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Talking Turkey, Blockade Bungled

And McCain blames Obama

by
Marc Tracy
June 02, 2010
Rural Israeli youths march in solidarity today.(Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)
Rural Israeli youths march in solidarity today.(Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)

• Fred Kaplan explains just how routine a task it is to properly maintain a blockade, and so just how bizarre it is that the sophisticated Israeli navy failed to complete it. [Slate]

• The always-wise David Ignatius says the flotilla incident has hopefully revealed to the Israelis—and the world—that Turkey is serious about regional hegemony. The next step, he adds, is to make this the whole world’s problem. [WP]

• Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) says President Obama’s demand for a full settlement freeze led to the fiasco. Somehow. [The Hill]

• The Israeli government is not apologizing. [LAT]

• Noah Millman points out that, for better or (quite possibly) worse, the blockade receives broad support from the Israeli public. [The American Scene]

• Jeffrey Goldberg reports from Israel that people there are scared that their damaged reputation will make them look vulnerable. [Jeffrey Goldberg]

• Israeli novelist Amos Oz says the fiasco has shown the limits of the power of force. [NYT]

• David Frum says Oz’s dovishness would be more workable if he had more counterparts in Hamas. [Frum Forum]

• Thomas Friedman puts the incident in the context of fraying relations between “two of America’s best friends.” [NYT]

• Bernard Kouchner, France’s foreign minister and one of Europe’s most prominent liberals, called the raid “a very grave mistake” from Israel’s perspective. [Ynet]

• Hussein Ibish dissects why Israel’s attempt to sell its counter-narrative is failing. [Ibishblog]

• Tablet Magazine columnist Etgar Keret finds himself an unlikely diplomatic correspondent. [Haaretz]

• Israeli novelist David Grossman says the fiasco is merely the natural extrapolation of the cruel and unwise blockade itself. [Guardian]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.