The leftist intellectual chose to stand in front of a destroyed Israeli vehicle and declare that all the prisoners in the world must be released, whether in Israel or in American prisons.

... he asserted that the United States' demanding Iran cease its interference in Iraqi affairs "is like Hitler calling on the Americans to stop their interference in the affairs of a Europe pacified under German occupation."

The snapshot of Noam Chomsky communing with Hizbullah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, was a powerful symbol of the poverty of the secular Western left when it comes to Middle Eastern affairs. With dour attention being directed at the American right because of the Bush administration's tribulations in Iraq, it has become less obvious how morally destitute are those on the other side of the political aisle.

Alighting in Beirut, Chomsky admitted he didn't know much about Lebanon, broadcasting that he would discover it from the back of a taxi. That didn't prevent him from taking a muscular position in support of Hizbullah's retaining its arms, unaware of, or indifferent to, how little sympathy his assertions garnered in a country where a majority regards those arms as, variously, a perilous Iranian deterrent, a domestic threat, or further confirmation that Hizbullah sits atop a state within a state.
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The left also has nothing to say anymore on the role of the Middle Eastern state as an economic actor capable of redistributing wealth evenly among its people. Defeat was conceded long ago, with the left usually and specifically ignoring the kleptocratic streak in states opposed to the U.S. For example, has it lately focused on the debilitating corruption in Syria? Has it really inquired whether Iran's apparent nuclear arms program is necessary in a country where the money would be better spent on the poor (a protest routinely raised to oppose arms build-ups in the West)? In this the left is no more hypocritical than the right, of course, but economic redistribution is a cornerstone of the progressive approach it favors, and it was at the very heart of the "Arab socialist" endeavors undertaken during the 1950s and 1960s.
That this critique has been all but abandoned shows how far the left has strayed from the single issue that once best defined it.
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Iraq has been falsely depicted as spawning a new ideological battle in the West over the Middle East. Watching Chomsky cuddle autocratic Islamists who once persecuted the left shows how nonsensical this is. The reality is that neither side of the broad ideological left-right divide has presented meaningful alternatives to the policies being pursued today. It is surely easy to list the blunders of the Bush administration, but there are no guarantees that the left can inherit the aftermath. The right is tarnished but, with the exception of a few atypical examples, the left has flatlined.

We hold the fundamental human rights codified in the Universal Declaration to be precisely universal, and binding on all states and political movements, indeed on everyone. Violations of these rights are equally to be condemned whoever is responsible for them and regardless of cultural context. We reject the double standards with which much self-proclaimed progressive opinion now operates, finding lesser (though all too real) violations of human rights which are closer to home, or are the responsibility of certain disfavoured governments, more deplorable than other violations that are flagrantly worse. We reject, also, the cultural relativist view according to which these basic human rights are not appropriate for certain nations or peoples.
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We are opposed to all forms of terrorism. The deliberate targeting of civilians is a crime under international law and all recognized codes of warfare, and it cannot be justified by the argument that it is done in a cause that is just. Terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology is widespread today. It threatens democratic values and the lives and freedoms of people in many countries. This does not justify prejudice against Muslims, who are its main victims, and amongst whom are to be found some of its most courageous opponents. But, like all terrorism, it is a menace that has to be fought, and not excused.