Gaza Flotilla Shows Power of Non State Actors

In the wake of Israel’s sanguinary assault on the MV Mavi Marmara, much of the debate has focused on the question of whether those aboard the Free Gaza flotilla were humanitarians, peace activists, or Hamas supporters. The benign, and, crucially, the depoliticized interpretation was that they were humanitarians bringing aid to a besieged people desperately in need of it. This view was encapsulated in a cartoon that ran in Le Monde two days after the event—it showed a tiny boat populated by stick figures who had their hands raised above their heads and were surrounded by gigantic rifle barrels pointing down at them. The caption had only one word: “Humanitarians.” On the other side of the ledger, the conservative columnist, Christopher Caldwell, wrote in the Financial Times that, the participants aboard the Mavi Marmara had not only a humanitarian motive but a military one--to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza—and, because of that, had in effect become parties to the conflict and, as such, entirely appropriate targets for the Israeli military.