Megan McArdle Isn't Thinking Things Through

I usually try to avoid any criticisms of a blogger who is generally on the right side of things but after reading Megan McArdle's criticism of the Israeli raid today, I really couldn't resist. She just doesn't think things through and seems to accept the misinformation of the event at face value:

I realized that the ships were in international waters, and had every right to attack armed men attempting to board their ship. It was not precisely bright, mind you--unless you're looking to die for a cause. But Israel had no right to be there. I think their establishment has gotten a little too caught up in the romance of illicit raids tacitly greenlighted by the US. Suddenly every operation is Entebbe.

Oh those horrible Israelis, violating international law just for the sake of bravado. Actually there were some very good reasons for the Israelis to board the ships where and, more importantly, when they did. This from the geo-political & tactical military experts at Stratfor:

The Israelis engaged the flotilla some 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) from the Israeli coast, and the fast attack craft of the Israeli navy would have had the benefit of maneuverability, so there may have been other options. But the night of May 30 was also the last night before the flotilla would have reached Gaza, so if boarding was going to be done, this night was the last chance for it under the cover of darkness. The Israelis may also have hoped to seize wanted individuals or prevent evidence of weapons or other contraband from being destroyed or dumped overboard.

Another issue is, if your neighbor keeps shouting over your fence that he is going to come over to your house and break into your car or hurt your family, are the police not allowed to stop him until he crosses over onto your property? Not that I am aware of. Also, if there were a boat full of drug smugglers that was coming towards the coast of the US, what do you think the US Coast Guard would do, especially when it was obvious those drugs are headed this way and they would get some sort of tactical advantage by not waiting? Anyway, Megan continues:

I mean, in the case of the Black September folks, my basic sympathies are with the Israelis. And I'm fairly ok with bombing the incipient nuclear capacity of a near neighbor with a death with for your country. But there is just no way to argue that this rises to the level of tracking down the folks who senselessly slaughtered your athletes, or preventing a scary neighbor from getting a nuclear bomb. It's stopping a ship carrying food and supplies to the hungry.

Okay, and you know that there are only humanitarian supplies on board how? As Mona Charen mentioned in her piece:

Fact: Upon learning of the intentions of the Gaza flotilla, the Israeli government asked the organizers to deliver their humanitarian aid first to an Israeli port where it would be inspected (for weapons) before being forwarded to Gaza. The organizers refused. “There are two possible happy endings,” a Muslim activist on board explained, “either we will reach Gaza or we will achieve martyrdom.”

So if this was a purely humanitarian mission, why not just go into an Israeli port and have the supplies then go to Gaza? The only reason not to is if you have something to hide or if the whole point of this entire exercise was something other than a humanitarian mission. As the "activist" said, they prefer either to get into Gaza directly, which would mean the blockade is broken, or they want to be killed by the Israelis, causing a major international reaction. They really couldn't care less about "hungry" people in Gaza. And it's not like there is no aid coming in from Israel to Gaza. Mona Charen mentions that "During the first three months of this year, 94,500 tons of supplies were transferred to Gaza from Israel, including 48,000 tons of food products; 40,000 tons of wheat; 2,760 tons of rice; 1,987 tons of clothes and footwear; and 553 tons of milk powder and baby food for the strip’s 1.5 million inhabitants. Representatives of international aid groups and the United Nations move freely to and from the Gaza Strip."

Here is more from Megan:

The best case was that Israel royally pissed off their one ally in the region by illegally boarding Turkish-flagged ship, forcing Turkey to abandon its basically friendly stance. Of course, at the same time, they would have stopped the alarming flow of bandages and metal pipes into Gaza. Yet it's hard to see how this was ever going to be a win.

She really seems to have no grasp of the reality of the region. Ever since Obama took office, Turkey has been moving closer and closer to Iran, at the expense of Israel. And Turkey's leadership regularly spews anti-Israel bile. Without Turkey, this whole flotilla thing would never have even happened. Heck of a friend. And tell me again how you know that bandages and metal pipes were all that were aboard? And if they let this flotilla through without inspection, how can you say the next ship wouldn't be full of weapons? Gaza is run by a genocidal organization that has 1 main purpose, the extermination of the Jews in Israel. As Mona Charen stated in her piece on board one of the ships, according to al-Jazeera, the “humanitarian” Palestinians sang “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return” — a reference to the 628 massacre of Jews in Arabia at the hands of Muhammad.

Meg concludes:

But I'm afraid Israel brought this one on themselves. The stupidity of it is simply staggering.

So Meg, what should they have done? Let the flotilla run the blockade? Open another channel for arms smuggling into Gaza? Create some giant net wall to keep the ships from getting close to Gaza? Or how about a force field? I'd say the only thing that the Israelis did that was stupid was worrying so much about public opinion that the first wave of commandos was armed with only paint guns. That is why so many Israeli troops were injured in the melee. Their #1 goal should be to preserve the lives of their citizens. World public opinion should always be second. The world hated and murdered Jews before 1967 and before 1948. Acting all nice nice with people who are frothing at the mouth with their hatred for you will get you nowhere.