Unacceptable

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The international community is right to condemn Israel for its military action against a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip in which a number of people were killed.

The Israeli Ambassador to Ireland repeatedly referred to the deadly shells which daily land in his country as some sort of justification for the act. Dreadful though this obviously is, it is no justification to board vessels sailing in international waters and by this act triggering the deaths of a number of people.

One has to look beyond the political and military differences between Israel and Palestine. Sure, there are the problems caused by the firing of missiles into Israel which, in any event, are aggressively countered by the Israelis.

It is the people of Palestine that are suffering from the Israeli blockade and to interfere with a ship that was carrying aid to them - assuming that this was aid and not munitions - is unacceptable.

The Israeli Defence Minister called the relief effort - largely organised by Turkey - a ‘political provocation’ by anti-Israeli forces. Relief aid has been called many things but not so far as I know as political provocation!

The ships have been escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the world waits to see what will happen to the aid that was carried by it.
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Would They Have Used Their Own Passports?

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Despite the various problems in the Middle East, I have always thought that Israel was overly aggressive in many of the things it does.

Such may have been the case recently when it is alleged that eleven agents of Israel’s Secret Service, Mossad, entered Dubai on false European passports and killed a Hamas commander in a luxury hotel.

The British, Irish, German and French governments are outraged by the use of the fake passports and have demanded explanations from the Israelis who, unsurprisingly, have so far neither confirmed nor denied their involvement. Meantime, Interpol has issued arrest warrants for the eleven suspects.

I know nothing about Middle East politics, though I have often observed how one act of aggression usually draws forth a retaliatory act. And so it goes on in a seemingly endless cycle of aggression.

What the answer is I do not know, but at some stage the parties have got to come to the table, unbend a bit and try to reach a workable agreement.

But, in all the fury and anger being expressed over a killing by men using false passports, I did have one thought.

If the killers were Mossad agents, did anyone really expect them to go into Dubai on their own genuine passports?
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