Why the Gaza Boat Deaths Are a Huge Deal
While we don't yet know all the facts, the apparent killing of at least 10 people aboard a ship bound for Gaza with humanitarian aid already has all the hallmarks of a massive public-relations disaster. . . .
. . . the international response has been swift. Turkey has recalled its ambassador and warned of "consequences," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an investigation, European governments have expressed shock, and I imagine thousands of outside observers like me are wondering just what possessed the Israeli government to risk such an outcome when it sent naval commandos to board the vessel.
As Haaretz's Amos Harel puts it, "The damage that Israel has caused itself internationally can hardly be exaggerated."
Another liberal Haaretz commentator, Bradley Burston, comments, "We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel's Vietnam.". . .
Israelis on the right end of the political spectrum -- and that is most of them these days -- are convinced there is a "propaganda war" against their country, that most if not all of the criticism is unfair . . . [A deputy foreignj minister] has already called the ships an "armada of hate and violence" and accused the activists of links to al Qaeda.
In other words, there's a huge unwillingness on the Israeli right to face reality -- that Israel is fast losing friends and allies in the world, and that this government in Jerusalem has only accelerated the shift. It's not hard to imagine boycott campaigns gaining momentum, damaging the Israeli economy and isolating the country diplomatically, especially in Europe.
The one thing that might extricate Israel from this mess is a violent response from the Palestinian side -- which never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Stay tuned.
Ralph
It is beyond remarkable that ideology dies such a slow death [even slower when it has a paranoid coloring]. Cultural Inertia is killing us right now, all over the globe...
ReplyDeleteThere is just so much going wrong in the world, I begin to despair and find myself thinking: what if everything just spins totally out of control -- all over the world?
ReplyDeleteThink of the pressure Obama is under: the Gulf oil leak, Arizona and immigration, the economy, implementing health care reform, trying to regulate our financial system, Iraq, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, Iran, North Korea, energy policy, climate change, Beck and Limbaugh -- plus a dysfunctional congress and determined oppositionalism from Repubs.
How does he stay sane?
Friend Alan writes to send some YouTube clips with other versions of what happened re the flotilla. I doubt that either side is totally innocent in the incident. I'm more concerned with the larger question of the blockade and the deprivation, and with the violence begets violence mentality of both sides.
ReplyDeleteI guess I always tend to side with the underdog. Somewhere along the way in all this mideast conflict, the Jews no longer seemed like the underdogs that they had been. And now it is the Palestinians that are over-powered and have no recourse but the tactics of the powerless.
One side or the other always seems to do something to sabotage peace efforts. When will it end?