The morning after

At least Israel has a free press and the editorial pages of Ha’aretz are full of rage:

The editorial board:

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government failed completely. Israel let its policy of maintaining the siege on Gaza become an existential matter. This policy boomeranged and cost Israel its international legitimacy.

Gideon Levy:

Yesterday’s fiasco could and should have been prevented. This flotilla should have been allowed to pass and the blockade should be brought to an end…

And what have we instead? A country that is quickly becoming completely isolated. This is a place that turns away intellectuals, shoots peace activists, cuts off Gaza and now finds itself in an international blockade. Once more yesterday it seemed, and not for the first time, that Israel is increasingly…losing touch with the world…

Yesterday there was no one on the planet, not a newsman or analyst, except for its conscripted chorus, who could say a good word about the lethal takeover.

Ari Shavit:

With a single foolish move…Israel is serving Hamas’ interests better than Hamas itself has ever done…

Perhaps the most troubling question in the wake of this fiasco on the high sea is this: Who is navigating our ship of state, and toward what catastrophe are the captains of this ship of fools steering us?

Yossi Sarid:

What ought to come next is a demand for a probe, but it seems pointless. Stupidity knows no bounds…And what is boundless is also unfathomable.

Reuven Pedatzur:

…it is hard to understand how an action that the Israel Navy spent so long planning ended up in so severe a debacle.

And that’s without even addressing the questions that arise regarding how wise it was to carry out a military action against civilian craft in international waters.