Arabs in Syria fired several shells at Israeli locations. Photo: Twitter.

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Los Angeles office, Hussam Ayloush, continues to exhibit double standards when it comes to Israel’s terrorist enemies. Ayloush openly calls Hezbollah’s fighters  “terrorists” when referring to the group’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, but avoids invoking the “terrorist” label when Hezbollah intentionally kills Israeli civilians.

“#Nasrallah, hiding like a rat, sends his #Hizbullah terrorists to die while killing Syrians, just to help the Assad tyrant,” Ayloush tweeted Sunday.

He was responding to a commentary by the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which claims that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is fighting an “immoral” and “losing” battle against Syria’s rebels.

“[Has] Nasrallah lost his senses or is it just cheap talk when he compares resisting the Israeli occupation to fighting against the rebels in Syria?” Badr Jamous asks in the commentary.

Ayloush clearly agrees that Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria is immoral and considers the group “terrorists” only because of his anti-Assad view. But his criticism was absent when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli civilian communities in 2006 or after any of the Lebanese-based terrorist group’s attacks against Israel.

By avoiding reference to Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the context of its violent operations against Israel, Ayloush is arguably justifying terrorism that targets the Jewish State.

Ayloush has avoided condemning terrorist organizations targeting Israelis in the past.

In 2013, Ayloush was confronted outside a CAIR-LA annual fundraising banquet and asked to condemn Hamas terrorism. Ayloush issued a standard CAIR response saying that he condemns “any group…who engages in the harming of civilians, innocent people.”

He avoided addressing Hamas specifically and then proceeded to claim that his “civil rights organization” refrained from providing any comments related to Middle East developments.

“But as a civil rights organization we’re not here in the business of being dragged into the Middle East affairs and the conflicts of the Middle East,” Ayloush said. “We are an American organization.” The question itself is “not acceptable,” and “proves that you have nothing but bigotry in you.”

Such a heated response is full of hypocrisy, especially considering that CAIR consistently condemns Israel’s counterterrorism operations.

During a 2008 press conference, Ayloush demanded that the U.S. “government take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza.” Hamas, again, is never mentioned despite incessant rocket fire that sparked the conflict.

Steven Emerson is the Executive Director the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) where this article first appeared.