Christopher Hitchens asks some tough questions of the activists, including author Alice Walker and Gaddafi lackey Cynthia McKinney, participating in the 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?
Former Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley wonders why the president hasn’t told Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Although Obama seemed to embrace the concept of “responsibility to protect” in intervening in Libya and calling for Muammar Gaddafi to step down from power, he has not done the same in Syria. If Gaddafi must go because he is unwilling to reform and has employed extreme state-controlled violence against a population that no longer fears him, so should President Bashar al-Assad.
No doubt the brave protesters in Iran and Syria are wondering “why not us?”
You may remember Beyonce received $2 million to perform at a party thrown by the wife-beating son of the Libyan dictator (and attended by Russell Simmons). The rap impresario later complained of a “rash of Islamophobic words and images” thrown Beyonce’s way for accepting what was essentially blood money.
1. The perfect game that wasn’t. You can’t say enough about the class displayed by Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga and ump Jim Joyce. I’ll repeat what I heard someone on TV opine earlier: It’s refreshing to see adults acting like adults.
I’m reminded of the night then-Blazers coach Mo Cheeks bailed out a frightened young anthem singer:
2. The Gaza flotilla. I’m not one of those who thinks Israel is always right, and it’s clear they played into the hands of their enemy. But any group that counts Cynthia McKinney as a member is bound to be anti-Semitic — hell, they don’t even bother to hide it.
This is not a black and white situation, where one side is totally blameless and the other completely at fault. Though Israeli soldiers clearly overreacted, I’m apt to side with the society that at least strives to treat all its members fairly. Hamas has no such aspirations.
Crimes against women accelerated during 2007. Cases of women being beaten are common in the Gaza strip. Women murdered for “family honor” are seldom reported. Most women who are murdered are buried by members of their family in secret, and their deaths are not reported to any official body. The Palestinian media also refrain from reporting on this, for the sake of “family honor.”
Israeli officials say Hamas in the Gaza Strip has established hard-line Islamic courts and created the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, which is described as a kind of “morality police” operating within Hamas’ organization. Hamas has denied the existence of the anti-corruption group, but it was recently reported to have carried out a high-profile “honor killing” widely covered by the Palestinian media.
Dr Mahmoud Zahar, the [Hamas] leader in Gaza, in an article on an Arabic website condemned the rights that gays have in Israel and made it clear that he thinks that gays are perverts. “Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?” He asked on the Elaph website.
Similarly, he said that if his group won the parliamentary elections he would seek to turn the secular authority, which has Christian, Atheist and Jewish citizens in addition to Muslims, into an Islamic Republic.
Again, I’m no Sarah Palin — reflexively pro-Israel regardless of the situation. The building of settlements should cease and Netanyahu should remember that the U.S. is Israel’s greatest benefactor. But the Jewish state has a right to feel threatened, and activists like McKinney and, most likely, many of those on the doomed flotilla serve as nothing but useful idiots to the fundamentalist thugs who rule Hamas. Perhaps Helen Thomas will enlist in the cause.
3. The tyranny of sensitivity. One teacher acts without thinking and now all of her colleagues must undergo “sensitivity training.”
Forget intent. By all accounts the history teacher who had some of her students don Ku Klux Klan outfits as part of a film project is not a racist, just naive. A sincere apology should have sufficed.
And why are all the teachers at Lumpkin County High School required to undergo sensitivity training (an Orwellian phrase if ever there was one)? Are we to assume anyone who hasn’t yet endured mandated tolerance seminars is a bigot?
Some people seem to believe that we’re all, deep down, at least a little racist. Bullshit. I wasn’t raised to discriminate and, unlike many childhood lessons I received, this one stuck.
One last thing: Who are these sensitivity tutors? How are they trained? I’m guessing they’re not instructed to point out such subtleties as intent.
Sometimes it’s wise to judge people by what they meant to do or say, not what they said or did. In this case the teacher’s intent was not to offend, but to educate. And for that she’s punished by some self-appointed tolerance enforcers.
