Christopher Hitchens: Israel Needs To End The Occupation To Truly Join The West

Christopher Hitchens: Israel Needs To End The Occupation To Truly Join The West
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Last week Christopher Hitchens was interviewed on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, and he had some tough words for Israel.

The author said that if Israel truly wants to be part of the West then it will have to end its occupation of Palestinian territories and accused Israelis of being "unbelievably irresponsible" (via Daily Dish):

In order for Israel to become part of the alliance against whatever we want to call it, religious barbarism, theocratic, possibly thermonuclear theocratic or nuclear theocratic aggression, it can't, it'll have to dispense with the occupation. It's as simple as that.

It can be, you can think of it as a kind of European style, Western style country if you want, but it can't govern other people against their will. It can't continue to steal their land in the way that it does every day. And it's unbelievably irresponsible of Israelis, knowing the position of the United States and its allies are in around the world, to continue to behave in this unconscionable way. And I'm afraid I know too much about the history of the conflict to think of Israel as just a tiny, little island surrounded by a sea of ravening wolves and so on. I mean, I know quite a lot about how that state was founded, and the amount of violence and dispossession that involved. And I'm a prisoner of that knowledge. I can't un-know it.

Hitchens is promoting his memoir "Hitch-22" but canceled much of his book tour after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

He discusses his cancer treatment in the wide-ranging conversation with Hewitt. Read the full interview here.

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