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June 5, 2010
Despite the process of delegitimization of Israel that is happening, I've pretty much given up on the peace process in the Middle East as the Israeli siege of Gaza becomes the hot-button issue in the Muslim world.
The Israeli propaganda machine, official and private, has been running full throttle in the last few days justifying the assault on the Mavi Marmara ferry that was part of the aid convoy to Gaza. The slaughter of civilians is justified as a military necessity or somehow the fault of the other side. Opponents are demonised as bloodthirsty terrorists or terrorist-lovers (meaning: anyone who opposes Israeli policy). An alternative account from those on board.
Martin Rowson
This Israeli propaganda--is there any other word for it?---which is recycled by the Australian Israeli lobby has failed to prevent the focus of global attention on the blockade of the Gaza strip. Israel is determined to maintain control of Gaza even if the consequences of the commando-raid--- in which nine of the on-board activists were killed and thirty wounded - results in the fracturing of the relationship between Turkey and Israel.
Turkish-Israeli relations have been deteriorating since the IDF’s assault on Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009; Turkey’s relationships with Iran and Syria have improved concomitantly.
In his Israel: the Alternative essay in the New York Review of Books (2003) Tony Judt argued that modern Zionism was manifestation of 19th-century ethnic nationalism, which he judged increasingly inappropriate to the post-modern, globalized world of the 21st century. Israel was increasingly an "anachronism," and he suggested that a brighter future lay in replacing Zionism's ethno-religious exclusiveness with a more inclusive liberal democracy. In other words, Israel should evolve into a multi-ethnic liberal democracy instead of remaining an explicitly "Jewish state."
The problem with Israel, in short, is not—as is sometimes suggested—that it is a European “enclave” in the Arab world; but rather that it arrived too late. It has imported a characteristically late-nineteenth-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a “Jewish state”—a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded—is rooted in another time and place. Israel, in short, is an anachronism.
Israel has become even more of a Jewish state since 2010 as the embrace of Zionism's ethno-religious exclusiveness becomes ever tighter as Israel increasingly and clearly moving to the right---eg., the Israeli Foreign Minister's (Avigdor Lieberman) crusade to humiliate, disenfranchise, and perhaps even eventually expel Arab Israelis. and the Prime Ministers (Benjamin Netanyahu) deep-seated hostility to a Palestinian state.
The US is still Israel's friend, in that it is reflexively supporting Israel against near-universal international criticism over the blockade of Gaza and its attack on the aid convoy. However, if Obama is to rebuild relations with the world's Muslim communities post Bush, then he needs to address the ongoing blockade of Gaza and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
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William Hague, British Foreign Secretary, makes the following statement following the peaceful interception of the Rachel Corrie:
"I am glad that the interception of the Rachel Corrie has been resolved peacefully. As I set out in the House of Commons last week, we want to see a full, credible, impartial and independent investigation into the events surrounding last week's interception of the Gaza flotilla, which resulted in the tragic deaths of nine people. We continue to stress to the Israeli government the importance of an investigation that ensures accountability and commands the confidence of the international community, and includes international participation.
"We urgently need to see unfettered access to Gaza to meet the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza and to enable the reconstruction of homes, livelihoods and trade. That is why we continue to press the Government of Israel to lift Gaza's closure. I am also discussing these issues urgently with our international partners - including during my visits to European capitals in the next few days."
NOTE WELL the words: " .. an independent investigation that includes international participation"
The world needs to know, and quickly, why nine unarmed civilians were shot at point blank range by armed troops who had illegal boarded a ship in international waters.