Hitchens Comments On The Gaza Flotilla

Christopher Hitchens has an outstanding piece on Slate.com about the slowly gathering “Free Gaza Flotilla.”

It seems safe and fair to say that the flotilla and its leadership work in reasonably close harmony with Hamas, which constitutes the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The political leadership of this organization is headquartered mainly in Gaza itself. But its military coordination is run out of Damascus, where the regime of Bashar Assad is currently at war with increasingly large sections of the long-oppressed Syrian population. Refugee camps, some with urgent humanitarian requirements, are making their appearance on the border between Syria and Turkey (the government of the latter being somewhat sympathetic to the purposes of the flotilla). In these circumstances, isn’t it legitimate to strike up a conversation with the “activists” and ask them where they come out on the uprising against hereditary Baathism in Syria?

I’ve certainly had my differences with Hitch, especially over the Iraq War.  But I’ll give him his due. He is a key secular humanistic voice speaking out about the true nature of Muslim fanatics and their water-carriers.

Most of the world’s do-gooders, including a large number of deluded liberal Christian denominations, view Hamas as some kind of Palestinian version of the SCLC.  Hitchens destroys those notions:

Hamas is listed by various governments and international organizations as a terrorist group. I don’t mind conceding that that particular word has been used in arbitrary ways in the past. But what concerns me much more is the official programmatic adoption, by Hamas, of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This disgusting fabrication is a key foundational document of 20th-century racism and totalitarianism, indelibly linked to the Hitler regime in theory and practice. It seems extraordinary to me that any “activist” claiming allegiance to human rights could cooperate at any level with the propagation of such evil material. But I have never seen any of them invited to comment on this matter, either.

Some claim that the “activists” are themselves antisemitic.  I don’t know if they are or are not, but they are dolts.  I wonder what they would think of this little snippet of news if it happened anywhere but Gaza?

The Hamas government in Gaza has arrested a man for violating a recent legislation that prohibits men from styling women’s hair, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The report said that following the arrest, many male hairstylists could be found loitering at the entrance to their salons, terrified of being detained as well.

Last year Hamas officially announced a new law prohibiting men from styling women’s hair, as it negates Sharia.

This is the real Hamas.  It is an organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and to the Islamization of the region.  And don’t forget its reaction to the killing of Osama Bin Laden:

Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, on Monday denounced the U.S. killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

“We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior,” Haniyeh told reporters, according to Reuters. “We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.”

The Gaza flotilla “activists” would be wise to remember that old saw about lying with dogs and waking up with fleas.