In continuing to follow the facts as they trickle out, I am also reading about the pasting Israel is getting in the foreign press.
This is puzzling. First of all, before anyone had many details at all about the incident, there were already papers and people condemning Israel’s “act of piracy” (read more about that here) against a flotilla of “peaceful humanitarian aid workers” attempting to break the Gaza blockade.
My piece yesterday was based on extensive reading of reports, viewing of video footage taken of the boarding of the Mavi Marmara, and whatever eyewitness statements I could get. (Parents of the Israeli commandos have been circulating their sons’ accounts of what they encountered when they were lowered to the ship’s deck.) What were these vociferous condemnations based on? I would venture to guess that not a lot of thought or information was required in order for some people to assume conclude that Israel must have been in the wrong for intercepting the Gaza-bound flotilla. No need to verify details such as what was really on those ships, whether the activists aboard them kept their word to be boarded peacefully, whether there was an alternative, peaceful, non-confrontational way for those goods to have made it to Gaza without lives being lost, or to think about why the flotilla set sail in the first place. Any attempt by Israel to contact, warn, negotiate, or offer to assist was ignored; as soon as a Jew in a uniform descended and mayhem broke loose, THAT’S when the cameras started rolling and the journalists started paying attention.
Professor Richard Landes remarked that “When an army that is vastly superior, but neither wants to be killed nor kill, meets an vastly inferior enemy who wants to kill and be killed, it behooves both participants and observers to understand why things go awry.” It should be obvious that the situation was bizarre to begin with. It is the job of any person who truly cares about a situation to inform himself before reacting, and this should take days, not seconds, since there is lag-time between when events unfold and reports are published. Intelligent, free-thinking, discerning people should show a little more patience. (Those who don’t risk looking like fools whose mouths are bigger than their brains.)
I urge everyone who feels strongly (in whichever direction) about this incident to follow it closely, but wait for the facts and results before flying off the handle. Americans are always urging the parties concerned to “exercise restraint.” I don’t think that’s a bad policy here. After all, enough blood has been spilled for little benefit.
In the meantime, I encourage anyone interested in a (nearly) 20/20 hindsight assessment of the incident to read an interview with Joe Settler at the Muqata, which includes both praise for and critique of Israel’s performance in this operation.
And for a little chizuk, check out this YouTube video of a high school kid taking on a mob of hysterical, blood-thirsty Leftists and pro-terrorists in Los Angeles.
Compare his calm and understanding of the facts of what happened (“I’m an informed person”) with their rage and ignorance (“[The] Israeli state does not even exist!” And the Bible, and the Jewish presence from Biblical days? “I don’t know about that”). Personally, I’d rather be like the teenage kid than those adults.
The country of Britain: has condemned Israel’s actions – as “barbaric.” Together with the UN and other European countries.
Let us just remember who the barbarians truly are.
It was Britain: that went out of its way to sink the ships of escaping refugees from WW2. That is how barbaric the British are. Where was the “Humanitarian Aid” of the British then?
And it was Churchill – who refused all the pleas of Menachem Begin, the Head of the Irgun – to stop the barbaric killing of the refugees on all the boats which the British sank.
Churchill was no hero of WW2, as he is made out to be. He showed his true colours as a barbarian more savage than the Germans.
Churchill could have prevented the murder of millions of Jews by Hitler. Instead, he waited for the Germans to quietly “finish the job.” The European countries and the UN are in no position to talk about “Humanitarian Aid”. Their actions in WW2 show them to be savages, and less than sub-human – especially the British.
Like many heroes of history, for Jews Churchill had his feet of clay. The mentality operating during World War II–that the Jews are always somehow someone else’s problem (and I use the word “problem” deliberately, since Hitler’s response to the “problem” was a Final Solution)–seems to hold. Except nowadays, the Jews are not someone else’s problem; in their own country, they’re seen as a bigger problem than ever. Churchill was concerned with saving the English, not the Jews. Obama is entrusted with saving the Americans now, Merkel with the Germans, and Sarkozy with the French. The only people entrusted with saving the Jews now are those in the Israeli government, with precious little help or support from any other quarter. They may not get all the details right, but at least there’s someone who has the welfare of the Jews on their agenda. With God’s help, we’ll succeed.