Worse Than A Crime, A Blunder

What a disaster. For Israel that is. One may appreciate two things simultaneously: that the “peace” activists en route to Gaza were not necessarily as innocent as that appellation might suggest and that the Israeli commandos were, as matters developed, compelled to use more force than perhaps they anticipated.

Few sensible folk dispute Israel’s right to defend itself. But how that right is exercised matters enormously, not least because Israel’s predicament is doubly-asymmetrical. Each side considers itself under siege and, for once, each side is correct. Israel, surrounded by hostile or at best sceptical neighbours, is acutely aware of its regional isolation. But on the West Bank and in Gaza, Palestinians find or consider themselves besieged by Israel. Each side squeezes the other; neither side can actually prevail.

There is no contradiction between these positions; indeed in one sense the latter may be thought to spring from the former. But when it comes to the Israeli Defence Forces’ actions the question of proportionality – much in vogue these days – seems vastly less important than the question of wisdom.