I am usually highly critical of Israeli operations, but that's because usually Israeli operations involve pretty much indiscriminate air raids and their troublesome expanding settlements. In Europe and the west generally opinions are divided on this on a 'left/right' basis, which is not the case at all in the actual region concerned.
I am behind the Israelis on this one. The Turkish ship that was boarded by commandos was, yeah, belonging to an 'aid' agency, the 'IHYV' to be exact which is linked to the Turkish government aaaaand what Turkish government is in power? The AKP are, who have an islamist agenda and are religious conservatives with an increasingly prominent undercurrent of anti-secular values. Just take a look at the photo on the aid agency's website of green flag waving 'people who care about the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza strip' (only because they're Muslim brothers though, otherwise they'de only be worth minimal sympathy, if that)
http://www.ihh.org.tr/
For some naiive left wingers to charge about blowing the horn for Hamas simply because they were democratically elected (just goes to show democracy should
not be the ultimate goal since when 80%+ of the electorate are tribalist peasants this is what you get) is somewhat ironic. The long-term goals of key supporters of the Palestinian cause are frightening should anyone think to research them a bit. Aside from the obvious ones like Iran, most noteably I am talking about the current Turkish government since they are so 'mild' on the surface. Some across the the Arab world are hailing the Turkish PM the new 'Nasser' of the Muslim world. For a Turkish leader to be associated with such a title is itself a virtual defeat of what the historic secular movement has worked for to set it apart from the seething bickering masses of the rest of the Muslim world.
I just don't get why supporters of Palestine can't suffice with simply being opposers of Israeli agression, since actively supporting such a volatile and religiously-rooted collection of pan-islamic champions of rhetoric and tribal based counter agression runs in total opposite to basic principles of the general liberal/left leaning of Palestinian sympathisers.
Back to the topic of the raiding of the ship though. The 600 or so mostly Turkish activists on board were and largely ARE not peace-seekers or harmless do-gooders which most Irish, American, German or whatever activists are. Seeing the ferocity with which they assaulted the Israelis with iron bars and clubs in their attempted lynching of them is proof enough. They, for the most part, are the offspring of Turkey's new governing elite, the hapless and largely witless minions of the 'pious' AK government and simply see Israel as an enemy and do so NOT on a primarily humanitarian basis but on a religious one. And that is VERY dangerous.
Let's also not forget that Hamas is essentially a terrorist organisation, so even if all cargo onboard had been mere foodstufs or medical aid, it would ALL have fallen into the hands of Hamas who would have dealt it out as they saw fit - perhaps selecting to feed their own 'islamic resistance movement' supporters and letting the supporters of their political arch enemies Fatah wallow in destitution, thus making the former more dominant, brutal and dictatorial and prolonging their civil struggle and the conflict with Israel even further... all thanks to innocent western lefty gangs banding together to give the 'people' aid.
Giving aid to a society ruled by people who will be ideologically selective about its distribution is not giving aid at all.
So Israel was right to apprehend the ships, right to defend themselves in the face of otherwise certain death at the hands of a lynch mob, and had they not been attacked, would have been right - or arguably wrong? (previous paragraph) - to let the presumably innocent cargo continue on it's route. Then again, seeing as this Turkish vessel had political ulterior motives behind it through its links to the tr government, I wouldn't have minded seeing the whole damn thing sunk.
