Will This Open The World's Eyes To The Palestinian Plight In Gaza?

Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish aid vessel and killed 9 activists. As you may recall the aid flotilla wanted to dock in Gaza and unload their 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

Unfortunately, Israel has a blockade going and warned the aid flotilla that they will be stopped.

The flotilla proceeded and as Israel promised, they were indeed stopped.

But perhaps Israel should have thought about their actions more.

Instead of getting support, the resulting international condemnation seems to further alienate and isolate Israel from the international community and further added legitimacy to Hamas and its claims of representing the plight of the Palestinian peoples.

Instead of diverting the world's attention to the unilateral imposition of the blockade of the Gaza strip, the bloody encounter actually focused the world's attention on it - something Israel more than likely did not want to happen.

European diplomats have demanded for a quick end to the blockade but not surprisingly Israel's long time ally, the United States have not really been that vocal, only calling for more aid to enter Gaza and not an outright demand for the lifting of the blockade.

Israel is sticking to its guns on both the blockade and the events that occurred but that may not be enough.

Israel's purpose for the blockade was to hasten the demise of Hamas who took over Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel should learn from the experience of the United States. They have had a unilateral embargo and blockade against Cuba for the purpose of removing President Fidel Castro but that did not work as expected.

The thing about blockades is that it helps give the people a common enemy - in this case Israel. To the minds of the Palestinian people it's not Hamas who's to blame for the embargo, it's Israel.

More so after Israel bombed them back to the stone age, destroying vital infrastructure - hospitals, power plants, water treatment plants and schools.

Basically the people living in Gaza are living without power, water, and necessary health support.

It is a humanitarian crisis of the highest level and is at par with war induced crises in Africa.

People are dying in Gaza and the world's not doing anything. It is genocide and should be treated as such because Israel's actions show their own callous disregard for the Palestinian people.

I dare say that if it weren't for international scrutiny they would have done more than what has happened already.

At least there is that saving grace.

In the aftermath of this bloody encounter more than just political pressure should be put to bear. There should also be action.

A people is being held hostage and while I do not condone the actions of Hamas, the actions of Israel are not any different.

They would argue otherwise, saying that Hamas has attacked and killed Israeli civilians but the thing is, Israel has retaliated against civilians as well.

An eye for an eye does not justify the result.

At the end of the day it is up to the collective power of the world to make Israel toe the line.

yes Israel was a victim before but now the tables have turned.

They are not the victim anymore but are now the oppressors.

And like any oppressors they should be stopped and held accountable.