After the Israeli assault on the aid flotilla that left dozens of people killed or injured, condemnation of the Israeli action was practically universal.
Only the most unconditional supporters of Israel dutifully repeated the Israeli lines of self-justification.
The Israel lobby in the United States generally blamed the tragedy on the organisers of the "provocation" whom it accused of links to terrorist organisations. The Union for Reform Judaism endorsed the Israeli position and argued that Israel had responded as a sovereign nation by exercising her right to self-defence.
Other Jewish-American organisations were critical of the Israeli action. J Street, a new Jewish American lobby that advertises itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, was critical of the "shocking outcome" of the Israeli assault which it described as "a consequence of the ongoing, counterproductive Israeli blockade of Gaza".
"Jewish Voice for Peace" was more forceful in its condemnation of "Israel's attack and killing of members of the Freedom Flotilla aiming to bring much needed aid to the besieged Gaza Strip" and called on the Obama administration to "suspend military aid to Israel until he can assure the American public that our aid is not used to commit similar abuses".
Even the influential American media, traditionally sympathetic to Israel's positions, could find few excuses for the Israeli action. The New York Times said the Israeli blockade is unjust and criticised Obama's response to the assault on the aid flotilla as tepid. It urged the administration to state clearly that the Israeli attack was unacceptable and to back a UN Security Consul resolution urging Israel to lift the blockade.
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, a staunch supporter of Israel, inadvertently revealed, in trying to gently criticise Israeli leaders for the tragedy, how his support for Israel like that of many of Israel's supporters is informed more by ideological convictions than by ascertainable realities. In a recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Levy admits that at the time of writing, he, like the rest of the world, had "only a few shreds of information about what really happened". Yet he goes on to affirm that "it will soon be learned that this so-called humanitarian flotilla was humanitarian in name only..."
One of the most perceptive criticisms of the Israeli action came from Israeli writer David Crossman, who wrote that "no explanation can justify or whitewash the crime that was committed here", which he described as "the natural continuation of the shameful, ongoing closure of Gaza...".
The era when Israel enjoyed the envious position of oppressing the people whose land it occupied and bullying its neighbours while counting on the unconditional support of the West has definitely come to an end. The recent UN Report prepared by the Goldstone Commission found that Israel had committed war crimes in its recent Gaza war.
The commission also found that the Gaza blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza population might constitute crime against humanity. The assault on the aid flotilla and the killing of civilians may constitute an act of piracy and even possibly undeclared war against Turkey, the country whose flag the flotilla flew and whose citizens were killed or injured in the attack. An incensed Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayep Erdogan, is reportedly considering sending another aid ship, this time escorted by the Turkish navy and with him aboard.
Uzi Dayan, former Deputy Chief of General Staff in Israel, told Israeli army radio that should this happen Israel should sink the ship with the Turkish prime minister on it. An Israeli commentator observed that it was "unprecedented for a top-level state official to threaten a head of another state with murder". This may be unprecedented, but it would not be surprising given the utter irrationality of Israeli actions.
How else can one explain the incomprehensible defiance of not only the international community but also of Israel's principal benefactor and protector the US? This seemingly irrational intent on alienating the US moved none other than the Mossad Chief, Meir Dagan, to warn Israeli leaders about the untold consequences of their actions. Speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Dagan warned that "Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden."
This concern was echoed in the US where Tony Judd wrote in The New York Times that "Israel is now America's greatest strategic liability in the Middle East and Central Asia." And where Jewish American writer and activist Norman G. Finkelstein declared "Israel is now a lunatic state. It's a lunatic state with between two and three hundred nuclear devices."
Once again Israeli leaders seem to have acted with blind faith in mindless violence as the solution to all problems with total disregard for the consequences of their actions on the peace process. Once again one is hardpressed to understand how their actions can be compatible with their proclamations of a sincere desire for peace with the Palestinians.
Instead of weakening Hamas and undermining its hold on power in Gaza, the blockade is generally believed to have failed. It brought only condemnations upon Israel and focused attention on Israel's collective punishment of the Palestinians. There can be no doubt that the inhumanity and illegality of the blockade are incompatible with the quest for peace in the region.
Adel Safty is Distinguished Professor Adjunct at the Siberian Academy of Public Administration, Russia. His new book, ‘Might Over Right', is endorsed by Noam Chomsky, and published in England by Garnet.
