Israelis Kill 10 Blockade Runners

The Gaza Strip is one of the places God forgot. Ruled by the fascists in Hamas, the Strip is home to 1.5 million people who really ought to just get up and leave. The Israelis have cut off aid from the outside for years now, and the area gets by on whatever can be smuggled in or what the Israelis permit (and their generosity is limited at best). Earlier today, a small flotilla of six ships tried to run the blockade, and the Israeli military killed 10 people to stop the aid on-board from arriving. Who shot first is a question of "he said, she said." The underlying fact is that the Israelis are engaged in an illegal and immoral blockade and the killings are war crimes.

The pretext for the blockade is Hamas misbehavior in the past. Aid has indeed been diverted to terrorists in the past. No doubt it will be diverted in the future if it is permitted into Gaza. According to the BBC, "The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa's list of household items that have been refused entry at various times includes light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pasta, tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts, shampoo and conditioner." One is hard-put to understand how crayons are an existential threat to a nation with 200 nuclear warheads.

The attack by the Israelis occurred about 40 miles (65 kilometers or so) from the coast. That means it occurred in international waters. That means, of course, that the attack is on a par under international law with the Somali pirates. AIPAC and other apologists for Israel will howl at the comparison, but the truth is that the only real difference is the backing of a recognized government. That attack remains either an act of piracy or of war. The lead vessel flew the Turkish flag, and Turkey is a member of the UN. Tel Aviv can take its pick: war or piracy. In either case, it was an act of aggression.

One does sympathize with the Israelis. It is not easy to live beside people who want nothing more than one's departure or death. Hamas is the unreasonable face of the Palestinian resistance. But one must ask, why is there a Palestinian resistance at all? It is the direct result of Israeli policy for the last 40 years. The Israelis have created a golem, a monster they cannot control, by their occupation of territories they cannot manage.

This journal is under no illusions about Hamas or other Islamist reactionary organizations. They are a cancer on the Arab nation and an embarrassment to Islam. However, they didn't kill 10 people in international waters either. The Netanyahu government did, and to achieve what? Gazans don't hate the Israelis any less, and if anything, people who didn't care before now do care, and they aren't backing the Israelis. The action was counterproductive, and in fighting a movement like Hamas, there is no greater sin than being counterproductive.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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