MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Very good questions, and a very good read …

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. Since Israel adopts a posture that almost guarantees a reaction of some sort in the not-too-distant future, and since there was such a frisson of violence the last time the little fleet set sail, there’s no reason for it not to become a regular seasonal favorite.

However, given the luxury of time, might it not be possible to ask the ‘activists’ onboard just a few questions? (Activist is a good neutral word, isn’t it, with largely positive connotations? Even flotilla, with its reassuring diminuendo, has a ‘small is beautiful’ sound to it.) Most of the speculation so far has been to do with methods and intentions, allowing for many avowals about peaceful tactics and so forth, but this is soft-centered coverage. I would like to know a little more about the political ambitions and implications of the enterprise.

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?” Read more.