Israel: Piracy on the High Seas

By S.P.SETH

Israel has created a hornet’s nest by landing its naval commandos’ on the peace flotilla carrying peace activists and supplies for the beleaguered Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has caused untold sufferings on Gaza’s 1.5 million besieged people. In the process of raiding Mavi Marmara, its soldiers have killed nine and injured 30 civilians on board this ship.

Israel contends that its commandos acted in self-defense when pounced upon by the civilians on board with sticks, knives, metal rods and a few pistols snatched from the soldiers. Be that as it may, it was certainly a case of overkill on the part of professional naval commandos to use lethal force against civilians on a relief mission for Gaza’s beleaguered residents.

The flotilla was on high seas entitled to innocent passage under international law. Even by Israel’s own admission, the only firearms that peace activists might have used against its soldiers were those snatched from its commandos. Which would mean that these civilians didn’t come prepared for any armed confrontation. In the circumstances, they tried to improvise as best as they could when faced with lethal force. They weren’t anticipating that the Israelis would be so stupid as to stage, what looked like, piracy on the high seas, with hostages taken and cargo confiscated.

As one Australian columnist wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald, “The Israeli attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla was an act of lethal stupidity. Lethal for its victims, stupid for Israel...” Like the columnist, Mike Carlton, the flotilla’s peace volunteers too didn’t think that Israel would be that stupid. But arrogance breeds stupidity. With the unswerving support of the United States, Israel has come to believe that it is the real superpower, and it doesn’t need to follow international law. The United States has always saved it from its aggression, excesses and follies and it is quite confident that it will do the same now.

However, lately, there has been some minor change in the situation. First, of course, is Obama’s election as US President. He has been keen on a making a new start with the Islamic world, as articulated in his speech in Cairo, not long after he became the country’s President. But, unfortunately, there hasn’t been much headway in that direction. Israel has even managed to effectively veto Obama’s initiative to start the peace process between it and Palestine for a two state solution.

The fact of the matter is that Israel is not interested in an independent and sovereign state of Palestine. The charter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party clearly rejects the idea of a separate Palestinian state. It says, “The government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state…” Their only accommodation of Palestinian aspirations is that “they can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state.” And it elaborates, “Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel’s existence, security and national needs.”

However, even with Obama’s limited and, so far, ineffective, initiative to involve Israel in a dialogue with the softer (Fatah) version of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, there is virtually no forward movement. The Hamas in Gaza is, of course, is excluded from any such proposed peace dialogue, as it has been dubbed a terrorist organization.

The irony is that President Obama, even with his extremely cautious advocacy of a peace dialogue, has come to be regarded by many Israelis, and some in the Israeli government, as anti-Semite and pro-Arab. Therefore, even though President Obama, like other US Presidents before him, is always assuring Israel of US commitment to its security, he is somehow not considered in the same league as his predecessors. From the viewpoint of Israel’s paranoia, this is an important negative change for them.

Another important change, lately, has been a gradual shift in Turkey’s policy in regard to the Gaza issue. In fact, a Turkish charity has played a leading role in organizing the “peace flotilla”. Turkey is a long-standing member of the Western alliance, and has been a close friend of Israel. Indeed, it was going to take part in joint military exercises along with Israel and Greece; now shelved by Turkey because of the killings of its citizens by Israeli commandos. Turkey copped all the nine fatalities (one of the nine killed was an American citizen of Turkish descent) in the Israeli raid on the flotilla. Turkish-Israeli relationship, strained already over Palestine, is now gravely damaged after the killings of its citizens on Mavi Marmara.

Turkey has been considered by the United States over the years as a model Muslim majority state worthy of emulation by other Islamic countries. But with the Turkish-Israeli relationship in a free fall, the United States finds itself in a terrible quandary, having to tread delicately between its two close allies. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has said that the Gaza blockade is unsustainable and that an investigation into the flottila tragedy is warranted. It is a change of sorts for the United States, though not with much content in the absence of a concrete follow up plan and concerted pressure on Israel.

Israel lives in a world of its own as an eternal victim, even when it is the perpetrator. Anyone and everyone critical of the state of Israel is either anti-Semite, an enemy of Israel or a terrorist. By this definition, all its Arab neighbors are actual or potential enemies. In this sense, Israel has a security problem, unlike any other country. Which entitles them to special security provisions, like the possession of nuclear weapons as well as the occupation and settlement of neighboring Arab territories from where the security threat might arise.

From Israel’s viewpoint, the occupation of Palestine is, therefore, not only an imperative historical necessity because it was part of the Biblical Israel of 2000 years ago, but it is also a security imperative to keep the Biblical land safe. By this logic of forward defense, Israel might soon be laying claim to other Arab lands as part of its ongoing sacred mission. Israel, therefore, can’t understand why so many people in the world just get stuck with such peripheral issues, like the blockade of Gaza.

This is the crux of the problem. Israel has a larger than life image. The eternal victim wants to create an eternal kingdom with no known dangers lurking around. This is a state of mind and not ground-based reality. How it will eventually work, nobody can tell. But, in the meantime, it is incumbent to keep the pressure on for the lifting of Gaza blockade, as well as for a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue.