Death on the High Seas

Argh.

More than 10 people have been killed after Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says.

Armed forces boarded the largest vessel overnight, clashing with some of the 500 people on board.

It happened about 40 miles (64 km) out to sea, in international waters.

Israel says its soldiers were shot at and attacked with weapons; the activists say Israeli troops came on board shooting.

The activists were attempting to defy a blockade imposed by Israel after the Islamist movement Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007.

There has been widespread condemnation of the violence, with several countries summoning the Israeli ambassadors serving there.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “shocked by reports of killings and injuries” and called for a “full investigation” into what happened.

Let’s be clear about what happened here.  Israel began blockading Gaza when a terrorist organization took legal control of it in 2007.  The reason is simple… Hamas likes to kill Jews and Israel wants to make sure they aren’t receiving weapons in those shipments.  They are allowing through humanitarian aid. 

This flotilla is intentionally trying to provoke an incident and they succeeded.  International antisemites will wail and condemn, but let’s be real.  What would you do?  If Al Qaeda was running Nova Scotia, regularly sent rockets into Maine, and America had blockaded them, what would we do if a bunch of yahoos sailed in to break the blockade?  I would hope we’d do the same thing and enforce our blockade in the interests of our national security. 

Perhaps the best comment I’ve seen on this came from Melissa Clouthier on Twitter, who said, “If the Israelis wanted to avoid an outcry over the #flotilla, they should have had the North Koreans torpedo it.” 

Indeed.  

Then there’s this:

The incident comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington after one of the most strained periods in US-Israeli relations in years.

Will our president back our long-term ally that is acting in the interests of its security or the terrorist Hamas and their bigoted provocateurs?