Hrm......
Surprised this hasn't shown up here. For those who don't know the UN recently ruled that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is in fact a blockade (meaning an act of war) and that the flotilla that attempted to run it was in fact justifiably halted though the methods were a bit clumsy and poorly handled. I think that's a fair way of looking at it. Running blockades is a hazardous business and militaries are fully justifed in stamping it out, it is after all a tool of war.
The interesting result of it is that http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/turkey-set-to-sign-military-pact-with-egypt-after-cutting-trade-ties-with-israel-1.382955 Turkey and Egypt appear to be forming a joint anti-Israeli bloc. The problem here is that at one point the Egyptian military dictators and Turkey's own military dictators were in fact staunch allies of Israel. The recent Lebanon war has shown that Israel's military power is not what it used to be, and there is an extent to which its own actions appear to be making it more isolated than ever, as at the same time there's the large protests mentioned in these two articles:
http://www.forward.com/articles/142437/
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/israel-protests-social-justice
So to recap, Israel's allies are steadily moving away from the alliances, partially because the factions that were allied with Israel were nasty, brutish, and dictatorial and democratic movements will at least initially be anti-Israeli for the damn good reason that the dictators were friendly with Israel and thus the populace will want to do something else for a while. Hosni Mubarak and Anwar Sadat recommending friendship with Israel in Egypt is not a good PR for the pro-Israel crowd there, for an understatement. At the same time as this is going on Israel's army seems to be losing its golden touch and the Israeli state under Netanyahu has demands for social justice that can only further impair its military sector.
Does anyone see a way any of this can end well? I do not, I think that this is one case where the Turks are simultaneously right to be aggrieved Israel would not even make a perfunctory apology about the methods used, but at the same time the Israelis are right to claim that running blockades is not a good idea and they have the right to stop it, and that greater isolation for Israel benefits nobody in the Middle East, particularly not either Israelis or Palestinians.
The interesting result of it is that http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/turkey-set-to-sign-military-pact-with-egypt-after-cutting-trade-ties-with-israel-1.382955 Turkey and Egypt appear to be forming a joint anti-Israeli bloc. The problem here is that at one point the Egyptian military dictators and Turkey's own military dictators were in fact staunch allies of Israel. The recent Lebanon war has shown that Israel's military power is not what it used to be, and there is an extent to which its own actions appear to be making it more isolated than ever, as at the same time there's the large protests mentioned in these two articles:
http://www.forward.com/articles/142437/
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/israel-protests-social-justice
So to recap, Israel's allies are steadily moving away from the alliances, partially because the factions that were allied with Israel were nasty, brutish, and dictatorial and democratic movements will at least initially be anti-Israeli for the damn good reason that the dictators were friendly with Israel and thus the populace will want to do something else for a while. Hosni Mubarak and Anwar Sadat recommending friendship with Israel in Egypt is not a good PR for the pro-Israel crowd there, for an understatement. At the same time as this is going on Israel's army seems to be losing its golden touch and the Israeli state under Netanyahu has demands for social justice that can only further impair its military sector.
Does anyone see a way any of this can end well? I do not, I think that this is one case where the Turks are simultaneously right to be aggrieved Israel would not even make a perfunctory apology about the methods used, but at the same time the Israelis are right to claim that running blockades is not a good idea and they have the right to stop it, and that greater isolation for Israel benefits nobody in the Middle East, particularly not either Israelis or Palestinians.