Israel Has Lost Its Mind—and Its Soul [View All]

[Better Believe It]

Israel Has Lost Its Mind—and Its Soul
By Matthew Rothschild
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
June 1, 2010

Israel long ago lost its mind—and its soul. That’s what occupation does to the occupier. Now we are merely witnessing the violent spasms of the irrational.

You cannot attack a humanitarian relief ship in international waters and kill at least 10 people and get away with it.

And Israel isn’t getting away with it.

Its act of lawless aggression against the Gaza relief ship, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 civilians, has sparked international outrage.

Protests have erupted all over the world.

Some of the largest have been in Turkey, where most of the people on the flotilla were from. Turkey used to be Israel’s best ally in the Muslim world.

You can forget about that now.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan denounced the act as a “bloody massacre” and as “state terrorism.”

And what did our President say?

Virtually nothing, even though there were American citizens aboard the ship that Israel attacked.

In a written statement, Obama expressed “deep regret” at the loss of life, but he didn’t name Israel as the aggressor. In fact, his only specific mention of Israel was to say that it’s treating some of the wounded in Israeli hospitals.

With this assault, Israel may finally have lost any hope of finding its moral compass or restoring its reputation. The invasion of Gaza seventeen months ago was a war crime. The embargo of Gaza is a war crime—an act of collective punishment causing astronomical levels of poverty, malnutrition, and joblessness.

It was this embargo that the flotilla was trying to break. The ships were carrying 10,000 tons of medicine, food, and building materials, along with toys and chocolate for the children of Gaza.

Read the full article at:

http://www.progressive.org/wx060110.html