[THS] !!!!! Independent: Mark Steel: Of course, they were asking for it

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

Of course, they were asking for it

by Mark Steel

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-of-course-they-were-asking-for-it-1988684.html


It's time the Israeli government's PR team made the most of its talents, and became
available for hire. Then whenever a nutcase marched into a shopping mall in
somewhere like Wisconsin and gunned down a selection of passers-by, they could be
on hand to tell the world's press "The gunman regrets the loss of life but did all he
could to avoid violence." Then various governments would issue statements saying
"All we know is a man went berserk with an AK 47, and next to him there's a pile of
corpses, so until we know the facts we can't pass judgement on what took place."

To strengthen their case the Israelis have released a photo of the weapons they
found on board, (which amount to some knives and tools and wooden sticks) that the
naive might think you'd expect to find on any ship, but the more astute will recognise
as exactly what you'd carry if you were planning to defeat the Israeli army. It's an
armoury smaller than you'd find in the average toolshed in a garden in Cirencester,
which goes to show the Israelis had better destroy Cirencester quickly as an essential
act of self-defence.

It's a shame they weren't more imaginative, as they could have said "We also
discovered a deadly barometer, a ship's compass, which could not only be frisbeed at
someone's head but even had markings to help the assailant know which direction he
was throwing it, and a set of binoculars that could easily be converted into a ray-
gun."

That would be as logical as the statement from the Israeli PM's spokesman – "We
made every possible effort to avoid this incident." Because the one tiny thing they
forgot to do to avoid this incident was not send in armed militia from helicopters in
the middle of the night and shoot people. I must be a natural at this sort of
technique because I often go all day without climbing off a helicopter and shooting
people, and I'm not even making every possible effort. Politicians and commentators
worldwide repeat a version of this line. They're aware a nation has sent its militia to
confront people carrying provisions for the desperate, in the process shooting several
of them dead, and yet they angrily blame the dead ones. One typical headline
yesterday read "Activists got what they wanted – confrontation." It's an attitude so
deranged it deserves to be registered as a psychosis, something like "Reverse
Slaughter Victim Confusion Syndrome".

Israel and its supporters claim that Viva Palestina, made up of people who collect the
donated food, cement and items for providing basic amenities such as toilets, and
transport them to Gaza, wanted the violence all along. Because presumably they
must have been thinking "Hezbollah couldn't beat them, but that's because unlike us
they didn't have a ballcock and several boxes of plum tomatoes".

One article told us the flotilla was full of "Thugs spoiling for a confrontation", and
then accused them of being "Less about aid and more about PR. Indeed, on board
was Swedish novelist Henning Mankell." So were they thugs or about PR? Did they
have a thugs' section and a PR quarter, or did they all muck in, the novelist diverting
the soldiers with his characterisation while the thugs attacked them with a lethal spirit
level?

But some defenders of Israel are so blind to what happens in front of them there's
nothing at all they wouldn't jump to defend. Israel could blow up a cats home and
within five minutes they'd be yelling "How do we know the cats weren't smuggling
semtex in their fur for Hamas?"

If this incident had been carried about by Iran, or anyone we were trying to portray
as an enemy, so much condemnation would have been spewed out it would have
created a vast cloud of outrage that airlines would be unable to fly through.

But as it's Israel, most governments offer a few diplomatic words that blame no one,
but accept the deaths are "regrettable". They might as well have picked any random
word from the dictionary, so the news would tell us "William Hague described the
deaths as 'hexagonal'", and a statement from the US senate said "It's all very
confusing. In future let's hope they make every effort to avoid a similar incident."



Related articles

Flotilla attack 'completely unacceptable' says Cameron
Patrick Cockburn: PR dangerously distorts the Israeli sense of reality
Flotilla attack: 'First the shots, then the ship was turned into a lake of blood'
Video: Flotilla activists deported
Leading article: Hamas holds the key to aid for Gaza
Israeli mood: Support for attack is thin on the ground
International reaction: Turkey demands that Israel be punished
US reaction: Cracks appear in America's other special relationship
Letters: Flotilla
It's up to us to lift the blockade
Louise Arbour: Good may yet come of this tragedy for Gaza
Israel sends home last of flotilla activists