Some questions for the "activists" aboard the Gaza flotilla.
By Christopher Hitchens
"The tale of the Gaza "flotilla" seems set to become a regular summer feature, bobbing along happily on the inside pages with an occasional update. A nice sidebar for reporters covering the Greek debt crisis: a built-in mild tension of "will they, won't they?"; a cast of not very colorful characters but one we almost begin to feel we know personally. Such cheery and breezy slogans—"The Audacity of Hope" and "Free Gaza"—and such an easy storyline that it practically writes itself."
Read More (Slate)
What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
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26 comments:
How condescending and glib ...
"It seems safe and fair to say that the flotilla and its leadership work in reasonably close harmony with Hamas."
It seems important to buttress such a statement with a touch of evidence.
Agreed. Lazy too.
I don't see that. Hitchens has been very critical of Israel for decades. See 'Hitch 22' and 'God is Not Great'. He is being consistent here. Dupes of Hamas are no better than dupes of Stalin or appologist for Pol Pot...that's worth pointing out.
Fans of the Gaza flotilla=stupid tools.
A new low. Truly disgusting. Alice Walker should knee the gutless armchair bomber Hitchens in the balls.
Israel drove the Palestinians to Hamas, as Hitchens knows full well, by stonewalling the PLO and pissing on every chance to act decently. But Hitchens only wants to draw links on the side he's decided to take. That's the side of imperialism and war and Judeo-Christian racism and fundamentalism. It's also the side funded and coddled by our overclass. But Hitchens thinks it's all civilization and principles on "our" side, doesn't he?
What a creep.
One would think that those who believe the Flotilla members have not coordinated in some way with Hamas should bear the burden of proof. What Hitchens masterfully adumbrates in his article is the cognitive dissonance on the Left over the Palestinian question. On the one hand, it is unquestionably true that the Palestinian people have been the object of much abuse and injustice over the past 40 years at the hands of the Israeli government. On the other, they -- or at least those residing in Gaza -- have chosen to be governed by a genocidal and racist organization. They are, for all intents and purposes, modern-day Nazis. This is no exaggeration but merely a recitation of empirical fact. The failure of the modern-day Left to come to terms with it is a stunning embarrassment.
http://levantinetimes.blogspot.com/2011/07/six-plus-six-persian-ten-year-plan.html
I wish there was some way to help the civilian population of Gaza in a constructive way...
--Karen Olsen
Seattle, WA
I think it is quite evident and a fact that the flotilla tools are in coordination with Hamas controlled expeditions (via different routes/origins) - this is not even something that is disputed as for example the flotilla incident last year included arms inside the compartments! It is quite ironic that it is so called "atheists" that are always on the front to defend Palestinian extremists and terrorists including the fact that such very expeditions are often funded from the Islamic Republic! More ties with Hamas. Quite ironic but quite sad that so many masochistic "atheist" apologists exist..
"Israel drove the Palestinians to Hamas, as Hitchens knows full well, by stonewalling the PLO and pissing on every chance to act decently. But Hitchens only wants to draw links on the side he's decided to take. That's the side of imperialism and war and Judeo-Christian racism and fundamentalism. It's also the side funded and coddled by our overclass. But Hitchens thinks it's all civilization and principles on "our" side, doesn't he?"
Here you go folks, just one of those masochistic leftists blaming good old "Jewry" rather than the fact that people need to start taking responsibility for their own actions. This masochistic observer of ours fails to even mention the fact that Yaser Arafat had a historic opportunity for peace in which he would have acquired nearly 98.9% of what he wanted. The only people that drove the Palestinians to support a terrorist organization in Hamas are the Palestinian people themselves, Islamic fundamentalism (the virus of Islam), and the fact that Hamas is funded by the illegitimate regime occupying the once great nation of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Terror.
Such petty to have masochistic leftists not proud to live in the west under freedom. These same people think we are not "free". I suggest such masochists to pack their bags and move to an Islamic country of their choice and to enjoy their new way of life under Shariah.
Karen, there is. It's called the flotilla, as well as demanding an end to all U.S. subsidies and support for the scofflaw apartheid state known as Israel.
Hamas would recognize Israel and comply with a settlement on 1967 borders, as Hitchens also knows full well. Israel refuses to even discuss that, and the United States refuses to impose it.
Everything Anon says about Hamas being genocidal and racist applies in spades to Israel, which is not only a nation-state, but also possesses illegal nuclear weapons and occupies another nation-state.
Oh please...Hitchens masterfully adumbrates?
How about just a simple Hitchens reports or outlines or even indicates.
Pure pompous & pointless prolixity-punk.
Sasss31, where precisely did I blame Jewry? Israel is not Jewry, despite its attempts to peddle that claim.
Beyond that, nobody sane doubts who opposes UN 242. It's the same state that won't sign the NPT and won't write a Constitution, because it fears formalizing its obvious racial and religious apartheid, and its extreme violation of the separation of church and state.
It's almost funny to watch you apologists rant and invent facts and concepts. Alas, it's a homicidal and suicidal endeavor you're pushing.
Genius piece in its simplicity. All Hitch points out is that the "Boat People" (Money!!) either have not completed the tautology of their actions, or are, rather logically, in coordination with Hamas.
