1 June 2010
Why The Israeli Raid Is A Big Deal
Posted by Connor under: Foreign Policy .
Early Monday morning, Israeli commandos took control of a flotilla of ships attempting to deliver aid supplies to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel’s blockade of Gaza ports. The boarding and subsequent violence that killed 9 people occurred in international waters.
So, this is kind of a big deal and one way or another is going to have a long-term impact on things in what used to be called, the Near East.
Video provided both by the protesters and by the Israeli Defense Forces shows that the pro-Palestinian activists on board the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, were not offering mere passive resistance to the IDF. On the other hand, they were civilians on board ships in international waters being illegally boarded by Israeli soldiers and they had a right to self-defense even if such was near-suicidal.
For everyone who does not closely follow the always-convoluted-anyway threads of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, here is why this is a big deal.
First the PR and International Perception Angle. Despite the treatment of the IDF commandoes on the Turkish ships, the whole affair comes off as heavy-handed and an overreaction. Since the Gaza incursion followed the disastrous Goldstone Commission report which accused Israel of war crimes, Israel is beginning to lose the critical was of international opinion with regards to its “Palestinian problem.”
Comparisons (not good ones) are already being made to the 1947 seizure of the “Exodus” ship by the British that was pivotal to turning worldwide perception of the Zionist cause towards the establishment of the state of Israel.
Israel is already fighting against a creeping international perception that it is slouching its way to becoming an apartheid state. If the Palestinians can finally take the hint from this incident and begin to work its way towards engaging in a serious, systematic campaign of non-violent non-cooperation against the occupation then this will be a game-changing moment.
Second, Turkey is one of the few friends Israel has in the region. The two nations conduct $2.5 billion in trade and until recently had close military ties. But relations have frayed since the 2008 military incursion into Gaza. Turkey is a member of NATO. An attack by a non-NATO member on a NATO member’s ship on the high seas could — if it was wished to be seen as such — be construed be an act of war, obliging the member nations of NATO to come to Turkey’s assistance.
This won’t happen (yet?). But look at it this way: What if the flotilla had been pro-democracy protesters approaching Iran (or Burma) and had been attacked by forces from that nation? You would have a difficult time finding anyone willing to criticize Turkey if it wanted to take a hard line. And as long as we’re talking tiptoeing around the subject let’s just state for the record that Turkey has a real, western-type military (unlike, Syria, Jordan, Iran, etc.) and would present serious problems for Israel if push started coming to shove.
Mixed up in all of this is the ever-present tension between the moderate Islamic civilian government of Turkey, led by Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the steadfastly secular and Israeli-leaning Turkish military.
AS OF LATE MONDAY: Turkey has recalled its own ambassador from Israel but has not yet expelled Israel’s ambassador in Akara.
There have been a few reports that Turkey is threatening to escalate things by escorting another convoy with Turkish naval vessels but I have not seen that anywhere in the western press yet. ( Note: That report has been edited to remove reference to potential Turkish escalation. Original citation here)
Late Monday, the U.N. Security Council condemmed the attack. Turkish and other Arab nations wanted a sterner statement but the U.S. provided the necessary cover for Israel (as usual) and got the resolution watered down somewhat. Do assume that our general weariness of flack-catching for this kind of stuff is being rather forcefully conveyed to the Israeli government.