A False Idol

I am linking to this because it gives a good overview of why I think conservatives, and especially conservative Jews, are wrong to consider Christopher Hitchens one of their own or even a particularly admirable figure. Firstly, his statements regarding Herzl and Nordau are garbage, neither of them ever voiced the belief that Palestine had no Arab residents or the intent to expel them and steal their land. Glazov is absolutely right, the Zionists never stole anybody's land, they bought it from its Arab owners. The claim of stolen land stems from the '48 war, seventy years into the Zionist project, in which all the land controlled by the Hagana became property of the Jewish State, something very similar to what happened in many decolonized area during this period (especially Africa, post white rule) and came about because of a war the Palestinian Arabs chose rather then reach a compromise over the partition of the land. Hitchen's claims otherwise are ahistorical propaganda. His assertion that the Jewish "cosmopolitans" (read: Communists) correctly foresaw Zionism's false Messianism is also self-serving nonsense, if anything, it was them who drove the Jewish people down into disaster by convincing them to stay in a civilization that was making ready to exterminate them instead of joining the movement to create a Jewish State which could have prevented just such a disaster. I find his insistance on referring to democratically elected Ariel Sharon as "General Sharon" odious, morally hypocritical and rather obviously racist. Keep in mind that this is from a man who has supported all manner of murderous totalitarian regimes, from the North Vietnamese to the Sandanistas. Furthermore, as he openly admits, Mr. Hitchen's attitude towards Judaism is that of a fanatically bigoted anti-semite, although I will give him credit for being equal-opportunity, he appears equally intolerant of all other religions as well, except, of course, for Marxism, of which he seems to be a blindly devoted acolyte with no capacity whatsoever for critical assessment. However, because he is a Trotsyist, his hatred of Judaism is the most violent and emphasized of his attitudes towards the three monotheistic faiths. This stems from the fact that Trotsky himself was a Jew and adopted anti-Jewish attitudes as a means of rejecting his ancestry and proving his fealty to the universalist cause. He spearheaded the persecution of the Jewish religion in pre-Stalinist Russia and was both challenged and terrified by Zionism, which posited that his attempts at rejecting his Jewishness were futile and self-destructive. Trotsky never forgave Zionism for throwing the identity he had rejected in his face and he persecuted it relentlessly. Hitchens seem to suffer from a similar neurosis. I could go on, but I wont bother, the man is a fool and not worth my time. In my opinon, the Hitchens worship which has become so prevelent among conservatives and war-supporting liberals is badly misplaced. He is a bigoted, morally arrogant pygmy who traffics in hatred and fanaticism. I see no reason to celebrate him merely because, perhaps more out of contrarianism then anything else, he is not also anti-American.