Rattling The Cage: I blame my country

[azurnoir]

Like every other country, Israel has done some awfully bloody-minded things over the years. We’ve tyrannized the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and colonized their land. We’ve sold billions of dollars worth of arms and military expertise to murderous dictators across Africa, Latin America and Asia. We elected two prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, who headed national liberation movements that deliberately killed hundreds of Arab civilians along with scores of British officials and soldiers, and whose stated goal at the time was a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River.

<snip>

A hypothetical case: If the UN, for whatever reason, decided to blockade Israel’s coast, to stop ships going in and out, we would have the right to forcibly break it. And if, being under blockade, we couldn’t break it ourselves, our supporters abroad would have the right to do it for us – certainly the moral right, maybe the internationally legal right, too.

Now let’s say that to break the UN blockade, several hundred international friends of Israel – hawks, doves, Jews, gentiles, etc. – got up a flotilla of ships and sailed for Haifa. And let’s say the lead ship, named the SS Baruch Goldstein, was loaded with Kachniks from America. And let’s say UN soldiers, determined to enforce the blockade, tried to commandeer the Baruch Goldstein and were attacked by a mob of Kachniks with knives, clubs and metal rods.

Now all decent people loathe everything that Kach and the example of Baruch Goldstein stand for. And even if they were fighting in a cause as just as Israel’s right to sovereignty, the Kachniks aboard the Baruch Goldstein would remain loathsome and so would their ideology.

But as evil as they are, it would still not justify the UN blockade of Israel’s coast. And as evil as they are, it still wouldn’t mean their attack on the soldiers enforcing the blockade was wrong.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=177309

[LeftishBrit]

1. Good article!