...or could Isreal solve its problems by changing its name to East New Jersey?

If you ever wonder why the State of Israel has adopted a "go it alone we don't care what you think" foreign policy, check out the world reaction to the unfortunate shoot-out aboard the Marmara in the waters off Gaza on May 31.

Background: Since 2005 Israel, in compliance with the terms of the 1994 Oslo Accords, ceded administrative authority in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. That would be Yassar Arafat's Palestinian Authority who spent better than 40 years trying to add Israel to the list of extinct countries. (America and Rand McNally disapproved.) Anyway, to express its gratitude for being given this semi-autonomous region all to themselves, the Palestinians responded by electing the single most radical violent government this side of North Korea: Hamas. That newly minted government immediately began lobing mortars and rockets into western Israel. Unwilling to accept the Hamas explanation that these were just fireworks in celebration of their new government, the Israelis sent in the Army (more about this later). Peace was restored (sort of) however the Israelis were concerned that governments hostile to Israel ( a list that includes about everyone except Lichtenstein) might try to supply the Hamas government with some new exploding greeting cards. That is why the Israelis have been blockading Gaza ports.



Fast forward to the events of May 31, 2010. A flotilla of "aid ships" attempts to run the Israeli blockade. Israel responds with commandos who repel onto the deck of the Marmara. Ship's crew takes dim view of uninvited guests. Using clubs and pipes they ask the commandos to leave. The commandos, armed with paint ball rifles but loaded side arms (don't ask me. I never shot a paintball.) respond to this poor hospitality by shooting 14 crewmen. The resultant worldwide response was akin to that of the Holocaust. (Oh, wait! There was no worldwide response to the Holocaust.)



Of particular interest is the response from places like Gaza, Russia and Iran. If these countries are not careful they will exhaust the world supply of irony. For any country like Iran to accuse Israel of "state sponsored terrorism" would be funny if it weren't said so seriously. The president of Bosnia likened the blockade to the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. The difference in loss of life was a mere 10,000 to 11. In Bosnia anything can be compared to the siege of Sarajevo.



The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, expressed "shock". Considering the thousands who die each year in senseless wars in Africa over issues no one understands, Ban mustn't be easily shocked. Honestly, the United Nations created the State of Israel in 1947 and has spent the 63 intervening years apologizing for the decision. In all the years of debate in both the General Assembly and the Security Council, nary a good word is ever uttered about a country whose entire neighborhood is determined to negate its existence. Now more than ever we see that the UN exists entirely to afford a peanut gallery of countries the opportunity to express their worthless useless opinions. What a waste of valuable East Side real estate.



There is little doubt that the death of nine crewmen aboard the Marmara was avoidable and Israel probably could have handled things differently but, the forced outrage by world leaders is not only outsized it's outlandish. What did we hear when 46 South Korean sailors were killed when their ship was torpedoed by a genuine bad actor Kim Jong Il? Nothing. What was the British government's response to the murder of 11 oil rig workers when BP ignored safety precautions resulting in their horrific deaths? Crickets! It appears that world outrage is very specific and situational. If you want to kiss the collective asses of the Muslim/Arab world, piss on Israel. If you want to show your Muslim minorities that you really, really care about them, piss on Israel. If you want to appeal to the anti-American faction in your country but don't wish to aggravate Uncle Sam (and lose those foreign aid dollars) piss on Israel.
France has been less than useless in the debate over Iran. Japan has been less than no help in the confrontation over N. Korea. All any of these countries can agree upon is that it's safe to condemn Israel for anything. If there is a Hebrew word for pinata is should be sewn into the Israeli flag.

...or does the State of Israel neve seem to be in a state of grace with anyone?

So ask yourself; exactly how many rockets, fired from Mexico, would the government of the United States tolerate before arranging a military exercise south of the Rio Grande? How many missiles, falling on the civilian population of France, would the French consider a sufficient provocation for retaliation? How about the Germans or, the Brits? It would seem that any country receiving nearly continuous incoming ordnance from a neighboring state would respond almost immediately, and forcefully. The firing of rockets across a border into civilians is a reasonably unambiguous act not to mention extremely rude. This is not mere saber-rattling. This is aggression. So can someone please explain why, after years of provocation by the Hamas government of Gaza, Israel's military response paints them as the bad guys?



Any attempt to definitively assign white and black hats to the players in this morass is futile. Both sides have back-stories and both have some reason for indignation. Trying to decide who holds the moral high ground is difficult. Using the history of the region to chose a champion will only make your hair hurt. Every entity from the Romans to the Ottomans to the Brits to the UN have had a hand in stirring this soup and everyone has only made things worse. There doesn't even seem to be a clear consensus as to what makes a person a Palestinian. Whoever they are, there appears to be about 5.5 million of them in Israel and the territories and they aren't going anywhere.



Despite the fact that the Palestinians have shown no willingness to accept the reality of the State of Israel, their cause has gained some support worldwide. (Using terror as a weapon never worked as well for the IRA. Apparently blowing up Jews is still more acceptable than blowing up Englishmen.) Playing the poor, stateless, oppressed victims, Palestinians have convinced the Western World that they have grievances. The logic is perverse but compelling. Having spent the last 50 odd years doing nothing more productive than throwing rocks and bombs at Israelis, the Palestinians demand a sovereign state from which they can, without consequence, throw rocks and bombs at Israelis. Israel, as you might imagine, sees things a little differently.



Israel already feels victimized by the court of world opinion. Against their better judgement, the Israelis established a kind-of, sort-of, semi autonomous state for the Palestinians in Gaza in 2005. (Giving up some really sweet seaside property.) Given the right to elect a government, these brite lights rejected the PLO ( who in this perverse universe were the moderates) in favor of Hamas, sworn enemies of Israel. Predictably, this worked out about as well as having the NY Yankees play all their home games in Fenway Park.



Oddly enough, Israel objects to being the target of Iranian missiles lobbed over the border from Gaza. (They also object to Iranian missiles being lobbed over the border from Lebanon by Hezbollah but that's another story.) They have asked nicely for the Palestinians to knock it off. The Palestinians have demurred. Israel, predictably cranky from 50 years of this stuff, has sent its army into Gaza to stop the madness. While no one applauds the killing of civilians, the civilians are the problem. They are the ones voting for a government that's getting them killed. They are the ones providing milk and cookies for the guys firing the missiles. How hard is this? Stop shooting at Israel and they'll go home. It's difficult to have much sympathy for people who are causing their own destruction.



As of today, Israel has agreed to a cease fire. The Palestinians have agreed. Sadly, the Palestinian idea of a cease fire is "let's stop so we can reload". This crap will never end as long as the Palestinians insist on being the surrogate aggressors for Iran. It hardly matters whether your cause is just if you have no chance of succeeding. Israel is a fact. Deal with it. Become something besides a victim. Part of the reason that the United Nations put Israel in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean is that the property appeared vacant. You can fix this. You can decide whether yours is the culture of Omar Khayyam or Mullah Omar. Change! You can do it!



As for Western Europe, change out of your pink panties and stopped being shocked that a country, attacked without cause, would respond with force. Just ask yourself, what would you do in Israel's place...after you asked America for help?