Propaganda scheitert erneut – Was soll Israel jetzt tun?

Der Medienkrieg um die Durchsetzung der eigenen Darstellung bei dem israelischen Überfall auf die Gaza-Hilfsflotte geht weiter. Inzwischen veröffentlichte die "Hürriyet" (eine Art türkischer "Bild"-Zeitung, die sich ebenfalls teils im Besitz der Axel-Springer-AG befindet) Fotos, auf denen israelische Soldaten anscheinend misshandelt werden. Israels Verteidiger versuchen diese Fotos als Trumpfkarte auszuspielen – aber dagegen gibt es Einspruch:

The website of Turkish newspaper Hürriyet published a gallery of photos showing Israeli soldiers captured after their attack on the Mavi Marmara in international waters in the early hours of 31 May.

The predictable response of the Israeli army, as quoted in Haaretz, was that the "published pictures serve as clear and unequivocal proof of Israel's repeated arguments that aboard [the Mavi Marmara] were mercenaries who intended to kill Israeli soldiers." Israeli spokespersons and media in recent days have also claimed the soldiers faced "lynching," a provocative term which originated to describe the deliberate mob murders of African Americans by white supremacists in the United States. The photos indicate nothing of the sort; if anything they show the opposite.

Hier geht es weiter.

Bei diesem Hin und Her liegt der Gedanke nahe, dass man sich als Unbeteiligter vielleicht überhaupt kein Urteil erlauben kann, welche der beiden Seiten jetzt die Wahrheit sagt. Aber dieser Eindruck wäre vorschnell, befindet der Politikwissenschaftler Stephen R. Shalom. Er argumentiert:

Normally, neutrality in the face of contradictory and incomplete information is an admirable trait. But consider the circumstances. One side, the Israeli attackers, surely have video of the entire encounter, but have shown only selected snippets, carefully avoiding the period immediately before the troops landed on board the Mavi Marmara. The other side, those trying to break the blockade, had their cellphones and cameras confiscated ("captured" is how the IDF put it), one of their websites hacked, and limited coverage of events. Despite this asymmetry that ought to make us extremely skeptical of the Israeli version, the clips do seem to show that the Israeli forces fired before they landed -- and you can bet the IDF won't be releasing their complete video for analysis. And as more and more passenger testimony becomes available, and as autopsy results show the victims shot between the eyes at point blank range, the Israeli version is more and more dubious.

Shalom geht es indes vor allem um die grundsätzliche Frage, wie Israel mit der Gaza-Problematik vernünftiger umgehen könnte:

What else could Israel do besides the blockade in order to protect its security, asks New York public radio host Brian Lehrer? After all, he says, Hamas is launching rockets from Gaza into Israel. This view of the situation, however, is the same erroneous view put forward by the Israeli government and its apologists during Operation Cast Lead, Israel's massive assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009.

Hier geht es weiter mit einer lesenswerten Zusammenfassung und Analyse der gegenwärtigen Situation und wie man ihr entkommen könnte.