Gaza Blockade: UN interference with the natural order of things is perpetual war among tribes on steroids
Geography is destiny, and UN interference with the natural order of things is perpetual war among tribes on steroids. From our July 2006 blogpost "The Mother of All Root Causes": The partition plan for Palestine adopted by the UN in 1947 "took on a checkerboard appearance," writes Mitchell Bard in the Jewish Virtual Library. "These boundaries were based solely on demographics. The borders of the Jewish State were arranged with no consideration of security; hence, the new state's frontiers were virtually indefensible." Even then, the UN was worse than clueless.
By Sissy Willis
"Oh, blah blah blah," twitters spot the dog, our favorite AmerAussie engineer, cutting through all the politically correct, keening condemnation of Israel for pre-empting the progress of that flotilla of self-proclaimed "peace" activitists trying the other day — in Charles Krauthammer's words — "to provoke an incident and weaken Israel’s blockade of Gaza." A babel of voices are trying to get at the truth or truthiness of the incident, but not even Krauthammer said it better than spot:
Sorry, but nothing makes me want to support Israel more than endless headlines reading "UN condemns Israel …"
Tim Blair — who has floated our boat since those heady days of "fake-but-accurate" plastic-turkey glory of yore — first among equals of Aussie opinionators, has rightfully named our own spot the dog "Best of Breed" on his list of "24-carat, 140-character characters you might enjoy." We often meet the doggie on Twitter on the cusp of the International Dateline at the crack of dawn here in coastal New England as we are just getting out of bed at Tiny's nose-biting insistence and spot in Western Australia is winding down to head off for the mattresses down under. Twitter makes for strange bedfellows.
Now, having pre-emptively made up our mind about what's going on in the waters west of Gaza, we're off to sub rosa blogfriends Solomonia, Richard Landes of Augean Stables and other kahunas to bone up on what's really happening on the ground. The MSM — do they still have that? — having chowed down the Palestinian bowl of dog food in a single gulp, has nothing to offer but mischief and obfuscation.
Crossposted at sisu and Liberty Pundits.
Yea – Israel can do no wrong. It’s those pesky Arabs.
I’ve never really understood the conservative penchant for supporting Israel no matter what they do…however you choose to read the situation in gaza it seems pretty obviously a poor strategy for Israel to have chosen a commando raid since the chances of loss of life among ‘civilians’ was quite predictable. Unless the Israelis really believed there was some kind of massive store of weapons to be uncovered then this tactic was pretty crazy. If they don’t uncover any weapons or illicit cargo then what is their justification for taking a military action in international waters that leads to loss of life? How can this possibly help Israel in the long run? And if this exercise was about flexing Israel’s military muscle, then again, it kind of falls short…the world already knows that soldiers with weapons are going to win the battle 90% of the time. This was destined to be a PR disaster, since there is zero upside without uncovering illicit cargo. At this point, it does not appear that they found any weapons or illicit cargo so it looks like they dropped a commando team on a boat carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza and ended up killing 10 of the passengers.
And yet your boy Obama is siding with the Israelis. Hmmm. Wonder what they promised him in return?
There is nothing of value that Israel has that it could promise to the United States, we don’t need them, not for our security or for our Mideast policy, whatever that may be, or for any other reason. Israel is wholly dependent upon the U.S. for its military aid and the ongoing indulgance that the US and Europe provide for their various adventures. What do you think would happen to Israel if the US stopped providing aid and let it be known that Israel was on its own? How long do you think the country would last?
I also don’t understand the Right’s unwavering support of Israel, other than the crazy end times logic ( not that I understand that demented logic, just how it is rationalized in the Conservative world view ). When Israel was a surrogate for the West against the Soviet Bloc, maybe we got out money’s worth for the gigantic aid we provided. Certainly not now.
If the Right was truly interested in what’s in the best interests of the US, they would support a strong position of a two State solution or no more aid. There is no strategic value to the US being single sided in out support of Israel. They have spent 60 years justifying every morally reprehensible thing they have ever done by invoking the Holocaust. Right up the point of implementing their own.
I think the Israel situation is one of those tragedies where all of the players are so steeped in ideology and revenge that they cannot see what is best for them in the long run. Israel would be much better off if it would address the Palestinian question once and for all, either official incorporate the occupied territories into Israel proper and grant the Palestiniains full citizenship rights or move forward in good faith w/a workable two state solution. The third option of trying to keep Palestinians in check via military means appears to me to be a spectacular failure, 60 years on and the Palestinians are MORE radical and MORE violent than ever…I can’t see how that is a success.
What Israel has needed for some time is some tough love from the U.S., whether they know it or not.
I am disheartened by so little wingnut blather here. Come on Patriots, let’s get all lathered up and defend Israel. It’s such an American thing to do.
Israel, like Wall Street, was the victim.
Israel, like Sarah Palin, is always the victim.
Israel, like Dick Cheney, is never wrong.
Israel, like Rand Paul, is always justified.
Israel, like the estate tax, is an entity that only Israelis understand and if you’re not a Marty Peretz-Al Dershowitz Israeli, you can never understand.
Israel, like enhanced interrogation techniques, can never be questioned.
It’s rather simple really – if you say anything derogatory about Israel, you’re an anti-Semite.
Spot on, SV. Spot on.
I take issue with Rand Paul and the estate tax being put in the same category as the rest.
