George Will and Liz Cheney Defend The Indefensible — Israel’s Flotilla Attack

The Sunday ABC show “This Week” featured a roundtable with George Will, Liz Cheney, Arianna Huffington and Markos Moulitsas.

Jack Tapper, the moderator, noted that the United States was the only Western country in the world that refused to condemn Israel for  its actions that caused the death of nine people on a flotilla bringing relief supplies to Gaza.

I thought Arianna made a good point when she emphasized that the suffering in Gaza is “a real humanitarian disaster in violation of the Geneva convention that prohibits collective punishment.” I felt that Markos muffed his chance to say much of anything of significance.

What was interesting was the energy and zeal with which Liz Cheney and George Will defended the indefensible. You would think to hear them talk that the flotilla carrying supplies for Gaza was laden with scud missiles and weapons and  that this violent confrontation in international waters was required for Israel’s self defense.

According to Liz Cheney it is Israel that is being attacked.  With a straight face, she said, “When we don’t stand with Israel in the face of this kind of attack by Iran, by Syria, by Turkey, we send a very clear message that those nations can if fact attack Israel with impunity, that they can threaten to destroy Israel with impunity.”

George Will seemed lost in the forest of his own thoughts.  He seemed to argued that Israel’s indefensible actions were needed in order for Israel to defend itself and that anyone who might question Israel is only seeking war.  He said, “The next war becomes likely, all because people are trying to undermine the legitimacy of Israel’s self defense …”

Liz Cheney’s Comments:

Israel is under attack by Hamas which uses Gaza as a platform from which to launch attacks against Israel. They want to destroy the state of Israel and they are supported in that by Iran, Syria and, now, it looks like Turkey, as well.  This flotilla, had it really been committed to providing humanitarian aid, could have taken the Israel government up on its offer to dock and take that relief in.  They didn’t do that.  It was clearly a propaganda ploy. You had members of the Moslem brotherhood that were on board, you had people who were armed, ready for Israeli commandos to arrive. The United has to stand with Israel.  The United States, in a choice between Israel and Hamas, tries to stand above it, which is what this president likes to do on every issue, sort of be detached, and say, on the one hand, as he said in his Cairo speech a year ago, “on the one hand you have the holocaust and on the other hand you have Palestinians living under occupation.” That kind of moral equivalence is not only wrong and shameful, it is dangerous for the United States of America to not be standing with Israel.  When we don’t stand with Israel in the face of this kind of attack by Iran, by Syria, by Turkey, we send a very clear message that those nations can if fact attack Israel with impunity, that they can threaten to destroy Israel with impunity, and the United States won’t stand by its most important ally in the Middle East.

George Will’s Comments:

To the extent that that fiction called the international community makes it impossible for Israel to conduct this kind of boycott to keep Hamas from becoming re-amed, two things happen. You hasten the coming of the next Middle East war, because scuds are coming from Hezbellah in Syria from the North, weapons will pour into Gaza — from which 6000 rockets have already been fired at Israel. So Israel again will have to take active defense and go again into Gaza and Southern Lebanon.  Furthermore, no Israeli prime minister is going to allow a two state solution, if a Palestinian State, based on the West Bank, cannot allow some kind of armed presence on its eastern border to prevent a new influx of arms into the new Palestinian state.  Therefore,a two state solution becomes impossible and the next war becomes likely, all because people are trying to undermine the legitimacy of Israel’s self defense.