Odds are 100 to one that you, and all of the other treasured readers of The Register wherever you may be, know that Al and Tipper Gore have separated and may divorce after 40 years of marriage. What a shame, you all thought. The world isn’t quite the same, with that idyllic love match gone sour.
What’s lasting anymore?
Perhaps the Rock of Gibraltar and the deadly struggle between Israel and the Palestinians both qualify.
On the day before the Gores broke the news that they had grown apart, Israeli commandos boarded a ship headed for a Gaza port and killed nine. The ship was owned by Turkey, manned by Turks. It was in international waters when attacked.
Israel’s decision to use deadly force to stop the relief flotilla from landing in Gaza:
— Threw cold water on talks between Israel and the Palestinians that the Obama administration has been conducting in shuttle fashion for months.
— Ruptured relations between Turkey and Is-rael, making it infinitely more difficult for Israel to have fruitful relations with any Moslem nation. Tur-key had been Israel’s lone ally in the Moslem world.
— Erected still another barrier between the United States and the nations of the Middle East.
— Isolated Israel still further from the nations of Europe, and whatever allies remain on its side elsewhere in the world.
And, yes, how Israel reacted to the relief flotilla will have a negative effect on every American be-cause it will delay the resolution of problems in the Middle East for goodness knows how many more months, years, decades.
Think threat of a nuclear Iran; think new wars that demand new troops from the U.S.; think gas prices.
WAS THE GAZA relief flotilla a deliberate provocation of Israel?
Of course.
The Palestinian activists who persuaded Turkey, Syria, Iran and others to bankroll the effort to break the blockade wanted to call worldwide attention to the misery the Israeli/Arab blockade is causing in Gaza by provoking Israel into a violent over-reaction.
They probably didn’t expect commandos to board a ship — particularly not a ship bearing a Turkish flag — and start killing. But the bloodshed was a public relations bonanza for them.
President Barack Obama had no choice but to call for an immediate, impartial investigation by the United Nations.
He should do more than that. He should also call for an immediate end to the embargo and make it clear that the United States does not agree that keeping 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza hungry and dependent on charity, denying them access to much of what every society needs to maintain itself at a level of decency, is acceptable conduct for an ally of ours.
Hamas, to be sure, has asked for harsh treatment by denying the right of Israel to exist and continuing to fire rockets onto Israeli soil. But the blockade has not altered those behaviors. To the contrary, it has only given the leaders of Hamas an excuse to continue them and to use the blockade and the damage it does to whip up anger and hatred.
U.S. policy should not take sides between Hamas and the conservative Is-raeli government. Our goal is not to see one of these combatants overwhelm the other. It is to create a working, two-nation truce that has a chance to grow into a lasting peace.
We should make it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States is not joined at the hip to Israel, is not willing to be its primary international apologist re-gardless of how reckless its actions.
The interests of the United States will not be well served until Israel makes productive peace with its Arab neighbors, Palestine in particular. Up until now, Israel has shown no willingness to make the compromises peace will require.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
