No one could of guessed that this position by the White House:
I’m told there won’t be any daylight between the US and Israel in the aftermath of the incident on the flotilla yesterday, which resulted in the deaths of 10 activists.
Regardless of the details of the flotilla incident, sources say President Obama is focused on what he sees as the longer term issue here: a successful Mideast peace process.
“The president has always said that it will be much easier for Israel to make peace if it feels secure,” a senior administration official tells ABC News.
Would change so quickly……right?
The Obama administration considers Israel’s blockade of Gaza to be untenable and plans to press for another approach to ensure Israel’s security while allowing more supplies into the impoverished Palestinian area, senior American officials said Wednesday.
The officials say that Israel’s deadly attack on a flotilla trying to break the siege and the resulting international condemnation create a new opportunity to push for increased engagement with the Palestinian Authority and a less harsh policy toward Gaza.
“There is no question that we need a new approach to Gaza,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the policy shift is still in the early stages. He was reflecting a broadly held view in the upper reaches of the administration.
~~~If there were no blockade in place, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Israeli television on Wednesday evening, it would mean “an Iranian port in Gaza.” He added, “Israel will continue to maintain its right to defend itself.”
~~~But the world powers have grown increasingly disillusioned with the blockade, saying that it has created far too much suffering in Gaza and serves as a symbol not only of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians but of how the West is seen in relation to the Palestinians.
“Gaza has become the symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we have to change that,” the senior American official said. “We need to remove the impulse for the flotillas. The Israelis also realize this is not sustainable.”
I have a feeling that there is definite “daylight” in between this policy and Israel.
All this does is allow the thugs and terrorists to get what they wanted when they set this incident up. In effect, ensuring that whenever Hamas feels like it they can get pressure placed on Israel by setting up one more violent encounter, blaming the Israeli’s and then waiting for Obama to come to their rescue.
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After all that, I wonder if I need to stop cursing at my computer. I think it set the filter on me. 😉
I don’t want to get into an endless go-round on this. It seems like additional efforts to explain my views on the situation have only resulted increased misunderstanding of what I was trying to say in the first place. Please consider the possibility that critical comments about specific policies or actions taken by Israel don’t automatically mean a person is anti-Israel, any more than expressing sympathy for certain aspects of the Palestinians’ situation makes a person pro-Hamas.
@antisocks: Since you’ve asked three questions, I’ll venture 3 opinions:
What could they have done differently? They could have isolated the uncooperative ship and approached it in full daylight. They could have refrained from lowering commandos into the middle of a crowded deck from a helicopter, which immediately created an uncontrolled flashpoint situation that was prone to rapid escallation. These were bad calls. I think the Israeli military is perfectly capable of stopping and disabling a non-military vessel without storming the decks. A blown off rudder or a slowly sinking vessel with time to take those onboard into custody wouldn’t have left Israel open to such strong public condemnation. As I indicated in another thread, I don’t assume for a moment that the only intention of the convoy was to deliver humanitarian aid. It was an obvious set up–at least on the part of some involved in the planning–calculated to create an incident that could be used politically. Some in the Israeli politicial and military chain of command don’t seem to have thought things through. I can only hope that Israel’s leaders recognize that mistakes were made. They stopped the damn ship, but they lost the round on points. World opinion matters. I don’t like to see Israel lose points.
Why is the Israel-Egyptian blockade of Gaza any less legitimate? I don’t know that it is any less legitimate. It may be a far less effective strategy, however, because of the way it’s being perceived internationally, and because there’s no clear point of resolution as there was with the Cuban missile crisis.
Why did the flotilla not simply pull into an Israeli port so that their humanitarian cargo could be trucked into Gaza by Israel? They could have done but didn’t, because it was a calculated set up. I have no doubt that some idealists onboard thought they’d break an “unjust” blockade non-violently, while others were obviously planning for exactly the sort of outcome that happened. My own thought is that Israel might need to narrow its list of proscribed materials, to deflate the assertion that they’re keeping essential items from a captive population that needs them. Their present approach is playing into the hands of propagandists.
GREG: hi, free speech for everyone,the ISRAELIES never expected such agression,as you mentioned,they try to pacified them as they expected to happen,but as you said it was organise and thoses on board wanted that confrontation to be made violent,thoses soldiers who where attack did not want the confrontation,this is the diffrence between the 2: you gave and many of you,on that way of reasonnig did,gave the benefit of the doubt, on the wrong side,where the peacefull side who showed restraint at the cost of being injured dangerously,where they might never fully recovered, thoses should unequivicly get the medals of bravoury,and the benefit of the doubt, from all the free world leaders, and their media: on a side note, THE UN should do their home work,and stop trying to imposes their view to teach the leaders how to expand to global vision; the countrys should take care of their own citizen as a priority of governing without being influence by the UN’s view. AS we see some are getting influence too much,for their capacity to do a right governing job at home. bye
@Greg…Thank you for being much more explicit in your comments. When you take the time to word things the way you did in answer to my questions, you come across as a tad more reasonable.
So to quote my dentist, “Now that wasn’t so bad was it?”
Textbook liberal. Blaming the victim. The jihadist wannabes prepared throughout the voyage to engage in a violent confrontation, but the Isarelis, “created an uncontrolled flashpoint.” Greg, you are a jackass.
You seem to think it is easy to stop a ship and throw out some options that may not have been available (not all rudders are visible above water). Sinking the vessel? Oh yeah, THAT would have gone over well. ISRAELIS SINK AID SHIP!
Look, the only way to stop that ship appears to have been by storming it. Despite being on the receiving end of lethal force, they refrained from returning the favor until they absolutely had to. Your trying to gratify your ego by blaming the Isarelis too is disgusting.
Way to blame the victim Greg. The Isarelies created a flashpoint? You are a jack*ss. You liberals and your ego gratification are repulsive to behold.
I did say he came across as only a “tad” more reasonable… LOL
OLD TROOPER: hi, i must tell this to you all the braves: this guy said; SO I”AM HEADIN’ DOWN
to the packie for a bee-ah and i take a littleshatcut trough the fish mahket, and I’m mindin my qwn business, naht lookin’ fah trouble, when alla sudden, this wicket monstah crab grahbs at me from dis tubbah ice, now I’m deaggin’ the suckah down the sreet, shakin’him offah me, whenthe gorto’s fisherman show up and tells me , I gottah give it bahck , the raht bahstid. OW THIS HURT
WICKED BAD. 🙄 bye come from google
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