Was it Humanitarian Aid or just another Public Relations Campaign?

by Gordon Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, June 10, 2010

When the majority of the “civilized” world joins arms and sings a common tune, we should all stand up and join in, right? I mean, after all, we all strive for unity above discord and cooperation above competition, right? Well, my friends, it seems that almost every nation is singing the same song these days and the chorus goes something like this: Israel massacred innocent people on the high seas; the ship boarded by the Israelis was part of a “Peace Flotilla” and its only mission was to deliver much needed humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza.

Well, before I join my voice in singing along, I have to ask a few rhetorical and a few not-so-rhetorical questions. To explain, rhetorical questions, according to my dictionary, are meant to elicit an effect, but not necessarily a response from the hearers/readers. However, some of the following questions are open for response and I welcome any reader who believes she/he has the proper answer to please respond.

1. It is always a good practice to “follow the money” when faced with alternative accounts of a story, for to determine who has gained or lost in the exchange usually determines who is at fault and who is the victim in the event. Therefore, to alter the above policy slightly, I would ask us to “follow the best interest”. My question then is this: In who’s best interest was the outcome of the attempted effort to break the Israeli blockade? i.e. Who would gain or lose in the Public Relations battle?

2. If the sole intent of the organizers of the flotilla was to deliver humanitarian aid, why did they not follow commands to dock at the southern Israeli port and have their cargo inspected and loaded onto Israeli trucks and delivered into Gaza – just as over 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid is delivered each week?

3. A corollary to the above question, if it was concern for the suffering Palestinians in Gaza and not a resurging flood of anti-Semitism that drove these organizers to action, why would they not compel the Hamas leadership to “cease and desist” from launching missiles (over 10,000 since Hamas took over Gaza in 2005) into Israel and commit to peaceful coexistence, as Egypt has?

4. If Israel really wanted to commit massacre and mass homicide on the high seas as Turkish leaders claim, why did they do such a lousy job of it? i.e. Why kill “only” nine people when they could have easily, and without risk to their soldiers, blasted every ship out of the water?

5. If they really wanted the residents of Gaza to suffer and die a slow, painful death by starvation, as UN inspectors seem to claim, why would Israel continue to truck aid to Gaza on a daily basis? During the first three months of this year, for example, 95,000 tons of supplies have found their way via Israeli trucks into Gaza, including 48,000 tons of food products, 40,000 tons of wheat, 2,760 tons of rice, 1,987 tons of clothing, and 553 tons of powdered milk and baby food.

6. If Israel abandons the use of blockade (which, by the way, we Americans have used repeatedly against our former enemies in Japan, Germany and Cuba) to protect themselves from Hamas’ rocket attacks, what defense is left to them? They have been criticized in the international community when they took an active defense (the use of military action to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the enemy, by the way, if those words sound familiar, they are the tactics approved by Obama against the Taliban and al-Qaeda) approach in attacking hostile forces in the Lebanon War of 2006 and in Gaza in 2008 – 2009. They have followed recommendations from U.S. presidents and Secretaries of State in the past and surrendered land for peace, and received no peace; instead, hostilities have only increased.

7. Why do we even have a nation of Israel? And why are they so hated? Of all the ethnic groups that have the ability to trace their origin and retain their ethnicity, why are the Jews still around when multiple times in their history they have been specifically targeted for extinction by great military minds such Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hitler and others? Why have they returned to the land of their ancestors?

8. If I could show you a book that would answer that last question for you, would you be interested in reading it?

The book was written by a man who saw the scattering of the Jewish nation among all the other nations of the earth and he foresaw the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews as well, but he also foresaw the re-gathering of the Jews upon their soil of Jerusalem. The author was a man named Ezekiel, the book was written in 600 B.C. and it can be found anthologized within a book that has many other answers for your life. I highly recommend it to you.