Israel is currently locked in a losing battle with the rest of the world to assert an impossible vision.
The vision to which the current Israeli government committed itself is that Israel has an absolute and unquestionable right to do anything it deems necessary to secure itself - whatever the costs and implications, whatever the suffering and death that it inflicts on others. By refusing to accept limits and constraints to its actions, which are the very essence of civilization, it effectively behaves as a barbarian entity.
The battle to impose this vision is one that Israel cannot possibly win, and - as so many of its honest friends realize - one that will certainly turn it into a pariah state and may potentially lead to its destruction.
The latest blunder at sea is only the latest episode in a long series of - by now - familiar occurrences.
They consist of Israel killing and injuring civilians through unnecessary and excessive use of force, much to the horror and consternation of the world.
This time, incidentally, Netanyahu's government took on the wrong country. It also put the US in a corner and created a very serious risk of immediate escalation.
But even if immediate escalation is somehow avoided, this latest incident only continues the increasingly irreversible course towards an impossible future for Israel.
By linking its security and very existence to a paradigm of limitless power backed by naked military force and ignorant of any rules and constraints, the neo-barbarians who now run Israel are making their people hostage of a sick dream and sealing their country's fate.
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