HITCHENS ON THE FLOTILLA

Hat tip to elderofziyon for this -

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 if any reporter on the scene will now take me up on this.

- Christopher Hitchens in Boat People: Some questions for the "activists" aboard the Gaza flotilla

[NOTE: IT'S BEEN QUITE A WHILE SINCE HITCHENS HOLIDAYED IN GAZA]

and for this -


(look closely)

Michael Ross in the National Post makes a similar point:

Only anti-Israel activists would be blind to the glaring irony of Hamas condemning Greece for blocking the departure of the ridiculous “Freedom Flotilla II” from its ports. The supreme irony isn’t that these “peace activists” are in bed with Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization that made suicide bombing a staple of Islamist terror; it’s that Hamas issued its communiqué from its headquarters in that Mecca of social justice and human rights, Damascus. Yes, Damascus the capital of the Allawite regime that has no problem shooting its own citizenry while it tortures children and arrests thousands for merely hinting at government reform. You have to wonder if the superannuated blockade runners even know that there are refugee camps in Turkey bursting at the seams with Syrians fleeing death and terror at the hands of their own government.