Although the Israelis did not see the attack as an
attack, but an action only to defend themselves, as only Israelis have a right
to do. It is a right that Palestinians do not have, nor do the other activists
who were attempting to deliver the supplies to the Gazans. It appears, from the
scanty non-Israeli news available, that the Turkish ship was some 40 miles or
more off the coast of Gaza, and that the activists aboard were not armed,
except with kitchen knives and some clubs lying around the ship that they could
round up when they were surprised by the Israeli commandos.
In the melee that followed, nine activists were dead —
mostly Turkish — and several were wounded. Reports tell us that several of the
brave elite commandos were also injured, one of them with gunfire from a gun an
activist took away from one of the commandos. The Israeli propaganda spin
machine was ready in an instant to spin the news their way about the incident.
They were said to be, of course, entitled to defend themselves, a mantra
chanted over and over again by the Israeli talking heads we've seen on American
television. Listening to these commentators' paeans to Israel's conduct, It's
very much like listening to a bully who, after punching someone smaller in the
jaw, requires the victim to apologize for getting his face in the way of the
bully's fist.
Even more thrilling were the American television commentators
becoming instant pro-Israeli dittoheads, the very same characters they
laughingly bring up when discussing Rush Limbaugh. One of the first stories
attributed to the Israeli propaganda machine was that the commandos were armed
only with paint guns — you know, the kind of weapons red-blooded American
middle-aged men use to shoot at each other on weekends here in America. We all
know how harmless they are. Somehow the Israeli government was unable to stop a
couple of reports which told of the commandos whining that they were set upon
by these radical terrorists with metal clubs and knives.
President Obama took a strong stand against violence. He
did not actually say, "why can't we all just get along?" But when he
expressed his regrets over the loss of life, a whiff of Rodney King's famous
words blew over the airwaves.
What is desperately needed now is legal advice from Alan
Dershowitz, perhaps America's top Israel apologist. If you remember, Dershowitz
was the legal expert who once wrote in the New York Times that, not to worry,
the Israeli Supreme Court was always there to protect the rights of the
Palestinians living under occupation. We are certain that the Israeli Supreme
Court is sincere in its efforts to protect the rights of the Palestinians
living under the illegal occupation, but it's obvious that no one has told the
Court about the Palestinian home demolitions, the Palestinian olive trees
uprooted by Israeli settlers, and the multiple beatings visited on Palestinians
who tend to object to being treated like subhumans.
We are waiting for Professor Dershowitz to inform us
that, because Israel is at war, it is perfectly legal to fly 40 miles out to
open sea and drop armed pirates on the deck of vessels carrying humanitarian
aid to the residents of Gaza. He will also be able to explain that the ongoing
occupation of Gaza by Israel is legal, on grounds that Hamas took over Gaza by
force. He will, no doubt, be able to explain that the supervised democratic
election during which Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian
governing body somehow doesn't count. He will, by deft semantic footwork, be
able to make us forget about how the Zionists first created Israel by the
Zionists' ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
In fact, many of those who were driven out of their
homeland by the violent Zionist assault in the 1940s, today are living in the
cramped and poverty stricken Gaza Strip, along with their children and grandchildren.
Professor Dershowitz will surely be able to tell us that most Gazans, who are
forced, by virtue of Israel's occupation, to live on about a dollar a day, will
be extremely happy to get rid of Hamas. Perhaps he will also be able to explain
why Hamas, which has never strayed out of their own homeland of Palestine to
fight their occupiers, is branded as a terrorist entity by the United States at
the behest of Israel. Or he will surely explain why Egypt has cooperated with
Israel on the illegal blockade of Gaza.
The Gazans have absolutely no sense of humor about the
situation, but that lack surely can't be because they are constantly short of
food, medicines, fuel, and other necessities of life. They did, as we have
noticed, turn more sour-faced after the Israeli military used the entrapped
Gazans as shooting gallery targets in 2008, where more than 1,200 civilians
were killed by the Israeli military's tanks, jets, and howitzers.
Dershowitz may be able to tell us of the lesson we've all
learned in the past few years that Israel's vaunted military is all powerful,
unless, that is, if their intended victims decide to fight back, as Hezbollah
did when Israel invaded Lebanon four years ago. We can count as well the
unarmed peaceniks in the number of those who fought back, and who seem to have
won a battle against the elite commando unit that invaded the Turkish
humanitarian supply ship.
At least, the peaceniks did not whine, as the Elite
Israeli Commandos did, when they were wounded defending themselves.
One more event we can now expect is a letter, to be
circulated for signature to members of Congress by AIPAC, denouncing the
humanitarian activists for forcing the Israelis to attack and to kill many of
their group.
I remember when Golda Meir, when she was prime minister
of Israel, stating in public that she could forgive the Palestinians for
shooting at the Israelis, but she could never forgive them for forcing the
Israelis to kill Palestinians. After all, it's all in the spirit of self
defense. If it works for the Israeli propaganda machine, it should work for the
Palestinians as well.
