From NYPost
From Washington to the United Nations to Brussels, administration officials are resuming America's traditional role as Israel's sole defender in times of crisis.
The coordinated international assault on the Jewish state was launched with a 13-hour UN Security Council session lasting until the wee hours yesterday, and continued in a hastily arranged meeting of NATO members. In both cases, deft US diplomats found creative ways to prevent explicit criticism of Israel.
Most remarkably, America's UN diplomats under the sure hand of Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff were able to nix Turkey's call to establish a Turtle Bay-led investigation into the deaths of the nine "Marmara" activists Monday.
President Obama cannot be seen by American voters as acting against Israel. And, it's lovely that he is preventing actions against Israel. However, he was the one who created the situation in which the various parties felt free to do and say... and the perception is that his behaviour now is a political kabuki rather than firm belief, and so will last no longer than the news cameras are rolling.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/02/2010 11:37 ||
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#1
"The situation, from our perspective, is very difficult and requires careful, thoughtful responses from all concerned," she (Hillary) said.
What's so difficult. What do we get from the Turks? Tell them to FOAD.
#2
As far as the the Security Council is concerned, I disagree with the article.
The Security Council issued a "Presidential Statement" which requires unanimity, a resolution cannot be passed against a US veto.
If Obama had so desired he could have forced the council to stay silent on this matter, just like China did wrt North Korea.
The Obama administration joined the international community (spit!) in singling out Israel at the NPT conference. This is the action that speaks loudest.
The real issue is Iranian nukes, not Gaza or Lebanon per se.
#5
Joe Biden ...let me repeat that: Joe Biden! Came out in defense of Israel today. Is it possible Sheriff Joe is the smartest person in the admin? God help us
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2010 20:18 Comments ||
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#6
I always thought anyone looked good besides Obama
Posted by: chris ||
06/02/2010 20:23 Comments ||
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#7
There's a revolt growing among Jewish donors and in Congress, so Bambi switched message. That and his advisors have probably let him know just how close to war we got this week. And may still be .....
#1
...from the article: The boats carried aid that included building materials cement, tiles and steel, which Israel bans because it says they could be put to military means worth about $10 million, members said.
10 million dollars of cement??? yeah, sure!
I almost wish 10 million dollars worth of cement would have been on board.
Then the ship would have gone directly to Davy Jones' locker.
Do these terrorist activists really think the world is that stupid?
10 million dollars worth of cement would be an amount larger that the size of 6-7 ships combined.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
06/02/2010 12:03 Comments ||
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#2
At the prices I would charge Gaza, ten million dollars of cement would fit into a foot locker.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2010 13:54 Comments ||
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#3
$10m is a good guess as to how much Arafat used to skim annually from the Palestinian cement company he controlled.
What would it look like if the Israeli government played offense? First and foremost, this would require some serious criticism of the Islamist government of Turkey, which masterfully created this crisis and is now denouncing Israel for it. Turkey's thuggish prime minister certainly understands the benefits of being on offense. He says that Israel committed a "massacre" and is guilty of "state terrorism," "piracy," has struck "a blow to world peace and against international law," threatens that "if Israel does not immediately free all the detainees and wounded, the rift in relations with it will widen," and thunders that "Israel will not be able to show itself in the world until it apologizes for what happened and undergoes self-criticism."
Quite a performance! Wouldn't it be remarkable if the Israelis had gotten ahead of the story by making their own accusations and demands? Here are a few ideas of the kind of concrete action the Israelis could take -- if they had the stones to really take a stand.
1. Expel the Turkish ambassador and declare his return contingent on a full, credible, and public Turkish investigation of the terrorist organization that planned and funded the "aid flotilla."
2. Publicly demand reparations from Turkey for the costs of the operation, including the medical bills of the thugs and Jew-haters who have been given such lovely medical care in Israeli hospitals.
3. Demand a UN investigation of why Turkey is funding terrorist organizations that are involved in attacks on Israel.
4. Fund a Kurdish human-rights NGO in Israel -- there are lots of Kurdish Jews who I'm sure would be happy to help -- that raises awareness of the plight of Kurds in Turkey. (Short answer: they are treated horribly.) This organization must publicize the apartheid conditions of Kurdish life in Turkey and churn out op-eds, studies, videos, and press releases denouncing Turkey's brutal and racist treatment of its own minorities.
