Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, says what the commandos did was lunatic and self-defeating.
We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege, which is itself becoming Israel’s Vietnam.
We were determined to avoid an honest look at the first Gaza war. Now, in international waters and having opened fire on an international group of humanitarian aid workers and activists, we are fighting and losing the second. For Israel, in the end, this Second Gaza War could be far more costly and painful than the first.
Perhaps most ominously, in a stepwise, lemming-like march of folly in our relations with Ankara, a regional power of crucial importance and one which, if heeded, could have helped head off the First Gaza War, we have come dangerously close to effectively declaring a state of war with Turkey.
Turkey has long been an ally of Israel. That may be gone now. Most of the dead are Turkish nationals.
Take a step back and look at this again: If Israel goes to war with Turkey, then the U.S. will be forced to choose between them. Will we choose a fairly moderate but Islamic nation, or will we continue to stand behind Israel?
Past history suggests that Israel may prevail upon us– effectively driving a wedge between us and one of OUR few Islamic allies, continuing the polarization sought by Jewish and Christian extremists, and precipitating the Holy War some of them believe is necessary.