’s reactionary brand of Islam doesn’t seem to trouble the SWP terribly much; after all, the group’s anti-imperialist credentials appear to be in order.
But as long as they had Mr. Ali on the phone, you’d think an organization devoted to fighting racism and antisemitism worldwide would want to ask him about the broadcast by Hezbollah’s TV channel a couple of years ago of a series about a global Jewish conspiracy based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” You’d think an anti-Nazi group would demand to know what Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah meant when he said, “The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities.”
You’d think an organization supposedly devoted to replacing Israel with a “democratic secular state” of Jews and Arabs living peacefully together would want to know why Nasrallah has called for expulsion of the Jews from Israel.
Maybe the cash-strapped SWP just didn’t want to run up their phone bill. Perhaps they can base their next fund-raising drive on getting enough money for a more extended interview with the Hezbollah spokesman.