There is often much not to like about writer, journalist and commentator Christopher Hitchens. In some ways he is a chameleon who takes himself far too seriously.
That said, in a piece in Slate "An Army of Extremists" he reflects on how rabbis in Israel are radicalising Israeli soldiers the whole settler movement. As an aside, the use of "settlers" is a misnomer and implies small groups of people living in tents or fairly makeshift accommodation. Certainly there are instances of that but in the main in the West Bank the Israelis have built fully functional towns or small cities with many have something like 60,000 inhabitants.
Hitchens writes:
"The zealot settlers and their clerical accomplices are establishing an army within the army so that one day, if it is ever decided to disband or evacuate the colonial settlements, there will be enough officers and soldiers, stiffened by enough rabbis and enough extremist sermons, to refuse to obey the order. Torah verses will also be found that make it permissible to murder secular Jews as well as Arabs. The dress rehearsals for this have already taken place, with the religious excuses given for Baruch Goldstein's rampage and the Talmudic evasions concerning the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Once considered highly extreme, such biblical exegeses are moving ever closer to the mainstream. It's high time the United States cut off any financial support for Israel that can be used even indirectly for settler activity, not just because such colonization constitutes a theft of another people's land but also because our Constitution absolutely forbids us to spend public money on the establishment of any religion."
That said, in a piece in Slate "An Army of Extremists" he reflects on how rabbis in Israel are radicalising Israeli soldiers the whole settler movement. As an aside, the use of "settlers" is a misnomer and implies small groups of people living in tents or fairly makeshift accommodation. Certainly there are instances of that but in the main in the West Bank the Israelis have built fully functional towns or small cities with many have something like 60,000 inhabitants.
Hitchens writes:
"The zealot settlers and their clerical accomplices are establishing an army within the army so that one day, if it is ever decided to disband or evacuate the colonial settlements, there will be enough officers and soldiers, stiffened by enough rabbis and enough extremist sermons, to refuse to obey the order. Torah verses will also be found that make it permissible to murder secular Jews as well as Arabs. The dress rehearsals for this have already taken place, with the religious excuses given for Baruch Goldstein's rampage and the Talmudic evasions concerning the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Once considered highly extreme, such biblical exegeses are moving ever closer to the mainstream. It's high time the United States cut off any financial support for Israel that can be used even indirectly for settler activity, not just because such colonization constitutes a theft of another people's land but also because our Constitution absolutely forbids us to spend public money on the establishment of any religion."
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