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By Jonah Goldberg
Outraged by Arizona's immigration policies, the
And why isn't the world outraged by the wholesale deprivation we're inflicting on the North Koreans? Why do we even bother talking about sanctions against Iran, which will surely hurt the average Iranian more than the mullahs and the kleptocrats running the Revolutionary Guard? We've been maintaining an embargo against Cuba for half a century. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, the supposed voices of peace and sanity argued for "giving the sanctions time to work" and "keeping Iraq in the box" -- the "box" being a stiff sanctions regime. What was so great about the sanctions against South Africa if they too were a form of collective punishment?
Only one blockade is deemed indefensibly beyond the pale: Israel's blockade of Gaza. Why? Because it imposes "collective punishment."
The blockade, which is surely causing real suffering, is entirely the fault of
Recently, I debated my friend Peter Beinart on television about the flotilla incident. In the current New York Review of Books, he tears into liberal American Jews for their support of the blockade, a symbol of Israel's descent into illiberalism. He laments that about 80 percent of Gazans are on food aid and -- allegedly -- many staples are being denied the Gazans. "Chocolate is not something that can be turned into a missile," Beinart told me on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor." "And yet, it's not allowed to be imported into Gaza."
Meanwhile, the
By all means let the Gazans have their chocolate. Though as William A. Jacobson, a
Why? Because it would rightly be seen as giving the organizers and supporters of this seaborne propaganda stunt a victory. It would signal that America can be conned. It would reward Turkey's outrageous insult to us (a NATO ally) and to Israel, a longtime friend of Turkey. It would undermine Egypt and other Arab governments (including
Alas, it seems President Obama cannot think straight about Israel because he has so many preconceived notions about it and his role on the world stage. Like so many liberals, he claims to be "realistic," but he actually sees things through a literary prism, living in a world of symbolism and metaphors.
It's amazing to read news reports about how the blockade "serves as a symbol" of this or that. "You know what else the blockade serves as?" asks Commentary's Abe Greenwald. "A blockade. It separates Israel's sworn enemies from those who would help them arm and kill Israelis. Oh, and by the way, as a blockade, and not a symbol, the blockade works."
Alas, such realism has no place in this debate.
Available at Amazon.com:
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
© Jonah Goldberg
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World - Israel's Gaza Blockade: It Works | Global Viewpoint