Well, this thread is a lefty circle jerk.
All the other ships in the ‘peace flotilla’ were boarded without serious incident. On one, some yahoos attacked, with potentially deadly weapons, IDF forces. If one does that, and the IDF gets authorization to use other than paint guns, yahoos will lose, and yahoos will die. The restraint Israel always employs when defending itself doesn’t get them any credit. Even the current occupant of the White House can see the writing on the wall and is backing Israel on this one.
Anon,
One can no more question Israel than one can question Rand Paul or the repeal of the estate tax.
I’m not clear on how ‘self defense’ really works when you are the heavily armed military commando…isn’t that kind of like the guy who throws the first punch whining because he got hurt? I’d say that killing 10 civilians who were aboard a ship full of humanitarian aid REALLY stretches the meaning of ‘defending itself’.
Obama is at heart just like Bill Clinton, he cares most about himself and he knows he doesn’t have the political support to call Israel to heel, so he won’t.
ps……I support repeal of the estate tax and I kind of like Rand Paul.
Anon: May I suggest you follow Secretary Clinton’s lead and examine the facts? You can ferret them out for yourself, or, if you prefer being spoonfed by the legacy media, good luck.
I think I already have the pertinent facts. 1) the blockade itself is of questionable legality since its express purpose is to keep the Palestinians ‘hungry’ but not ‘starving to death’ as stated by an Israeli official. This counts as collective punishment, outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. 2) Even if I were to concede that the blockade was ‘legal’ as part of Israel’s I guess undeclared war against Hamas, which runs territory that is controlled by Israel and is not a sovereign nation that one can go to war against, it doesn’t change the fact that a night time commando raid that results in deaths of 10 people on a boat with a humanitarian cargo is a bad outcome, 3) the activists and the IDF are going to have two different takes on what happened and there will never be any way to conclusively ‘prove’ the actual timeline of escalation.
So, I count this is a fail on Israel’s part, not only did their supposedly super well trained commandos botch the job but they gave the activists EXACTLY what they wanted, Israel is an irrational, rogue actor that is willing to kill to prevent medicine and food from reaching Gaza. There is no way this can be spun into a ‘win’ for Israel.
“I also don’t understand the Right’s unwavering support of Israel, other than the crazy end times logic…”
Oh, my. You really think that’s all that’s behind rational peoples’ support of Israel?
Well, isn’t it pretty to be able to make up a motive like that so that you may then dismiss all the people with whom you disagree as raving superstitious loonies. Must make your life so simple.
In fact in many respects, as you might have gotten from the tweet Sissy posted here, my support for Israel is to a large extent borne of opposition to the mindless irrational hatred of those who can’t stand the fact that she’s even allowed to exist let alone defend herself from her enemies. The UN is largely a mob of anti-Western Jew-hating undemocratic tribal-minded tyrants and thugs. Their track record of doing nutty things like naming Zimbabwe as a paragon of “sustainable development” or Iran as a model arbiter of “Women’s Rights” makes me feel not unjustified in instinctively condemning what they support and supporting what they condemn. Sort of a Costanzan “do the opposite” thing.
Seeing scenes like this in friendly tolerant 21st-century downtown Melbourne
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/nazis_needed/
just helps to sheet home to me that the increasingly-mainstream seething race-hatred thinly veiled as opposition to Israel is a danger not just to a tiny democratic state halfway across the world but to all who value the freedom of the West.
So. Sorry to have gone off on a tangent here, but I thought it was worth pointing out that support of Israel – and opposition to her declared enemies – is based on something a lot more concrete and substantial than fringe evangelical “end-times” nutbaggery.
Also, to the Anon above who puts forward the theory that “this exercise was about flexing Israel’s military muscle” …
What if it looks more likely that this exercise was about the terrorist-supporters flexing *their* muscles?
What are we to make of IHH head Bulent Yildirim’s gloating that having its IHH-sponsored Mavi Marmara head a flotilla to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza – or, rather, to provoke Israel into stopping it by force – would be seen as “a declaration of war”? http://j.mp/aV2R7q
As others including @MelissaTweets have pointed out, it’s becoming pretty obvious to even the casual observer that the “peace activists’ aid flotilla” had nothing to do with either “peace” or “aid.”
The triumph of hypocrisy?
aris gates to Morocco- Vienna gates to Istanbul- All India- Sicily and part Italy)
The agony of the free world?
Adopting Islamism methods – the way ahead?
I can’t decide what should be the proper title-could it be the all 3?
What issues are to be considered?
1:”Freedom activist” are called the supporters of the ideology stating that:
All cultures can leave peacefully only governed by Islam and Sharia low
All lands once conquered by Islam are Muslim territory forever and should be re conquered (From
Human rights and democracy should be destroyed
Keel all Jews
2: “Not punished”- their war methods- not included in the international war laws:
Islamist hate propaganda
Terrorist dressed as civilians
Countries supporting and sheltering terrorism
Killing everywhere and everyone
Shelling indiscriminately civilian areas
Firing and hinting between civilians
3: Freedom defenders– “Punished” tying to defend their nation–
Uniform dressed solders acting to stop terrorists hiding in civilian areas
Soldiers defending their lives against terrorists masked as “freedom activists”
Closing supply logistic channels to areas controlled by terrorist and supporters
Acting against countries sheltering terror infrastructure
** * To survive on this hostile and hypocritical environment what is the way forward?