Andrew Sullivan, in response to reports of activists attacking Israeli soldiers as they boarded their aid ship:
A simple point. The violence by the activists is pretty abhorrent. These are not followers of Gandhi or MLK Jr. But the violence is not fatal to anyone and it is in response to a dawn commando raid by armed soldiers. They are engaging in self-defense. More to the point: they are civilians confronting one of the best militaries in the world. They killed no soldiers; their weapons were improvised; the death toll in the fight is now deemed to be up to 19 – all civilians.
It staggers me to read defenses of what the Israelis have done. They attacked a civilian flotilla in international waters breaking no law. When they met fierce if asymmetric resistance, they opened fire. And we are now being asked to regard the Israelis as the victims.
Seriously.
This is like a mini-Gaza all over again. The Israelis don’t seem to grasp that Western militaries don’t get to murder large numbers of civilians because they don’t like them, or because they could, on a far tinier scale, hurt Israelis. And you sure don’t have a right to kill them because they resist having their ship commandeered, in international waters. The Israelis seem to be making decisions as if they can get away with anything. It’s time the US reminded them in ways they cannot mistake that they cannot.
Gosh, why would the Israelis think that they could get away with anything? http://www.gtr5.com/
Commandos versus kids. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I’d say the Israeli World War II guilt ticket is all punched out.
“They attacked us so we killed them, Bwaaaaahhhhhhh!”
This is the neocon element that has infested the govt over there. Bibi Netanyahu’s people.
You sure have that right!!! Rahmie must be one, LIEberman, Kissenger, Chertoff, Brown, Boxer, someone had a list up on one of the blogs of the BOUGHT congrescritters. I say the US is an occupied country …………………………..then on top of the bought/paid for, there’s WALLSTREETGANGSTA’s.
Wait a minute there, Andy, the US can kill as many innocent civilians as it wants…just as long as the dead about under the magic number of 30. All in the cause of “taking out” one or slightly more guys designated as “bad” by…us.
Why should the Israelis think they can’t get away with stuff like this? And assaulting peaceably demonstrating women with tear gas canisters? Just lose an eye; hell, people are killed this way by the IDF.
This is the way it should be.