Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews Friday, June 4, 2010 The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers. But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets. In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry. Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza. Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel's inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas. Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that? But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel's fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself -- forward and active defense. (1) Forward defense: As a small, densely populated country surrounded by hostile states, Israel had, for its first half-century, adopted forward defense -- fighting wars on enemy territory (such as the Sinai and Golan Heights) rather than its own. Where possible (Sinai, for example) Israel has traded territory for peace. But where peace offers were refused, Israel retained the territory as a protective buffer zone. Thus Israel retained a small strip of southern Lebanon to protect the villages of northern Israel. And it took many losses in Gaza, rather than expose Israeli border towns to Palestinian terror attacks. It is for the same reason America wages a grinding war in Afghanistan: You fight them there, so you don't have to fight them here. But under overwhelming outside pressure, Israel gave it up. The Israelis were told the occupations were not just illegal but at the root of the anti-Israel insurgencies -- and therefore withdrawal, by removing the cause, would bring peace. Land for peace. Remember? Well, during the past decade, Israel gave the land -- evacuating South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. What did it get? An intensification of belligerency, heavy militarization of the enemy side, multiple kidnappings, cross-border attacks and, from Gaza, years of unrelenting rocket attack. (2) Active defense: Israel then had to switch to active defense -- military action to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (to borrow President Obama's description of our campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda) the newly armed terrorist mini-states established in southern Lebanon and Gaza after Israel withdrew. The result? The Lebanon war of 2006 and Gaza operation of 2008-09. They were met with yet another avalanche of opprobrium and calumny by the same international community that had demanded the land-for-peace Israeli withdrawals in the first place. Worse, the U.N. Goldstone report, which essentially criminalized Israel's defensive operation in Gaza while whitewashing the casus belli -- the preceding and unprovoked Hamas rocket war -- effectively de-legitimized any active Israeli defense against its self-declared terror enemies. (3) Passive defense: Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses -- a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished. But, if none of these is permissible, what's left? Ah, but that's the point. It's the point understood by the blockade-busting flotilla of useful idiots and terror sympathizers, by the Turkish front organization that funded it, by the automatic anti-Israel Third World chorus at the United Nations, and by the supine Europeans who've had quite enough of the Jewish problem. What's left? Nothing. The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence. The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution. source
Do they use pasta for making rockets? source I understand blocade because of arms smuggling (normal thing to do in this case!) but forbiding the rest to fllow into Gaza is just collective punisment of entire population and water on hamas mill. Edit to add: land for peace is a complete peace initiative and I cannot see how can it be partial done as Israel wants.
DID I READ A SENTENCE BY MOREPLAYERZ.COM THAT DISPLAYS ABILITY TO THINK WITH REASON? Now you are in contradiction. As the evidence show, Israel offered the flotilla ships to dock in Israel and supervise themselves the shipment of the goods into Gaza through the border crossing, the usual way. The flotilla rejected it, as their goal was to engage in violence and not deliver humanitarian aid. If you were a reasonable person and not a hater (which puts you the only American in a big group of DP users mostly composed of uneducated Muslim jew AND US-haters........), you would have said: "I have a lot of criticism towards the Israeli policy. But this flotilla was a flotilla of hate, as the only salient pieces of evidence from the event show. IDF soldiers who boarded the ship with toys expecting peace activists and thinking they could talk the terrorists out of it were brutally attacked and beaten almost to death in a preplanned lynch. Therefore, in this sole occasion, Israel: you have my sympathy". If you said that, I might have listened to what you have to say also on other issues. But maybe that's too much to ask from you.
Actually you are one of biggest haters around here. You are blinded by hate. You called me an idiot because of something that later on turned to be false. As I said: you are blinded by hate. You hate anyone who don't share your view. It's digusting how much you are blinded by hate. Seriously. And you are the one who took time to debunk article in theonion! muahahahahahahahahahahahaha Does anyone make bigger complete idiot of himself than that!
I find it entertaining that Moreplayerz, a person who is sympathetic to terrorism and mostly dishonest with his replies on DP, is afraid of the same people he supports. Let me quote him from another thread: Iv'e asked his honest opinion on the following thread: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1827841
You mean if you call me dishonest too many times it will become truth or what? As I can see you've learned a lot from Goebbels.
You've proven your dishonesty quite enough for me to call you dishonest. You've also proven that you sympathize with terrorism. Evidence shows that you choose to sit quietly and not express your opinion on matters such as this one: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1827841 And why? Because of cowardice. Man up, get a pair of balls and say what you really think instead of going around in circles all the time.
Why do you feel the need to spam every single thread that you post in? Can't you for once stay on topic? Just once? Carry on kid. Btw dfid you checked under your bed lately? Maybe there's a terrorist under it! And keep repeating your lies. Goebbels told you how to do that.
If I wasn't lazy I would have quoted some of what you have to say about fellow Americans, who happen to follow the jewish faith. And how it affect your political positions and perception of reality, especially about a country you known absolutely nothing about, called Israel. I never heard of the onion. The guy's thread looked like he's serious. He mislead me. I don't think that makes me an idiot certainly not more than seeing how you are not able to grasp simple points people try to make. If you can't see that ALL people who are on your side are also people who happen to hate America, I'm sorry for you.
Oh boy... I'll say it again: Man up, get a pair of balls and say what you really think instead of going around in circles all the time. No need to be a coward. I'm getting the feeling that i've hit some kind of nerve there
lol a keyboard warrior talking about beign brave! I rather beign called coward than put my kid in danger in any way so go ahead, have fun. Like the frigin' internet forum is more important than life of ma kid! Look whos talking about perception of reality! LMAO! A guy who called me an idiot for something that later on turned to be false only because he blindy follows what officials in his country said! A guy who actually took time to debunk an article in The Oninon?!? And you have guts to talk about reality! Seriously, if you are not so blined by hate you would at least sound like a ok person. Too bad you are the one who is blined by hate and didn't checked reality before making complete idiot of yourself. Should I quote when you called me an idiot? From now on don't expect me to respect you a single bit. Idiot.
It's even more bizarre that the Islamist and Leftist media have merged to the point where they have managed to convince a large number of morons in the Western world that the Israeli's building a fence to protect their children from being murdered is a violation of Muslim rights.