Atlantic on the ‘happy, fun flotilla’

Jeffery Goldberg writes extensively about Israel from a pretty moderate perspective. His blog includes his battles with fellow Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan, who as we speak, is probably on his Spongebob donut floating haplessly toward the Gaza blockade. I thought this was a balanced retort with looks from both sides of the whole blockade issue.

There’s real pain in Israel today, pain at the humiliation of the flotilla raid, pain on behalf of the injured soldiers, and pain that the geniuses who run this country could not figure out a way to out-smart a bunch of Turkish Islamists and their useful idiot fellow travelers. And no, there is no particular pain felt for the dead on the boat; the video of those peace-seeking peace activists beating on the paintball commandos with metal bars pretty much canceled out whatever feelings of sympathy Israelis might have otherwise felt. Plus, most Israelis are aware, unlike much of the rest of the world, that these ships were not on a humanitarian mission, but a political mission, one meant to lend support to Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, so you might have to excuse Israelis for not sympathizing overly much.

In case you thought Outlaw’s diagram below was exaggerating

“These soldiers are the best we have. We are Israel’s deterrent. People in the Middle East need to think we are the best, and we are the best, except that when we’re sent into situations without any intelligence, without any direction, with paintball guns instead of sufficient weapons, with no understanding of who we’re fighting. Then we’re going to have a disaster. These commandos were beaten with pipes! They came onto the deck (of the ship) one by one down a rope and they were beaten by a mob! Commandos! It’s amazing that they didn’t kill everyone on the ship, once they regrouped. Just amazing. The whole story is amazing.”

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