Hitchens fights fascists in Lebanon
Reports are coming in that Christopher Hitchens stood up to pro-Syrian Lebanese fascists while in Beirut– and got his ass kicked for it.
After writing “Fuck the SSNP” on a poster of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (aka the Syrian Nationalist Social Party), he was accosted and beaten by SSNP thugs.
At Forbes.com, another journalist who was in Beirut with Hitchens writes:
On our way to a meeting with Minister of State Nassib Lahoud, Hitchens showed me the gashed knuckles and bruises suffered during the punch up. The attackers had apparently come out of nowhere on posh Hamra Street, where they had gone to buy shoes. “I was on the ground,” Hitchens said, “and getting it in the head.” It was a miracle they didn’t pull Kalashnikovs.
According to the Anti-Defamation League:
Lebanese authorities raided the homes of SSNP members on December 20, 2006, and confiscated large amounts of bomb making materials and weapons, including 200 kilograms of TNT, detonators, timers, mortars and anti-tank missiles.
The raids reportedly were part of an ongoing investigation into a series of assassination attempts in the country. Since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, there have been more than a dozen assassinations and assassination attempts in Lebanon against public figures that oppose Syrian influence in the county, including the killing of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel in November.
…..
SSNP, also known by its French name, Parti Populaire Syrien (PPS), was founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadeh. Its stated goal is to unite all lands of what is known as the Fertile Crescent into a single political entity, including territories in today’s Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, southeastern Turkey, Iraq and Cyprus. Its ideology, structure and symbols are influenced by the European fascist movements and regimes of the 1930s. While it has adopted some communist elements over the years, Saadeh’s ultra-nationalist ideas remain the ideological focus of the movement.According to SSNP ideology, the Syrian nation is founded on an “organic unity” formed by different ethnic strands residing in the area it sees as the Syrian homeland in the Fertile Crescent. However, according to SSNP, “this principal cannot be said to imply that Jews are a part of the Syrian nation. Such elements cannot fit into any homogeneous nation.”
The SSNP flag, which I assume appeared on the poster Hitchens decorated, looks rather, um, derivative:
Anyone with an anti-fascist bone in his or her body would have no trouble recognizing the SSNP for what it is.
Coincidentally or not, Hitchens’s old nemesis, George Galloway, addressed a 2006 celebration in Canada commemorating the 74th anniversary of the founding of– yes– the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
So once again we gaze in bewilderment upon a world in which someone who confronted and physically fought fascists is routinely accused of selling out to the Right, while someone who celebrated with their Canadian fellow fascists is viewed by some as a hero of the Left.
(Hat tip: Bruno Mota)
Comments
| 19 February 2009, 6:11 am |
“Hitchens fights fascists in Lebanon”
Passes time I guess.
| 19 February 2009, 6:16 am |
What a legend!
| 19 February 2009, 6:29 am |
Galloway of course is fighting fascism and imperialism too. George -he’s the short white Christian in the luxury Winnebago ,amongst the Muslims sleeping on Transit van dashboards – is in Morrocco at the moment.
Where of course he bravely supports the Moroccan Monarchy and its occupation of Western Sahara.
In an interview with the Moroccan weekly La Gazette du Maroc, Galloway underlined that he advocates a “peaceful settlement” to the Sahara issue in order to “open the way for a real large Arab Maghreb.”
“I am for Morocco’s position (on the Sahara issue), and I always have been,” he said, stressing he is against “the balkanisation of the Arab region.”
“We should not balkanise the Arab region … I am against the partition of Morocco,” added the British deputy, affirming that “there is no room for small entities.”
| 19 February 2009, 7:27 am |
Galloway is carrying on as though the British are still in Injah. Against ‘balkanisation’ and ’small entities’ as though we are back in Lord Palmerston’s days. The slob is a fuckwit. As for Hitchens my respect for him has grown. What a brave man he is to risk his life in standing up to the thugs. I’ll just have to bite my tongue whenever he pisses on the Catholics again.
| 19 February 2009, 7:52 am |
Any evidence that these injuries were not caused by Christopher falling over drunk and them making up a story?
“gashed knuckles and bruises” hardly sounds like the results of a beating, more like an fall.
| 19 February 2009, 8:34 am |
Anon: Even if he had fallen over drunk, he would still be smarter and braver than you, would he not.
| 19 February 2009, 9:01 am |
Hitch has some guts. Unlike some other so-called ‘leftists’ heroes whose first response in a similar situation is to squeal for the police:
http://news.scotsman.com/georgegalloway/Galloway-tells-of-mob-attack.3293958.jp
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-461215/Galloway-kicked-taunted-sectarian-attack.html
| 19 February 2009, 9:02 am |
‘leftist’, sorry.
| 19 February 2009, 9:24 am |
Here’s a run down from The Ace of Spades… Ace is traveling with Hitchens and friends.
| 19 February 2009, 9:29 am |
Err… you think that event actually happened Sackcloth?
