The Jerusalem Post is
reporting that the
organisers of the “Gaza aid ships” are sending more ships to Gaza.
Well why wouldn’t they? The battle-ready
sailors (and the TV-ready Sayles) have now
established (as if it were ever in doubt) that Israel is in a perilous
double-bind.
If Israel lets the ships go unchecked
and abandons its lawful blockade then it exposes itself to enormous danger.
Contrary to the contentions of the meticulously planned “spontaneous protests”,
the naval blockade is a critical way by which Israel can ensure that Iranian
arms do not flood its neighbour, whilst still allowing genuine
humanitarian to reach Gaza. As is now clear, in the case of the five previous
“aid ships”, Israel steered the convoy into the port of Ashdod where it
was searched and from where aid supplies could be transferred onwards. The ship
which was ultimately boarded was offered
the same possibility.
On the other hand, if Israel does
enforce its blockade and so carries out its obligation as a nation state to
protect its own people, the anti-Israel activists know that they will score an
enormous international propaganda coup as the Usual Suspects line-up to
denigrate Israel without paying any attention to the
video evidence (see Matt Sinclair’s earlier post) or to the obvious
intuitive point that Israel isn’t just doing this for the hell of it (or to
provoke angry facebook updates from “outraged” students determined to boycott
all those Jaffa oranges they really should eat more of) but because Israel actually
faces an intractable security risk from Gaza, run by an
organisation committed by its Charter to the genocide of Jews.
So, there you have it: Israel loses
either way. She must either jeopardise her frightened population or find
herself subject to unique popular vitriol by “peace activists” and D-list
celebrities who never seem to bat an eyelid about what goes on in (for example)
Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, Burma, Russia - or, ehem, Turkey.
Or have I missed Alexei Sayles’s
flotilla of aid to help the Kurds?