ALBERT
DOYLE
writes about the Blumenthal-Hitchens feud on Monday, February 22,
1999 :


THE wheel within the wheel here is the fact that the ADL is running away from the fight. They are at pains to disclaim any notion that Hitchens is a “denier”. Why? If he indeed said the things that Epstein says he said, then he is indeed a “denier” par excellance, far greater than, say, David Irving, that famous
“anti-semite”.

Why are they running from the fight? I say that it is because they fear what he might do if provoked. Hitchens may be a maverick in many senses but he is (or has been until now) a member of the inside literary cogniscenti of what passes for the literary establishment…and he has a very mean and skilful pen. No, they don’t mind pissing on David
Irving (who is not nasty), but they really fear Hitchens.
“Yella bellies”, as we say here.

Though I disagree with many things he has done (like insulting Mother Theresa at her funeral) I share your view of his essential integrity. And I never trust a man who doesn’t drink.

Albert
Doyle