Krauthammer on the flotilla of fools
Charles Krauthammer comments on the flotilla of fools.The fundamental deception here is the use of the word "humanitarian." . . . Humanitarians don't wield iron clubs, and [they] would have killed the Israelis had the Israelis not drawn their pistols in self-defense.Indeed.
But there‘s a larger issue here. What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. There’s no one starving in Gaza. The Gazans have been supplied with food and social services, education, by the U.N., by UNWRA, for 60 years, in part with American tax money.
Second, when there are humanitarian needs, the Israelis allow — every day — food and medicine overland into Gaza. The reason that it did not want to allow this flotilla is because, as the spokesman for the flotilla said herself, this was not about humanitarian relief. It was about breaking the blockade.
And the reason the Israelis have a blockade is because they only want to allow humanitarian supplies and not weaponry. Look, the proof of that is the fact that if you look at a map of Gaza, you'll see that Israelis only control three sides of this rectangle. There’s a fourth side on the Egyptian side. So it is an Egyptian-Israeli blockade.
The Egyptians have the same problem with Gaza. People accuse Israeli of the blockade [saying it’s because] because they're racist, they’re anti-Muslim, anti-Arab. The Egyptians are Muslim and Arab and they’ve gone to war three times on behalf of the Palestinians. So why do they have exactly the same blockade? Because Gaza is run by Hamas, a terror entity that wants to import weaponry and resume the war against Israel.
The man who made the announcement that we saw earlier, explaining the commando raid is the defense minister of Israel. He‘s not a right-winger. He‘s not Likud. He’s Ehud Barak, who’s the leader of Labor, the party of Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, the party of the left, and the man who ten years ago this summer offered the Palestinians a peace agreement that would have [provided] a Palestinian state, division of Jerusalem, and an end of the conflict.
The Palestinians said no. And Gaza two years ago declared war on Israel. That's why you have a blockade. . . .
If these people had wanted humanitarian aid, Israel offered to take the ships into Haifa, peacefully, unload all the stuff inside and to allow all the humanitarian aid immediately into Gaza, all the food and medicine. And it was refused because it was meant to be a provocation and to create an incident.
Take that Andrew Sullivan (and by the way, there are many more posts on this blog that update the one you linked).
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:04 AM
3 Comments:
The international lynch mob continues to demand Israel lift the blockade.
Netanyahu answered them at a press conference. Israel really cannot give Iran a port on the Mediterranean. That's why it exists.
The world doesn't like Israel defending itself. But it will have to get used to it - the days Jews could be assaulted and killed with impunity are over.
There's a good point Barry makes about why only Israel can defend itself. Let's skip most of and get to what the EU did nor did not do in Gaza and which Martin Indyk (yes, that mamzer) wants Israel to return to:
"That's the tragedy part, here's the farce. Before Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the EU came up with a grand plan about how it would play a role in reducing tension. It was going to monitor the shipments into the Gaza Strip from Egypt."
"So what happened? Two EU officers sitting in folding chairs watching all the material coming into Gaza. Of course, they never did anything whatsoever."
That was before they fled after the Hamas takeover in 2007. The Europeans have a short and selective memory. Israel remembers the unreliability of Western commitments. Now here is the money quote from Rubin well worth heeding:
"Yes, there is a good reason why Israel undertakes its own self-defense and, where possible, guards what goes on along its borders. If it depended on the West to do so it wouldn't be undertaking that task but would need the services of an undertaker instead."
"Why does Israel act unilaterally? Because it cannot depend on the promises of others, that's why."
Indeed. There's more here: Read it all
andrew remains the most confused gay catholic in the world
and to whoever reads this blog and resides in california...support jane harmon over secular, ignorant, self hating jew, marcie winograd
if winograd wins the primary...i am immediately changing my regsitration (with nose held) to republican.
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