Flotilla Attack the Deadly Symptom of a Failed Policy

...the incident is an indictment of a much broader policy toward Gaza for which Israel does not bear sole responsibility...

International condemnation and calls for an inquiry will come easily, but many who will issue them must acknowledge their own role in the deplorable treatment of Gaza that formed the backdrop to today's events. the policy of isolating Gaza, seeking to turn its population agauinst Hamas, and endorsing a "West Bank first" approach was not an exclusively Israeli one.[...]

[...]...opening the humantarian tap is not an approapriate answer to a policy whose fundamental premise is morally callous and politically counter-productive. Instead, Gaza should be open to normal traffic with adequate international end-use monitoring.
If anything, recent events should result, in time, to an international monitoring regime which should allay Israeli security concerns whilst ensuring that appropriate humanitarian aid reaches Gaza without it being "hijacked" by "undesirable" elements. What amazes me is the turn-about in Turko-Israeli affairs (understandible sine the Justice Party came to power, but the rapidity of that deterioration is striking). Also, the role of Cyprus, long a "hive of scum and villanny" realy needs to be brought into greater relief.