Shipwrecked

More about Israel, the Turkish boat and Gaza:

The whole world has turned against Israel following its seizing of a Turkish boat heading for Gaza. Israel itself is divided between those who are angry with the government for the failed operation and those who think a biased world should not be permitted to dictate to Israel in matters of national security.

1. My heart does not bleed for the death of knife wielding men on a Turkish boat who attacked Israeli soldiers. They were nasty men who knew what they were getting themselves into.

2. The international media that describes a Turkish boat with men armed with knives and whips, as a “peace convoy” either does not know what it is saying or is just plain biased.

3. The Western world has a growing problem with an ever more fundamentalist Turkey. Fortunately, Europe did not succumb to the pressure and grant them EU membership.

HOWEVER, Israeli public opinion that cries out against a hostile world believing that the problem lies only in Israel’s poor public relations suggests pure blindness.

Contributing to this blindness is the fact that for 43 years, ever since the 1967 War, the international community let Israel get away with its land-grabbing policies. Most Israelis were either born or immigrated to the country after 1967. They take the Occupied Territories for granted. They even take occupation for granted. Changing their states of mind will be hard.