Gaza Convoy: Israel Must Be Perfect

Here's a video, clearly produced with a bias toward Israel but nevertheless offering as vivid a summary as one can imagine as to why Israeli commandos used lethal force after boarding the ships of the so-called Gaza relief convoy.



If even some of this is correct, it reinforces something we've thought for awhile.

Much global reaction to Israel is grounded in old-fashioned antisemitism. Some of it is grounded in fatigue over the intransigence of Middle Eastern conflict. Some is pure contrarianism: the desire to take the side opposite that of one's peers.

But somewhere in the middle of all this is the belief that Israel can somehow preserve its life and limb while at the same time placating its fanatical Islamic opponents if it simply acts with optimal wisdom and discretion. How many pundits after the raid affirmed that Israel ought to monitor shipments into Gaza but carped that the Netanyahu government simply was going too far in doing that?

We think in this respect the Israelis are in large part the victims of their own success. From the Six Day War to the Yom Kippur War to the Entebbe Raid to the airstrike on Saddam's nuclear facility, Israeli intelligence and military forces established an impressive record, much to the relief of the world's democracies who stood on the sidelines while totalitarian regimes did what such regimes do.

Now, to do anything less than picture perfect is for Israel to fail.

We note that Ted Williams struck out 709 times in his major league career.