5. Fund a Turkish-language documentary on the Armenian genocide, upload it to YouTube, and promote it heavily in Turkey. If Erdogan wants to call Israel a criminal and a murderer, there's no reason why Israel shouldn't return the favor on this most sensitive of issues.
#1
Pollak has a good point on the armenian genocide issue.
Israel has been treating this low key for many years (although so has Armenia for that matter).
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/02/2010 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
All great ideas. Also publicize the flow of arms into Gaza and by whom. Publicize every incident where a rocket is fired into Israel from Gaza--scream bloody murder. Insist the UN act (which they won't of course). Publicize the fact that Israel has a representative government of which Palestinian-Israel citizens have a voice in the Knesset. Bring in the human rights organizations. Publicize the effect the wall has had on eliminating terrorists from Gaza. Publicize all the warlike rhetoric from Iran. Publicize the connections between Iran and proxy terrorist groups. Keep up a steady drumbeat daily or hourly.
#4
This is the wrong approach, because it is the "schoolyard" approach, which accomplishes nothing. Emotional gratification is not worth spending money on, compared to tangible exchange.
If Israel truly wanted to light a fire under the Turks, in a way that achieved results, it could do so with as little effort. For example, let slip that Israeli intelligence has discovered that the Turkish PM wants to humiliate the Turkish military, as an excuse to purge the general staff and replace it with Islamists.
#5
THose are all good shivs in the ribs, but they won't change the fundamental fact here, which is that there's a new power in the middle east, and it's determined to bash Israel wherever it can. This is a big loss for Israel, and for us.
We've got our work cut out for us. I have to hink the odds of war btn Israel and Iran before we can dump Barry and get a serious CinC in the WH have just gotten a lot higher. Seems pretty likely now.
Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)
Or the slums in Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C. Oakland, etc.
(San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994)
67. Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:
(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture...
(f) otherwise make an effective contribution to the enemy's military action, e.g., by carrying military materials...
Israel fulfilled its obligations under paragraphs 38-46.
46. With respect to attacks, the following precautions shall be taken:
(a) those who plan, decide upon or execute an attack must take all feasible measures to gather information which will assist in determining whether or not objects which are not military objectives are present in an area of attack;
(b) in the light of the information available to them, those who plan, decide upon or execute an attack shall do everything feasible to ensure that attacks are limited to military objectives;
(c) they shall furthermore take all feasible precautions in the choice of methods and means in order to avoid or minimize collateral casualties or damage; and
(d) an attack shall not be launched if it may be expected to cause collateral casualties or damage which world be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack as a whole; an attack shall be canceled or suspended as soon as it becomes apparent that the collateral casualties or damage would be excessive.
Israel first determined beyond a reasonable doubt that the ship in question was attempting to run a blockade, thus making it subject to detention under the standards shown above. It also took "all feasible precautions in the choice of methods and means in order to avoid or minimize collateral casualties or damage" by boarding the ship with non-lethal weapons, and resorted to deadly force only when subjected to deadly force.
#4
gotta love the angry "peaceful activists" of the Paleo-Symp-Mob. He kept his cool. I don't know if I could've. That one cow, especially. Why isn't she in a burqa? Uncovered meat...
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2010 20:11 Comments ||
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#5
guess we have a fine ezmaple of why Israel exist today
Posted by: chris ||
06/02/2010 20:20 Comments ||
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...President Obama is a very glamorous figure. Glamour is a particular form of illusion. It's an illusion that tells a truth about the audience's desires, and it requires mystery and distance. During the campaign people projected onto Barack Obama whatever they wanted in a president or even in a country. Lying is usually a bad thing, but they would project onto him that he was lying about his positions because he secretly agreed with them: Anyone that smart has got to be a free trader at heart. He's just saying this to pander to those idiots. He can't really mean it.'
You've seen, as he's taken office and tried to govern, this back and forth where he is consciously or unconsciously trying to maintain his glamourwhich requires a kind of distance from the political process so that people can continue to see him as representing them, regardless of their contradictory viewswhile actually trying to be president, which means you have to decide what to do about Guantanamo. You have to decide what health care bill you're going to back. You have to decide all these things, and you're going to make somebody disillusioned. This morning I saw that the former editor of Harper's is about to write a book, The Mendacity of Hope, attacking Obama from the left. That's the power and the downside of glamour.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/02/2010 10:48 ||
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#1
Yeah, hope on the left consists of hoping they're commissars and you and I are face down in a ditch...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/02/2010 22:30 Comments ||
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