Hitchens

In my first decade in the US, in the 1980s, Christopher Hitchens  was a leftist anti-Zionist writer.  The mainstream press strictly ignored him the way they ignored his then friend, Alexander Cockburn.  As soon as Htichens turned to the right and to appeasement of Israel and to bashing of Islam and Muslims, the mainstream US press suddenly took notice of him and suddenly discovered his many talents and wit.  I thought about this as I read yet another fawning piece about Hitchens in today's New York Times.  Hitchens should know: it is not his talent that they like, it is his politics, especially that his talents have been on the decline.  He was unpredictable and independent as a leftist critic, and he has become boring and predictable as a writer from the right.  I tell young Arab writers all the time:  opportunism comes at a price: your own talents.  There was a leftist writer in Lebanon: he was most interesting and talented.  I sensed opportunism in him and warned him of what I saw in him.  He then switched to the other side: he is so boring now.  I can't finish an article by him and not because of his politics: I read right-wingers and Zionists all the time.  But he lost his "spirit", so to speak.