It later transpired that it was in the “one part” of Glasgow Airport where there was no CCTV.
And George is building up a bit of a back catologue of crimes that never happened. Dreyfus? War on Want Burglaries, Dundee fires etc etc.
| 19 February 2009, 9:44 am |
I hope Hitch got a few good shots in of his own!
| 19 February 2009, 9:57 am |
Interesting piece by Syrian-born Farid Ghadry – maybe sheds a bit of light on internal Syrian politics and their broader meaning:
| 19 February 2009, 10:18 am |
so Catman really spoke to an openly (i.e. even opener than baath) nazi party… and still got his lefty credentials? (nevermind the fallout with the nswp..)
not that i’m surprised – who is? – but this really drives home that it is time to break up on all levels (including socialist unity and all) and make a commitment to the last chapters of the communist manifesto the litmuss test for anybody claiming left credentials: first you fight for liberal democracy and against any form of feudalism and nationalism… and only then, once you’ve got truly cosmopolitan liberal democracy you “fight the system” to get socialism…
all this started with clever “tactical” coalitions with “national liberation” movements – and look what we’ve got now: loads of nationalist/chauvinist/fascist movements with “left wing” appendices – to be operated out once the “revolution” succeeded… Iranian style (or actually: Baath style)
if they’re the “left”, anybody endorsing liberty, democracy and socialism can’t be part of it
| 19 February 2009, 10:25 am |
Rachel: “I hope Hitch got a few good shots in of his own!”
yeah, so do i…
btw way re “left” anti-imperialists and nazis: in germany it’s called “querfront” and high on the agenda of a new generation of stormtroopers… while anti-imps (they really call themselves that) go on about how the nazis have stolen their symbols and slogans without making the slightest effort asking themselves whether this could possibly an indication that something’s wrong with those slogans…
| 19 February 2009, 11:09 am |
One thing worth noting about the ssnp is that apart from attacking Christopher Hitchens, they also took part in the 2006 war against Israel in a small way. they have support in certain villages in southern lebanon and these branches took part in some of the fighting. A group of them got blown apart by an Israeli tank shell in Marjayoun and there is a nice monument to them there.
| 19 February 2009, 12:03 pm |
‘Err… you think that event actually happened Sackcloth?’
I think it might have done, because George was absolutely shitting himself about it. Maybe he gets shaken up when he realises that members of the general public think he’s a See You Next Tuesday, and he embellishes the results.
| 19 February 2009, 12:10 pm |
So once again we gaze in bewilderment upon a world in which someone who confronted and physically fought fascists is routinely accused of selling out to the Right, while someone who celebrated with their Canadian fellow fascists is viewed by some as a hero of the Left.
Perfectly put.
Bewilderment is about right, because the conclusions that one would otherwise come to about the state of the UK left following the disgusting CiF comments on David’s piece of last night are very, very ugly.
| 19 February 2009, 12:10 pm |
In an interview with the Moroccan weekly La Gazette du Maroc, Galloway underlined that he advocates a “peaceful settlement” to the Sahara issue
Crikey, the dimwitted waste of oxygen doesn’t half fancy himself as an international statesman, does he?
| 19 February 2009, 12:34 pm |
Should link to Davem post on them from a few years back
Unfortunately it disappeared in the transition from the old website to this one.
| 19 February 2009, 12:36 pm |
I think Hitchens in bar fight would be a more apposite header, although not exactly newsworthy.
The SSNP are a sinister bunch, but I think to understand them as fascist is off the mark. Saadeh’s nationalist vision is a little crazy, but is based around geography rather than creeds of race or culture. It’s interesting that they were banned in Syria for 40 years or so, and were only legalised a couple of years ago.
| 19 February 2009, 12:50 pm |
The SSNP are a sinister bunch, but I think to understand them as fascist is off the mark. Saadeh’s nationalist vision is a little crazy, but is based around geography rather than creeds of race or culture.
While the SSNP might be a little more ethnically inclusive than the Nazis were, you’ll notice that they specifically exclude the Jews. When they say, “Such elements [i.e, the Jews] cannot fit into any homogeneous nation,” I have no trouble identifying their true nature.
| 19 February 2009, 12:53 pm |
I think Hitchens in bar fight would be a more apposite header, although not exactly newsworthy.
Come on. He had the nerve to desecrate one of their posters, and got attacked for it.
| 19 February 2009, 1:11 pm |
You go to a foreign country, get pissed up and insult some of the locals. What do you imagine is going to happen?
