Policy Unsustainable? Not At All, As Long As No Terrorists Are Involved It's Easy

By Barry Rubin

It is common now to say Israel's policy toward Gaza is unsustainable. That's nonsense with one minor alteration. All Israel has to do is take the ships into Ashdod, inspect the cargo, and let it go into Gaza if it meets the (slightly relaxed) restrictions. As the Rachel Corrie and five of the six flotilla ships showed, this can easily be done.

Of course, Hamas seems likely to refuse to accept the material as it has already done. This shows who doesn't care about the well-being of the people of Gaza. But Israel's interests are in no way damaged by delivering whatever charity people abroad want to send.

It's only if there are terrorists aboard a ship, using other well-intentioned people as human shields, who will deliberately cause casualties leading much of the world to blame Israel for defending itself. But that will be in a small number of cases and from now on these will be guarded against.

Actually, if the West doesn't panic and the mass media isn't allowed to set policy, the current strategy is very easily sustainable.