As brilliant as you suggest they are, I’m sure the flotilla organizers wouldn’t have been bringing in any missiles.
But there is no way that Israel can ever not have not missiles somewhere just beyond its borders. (This same is true for most countries.) The way for Israel to be secure and peaceful is to get along with its neighbors.
From that point of view, I can’t see how the present incident has done anything but increase the danger to Israelis.
But if the soldiers had come with the intention of firing live ammunition, why even get off the helicopter? Just fire away from above, well out of knife range. The fact that they exposed themselves to danger proves that they weren’t there for a gunfight.
Most Israelis believe (and with good cause) that its neighbors aren’t interested in getting along with them.
The fact that they arrived there with live ammunition shows that they were there for a gunfight.
Which all ultimately leads to this: if Israel wasn’t treating Gaza like a concentration camp and didn’t have such bizarre and random attitudes towards aid being allowed in then none of this would have happened. There would have been no need for an aid convoy if aid can get in via other channels.
Indeed, you’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s no reason to shoot yourself in the foot.
Just to be clear, this did take place 90 miles out into the Mediterranean.
I’d say that they have a lot of work to do, too. Peace requires two sides.
Well, your side is killing you.
Let me put it this way–are the people of Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt, as an aggregate, more or less interested in getting along with Israel today than they were yesterday? What made the difference?
I don’t know. If the blockade had been broken, Hamas equipped itself with tons of weaponry, launched an attack on Israel and forced Israel to respond - would things be any better?
Look, if Israel hurts Arabs then Arabs hate Israel more, because we look evil. If Arabs hurt Israelis then Arabs also hate Israel more, because we look weak. With Arabs, both positive and negative reinforcement has *exactly *the same effect - making war is a sign of cruelty and making peace is a sign of weakness. We can’t win, so the only thing we can do is look after our own interests and hope that eventually our neighbors decide to look after their own.
Anyway, this debate seems to be veering into a boilerplate SDMB Arab/Israeli debate, something I find as boring as fuck. Let’s stick to the matter at hand, shall we?
No, it shows that they were prepared for the possibility of a gunfight. You don’t assume a cop is out for your blood just because he’s armed, do you?
Usually the cop has a legitimate reason for being there.
The soldiers believed they had a legitimate reason for being there.
You, obviously, disagree. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
It doesn’t matter what the soldiers “believed”; they are employed to do a job regardless of what they believe. The only sort of person who could possibly agree with Israel’s actions here, is someone who has a vested interest in protecting Israel’s good name.
So in your narrow-mindedness, you are automatically precluding any chance of debate.
Thanks for stopping by. Now go away.
What do you want to “debate”, the rights and wrongs of boarding a ship 90 miles into international waters carrying humanitarian aid and killing ten unarmed passengers?
Tell me, is there any action taken by the state of Israel you won’t defend?
Is there any action taken by the State of Israel that you would?
Yes, including the right to defend itself.
But this isn’t about me. It’s about you defending the indefesible. Yet again.
What exactly wouldn’t you defend ?
Well, the Israelis were a little more restrained than the North Koreans. Perhaps the world should be thankful for that?
I’m narrow-minded? You and others like you are the ones who can’t see anything unless it reflects Israel in a good light. You are the same person who started out insisting that Israel had nothing to do with an assassination in another country, then later, when it was looking more and more likely that Israel had done it, turned around and tried to claim it as a success and a good thing because it was better to take out one enemy than to wage a war, or some such shit.
That’s like praising a heroin addict for saying, “Well, at least I don’t do PCP.”
They’ve got to do it you see, else they will be “pushed back into the sea”, and other 1970-era bullshit.