http://ramblingfisherman.com/big-steelpn/ The aid flotilla to Gaza that Israel intercepted is one of the most promising things I have seen out of the Middle East in my memory. It indicates an entirely new way of fighting the battle, a way that has some chance of success. Israel’s policies are dependent on the idea that Israelis are morally superior to their antagonists, who are bloodthirsty animals who, given the chance, would slit the throat of every Jew they found. Rock-throwing, missile-firing, and bus-bombing have tended to reinforce this idea rather than fight it. But nonviolent means, like blockade running, create the impression that the Israelis are nothing but better-armed (the fact that crew members on the flotilla wielded sticks and pipes does not take away from the fundamentally nonviolent means used; if they had brought machine guns, nothing whatever would have been accomplished, but they did not). The moral dynamic opened is the same one that Gandhi used to create independence from the British and Martin Luther King used to secure legal recognition of the rights of blacks.
isotretinoin order Of course, nonviolent means may never prevail among the Palestinians, because nonviolence will not make the Jews disappear; all nonviolence is likely to achieve is a state in which both people live side by side, with the Jews substantially wealthy and more powerful than their Palestinian neighbors, a situation not unlike the blacks and whites in America. It is not clear that this will be a satisfying solution for enough people. But at the very least, the weaker side in this battle – the Palestinians – is in a much better condition than they were just a few weeks ago, without raising a finger. Why not send more flotillas?
This is the kind of situation where the ice in Obama’s veins is very frustrating. There have been several incidents already where he has had the opportunity to do what appears to be the right thing: dissociate the United States from Israel. If ever there was a “foreign entanglement,” this is it, and as the years go by it has been increasingly damaging to the United States. It will get worse if a concerted effort to combat the occupation in a nonviolent way continues. The terms of the blockade – blocking chocolate, and building supplies, and innumerable other things – shows the hatred of the Israelis for their antagonists. I would not want to be in their position, but I would not want to be their accomplice either. Obama’s strategy may work long-term – the Israelis may value the fact that he did not back away when he could have – but gratitude plays almost no role in international politics and I would not count on it.
As usual, there has been excellent coverage from Andrew Sullivan, and even better coverage from Glenn Greenwald, who is a terrible foe to all hypocrisy. Greenwald’s essay on tribalism is a forceful reminder of how we need to get out of this conflict – it is terrible to think that everything he says against Israel is true also of Israel’s enemies. We do not want to be fighting this war.
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