Nasrallah on Jews

The most famous opinions about Jews ascribed to Hizbullah's leader are:

‘If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide’

and

‘They [Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment.’

Charles Glass, the journalist who specialises on Lebanon and was once held hostage by Hizbullah, says both are likely fabrications:

The first (‘If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide’) was circulated widely on neo-con websites, which give as its original source an article by Badih Chayban in Beirut’s English-language Daily Star on 23 October 2002. It seems that Chayban left the Star three years ago and moved to Washington. The Star’s managing editor writes of Chayban’s article on Nasrallah, that ‘I have faith in neither the accuracy of the translation [from Arabic to English] nor the agenda of the translator [Chayban].’ The editor-in-chief and publisher of the Star, Jamil Mrowe, adds that Chayban was ‘a reporter and briefly local desk sub and certainly did not interview Nasrallah or anyone else.’ The account of Nasrallah’s speech in the Lebanese daily As Safir for the same day makes no reference to any anti-semitic comments. Goodheart’s second quotation – ‘They [the Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment’ – comes from the Israeli government’s website at http://tinyurl.com/99hyz. For the record, a Hizbullah spokeswoman, Wafa Hoteit, denies that Nasrallah made either statement.

Hat tip JSF

Comments

[Nasser]

Shukran Brother Osama. I read the quote from the Daily Star sometime ago, and was disappointed, that Sayyid Hassan should say such a thing, which I put down to a joke in bad taste. Thanks for shedding some light on it.

We do have a problem with Judeophobia within the ummah. Dr Tammami wrote an interesting piece about the misuse of Quranic verses to justify hatred for Jews. I shall see if can find it and give it wider circulation.