Indeed, as demonstrated by any number of events, the consensus among the world's movers and shakers seems to be that there is no dignity worth affording Palestinians, period; particularly if it comes at the expense of the Jewish state. Palestinian lives seem so spectacularly meaningless while those of Israeli citizens seem held as scripturally divine. Palestinians live in a world where grossly disproportionate military responses to virtually any degree of provocation are undertaken with heedless impunity. It is a place in which they weather merciless forms of collective punishment for infractions ranging from an attack on a Jewish settlement by a lone suicide bomber, to the election of candidates unacceptable to the Israeli government. Regarded as little more than a fatuous clan of troublesome interlopers, in the complex equation that is the Mid-East geopolitical calculus, the interests of the Palestinians barely compute.
Fair Game
The hubristic absurdity of Israel's tawdry flotilla raid seems an apt illustration of this. It appears we have come to the point at which there is no level of support for Palestinians -- including peaceful humanitarian support -- which escapes the possibility of a savagely lethal Israeli reaction. The image of Israeli commandos violently interdicting a non-military humanitarian effort -- in international waters -- to such a level that at its conclusion nine civilians lay dead seems just so beyond the pale. Yet the perversity of perspective in some quarters leads many to conclude that the ship's invaders -- the Israelis -- were victims of an attack therefore justified in using lethal force.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has reported that there were 14 American citizens among the roughly 700 aboard the six-vessel flotilla (which included one U.S.-registered ship, the Challenger). Also on board were several well-known activists including Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, a 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The effort was also supported by Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85, a member of the Free Gaza Movement, the organizers of the flotilla. A journalist aboard one of the vessels reported the commandos, deployed from helicopters and warships, fired prior to boarding the vessel, the Mavi Marmara, contradicting the Israeli claim that shots were fired after the commandoes were attacked with knives and other weapons. One of the Americans on board was among those killed by the commandos, and several other U.S. citizens were beaten during the attack. In addition, property including clothes, mobile phones, credit cards, currency, cameras and computers, was appropriated.
What warranted such a deadly breach in the first place? If firearms were the concern, it was needless; there were none. Apparently however, any vessel found to be carting a pallet of seed and nuts or a cache of canned fruit seems to be fair game since those goods -- like rocket launchers or AK-47s --have been on the list of items Israel refuses to allow into Gaza. As it turned out, the flotilla was transporting medicine, hospital beds, paper, repair parts for a non-functioning water treatment facility, construction materials (a banned item), wheelchairs, and prefabricated homes.
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