It seems all the world is in a tizzy over Israel’s interception of the Gaza flotilla. Governments large and small have weighed in, many of them strongly criticizing Israel.
This unfortunately includes two Bay Area municipalities.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Richmond City Council are both considering resolutions to condemn Israel for the May 31 incident off the coast of Gaza that left nine Turkish activists dead and scores wounded, including several Israeli commandos.
As we wrote in our editorial last week, we, too, maintain that Israel’s interception was poorly planned. We, too, regret the loss of life. But we recognize that many on board the ships were cheered on by Hamas and attacked Israeli commandos with weapons.
These local jump-on-the-bandwagon resolutions condemning Israel are misguided, one-sided and ill-informed. We hope both will be defeated when they come to a vote.
The S.F. Board of Supervisors’ resolution, sponsored by Supervisor John Avalos, shamefully parrots talking points from Hamas and UNWRA (the United Nation’s flagrantly anti-Israel Palestinian refugee agency).
While giving lip service to “lasting world peace” and the Israeli government needing to “protect its southern region against rocket attacks from Gaza,” this resolution is little more than an eight-page anti-Israel screed. It holds up the IHH, an openly pro-Hamas Turkish organization, as a representative of the “human rights community.”
The resolution even takes at face value the word of El Cerrito resident Paul Larudee, who took part in the flotilla and claimed he was beaten six times by Israeli captors. No corroborative evidence necessary.
In Richmond, the city council will consider a resolution proposed by a Jewish councilman who says he loves Israel but could not abide Israel’s actions at sea. His resolution calls the interception a crime against humanity.
Needless to say, there is no mention of the grave crimes against Israeli citizens after years of Hamas rocket fire from Gaza.
Had these two resolutions contained any context, had these municipal bodies routinely condemned far more egregious abuses committed every day in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or any one of a hundred places around the globe, they might have a moral leg to stand on.
But they don’t.
Israel, always Israel, gets singled out for opprobrium. Because the critics never assign blame anywhere else, they lose all their credibility. We hope a majority of those on these two local bodies will see reason.