{"id":189059,"date":"2010-05-31T10:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/05\/31\/what-an-unbelievable-clusterf\/"},"modified":"2010-05-31T10:28:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T15:28:00","slug":"what-an-unbelievable-clusterf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/05\/31\/what-an-unbelievable-clusterf\/","title":{"rendered":"What an Unbelievable Clusterf%$#"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli Defense Forces have intercepted a convoy of ships intending to run the Israeli blockade on Gaza<\/a>, and at least 9 deaths have been reported.<\/p>\n

Considering that at least one of the passengers in the convoy was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, it looks like this an absolute disaster for Israel, and a victory for the “Free Gaza Movement”.<\/p>\n

My first thought is that, on the part of Israel, “It is worse than a crime: it is a mistake,”*<\/sup> because there will be significant negative repercussions for years on Israel’s foreign policy and public diplomacy.<\/p>\n

It’s particularly problematic because the ship was Turkish flagged, and many of the passengers and crew were Turkish, which will serve to further worsen relations with the only majority-Islamic nation which has warm diplomatic relations with Israel.<\/p>\n

If there is something that people on both sides of the Israel\/Palestinian issue can agree on, it is that Benyamin Netanyahu’s fascination with “looking tough” for his personal political advantage has always resulted in serious damage to the interests of Israel.<\/p>\n

The “Free Gaza Movement” is not friend of Israel, nor would I expect them to be, and I think that a significant portion of their leadership has little interest in any potential de-escalation. If this were a significant interest of theirs, they would not have refused to bring letters and a package to Giliad Shalit<\/a>, but realistically, work toward de-escalation is not really a big consideration for any of the 3rd party non-state actors who choose to involve themselves in the politics of this matter. (AIPAC can go Cheney themselves)<\/p>\n

Still, I wonder how much the old saying, “luck is a residue of design,”\u2020<\/sup> might figure in the events of this morning in terms of the planning of this convoy.<\/p>\n

Certainly, if the report that the boarding party was sent in carrying just pistols and paint ball guns<\/a>\u2021 is true, there are any number of people involved in this operation who should be fired by the IDF forthwith.<\/p>\n

On a related note, I have had a back and forth on by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS<\/a>, regarding whether the interception itself was illegal, since it took place in international water, and I have concluded that with a formally announced blockade, it probably was.<\/p>\n

The interdiction of shipping with armed boarding parties in international waters is routine for both drug smuggling and human trafficking.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s a stupid thing, and the deaths are senseless.<\/p>\n

*<\/sup>Joseph Fouch\u00e9<\/span>
\u2020<\/sup>Branch Rickey<\/span>
\u2021<\/sup>And the source (Debka) is a thoroughly unreliable one.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Israeli Defense Forces have intercepted a convoy of ships intending to run the Israeli blockade on Gaza, and at least 9 deaths have been reported. Considering that at least one of the passengers in the convoy was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, it looks like this an absolute disaster for Israel, and a victory …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1136,964,1159,972,986],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-foreign-relations","category-israel","category-justice","category-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}