In order to prove that there is no humanitarian crisis, Israel's government boasted that since the beginning of this current year, it magnanimously allowed 24,302 tons of fruit, 14,879 tons of flour and 600 tons of meat into the Gaza strip (all tons metric). Divided by 150 days and by 1.5 million people, that works out to 108 grams (4 oz) of fruit, 66 grams (2.25 oz) of flour and 2 whole grams (less than an eighth of an ounce) of meat per person, per day. But Israel hopes you won't do the math.
Maybe that's not the exact diet of every Gazan. I understand that some people in Gaza have more food than others and that the aid doesn't necessarily go to every individual because the "rich" ones get stuff from the tunnels (probably not for long) or whatever their source is. But then again, there are probably plenty of Gazans who never see even that food. A humanitarian crisis shouldn't be defined by how many people are dying, rather how many are starving. To me it seems like a sick Mengele-esque caloric restriction experiment, and I will have none of that done in the name of Judaism.
So one of the world's most advanced militaries decides it a good idea to drop just a few soldiers onto a boat of many more civilians, oh, in international waters. Did they expect the people on board to just put their hands up, "Oh, you guys got us! Sorry." Let me try to think what I would do if I were in a boat that was boarded via helicopter and rope by soldiers--armed to the teeth--that were sent to disable our mission in the middle of the night. Oh right! I would panic! Could the Israeli intelligentsia and military leaders not come up with a less explosive plan?
I had been following the status of the Freedom Flotilla for a few weeks now, and I thought that just maybe they might even get to Gaza. If they didn't, I had more faith in Israel than to think they would send a military operation to forcibly* take over the boats. I was wrong.
--Abraham
*Tell me they were defending themselves and I will agree, those soldiers were defending themselves in that situation, fine, but they were sent into that situation by the Israeli government, into a trap. What country uses an elite military unit to stop a civilian protest that was transferring food, medicine, and other aid to a gigantic population of people that are deprived of access to sustenance? Surely not the "only democracy" in the Middle East?
