Many may think that I am a little late to the table with this article. However, allow me to correct your misconception. I am not a person that makes rash statements. Before addressing this issue, I wanted to wait for all of the details to be brought to light and for the news outlets to run their gamma of stories. Only after analyzing the situation for a week, I am confident in taking a firm stance in full support of Israel’s actions aboard the flotilla.
The events that took place have sparked an international outrage, once more labeling Israel as a hateful, violent, and hostile state. Let us examine the pure facts without adding in any biased views on the events that took place.
Israel has had a tight maritime blockade on Gaza since January 2009. This blockade was installed in order to intercept any possible weapons, weapon components, or materials to make bunkers. The blockade is in response to both continued rocket fire into Israeli territory as well as the previous Gaza offensive. However, despite the blockade, Israel has offered any groups wishing to send humanitarian aid the option of sending it to an Israeli port for inspection before it is transported to Gaza. Despite these conditions and the maritime blockade, on Monday, May 31st, 2010, a flotilla carrying Turkish activists, attempted to cross the blockade and head to Gaza. This ship was intercepted by Israeli commandos. The confrontation between the activists and the commandos resulted in the death of nine Turkish activists. Israel has released statements, testimonies and videos in support of their claims that the soldiers aboard the ship were attacked by knives, bottles, and even pistols (wrested from commandos). As a result, Israel claims that their soldiers were acting in self defense.
These are the facts as they have happened without any embellishment. If Israel allowed this ship to pass, then such an action would open the door to even more breaches of the blockade and threaten Israel’s safety. Nevertheless, the incident has sparked an international outrage and condemnation of Israel’s actions and policies. Why?
The answer to that question is both complicated and simple. The complexity lies in the way that the international community portrays the Israeli state and that view is independent of events that took place aboard the flotilla. Israel has always been held to a double standard as demonstrated by the military clashes in past events. It is no secret that thousands upon thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel. Yet this fact has not been met with international outrage. In fact, it does not even graze headlines anymore. However, if you reverse this situation and analyze the reaction of the world community if Israel responds to these rocket attacks with military force, then a whole different picture is painted. Islamic protestors crawl out of their homes across the world and protest against Israel’s inhuman actions. How dare that Zionist state fire upon Muslim territories! My question is simple and one I have asked in past articles…Where is the protest and outrage when rockets rain on Israel? More than that, how can so many Americans support the Palestinian position, when a great majority of the Middle East was cheering and celebrating when the Twin Towers fell?
The funny thing is that the Muslim community is riddled with hypocrisy, ignorance, and extremism. This is one of the only times that you will hear me make such a generalization. This is not a racist statement, it is fact. As mentioned before, the second that Israel retaliates, the Muslim community is in an uproar. They do not care for details or circumstances. Their position on the issue is dictated by corrupt Muslim leaders. However, when Muslim nations engage in ethnic cleansing, the mass killing of their own people, and illegal occupation of territories (Turkey anyone?), for some reason, you could hear a pin drop. I guess it can be deduced that Muslims hate their own people as much as they hate Israel.
The world community is famous for condemning Israel for its actions. Yet, not once did any nation propose an alternative solution aside from naïve fantasies of peace. Why isn’t the U.N physically monitoring the borders of Israel? Why isn’t any other nation inspecting cargo and controlling the import and export of illegal arms in the Middle East? Yet, there is always criticism to be made in spite of the fact that no other nation does a damn thing to stop or monitor the violence in the Middle East.
Now fast forward to the events that took place on Monday. Before even beginning to analyze the situation, we must first define a very important term; activist. Activism means to engage in direct and aggressive action to meet an end. It is important to understand this term because it is what the Turkish passengers aboard the flotilla called themselves. However, activist is not inherently a benevolent title. An activist can be a person that is fighting for human rights. On the other hand, an activist can also be another name for a terrorist. I am not defining this term because I believe that the members of the flotilla were terrorists, however, this is the term being used to attract compassion for the activists in the same way that foreign labor exploitation is a phrase that is used to condemn the globalization of the factors of production.
The facts speak for themselves. Israel had a military blockade and offered to pass on any humanitarian aid as well as laying out the actions to be carried out if the activists refuse. The activists chose to refuse Israel’s offer and push forward. Israeli soldiers seized the ship and in the process were attacked as demonstrated by captured footage. As any soldier is trained to do, the Israeli commandos defended themselves and the result was nine dead activists, a price that could have been avoided if there was cooperation.
This flotilla was not meant for humanitarian aid. Israel puts no restrictions on humanitarian aid, only contraband items that threaten it’s security. This flotilla was merely a tool used to demonize the Israeli state. Yet, there was not a single word of caution to the world community for allowing this ship to breach the blockade without intervening. Nevertheless, as I write this article, a second flotilla is headed for Gaza from Ireland. Let us hope that there will be peaceful cooperation.
ModSociety 