If they were to bypass the Israeli quarantine (which is something I'm certain they know is likely to not happen), they will be giving their aid materials to a political organization that no commentor here would choose to live under, much less vote for.
I like how he points out that Israel itelf has created this circumstance, which is an indictment on the state to DO something real and enduring about it...
So, if anybody who says or does anything is automatically working for the most unsavory of all who are on the same side, then who is Hitchens working for?
Dick Cheney, Lockheed Martin, Israel, and the capitalist class, I suppose.
Tools such as Michael Dawson continue to be the pawns of groups such as Hamas and rogue and terrorist states such as the Islamic Republic of Terror. It is quite sad and ironic when if these groups had power - the first people dead would be the masochistic atheists which hold and push such illogical objectives and views.
@Dawson...You have a responsibility to think through your actions. I def acknowledge Israel's pseudo-religious ambitions in the West Bank, essentially leading to an apartheid-like system, further gauranteeing conflict and misery. Yet, the "Boat People" seem to think the Gaza population will rush forward and distribute the aid orderly. Please! This is a publicity stunt to show solidarity with the Palestinians vis-a-vis Hamas. You want to be bold? Encourage protests against an organization that demands religious codes over secular ones; launches rockets in civilian centers on purpose; kidnaps journalists and openly accepts help from the losers of the Arab Spring. Israel did create this condition. Hamas is its partner.
Judging people by their associations is fair, in this case they happily associate with terrorists who hate anyone not their brand of Muslim.
People who associate with theocratic terrorists deserve contempt, as they say actions speak louder than words.
Anyone who thinks those that freely associate with theocratic terrorists, deserve respect of any kind may as well cut of their own nose to spite their face.
Israel is the occupier and far more trigger happy:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks8-2009jan08,0,2879176.column
It's not Israelis who are in refugee camps.
Bulldozers won't ever bring peace.
People who take up camp on one side and hold up there are dead wrong, and only prolong the problem. Israel has done a lot of good for the land of Palestine, and the Jewish experience of Europe forced this issue upon the world at large. An apartheid-like situation in West Bank is inhumane and illegal, and the fanatical forces unleashed within the Palestinian society is a direct result of the Israeli Right's messianic and reactionary, nonsensical endeavors, coupled with the larger population's (tacit) approval vis-a-vis their lack of a challenge to said Right's wishes.
But if you think the answer is with Hamas, or an acceptance of Hamas as it stands, while it postulates a position of war based on an Islamic interpretation which is as messianic and reactionary (and as silly), then you're dead wrong.
Israel has done the near-impossible: it's created a dual situation whereby on the West Bank, it's perpetrating a fascist-like stance, while managing to create for itself, through lack of a serious initiative on the West Bank, a rather sympathetic posture on its western flank. Israel ain't going anywhere, nor should it, so Hamas has to more than meet half way; it's gotta cross the street AND turn the corner.
But again, this is Israel's creation, and it's sad that the conversation devolves into a lame left-right dynamic that essential is an anti-western vs reactionary "judeo-christian" nonsense that offers no serious solution.
Coleta, Hamas has as much right to exist and govern as anybody else. And it's uncontroversial to observe that Israeli intransigence fueled its rise, as did Israeli attempts to use it as a counterweight to the PLO.
As it is, Hamas would sign onto a UN242 settlement.
Would Israel? Nope.
"The Islamic Resistance Movement draws its guidelines from Islam; derives from it its thinking, interpretations and views about existence, life and humanity; refers back to it for its conduct; and is inspired by it in whatever step it takes." ~Hamas Charter, Part 1, Article 1
Now, change Islam for Baptist or Jewish and I'd still have a problem with this. Yes, you have a right to put the aforementioned statement in your political charter, run in parliamentary elections, win and govern. But there are consequences independent of any other forces to such a scenario. The Palestinians shouldn't be punished for voting for what it thought then was a lesser evil. But nor should Hamas punish the Gazans via a war against, mainly, Israeli civilians. They stop lobbing rockets, the ball's then in Israel's court. They renounce that preposterous statement, among many other dumb ones, the ball's in Israel's court.
Now the PLO, Fatah, they have actual legitimacy (with a history of Israeli undermining; never some shady backroom deal as you mentioned of Hamas) while claiming to represent a very diverse Palestinian people, not just the Muslims.
Answer the question, Coleta: Who won't sign onto UN 242?
You don't get to start from the end of this chain of events.
P.S. Israel does indeed have precisely the same charter as Hamas. Just change the relevant labels.
P.P.S. Anybody truly interested in stopping rocket attacks would want UN 242 imposed. If it were, then rockets would change from an illegal defense against invaders to a plain crime. And they would also not be happening at all, despite your Israeli propaganda assumptions.
To Dawson (if that is your real name),
You must also be of the mindset that Bush and Bin Ladin were the same if we were to just change the labels. It's so naive that a response to you seems silly.
You can't seem to get the profound difference between governing bodies that support human rights and those that to not.
If you say Israel "drove Palastinians to Hamas" then I would be suspicious of your take on Iran, Syria, Libya and other brutal governments. What "drove" them? Stay free Egypt and don't give in to the islamists the way Iran did! Free palastine from HAMAS!
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