Who is the pro-Islamist left?

In my last article I decried the rather deliberate support Islamic fascist and terrorist groups are receiving from the hard left in the United States and Europe. I received dozens of responses: some insightful, some humorous, and some downright frightening.

Some used the article as justification for attacks on the Clintons and Senator John Kerry, all of whom are staunch supporters of Israel. President Clinton's forthrightness in laying the blame for the failure of Camp David and the so-called peace process directly on the shoulders of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians is especially important. Indeed, most Democrats in the Senate and Congress support Israel. Fritz Hollings and Cynthia McKinney are aberrations rather than being in the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

The hard left consists of far too many people to list here, but notable in the blame America, anti-Israel, pro Islamist crowd are Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader, "progressive" media outlets like Free Speech TV and Pacifica Radio, and the impressionable but ignorant young people who show up at Palestinian solidarity rallies and anti-globalisation protests. There is also a frightening number of university professors and intellectuals feeding ideas to these young people.

While these people are generally out of the mainstream of the American body politic they do have influence, do get to speak on mainstream media outlets, and worse, do help form the opinions of the next generation of American leaders. That, to me, is reason enough to speak out.