As the flames of the Gaza political firestorm die down, they threaten to extinguish with them the very idea of Israeli competency. From the hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar Dubai assassination in January, to the epic timing blunder on settlement expansion in March, the Israelis seems to be walking into an Abba Eban quote once directed at the Arabs: "They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." What is shocking about this flotilla fiasco is the ease with which it could have been prevented. At the very least, Israel could have neutralized much of the PR fallout. Instead, they chose to play right into a hostile provocation and give Hamas - and make no mistake, this boat was representing Hamas - a decisive political victory. For starters, Israel could have presented footage of their requests to the flotilla that it divert to Ashdod, where the cargo could be inspected and then transported to Gaza. The video had already been released via YouTube, but the...(Read Full Post)