“When they say, “Such elements [i.e, the Jews] cannot fit into any homogeneous nation,” I have no trouble identifying their true nature.” Without wishing to buy into the SSNP’s wacky philosophy, do you disagree with them? That is, do you believe the population of Israel would be happy to become part of a Greater Syria? I think it’s dangerous to take quotes out of context, to try to bolt a European political label onto something which is quite different.
| 19 February 2009, 1:17 pm |
I hope they have to pay Hitler’s estate for using that flag. not exactly subtle.
| 19 February 2009, 1:23 pm |
“When they say, “Such elements [i.e, the Jews] cannot fit into any homogeneous nation,” I have no trouble identifying their true nature.” Without wishing to buy into the SSNP’s wacky philosophy, do you disagree with them? That is, do you believe the population of Israel would be happy to become part of a Greater Syria?
Completely irrelevant, as usual. They are not talking about Israel becoming part of Syria: they are talking about excluding Jews (”Fuck off to your own country”) while not excluding other ethnicities.
I think it’s dangerous to take quotes out of context
How about heeding this maxim yourself?
| 19 February 2009, 1:23 pm |
You go to a foreign country, get pissed up and insult some of the locals. What do you imagine is going to happen?
According to some reports, he wasn’t pissed up at the time. But even if he was, so what? And what does being in a foreign country have to do with it? Perhaps you or I wouldn’t have had the guts to do what he did, out of respect for cultural sensitivities or fear or whatever, but good on Hitchens for saying “fuck it” and doing what he did.
“When they say, “Such elements [i.e, the Jews] cannot fit into any homogeneous nation,” I have no trouble identifying their true nature.” Without wishing to buy into the SSNP’s wacky philosophy, do you disagree with them? That is, do you believe the population of Israel would be happy to become part of a Greater Syria? I think it’s dangerous to take quotes out of context, to try to bolt a European political label onto something which is quite different.
The SSNP are the ones who borrowed heavily from the European fascists. You’re trying too hard, Mike S. Their position on excluding Jews is about Jews, not about Israel.
| 19 February 2009, 1:24 pm |
Ed,
Such Nazi-derived flags were also used in Hungary, Rumania and (IIRC) Ireland.
| 19 February 2009, 1:37 pm |
Presumably Hitchens’ ‘gashed knuckles’ were the result of somebody hitting him with their unshaven chin?
| 19 February 2009, 1:48 pm |
Hi Gene
The SSNP are a weird and frequently thuggish bunch, and I can’t quite believe I’m having this argument. That said, in my somewhat limited reading of their ideology, it appears to me that their specific objection is to the Zionist project being as it is antithetical to Saadeh’s strictly geographical definition of nationalism. That said, if you can cite evidence for the NAzi origin of their flag or their borrowing heavily from European fascism, I will cheerfully stand corrected.
| 19 February 2009, 3:10 pm |
I think Hitchens is a pretty brave guy and a very admirable journalist.
| 19 February 2009, 3:14 pm |
if you can cite evidence for the NAzi origin of their flag
How about looking at it?
| 19 February 2009, 3:22 pm |
You go to a foreign country, get pissed up and insult some of the locals. What do you imagine is going to happen?
I first saw the SSNP’s swastika based flag when I was in Beirut photographing Hezbollah’s rally in Dec. 2006. Since I had taken a picture of every other group and flag, i was going to take a picture of theirs too, but I stopped when I noticed how all the other Lebanese reacted to this group. They moved away from them, they glared at them – they hated them. They were treated as dangerous pariahs by their fellow Hezbollah supporters.
It’s generally assumed that they are responsible for the car bombings that terrorized most of Beirut and that targeted Lebanese politicians and journalists. When police found explosives in one of their lairs, one SSNP member said “we are a resistance force, and we use different methods of resisting, among which is using explosives.”
Unfortunately, Hezbollah has gotten more powerful lately, and the SSNP is coming out of the shadows. Their swastika emblems are painted all over West Beirut and their flags are on display on the road to Baalbeck. Although the Lebanese hate this group, they usually don’t paint over the symbol or tear down these flags because they know how dangerous this group is. Since Hitchens knows the area, I assume he did too. Given the way they drive, it’s clear that many Lebanese admire this kind of crazy bravery. The whole country would probably like to buy him a beer.
| 19 February 2009, 4:13 pm |
I once drew a knob on an Isle of Man flag and I don’t remember Hitchens leaping to my defence.
| 19 February 2009, 4:19 pm |
I actually cant quite believe that I’ve just read an earnest debate about the nature of the ssnp focusing on what Antun Saadeh did or didnt mean in his conception of greater Syria. FYI, people join the current SSNP in Lebanon because of family and clan loyalties to it, its a violent criminal conspiracy which sometimes kills people, and the kind of people who belong to it would fall about laughing at the idea that some western lefties were trying to take them seriously as an ideological phenomenon. they are about local power, crime and organized violence.
