I don't know if I'm like most Americans, but during holiday weekends I can easily go 48 hours without looking at the Internet, television news, talk radio, or newspapers outside the sports section. So, on the last day of the three-day weekend, I was suddenly struck by news that (it seems) everyone else had already digested days ago. (Dennis Hopper died!?) Like the outlandish news of a bunch of "activists" trying to play chicken with the Israeli Navy and getting the short end of the stick.As I mentioned in an earlier post this whose thing was a set-up from the beginning. If their cause truly was peaceful they could have followed the instructions from the IDF and traveled to a different port where the ships would have been inspected and allowable cargo sent on to Gaza. But no, they were looking for a confrontation, and hopefully a violent one that would give the rest of the world another reason, albeit weak, to yell at Israel.
The Washington Times's Eli Lake tries to get us up to speed in a few sentences: "Protests were held throughout the Middle East and Europe on Monday in reaction to Israel's commando raid on a Turkish ship ferrying supplies to Palestinians that left at least nine people dead. Israel defended the raid and posted video on the Internet showing Israeli soldiers during the raid being attacked with metal pipes and knives by the Turkish ship's crew. The incident prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a planned visit to Washington for a meeting with President Obama set for Tuesday. In New York, the U.N. Security Council, prompted by Arab governments, convened a special session to discuss the incident, which took place in international waters near Gaza. The White House issued a statement saying it regretted the loss of life. 'The president also expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning's tragic events as soon as possible,' it said."
Digesting all this, I'm left wondering . . . the world has a lot of Rachel Corries, doesn't it? An armored bulldozer with momentum is not persuaded by your shining moral clarity. Bullets do not alter their courses because you are an outsider trying to make a bold statement about the necessity of peace in a region that hasn't known it in centuries. And when the Israeli Navy says "Stop," they're not joking around. You may think their order to stop is the most unjust thing since the last issue that got you to stand around and chant at a building, but ignoring it brings predictable hard consequences. Reality doesn't care whether or not you think it's fair. (I notice a large chunk of this crowd were Turks. I suspect these Turkish civilians got what they wanted: a chance to fight Jews.)
Of course, Israel and others such as our State Department issued "regrets" at the loss of life, but just once I'd like to hear a diplomat or military spokesman say "We don't regret the loss of life at all - these idiots tried to kill our people and they got what they deserved. We should have just sunk the bastards."
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1 comment:
Good comments Rick, I have to agree with you 100%, however, I think Israel should have allowed the ships to enter their territorial water's before trying to enter their ships.
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