Another Tack: Isolation I – How not to be Ill

Sarah Honig
Sarah Honig's Blog
02 July '10

There was a rapturous turkey trot in old Turkey the other day. Led by President Abdullah Gul, the Turks and their guests jumped for joy and did their springy one-step to celebrate Israel’s obvious ostracism.

“This is a clear manifestation of how Israel isolated itself,” Gul, who chaired the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, exulted. Twenty-one of CICA’s member-states (with the single exception of Israel) “deeply deplored” its interception of the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara.

In unwavering unison, such gracious paradigms of international fair-mindedness and evenhandedness as Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Bashar Assad of Syria and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan – as well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and PA figurehead Mahmoud Abbas – all “expressed their grave concern and condemnation for the actions undertaken by Israel” and denounced its “blatant violation” of international law.

Reveling in ostensible rectitude, Putin warned: “We can’t allow a new flame to flare up in the Middle East.” Gul laid righteous indignation on thick by announcing: “It is impossible for us to forgive the bloodshed.”

Similar spectacles are reenacted on some scale or another almost around the globe. No self-respecting city, campus or festival can resist garnering glory by whacking Israel. It’s a grand batter-Israel bash and a hit show wherever it’s staged. The plotline uncannily resembles that of Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s now-classic 1956 tragicomedy The Visit.

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