Apologize this!

Victor Davis Hanson is a splendid historian--he wrote, among other things, A War Like No Other, about how the Spartans and Athenians did Greek civilization to death. He is also a bit of a right-winger--he writes for, among other venues, Pajamas Media. What set him off yesterday was the Turkish ambassador's demand that Israel apologize for its attack on that ferry running the Gaza blockade:

"If anyone might be offering apologies, it should be Ambassador Tan, or at least an explanation for why a ship left a Turkish port headed for a planned confrontation. A ship, it should be added, staffed in large part by the Insani Yardim Vakfi organization, which according to American and European intelligence chiefs is a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda — an apparent conclusion that formerly a Turkish government used to share when it periodically raided the IHH’s compounds.

"But on a larger point, the sanctimonious tone of Tan’s piece is depressing. Turkey currently quite illegally and against world opinion sponsors the occupation of Cyprus. Nicosia is a far more divided city than Jerusalem. The Turkish government has killed far more Turkish Kurds than the Israeli government has Palestinians; it has zero tolerance for foreign human rights organizations that have wished to investigate the treatment of Kurds in Turkish prisons."

Emphasis mine. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Rachel Corrie redux

The Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie, named for a silly American who thought she could stop a bulldozer, has been seized and diverted to an Israeli port. The Irish government and the Israelis had previously agreed that the boat would come into port voluntarily for its cargo to be inspected, but the "activists" who are running the operation predictably refused. Martyrdom is their goal, after all. But the passengers and crew disappointed them: there was no resistance.

This time, Israel says it will let the previously banned construction materials (cement, mostly) go through to Gaza. If that's meant to placate Nicolas Sarkozy and the UN Human Rights Council, I doubt it will have much effect. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Good news from Columbia

Congratulations to the people of Colombia, who have set Juan Manuel Santos on the road to the presidency. Unlike some of the despots who receive abrazos from the Washington establishment (Hugo Chavez comes to mind, as does the would-be despot Manuel Zelaya), Colombia's president will duly step down when his term is finished, and the voters will have the opportunity to name his successor. How refreshing! Sr. Santos is well ahead in polling for the June 20 election after winning a solid plurality in the runoff earlier this week.

I missed this bit of news, since the front page of the New York Times (and indeed the Wall Street Journal) was otherwise occupied this week. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Thanks, but no thanks

True to its original offer, Israel has sorted out the "humanitarian" aid from the intercepted Turkish ferry and sent it on to Gaza. One problem: the Gazans have refused to accept it.That figures. The blockade running was never about relieving a "humanitarian crisis"; it was about giving Israel a black eye, and with the help of western media (and western leaders in desperate need of something other than their own failures to talk about) it has succeeded brilliantly.

Not that you'll hear about it on CNN, but the issue here is construction materials--that's what Hamas wants, and that's what the ferry was delivering in large quantity. The wheelchairs are just window dressing. Either Israel resists, and gets condemned by the likes of Turkey (which meanwhile is persecuting Kurds, and which not long ago was massacring  Armenians). Or else Israel lets the stuff go through, and it will be used to build bigger and better smuggling tunnels and rocket launchers ... and the guns next time. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

On taking a ship with paintball guns

Aviation Week has a hard-headed comment on the Israeli landing on that Turkish ferry--or perhaps I should say, on the day Israeli took the bait the Turks and Gazans had laid for it. In particular, the writer gives a vivid description of the initial drop, and one you're unlike to hear on CNN:

As each commando, armed only with paint guns, rappelled down the from a helicopter, he was immediately besieged by a violent crowd, beaten, stabbed and assaulted with flying objects. Some were pushed down into the hold and stripped of their anti-flak vests first. Only when reinforcements boarded the ship were weapons used to disperse the furious chaos, which raged uncontrolled aboard the ship's upper and lower decks.

Paint guns!  It's easy to second-guess men in combat (because that's what they were in, armed only with toys), so let's just say that the vaunted Israeli intelligence service seems to have dropped the paint-ball on this one. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Fast roping 101

I don't know where he found it, but Abu Muqawana has a wonderfully graphic comment on the IDF's botched assault on the Martyrdom Flotilla. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

From Gaza to YouTube

I would have wished for more detail, but it does seem pretty clear from this IDF video that there was a quite a riot aboard that Turkish-sponsored cruise ship trying to run the blockade off Gaza. One of the Israeli marines was almost certainly "thrown to a lower deck," as it's generally phrased--thrown off a roof onto a parking lot, in landlubber's terms. Nobody seems to be asking the obvious question: whatever happened to passive resistance? "They are people who seek martyrdom for Allah, as much as they want to reach Gaza, but the first is more desirable," in the words of one admirer. 

Max Boot has some sensible thoughts on this debacle. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford