Left Wing Pundit Hasan Piker Says ‘I Don’t Have An Issue’ With Hezbollah, Praises Yemen’s Houthis For Seizing Ships

Left wing commentator Hasan Piker spent much of the weekend weighing in on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict on the streaming service Twitch and at one point praised Hezbollah, dubbed a terror group by the U.S., for being “successful” as a “resistance group” against Israel.

Piker, who the New York Times profiled in 2020 and first came to prominence working on his uncle Cenk Uygur’s show The Young Turks, went on to say he doesn’t have “an issue” with Hezbollah, which has killed hundreds of Americans over the years and explicitly targets civilians with its brutal tactics.

Piker made the shock comments casually while discussing Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah with YouTuber Nick “Nmplol” Polom.

“Who’s that?” Polom asks as Nasrallah is mentioned.

“He’s the leader of Hezbollah. The general secretary of Hezbollah,” Piker replies.

“What’s Hezbollah? Is that that small guy?” Polom quips. “It’s the same name,” Piker replies.

“Hezbollah is a paramilitary organization that is also a part of the Lebanese parliament,” he adds.

“Do we like them or no?” Polom inquires.

“I think as a resistance group, they’re pretty successful against Israel. But everybody hates them like everybody in the region. A lot of people don’t like them. Like…” Piker says as Polom declares, “I like what you like.”

“I don’t have an issue with them. Let’s just say. They’re Shia. I am Sunni, technically. Not that there’s this sectarian distinction matters in this situation,” Piker says as Polom unsure says, “I’ll be honest Hasan.”

“But they are a terrorist organization. Like they’re, they are designated by the American state as a terrorist organization,” Piker says.

“I do not like them then,” Polom hits back.

“Well, I mean, we also called Nelson Mandela a terrorist until 2008. Do you know who that is?” Piker says defending his praise for the terror group.

Piker also spent hours streaming with Polom over the weekend to his 2.7 million subscribers and tried to “educate” him about the various conflicts in the Middle East. At one point, Piker played Polom a video of Houthi rebels seizing a tanker in the Red Sea and praised the group – also designated a terror group by the U.S. for its targeting of civilians, use of child soldiers, and other human rights abuses.

Piker runs the clip of Houthi rebels seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea from November of 2023. “They got the Palestinian flag that they paint it under the helicopter with the flag. They fucking overtake. They start overtaking the ship,” an excited Piker begins, adding:

And they’re like, guess what dog, ‘No more trade to Israel.’ If you’re an Israeli, if you’re owned by an Israeli corporation or if you are actually sending ships to the Israeli port of it’s not a lot. It’s the other one that is now bankrupt. But. What was the other port? Haifa. Right. Is it Haifa is over the bank or one anyway. There’s a lot of information.

I can’t recall all of it. But they go if you are sending ships into Israel, if you are owned by an Israeli subsidiary of your own, by an Israeli corporation, we’re going to take over your ship. You cannot fucking use this trade route anymore. Guess what? Bitch, It’s our fucking territorial boundary and we’re going to enforce this until you stop doing genocide in Gaza. Because they say they’re like, Listen, we don’t like you. We’re not a fan of you. Okay.

“So it’s like a third party?” Polom asks of the brutal terror group, whose stated goal is the destruction of the U.S. and Israel.

“Yeah. This is a group of people that are like, no, we care about the Palestinians. We don’t want you bombing them. So we’re going to fucking take action and we’re going to try to punish you economically to the best of our ability. And they and by God, they started doing that and they were doing it real well.”

Watch the full clips above.