The shock of the world and international media at the act of maritime piracy by Israeli forces against the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, which was headed to Gaza with humanitarian supplies, is not justified. The massacre against the Freedom Flotilla, which wanted to break the blockade of Gaza, represents the logic and path of Israel policy for decades, when the world felt shocked but did nothing. Since the crimes of Qana in Lebanon, the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006, then its war against Gaza in 2008, and the independent or “unbiased” reports, such as Goldstone, the western world has not dared to confront Israel with harsh policies and tangible sanctions. Instead, each side has raced to say that it is keen to preserve Israel's security and safety, and it wants to move the peace process forward. However, all of Israel's friends in the west, led by the United States, are avoiding any confrontation with the real status quo, which is that the Israeli government does not want peace and does not want a Palestinian state on its borders. Israel is feeding all of the extremist and terrorist movements in the region, without any oversight or punishment. Why the surprise and shock, then amnesia, and lack of accountability? Instead, we see Israel rewarded, by being accepted into a long-standing organization such as the OECD, and welcomed as an advanced, modern and democratic state. Despite all of the shock and condemnation in media and official circles in the west, the summoning of Israeli ambassadors, and the official statements that disapprove of “using disproportionate force,” it has become customary for Israel to continue with its policy, as it leads the Middle East into becoming a source for hard-line and extremist movements. It is clear that since talk began about a peace track and peace negotiations, Israel has been in the rejectionist front; the west has done nothing to pressure it to accept international resolutions, ones that have been approved by all leading western powers, including the US, and Europe, as well as by other influential countries in the world. Who has not implemented the Road Map? Who has rejected a halt to settlements? Who has refused to lift the blockade of the Palestinian people and of Gaza? Where is the punishment for this rejection? There has been nothing, while Arab regimes threatened to go to the Security Council, but… nothing! What else? The current Israeli government, and those before it, did not want peace. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is completely aware of this, but continues in his policy of negotiation, to show the world that the problem does not lie with the Palestinians, but rather with Israel. The Jewish state does not want a Palestinian state on its borders. It prefers to see radical Islamists remain, and this was its policy when it began to pressure the Christians of Jerusalem, to displace them, so that the Jewish state remains alone facing extremist Muslim elements. The first one who warned of this was Faisal al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader who visited France a few months before his death, to tell the Bishop of Paris and then-French President Jacques Chirac: do not let the Christians of Jerusalem leave, because Israel is doing everything it can to displace the Christians of Palestine, so that it will be alone in facing extremist Islam, and feed this extremism. This is what happened, and is continuing to happen, because of Israel's acts. The same logic applied when Israel launched its brutal war on Lebanon in 2006, on the pretext that it would get rid of Hizbullah. However, it made the party into a hero for the Arab public. Israel claimed that it wants to negotiate with Syria via Turkey. However, it has done everything it could to work on a deterioration of relations with this Turkish intermediary; the latest act was the piracy and the slaughter of the Mavi Marmara, in international waters. The shock and condemnation of brutal acts and violations of all international laws are of no use, as long as escaping punishment remains the rule, especially with big powers like the US and the European Union, vis-à-vis Israel. The responsibility of Arab regimes is considerable, because they can change the course of events, due to their linkages to the interests of western countries. Arab states can pressure these states, if only Arab states had a unified position on how to confront the policies of the Jewish state, which will continue in this fashion!
