Death of another ethnic cliche'...

[fpb]

...the clever, far-sighted Jews. The attack on the flotilla was the stupidest thing I have seen in my lifetime. THE STUPIDEST. It beats Arthur Scargill playing bull to Margaret Thatcher's matador by a mile - and I never thought I would live to see anything more stupid than that. It makes every Italian politician, inlcuding Pecoraro Scanio, seem like a positive genius by comparison. It is the abyss; if you made it up, nobody would believe you. The enemy lay a propaganda trap a child could have seen through - and the idiot Israelis fell straight into it. Anyone with half a brain would have left those seaborne morons alone. Sorry, I stand with the Jews, but a government that acts with such total folly when its very existence is at stake may well turn out to be too stupid to survive.

Comments

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

In many respects, I'm left with the impression that Israel is basically suicidal at this point.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Your link is haunting. Brrrrr.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Ditto with knobs on. And if anyone wanted another argument against abortion, there it is. As a fringe member of the disabled movement (my brother being a national leader), the last few sentences make me absolutely sick.

There is a basic problem within the Jewish body, which amounts to two or more antithetical bodies each trying to claim Judaism for itself. The liberal and reform Jews, and the secularized and atheistic Jews, hate the orthodox - who are a major presence in Jerusalem these days - so much that anything that they stand for is anathema to them. That is also why they regard with disgust and horror the Evangelical Christians who remind them of them. Having nailed their colours to the mast with this respect, they are committed to the horrors of abortion even where it should be obvious that it plays in the hands of their enemies - not only the famously prolific Muslims, but also the possibly even more prolific ultra-Orthodox of Jerusalem (who also account for much of the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories). Their numbers in proportion to overall Israeli population keep growing, and this only feeds further the detestation of their enemies - who are further confirmed in their destructive pattern of refusal. As a result, one day soon the West might be faced with an unrecognizably fanatical and religiously obsessional Israel, more like the worst of its enemies than the countries who should be its friend. And this dynamic is practically independent of international pressures; the hatred between ultras and liberals would burn as bright if they lived on the Moon.

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

Boy, am I glad I wasn't born in Israel. Let me rephrase that: I wouldn't be born...
Very disturbing.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Well, that being said, I don't really think it's the norm in Israel. They have paediatrics departments that save premature babies around the clock. It may be a fashionable trend, but I don't think it applies to the majority. Of course if you balance your report, it doesn't make for half as sensational reading...

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

Too true, being a(n almost graduated) journalist student I do realise that journalists want to “sell” their article(s) and mostly put the focus on the more sensational aspects / parts of the story.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

sevenorora is disabled - bifida, I believe.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Yours is the first comment on my flist I (unfortunately) agree with 100%. Stupid, stupid, stupid CUBED. And it's not as if the intentions of that sorry lot weren't clear from the outset.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

No, indeed. Actually, international Jew-bashing is getting to the point where it is actually transparent and, with any decent kind of response, ought to backfire. So why on God's green Earth do the one thing, the only thing, that would play straight into the enemy's hands?

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

But what could they do? Let themselves be walked over? Sometimes I think nobody is going to wake up until Holocaust MkII has happened, and then they will wring their hands for another sixty years and ask themselves how it could have happened. And the Jews in the diaspora will say "You sat here and demonised Israel over and over and over again whenever it took steps to defend itself and said nothing against the people attacking it, and now you ask yourself this?"

(Icon not directed at you, but I can't think of a better one. Regardless of who it applies to.)

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Well, just for starters they could have waited until the ship entered their territorial waters to board it.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

No, that would have made no difference to the Press. The fact is that, in terms of international law - and in spite of the foul lies of the Turks - a blockade is just as legal in international waters as anywhere else. The point is that whatever happened, the international press would have taken its line from Hamas and the Turks.

It's a matter of a cost-benefit analysis. They should have asked themselves what difference it would have made to admit a few tons of extra materials and a few dozen more haters to a place that already has the Devil's plenty of both; and, on the other hand, what difference it would make if they were sunk or (as in this case) suffer serious loss of life. I'm afraid the answer was obvious: let the morons through and let them enjoy the hospitality of their Gazan fellow morons.

There is a much bigger game being played, of which this was only a diversionary part. While the Turks sent these scum on their way, the UN Assembly, with the ignoble support of President Obama, was passing a resolution demanding a nuclear-free Middle East. This while the illegitimate government of Iran - which should have been under every kind of pressure for a long time now - is building its atom bomb, with the witting and above-board help not only of so-called NATO member Turkey, but even of Brazil! (Whose president Lula is the biggest disappointment in the recent history of mankind, a self-made union man who has turned out to be nothing but a complete empty vessel for all the worst "progressive" notions, plus a touch of anti-white racism which is an unpleasant novelty in Brazilian history.) By playing int the hands of the enemy, the Israelis have allowed this dangerous motion to pass nearly unnoticed - let alone Obama's literally treacherous part in it. I think of all the great political bastards from Richelieu to Andreotti and wonder whether they are turning in their various graves or laughing themselves stupid at the sheer folly of it all.

In fact, I am less pessimistic than you are. Neither you nor I nor anyone else who posted here counts in any way, shape or form as an extremist. I am firmly of the mind that lies in the long run lies fail; and in this case I can remember when I was completely bewildered and bamboozled by the commonplace media narrative. That being the case, the Israelis ought not to lose hope in their ability to make the truth stick.

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with you. The ship was indeed a provocation (I mean a humanitarian called the Free Gaza champagne) and they stepped with both feet in it. Very stupid indeed!

[notebuyer.livejournal.com]

Leaving the seaborne morons alone creates a gateway to the blockade. Israel remains humanitarian, and doesn't sink the ships. Perhaps it should have.

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

On the basis of "a 75mm shell across the bows to ask them to stop, fifty along the waterline to compel them"? Sounds fair, so long as everyone knows long before they start how the game is going to be played, but it's only possible for a small player like Israel when the superpower that backs you is willing to defend your harsh measures. The vibe I get from FPB is that Obama is not thus willing.

The only other option - crowding, nudging and bumping - isn't possible unless your ship is substantially bigger and faster than the one you're trying to stop. We're talking something the size of a large, modern frigate or destroyer here. Insofar as I am aware, Israel doesn't have such ships in its fleet.

(Icon not directed at you.)

[notebuyer.livejournal.com]

A government of Israel that expected the international press to report what happened, instead of falling into the first fax from the Palestinian newsdesk, would be ignoring reality. Jenin comes to mind: if it doesn't matter what the Israelis do, given that the press will report according to their preconcieved story line, they have license to do as they will. They pick a humane response, which is costly to them, not because anyone in the press will notice it, but because it reflects their values. And get criticized for it. Check out this article.

[panobjecticon.livejournal.com]

i've not seen anything that states whether they're seizing or returning the ships or not, have you?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I think they've been returned to Turkey, but I might be wrong.

[panobjecticon.livejournal.com]

pity. i'm inclined think they should've allowed them within the 20 mile zone and then seized the boats. that'd have created a disincentive for owners rather than bother trying to convert the opinions of those whose views are fixed. they were definitely right to board rather than sink them though.