Tennessee neo-Nazi helped Hezbollah target Israeli officials in US

White supremacist pleads guilty to colluding with Hezbollah terrorists in plot to attack Israeli officials in the United States.

By World Israel News Staff

A white supremacist from Tennessee has pleaded guilty in federal court to a 2019 arson attack on the Highlander Research and Education Center and to attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah, in a case that has drawn attention for linking neo-Nazi extremism in the US with support for a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The Justice Department said on Monday that Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma, entered guilty pleas earlier that day in Knoxville to one count of arson and one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Sentencing is set for September 9 before US District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, and prosecutors said Prater faces up to 20 years in federal prison, along with fines, restitution and supervised release.

According to court documents described by the Justice Department, Prater admitted using a napalm-based “sparkler bomb” to destroy a building at the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, causing more than $1.2 million in damage.

Prosecutors said he also spray-painted the Iron Guard symbol, associated with a Romanian fascist movement, in the parking lot before the attack.

Federal authorities said Prater acknowledged carrying out the arson because of his white supremacist beliefs and because he opposed the center’s faith-based educational mission and its association with the Civil Rights Movement.

The second part of the case centered on an alleged 2019 effort to aid Hezbollah. The Justice Department said Prater obtained a document that purported to contain personally identifiable information for more than 35,000 people said to be affiliated with the Israeli government, then sent it to someone he believed was connected to Hezbollah.

“Start the hunt,” Prater said after he transferred the document.

Prater was initially indicted in 2025 on arson and explosives charges tied to the Highlander fire, and the Hezbollah-related allegation was added later.

Investigators have linked Prater to white supremacist online activity and to earlier posts describing the incendiary device used in the attack.

The 2019 fire destroyed part of a site long regarded as a landmark in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South.

US officials said the case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The plea marks a rare prosecution combining domestic white-supremacist violence with an attempted support charge involving Hezbollah, a group the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.