Israel vs. The World
Israel’s leaders have been heading toward the deep end for some time. Now, they’ve irrevocably gone off it.
It appears unlikely the conflict will fade soon. With at least one new ship already setting sail to challenge the sea blockade, another flotilla being planned in London, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva voting to create a committee of investigation and the world body’s secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, saying Israel’s policy “punishes innocent civilians,” Israeli officials maintained they would not relent.
That’s just nuts. It reinforces the perception, real or imagined, that Israel’s real aim is not security but severe punishment of the Palestinian people. Worse, it has turned a former ally into, in all likelihood, a new enemy (Turkey), and has put other friendly Arab nations in a serious predicament. If they continue down this path of belligerence, they’re going to force nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to reevaluate their relationships with Israel and the United States. In the name of security and self-defense, they are making themselves less secure and much more vulnerable.
Then there’s the revelation that one of the civilians killed in the flotilla raid was an American citizen. To date, the US has avoided joining the chorus from the rest of the world in aggressively criticizing Israel, taking a more misguidedly restrained tone. They’ve actually gone as far as hinting that the flotilla should be blamed, by saying the ships never should have tried to run the blockade. From the mouth of Joe Biden (emphasis mine):
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Biden pointed out that Israel had given pro-Palestinian activists the option of unloading their cargo at the Ashdod port, and offered to bring it to the Gaza Strip on their behalf.
“They’ve said, ‘Here you go. You’re in the Mediterranean. This ship — if you divert slightly north you can unload it and we’ll get the stuff into Gaza,’”, he said. “So what’s the big deal here? What’s the big deal of insisting it go straight to Gaza? Well, it’s legitimate for Israel to say, ‘I don’t know what’s on that ship. These guys are dropping… 3,000 rockets on my people.
“Look, you can argue whether Israel should have dropped people onto that ship or not — but the truth of the matter is, Israel has a right to know — they’re at war with Hamas — has a right to know whether or not arms are being smuggled in.”
No, Joe, you can’t argue whether Israel should have dropped people onto that ship or not. That’s the whole friggin’ point. That’s why the rest of the civilized world is in an uproar right now. That has to be the absolute dumbest thing you could be saying right now. Dumb enough to have come from Bush. And what’s more, that was before the revelation that there’s a dead American.
Conservatives will likely go on with their blind support of Israel and ignore the American death. Given that he was of Turkish descent (read, not white), he was The Other and not a Real American™. But, Obama is going to face pressure from some of the liberal groups who don’t unconditionally support a rogue regime like that currently in control of Israel. I have no idea which way he’ll go.
Regardless of the ultimate position of the US, Israel is certainly thumbing their nose at the rest of the world. And what happens if Turkish warships escort the next ship to attempt to run the blockade (see below)? Can we really trust the Israelis not to do anything rash? If you ask me, they’re more unpredictable than North Korea.