Not surprisingly, world's patience seems to have ended. The last thing that I have seen was Rushdi criticizing Israel for the excessive use of force. Now we are left with Dershowitz. Although I am not sure anymore even about that. I am not going to say that the Israelis are going to be hung on the main square or Israel will be besieged by the united force of NATO, Iran and Arab league. I am quite sure that even trivial sanctions are not on the horizon. However, if the international press is something to go by, Israel is firmly in the wrong camp. The only consolation is that we constitute a camp of our own -  the camp of autistic nuclear arms carriers. North Korea and Iran may be considered candidates, but they are not as strong on the autism scale.

From the Israeli perspective, the saddest thing is that really the last straw was not an insidious crime committed by the Israeli warmongers, but a well designed provocation devised implicitly or explicitly by Israel's now, alas, former ally Turkey and a strange coalition of people that for the most part cannot be considered as classical anti-Semites. Turkey, a perpetual victim of disdain and conceit, perpetrated unbelievable with such striking political and diplomatic prowess, that really the only thing Israelis can wish for is to have someone like Erdogan and his guys in charge.  They have seized their day by identifying correctly the new balance of power in the world and made a fantastic change of course from being a subservient and ill-regarded lackey of the Western powers to becoming a rising star of the new brave multipolar world.  Of course, to power that shift they have to sacrificed something and they really found an ingenious solution: to sacrifice they did not care much about in the first place - Israel.

The gambit went along the following lines: Turkey was not overly popular among the countries, which would constitute the primary basis for its ascendancy, namely, Arabs. This goes back to the troubled times of the Ottoman Empire, where the Arabs felt resentful toward their younger Muslim brother - the Turks. In fact, Britain and other colonial powers got their foothold in the Middle East by promising to liberate the Arabs from their oppressors. The did not fail at that and with the help of legendary hero Lawrence they resurrected Arab sovereignty and along the way planted the seeds of conflicts for century to come. Humiliated Turks, having massacred most of their neighbors at one time or another felt quite lonely in this region until Israel came.  Of course, there was not much in common between two countries, except for the enmity of their neighbors and mutual indulgence in having their military running their affairs. One did it through democratic process another did not bother for the most part. However, they forged an alliance, Israeli part of which was to supply Turkey with the modern weapons and, most importantly, share its clout among its Atlantic buddies.

However, since these idyllic times quite a few things have changed. First, the end of history predicted by the employees of the USA State department failed to materialize and with it the invincibility aura of the Western alliance was shattered in several unnecessary wars, which were initiated primarily to demonstrate this invincibility. Second, the economic power of the West suffered noticeable decline, matched by the changes in the demography of the Western countries. The Europe of today has become both much less attractive due to the financial liability and badly designed structure of fiscal integration and much less interested in any kind of expansion (If anything, it begins finally to understand what the Eurosceptics meant when they advised against bundling together countries with diversed economies and different economic problems by single currency) . Finally, several Eastern neighbors showed a great promise in being serious allies as well as headaches in case something goes wrong. The only problem was that Turkey had to pay membership fee for being admitted to this new non-Western club. The one thing that could both satisfy this demand and score very lavish PR points among the new friends was damping Israel.

There was only one problem though, Turkey did not want to lose all the advantage of being on good terms with the West, so it could not turn it back abruptly on Israel. It had prepare the rapture. This rapture was propagated through series of well managed confrontations with Israel that set a destructive dynamic in the mutual relationships. However, for the final accord there was a need for something spectacular that would provide a complete alibi for Turkey in the eyes of the Western friends.

The flotilla massacre, as it is probably going to be remembered, was the most perfect alibi. The beauty of the act was that Turkey could know with very high level of security what the Israelis would do. They set the convoy, they populated one ship with the Turkish citizens of a very particular affiliation, which left few doubts regarding what their reaction would be to the Israeli assault on their vessels. And they explained to everyone that this was by no means a state-sponsored project, just in case the Israelis would hesitate. Israelis took the bite and boarded the ship with customary force of several dozens commando soldiers armed with the paintball riffles. Everything else is history. Chapeau to the Turks!

However, as an Israeli, I am much  more concerned with my own side of the story. The Turkish brilliance was by no means matched by Israel's wisdom. Quite to the contrary it was matched only by Israeli arrogance. As an Israeli and a human being I am incensed by the failure of my country to put in place a serious investigation of the alleged crimes committed by the Israeli forces in Gaza. I am also very disappointed by the failure of  the international community to force Israel into such action. I am devastated by the failure of Israel to stop the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, the settlements that promise me and my family a bleak future in the best case scenario. I feel miserable that nobody among the Israeli friends found courage to press Israel on that issue. There is one common ground for all these actions by Israel and it is the political expedience, well... short-sighted, petty but still understandable. In this case, however, what really irritates me is the stupidity of the action. I understand that the government wanted to assert its right to act against every perceived threat in a way, place and at a time it chooses, exactly like when Mossad "took out" a leader of Hamas in Dubai several months ago, ruining on the way the foundation of the alliance with our not so numerous friends. And now again the irresponsible decision causes more harm to Israel than thousand boats coming to Gaza.

The attack on flotilla was a crime, a crime against those who lost their lives even if they had assaulted the soldiers first, a crime against the soldiers themselves who were sent to put their lives on the line only to cause more embarrassment to their country, and finally a crime against people of Israel who deserve better. Our incompetent government toils days and nights so that our lives and lives of our kin abroad will be worse. Through the predetermined acts and acts of pure negligence it misses no opportunity to depict us as self-absorbed egotistic psychopaths indifferent to other people's suffering. Through its poor judgment it plays along other people schemes to totally destroy the legitimacy of our state. It's not pleasant to be ruled by the people of dubious moral character, but why do they have to be incompetent slobs on top of that?