I’m sympathetic to the Obama administration’s view that Israel’s blockade of Gaza in order to keep weapons from Hamas does not equate to starving and punishing the Gazan people.
Israel is relaxing some parts of its grip on the blockade — and making some openings in the roster of banned items, but this is going to be a battle fought by public relations agents on each side for a while.
What I worry about is the tendency to escalate assaults on the blockade through celebrities. This report suggests that even Wimbledon champion and Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal may be considering joining Freedom Flotilla 2.
With all due respect to those celebrities who want to put themselves on the line for various global justice causes, this doesn’t really change people’s minds about the Gaza mess. This kind of antic tends to make people scream more loudly views that they already hold.
That is not progress — and not a constructive use of a celebrity’s ‘celebrity’.
— Steve Clemons
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