We are presently watching activists manipulate the media on Israel. It is not a real story, but one that has it’s aim to demonize Israel, who is the newest whipping boy of the activist left in Europe (replacing Bush and Global warming, I guess).
StrategyPage has the facts,

“…The donors of tons of supplies in the three cargo ships, could have landed the supplies at an Israeli port, and have them shipped legally into Gaza (where supplies arrive daily that way.) But the pro-Hamas activists want Israeli control over what goes in, or out, of Gaza, to be removed, so that terrorists can move weapons in and attackers out, at will…”

Both Israel and Egypt have been trying to prevent arms from being smuggled into Gaza, but “activists” moan about the poor people whose lives are wrecked by big bad Israel, not about Iran’s power move into Lebanon and Gaza. Which makes one wonder about Turkey’s involvement in the matter. Turkey, a member of NATO, is now best friends with Iran, yet historically they are enemies (Ottoman empire, anyone)?

And Israel, as expected, overreacted with troops attacking the ships. Yet one wonders: what it the alternative? If these ships got through, it would mean the end of a blockade, and a green-light to smuggle in more missiles and weapons.

So why isn’t anyone bothering to ask why “peace activists” are so eager to join groups that actively promote terror (at least against Jews and other infidels) when this escapade could easily start a war?

Never mind. It’s not about peace: it’s all about them.

As Brendan O’Neill at Spiked writes sardonically:

The flotilla incident confirms that for many bereft and confused politicians and activists over here, supporting Palestinians has become a shortcut to discovering a sense of urgent purpose and moral meaning. Palestinians are turned into the playthings of moral charlatans…In Europe in particular, shallow pro-Palestinian pity / anti-Israel sentiment is widespread, for various but always self-serving reasons. It unites the far left and the far right, with the left hoping to conjure up some profound feeling of anti-imperialist rage and the right trotting out the usual old rubbish about ‘evil Jews’.

And, of course, it allows them to ignore the really nasty wars, where intervension by the UN has done so little to stem, such as the one in the central African states, that has killed a couple million human beings over the last few years and continues to do so. But of course, if they bothered to do this, they might have to face the legacy of their colonial past, the failure of their countries to intervene to save lives, and the farce of UN peacekeepers who are too few and too poorly trained  to do much to stem the violence.

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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines.  She blogs about human rights at Makaipablog.