[THS] Neve Gordon: Piracy on the Blood-Red Sea

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

Choosing Evil

Piracy on the Blood-Red Sea

By NEVE GORDON
(Neve Gordon is an Israeli activist and the author of and author of Israel's
Occupation, University of California Press, 2008.)


"Why didn't they greet us with muffins and orange juice?" was my friend's facetious
question after listening all morning to the Israeli media's coverage of the assault on
the relief flotilla heading for Gaza, the navy assault that left nine citizens dead and
many more wounded. Like a group of pirates in the Mediterranean, the Israeli navy
attacked humanitarian aid ships in international waters, and yet Israeli officials and
commentators were totally surprised when the passengers did not receive them with
open arms. Going through the talkbacks on news sites, it seems that most Jews in
Israel were also taken a back.

Later in the day, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held a press conference, in
which he made two revealing declarations. First, he asserted that no country would
allow a foreign entity to threaten its sovereign borders. This claim, however, reveals
the basic lie regarding Israel's Gaza policy.

Israel has to decide once and for all whether or not it withdrew from Gaza in August
2005. If it did and Gaza is an autonomous entity as Israel claims, then the attempt on
the part of these humanitarian ships to reach the Gaza sea port is not an
infringement on Israeli sovereignty. If, on the other hand, Israel considers the
flotilla's entrance into Gaza's territorial sea line as a violation of its own sovereign
borders, then Israel needs to admit that it has never given up its sovereignty over
Gaza. Lieberman's statement discloses, in other words, that Israel has fashioned itself
as a unique creature in the international arena: the non-sovereign sovereign. When it suits its interests, the government claims that it has relinquished sovereignty over
Gaza, but when it does not, the government reasserts its sovereignty. Lieberman
should keep in mind that with sovereignty comes responsibility. Thus, if Israel was
indeed defending its borders yesterday morning then as sovereign, Israel is also
responsible for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip--for their livelihood as well as
their security.

Lieberman's second declaration was that the Israeli military is the most moral in the
world. No other soldiers, he said, would have dealt in such a forgiving way with the
people on board the ships.

Lieberman conveniently ignored the fact that according to international law the Israeli
soldiers were acting like pirates, since hijacking an unarmed humanitarian aid ship in
international waters is by definition piracy.

Moreover, his second observation is informed by the lesser evil argument; namely,
the Israeli military could ha ve been more brutal and chose not to. As the great
Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out, "Politically, the weakness of the
argument [for lesser evils] has always been that those who choose the lesser evil
forget very quickly that they chose evil."

Neve Gordon is an Israeli activist and the author of and author of Israel's Occupation
(University of California Press, 2008).