The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a "warrant for genocide" forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. I wonder whether any reporter on the scene will now take me up on this.
Christopher Hitchens
More than a smell test, Christopher Hitchens has some questions for the current Flotilla to Gaza based on the association of the Flotilla with Hamas.
- How does the Flotilla feel about the Hamas associations--that Hamas is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and that their "military" wing is centered in Syria, where Assad is busy busy shooting at and killing unarmed Syrian civilians?
- What do members of the Flotilla think of how Hamas, through its connection with the Syrian-Iranian axis, is also associated with Hezbollah--some of whose members in the higher echelons have been indicted for the murder of former Leanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.
- How do they feel that in the midst of the "Arab Spring," Hamas is moving in the opposite direction with its imposition of sharia and its rejection of change? If Gaza in fact is an "open air prison"--doesn't that make Hamas the guards?
- What does the Flotilla feel about how Hamas is the one regime that has openly come out expressing both sympathy and outrage at the death of bin Laden.
- How do members of the Flotilla feel about how Hamas, in its Covenant, claims the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is official Israeli policy?
Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza Flotilla and Hamas.
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