When Hezbollah gunmen took over the Lebanese capital earlier this month, Obama released a statement that said, in part:
That statement got him into a bit of trouble, seeming as it did to be a defense of Hezbollah’s demands. When David Brooks further inquired with Obama about his views of the terrorist group, he spoke offered another troubling statement about Hezbollah’s “legitimate claims” and the need to address the “root causes” of violence in Lebanon. Today Matthew Ygleisas, also of the “legitimate claims” school of thought, links approvingly to this column by Fareed Zakaria:
Jeffrey Goldber, shortly before he scored his much-discussed interview with Obama on the candidate’s views towards Israel, wrote a short post titled “Hezbollah and Its Apologists.”
Goldberg did not ask Obama about Hezbollah when they spoke the following day, but I’d be curious to hear whether he thinks Obama falls into the category of Hezbollah apologist. Or whether he thinks Zakaria does given this latest column. In the picture above, taken in Montana this week, you’ll notice Obama appears to be carrying a copy of Zakaria’s latest book, A Post-American World. There seems to be a striking ideological affinity between the two on the issue of Hezbollah, and one wonders the extent to which Obama shares Zakaria’s views on America as well.