| 19 February 2009, 4:47 pm |
Hitch fell over. Hitch is always falling over. Credit his dreamworld inner life for the explanation – he’s always striving to entertain.
| 19 February 2009, 4:52 pm |
Long live the clear-thinking and rational Hitchens! We need more people like him!
| 19 February 2009, 5:05 pm |
Weiss:
The ADL piece recalls the criminal conviction of three Lebanese-Canadian members of the SSNP in the late 1980s for attempting to smuggle a bomb across the Quebec/Vermont border. I’d say that goes beyond local power.
tim
19 February 2009, 6:29 am
Galloway of course is fighting fascism and imperialism too. George -he’s the short white Christian in the luxury Winnebago ,amongst the Muslims sleeping on Transit van dashboards – is in Morrocco at the moment.
Tim: have you forgotten George’s state visit to Baby Assad’s court not long after Saddam was deposed, and somewhat proximate to the assasinations of a few Lebanese politicians who opposed being occupied by Syria?
| 19 February 2009, 5:05 pm |
As for Hitchens my respect for him has grown. What a brave man he is to risk his life in standing up to the thugs.
He didn’t “stand up to thugs”. He scribbled graffiti on a poster, got into a fight with someone who objected to his vandalism, and ran away in a taxi as fast as he could. You have to be very naive to believe the anti-fascist fantasies of a fat old drunk like him.
| 19 February 2009, 5:06 pm |
I hope Hitch got a few good shots in of his own!
Yes, I heard he threw up on somebody’s loafers. It’s right up there with the Battle of Cable Street.
| 19 February 2009, 5:14 pm |
Trust the ‘Voice of Fascism’ to make cheap cracks at this post. But then what do you expect from an apologist for Hamas?
| 19 February 2009, 5:42 pm |
sure, Lynn, the SSNP also organizes in Lebanese diaspora communities, as do Hizballah, the Ktaeb and other Lebanese political groupings. They also do contract killings for the Syrians, apparently. What I was trying to say was that people will tend to get involved in rackets like the SSNP because of family connections and desire to become an important local thug, rather than because of sincere conviction of the rightness of the way of the dear leader Antun Sa’adeh. Fighting Israel with RPG 29s in 2006 (which I mentioned further up the thread) also goes beyond ‘local power’ in the sense which I guess you thought I meant it. Sorry if that wasnt clear.
| 19 February 2009, 6:17 pm |
My dear partner used to fancy himself as a bit of an anarchist in his youth.
Then he got sent to Lebanon in 1981 and saw what anarchy is really all about.
That cured him.
| 19 February 2009, 6:40 pm |
But we do, of course, applaud Hitch. Whatever he does, we applaud. He’s that kind of guy. I always thought of him as the Jonathan Ross of the political classes. Admittedly he did to try move up into the Jeremy Clarkson league but he’s safer in the lower divisions – less to prove and the more to amuse, like Oliver Reed.
| 19 February 2009, 6:52 pm |
I will certainly buy Hitchens a beer if I happen to see him the next time he comes to Washington.
The SSNP flag looks like something from a science fiction TV show about a future totaltarian govt. either on Earth or some other planet.
| 19 February 2009, 8:11 pm |
I’m no fan of Hitchens, and I suspect that this childish act of “resistance” was a bit of self-promotion. The SSNP is odious, but it is a small party in Lebanon, with no real weight.
| 19 February 2009, 9:42 pm |
David All
Yep. I can see the Star Trek episode where the flag is revealed (to a weird atonal trumpet flourish) – Captain Kirk turns to Mr. Spock and exchanges a meaningful, eyebrow-raised glance, before pronouncing…
“A parallel world…where evil has triumphed…”
| 19 February 2009, 11:33 pm |
LOL, field – and David All. Spot on.
| 19 February 2009, 11:39 pm |
Thanks, Field & NO.
SSNP flag does look like something out of an old Star Trek episode!
| 20 February 2009, 12:01 am |
VofR thinks scribbling FUCK OFF NAZIS or some such on a SWASTIKA poster is vandalism. I think i don’t need to read any more from him.
| 20 February 2009, 12:23 am |
If only Hitch took up karate instead of drinking.
| 20 February 2009, 12:24 am |
I hope his new teeth didn’t get damaged.
| 20 February 2009, 4:33 pm |
Field: You have the Star Trek style perfectly.
Agree with NO, a real LOL.
| 1 March 2009, 9:47 am |
So once again we gaze in bewilderment upon a world in which someone who confronted and physically fought fascists is routinely accused of selling out to the Right, while someone who celebrated with their Canadian fellow fascists is viewed by some as a hero of the Left.
Such are the delights of the extreme anarchist detached Euro Left.
Christopher Hitchens is a Intelligent and brave man.