Friday, June 24, 2011

Sailing to Gaza

Howard Jacobson has written a really penetrating explanation about what's wrong with the Gaza Flotilla -- even though the participants claim "good intentions." On CNN: "Why Alice Walker Shouldn't Sail to Gaza."

Best quote:
"Even before the deed, Alice Walker has her language of outraged moral purity prepared -- 'but if they insist on attacking us, wounding us, even murdering us...' The Israeli response is thus already an act of unprovoked murder, no matter that the flotilla is by its very essence a provocation. Whatever its cargo, by luring the Israeli military into action which can be represented as brutal, the flotilla is engaged in an entirely political act. To call it by any other name is the grossest hypocrisy.

"Alice Walker might be feeling good about herself, but by giving the Palestinians the same old false comfort we've been doling out for more than half a century, and by allowing the Israelis to dismiss it as yet another act of misguided and uncomprehending adventurism -- further evidence that its fears go unheeded - her political gesture only worsens the situation. The parties to this conflict need to be brought together not divided: but those who speak disingenuously of love will engender only further hatred."

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