To the Editor:

I recently read with amazement Judith Butler’s letter to the editor (December 15, 2010) in which she explains her support of Hezbollah and Hamas. Professor Butler claims these two groups are part of the Global Left because they are anti-imperialist. Well, if being anti-imperialist were the only criterion necessary to be part of the Left, then I suppose Edmund Burke would be considered a leftist philosopher. But of course this isn’t the case.

I wonder, then, what Professor Butler sees in Hezbollah and Hamas that makes her think they are leftist, or even liberal. It’s not their stance on violence, which she has pointed out. Is it their homophobia, then? Or is it their virulent anti-Semitism? Or is it their own totalitarian tendencies? Or is it their religious zealotry? Or is it their desire, in the words of Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, to “eliminate” the West? Even a quick glance at these movements reveals that they aren’t part of the Global Left, but of the Far-right. In other words, they aren’t radical liberals but reactionary conservatives, and it’s time liberals acknowledge this fact.

Regards,

Matthew Dreiling
NSSR, Liberal Studies