Let me get this straight. Israel blockades the Gaza Strip to keep weapons from being imported. Without the blockade, Gaza would be awash in rockets and missles and all manner of things that could be used to bomb Israeli citizens by remote control. At the same time, Israel allows humanitarian aid to the Gaza provided the aid is channeled through Israel. That appears to be the case, and it seems to be reasonable. You don't let the Palestinians starve, but you don't let their allies in Iran ship them weapons. So a group of international humanitarians organized in Europe and using Turkish ships decided to run the blockade. For what reason? Humanitarian aid is supposed to be getting through normal channels. If they want to make the point that Israel is unreasonable about what kind of stuff they allow in, maybe they could present the stuff to the Israelis and let them reject it and then hold a press conference. Now nine of these humanitarians get killed because they decided to pick a fight with the commandos who boarded the ship in the reasonable assumption that if they are running the blockade they might be carrying weapons. I have a hard rime being sympathetic with the "humanitarians" in these circumstances. Looks to me like they were looking for trouble and they got it… which they probably had planned anyway. I am not normally sympathetic to Israel. I think they have played a lot of the wrong cards over the years and have a lot to answer for…maybe not as much as the Palestinian community, which has pissed off numerous opportunities to broker a lasting peace in their dusty corner of the universe. I do not believe anyone can hold Israel wrong in this case. Looks to me like the UN ought to be running these blockades and handling the humanitarian mission in Gaza. Everyone else should shut up and sit down.
No comments:
Post a Comment