[lbo-talk] Corrie v Turkish Ships

[Wendy Lyon]

On 05/06/2010, Peter Ward <nevadabob at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
>  The Corrie seems to have gotten off comparatively lightly. Quoting Chanel 4 News (UK): "But the Rachel Corrie was stopped without incident or bloodshed and the nineteen people on board are now in custody pending their deportation." The boarding was nonviolent and those on board are set to be quickly deported from Israel (the Turkish crews, presumably, will be held indefinitely as "terrorist" suspects). One might claim this is do to the decision of the crew to surrender without struggle. However, I suspect it's because the Corrie crew have Ireland backing her. Israel may be a lunatic state, but not one so crazy as to know which countries' opinions matter and which don't.

Israel couldn't give a shit about Ireland's opinion. They already
think it's a country of raging anti-Semites, as their representatives
never fail to remind us whenever they go on the radio here.

It's arguable that an attack on an Irish ship would risk greater
outrage from the rest of the world, given Ireland's size and
(officially) neutral status, the large diaspora and the fact that it's
not Turkey. But it seems just as likely to me that the relative
restraint shown to the Corrie was an exercise in damage limitation.