The Boring Government of Israel

Dmitri Prieto

Gaza Strip. Photo: Wikipedia.org

For years I wondered how fighters for just causes could achieve their objectives through non-violent means. I think the world is awaiting something similar to Gandhi’s Salt March or the civil disobedience campaigns of African-Americans.

I was inspired with a certain hope by the daring humanitarian convoy that sought to break the Israeli maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.  The activists were relying on the peaceful and philanthropic nature of their operation, despite the clarity with which the Israeli government asserted that it would not allow their landing in Gaza.

And that was what exactly what they prevented.  To the consternation of the inhabitants of the planet, as well as governments and other organizations that sought to speak up for the Freedom Flotilla, the Israelis attacked the convoy.

The versions around the events are contradictory, but the fact is that several of the activists were killed by Israeli soldiers.

What caught my attention was one of the statements by the Israeli leadership: “In Gaza, there is no hunger or a humanitarian crisis; Gaza is governed by a terrorist group.”  If we tie together the two phrases with a logical knot, how paradoxical is such a justification!

The tremendous malice behind the attack on the convoy is obscured by the continuity of the policy toward the Arab city’s blockade, which is condemned but in fact tolerated by the so-called international community (just as the Israeli nuclear arms buildup is tolerated amid the clamor over Iranian uranium).

I’m eager to see the government of Israel surprise us with some truly decisive initiative in the Middle East crisis.

However, the current ruling circles in Israel are apparently boring people who always act the same way, lacking political creativity.  This is a paradoxical fate for a country that came to life defying all predictions.  Perhaps this is a sad karmic price to pay by the Zionist movement that has deprived hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs of their right to return.

As regards international politics, the blockade of Gaza is something as boring as the prison in Guantanamo and the continuation of the embargo of Cuba.  In this competition between rulers to see who is the most boring in the eyes of those who still cling to hope for change, who will win: Mr. Obama or his Israeli colleagues?

Dimitri Prieto-Samsonov

Dmitri Prieto-Samsonov: I define myself as being either Cuban-Russian or Russian-Cuban, indiscriminately. I was born in Moscow in 1972 of a Russian mother and a Cuban father. I lived in the USSR until I was 13, although I was already familiar with Cuba-- where we would take our vacation almost every year. I currently live on the fifth floor of an apartment building in Santa Cruz del Norte, near the sea. I’ve studied biochemistry and law in Havana and anthropology in London. I’ve written about molecular biology, philosophy and anarchism, although I enjoy reading more than writing. I am currently teaching in the Agrarian University of Havana. I believe in God and in the possibility of a free society. Together with other people, that’s what we’re into: breaking down walls and routines.