Jewish American critic of Israel meets senior Hizbullah official

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A vocal Jewish American critic of Israel met Monday with a senior official from Hizbullah and visited villages in southern Lebanon that witnessed heavy fighting in the 2006 war between the guerrillas and the Jewish state. Norman Finkelstein, who resigned last year as a political science professor at DePaul University in Chicago, met Hizbullah's commander in south Lebanon, Nabil Kaouk, in his office in the coastal city of Tyre. He visited the border village of Maroun el-Rass where heavy fighting between Hizbullah guerrillas and IDF troops took place during the two side's 34-day war in the summer 2006, according to the state-run National News Agency and Hizbullah's Al-Manar television. "After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remain a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hizbullah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland," the Brooklyn-born Finkelstein told reporters. The US government has labeled Hizbullah a terrorist organization.