Things can be so complicated at times that we need an ultimate test to say whether or not a conclusion we have reached is the correct one. In most matters relating to the humanities we employ common sense and use it as a final arbiter to tell us whether or not we have reached the right conclusion. The test itself is not an easy one to conduct because human matters are always challenging. Less challenging are matters that relate to Newtonian physics where you can do what is called the energy test and determine whether or not a project you put together will fly. For example, if you whip up a spaceship on paper that you believe will take you to the moon, you can do the energy test to see if it will reveal something important. In fact, it may reveal that you do not have enough energy to reach the required velocity that will allow you to escape the grip of the Earth's gravity. If this happens, you will know immediately that somewhere in your calculations, you violated the most fundamental law of physics called thermodynamics. And you can be certain that you will not get to the moon flying this thing.
Eighteen Century philosophers dwelt on this subject in depth. One of these was Immanuel Kant who said something to the effect that when reason is not derived from experience it can lead to illusions. Kant had arguments with his contemporaries on this subject and wrote “Critique of Pure Reason” as part of the presentation to make his points. What comes out of those arguments is that human beings can reason things out and seem to be correct every step of the way but when they step back and look at the final result from a distance, they recognize it as being erroneous. In modern English parlance we say that the thing does not pass the smell test.
And this is the question we ask when we read the Geoffrey Palmer/Alvaro Uribe report on the Flotilla Incident of May 31, 2010. What happened here was that a Turkish ship carrying relief supplies to the Gaza Strip was attacked by Israel on that day. A number of unarmed Turkish citizens – one of them a naturalized American – were killed, and a few others were injured. The UN Human Rights Commission, Turkey and Israel conducted inquiries. The first two reached basically the same conclusion which was to the effect that Israel violated international law and thus committed a crime when it killed people on the high seas. On the other hand, the Israeli inquiry reached a different conclusion, and the Palmer/Uribe inquiry seems to side with it.
Having two different opinions, we need a final test to tell us which is right and which is wrong. We can conduct the test now that all sides have presented their arguments. What comes to the fore is that the main point separating the two sides is whether or not the siege of Gaza by Israel was hurting the people there as a collectivity and was therefore a violation of the international law that prohibits collective punishment. The two sides having presented their arguments and having made their points, we step in and conduct the smell test to see who passes and who fails.
The side that is articulated by the Turks and the UN Human Rights Commission says that the blockade amounts to a collective punishment of the people of Gaza; it is therefore a violation of international law. The Israeli and the Palmer/Uribe side says that while the naval blockade and the land blockade of Gaza may together amount to collective punishment, the naval blockade alone does not rise to that level. And since the scope of the Palmer/Uribe inquiry is limited to the maritime blockade alone, the inquiry must conclude that no, there has been no violation of international law. Well, my friend, there is only one thing to say in response to this. What kind of foul smell is put out by this rotten logic?
What we have here is a typical Judeo-Yiddish nonsense cooked up to confuse the simple minds. To see this, we need to make a simple supposition and see where it leads. We suppose that Gaza is a strip not connected by land to Israel but to another country that is also at odds with the regime in Gaza. For some reason, this other country closes it border with Gaza and thus institutes a land blockade on the strip. But since Gaza can still reach out and connect to the rest of the world by sea, Israel institutes a naval blockade that effectively cuts off Gaza from the rest of the world. This action brings about a dire humanitarian situation on all the people of Gaza and thus punishes them collectively. What Israel cannot say is that the naval blockade did not cause the dire situation because this situation is caused by both the land blockade and the naval blockade. And Israel cannot conclude that it should bear no responsibility in the eyes of an inquiry whose mandate is restricted to look into the effect of the naval blockade alone.
But believe it or not, dear reader, this is exactly what the Israeli inquiry has concluded and this is where the Palmer/Uribe inquiry has concurred. At this point you shake your head to express disgust at the ability of some people to be this stupid, this inhuman and this shameless at the same time. And when you think you have seen it all and you cannot take it anymore, you are blown away by another discovery you make. You discover that Israel was the one to institute both the naval blockade and the land blockade. Still, the two infamous inquiries insist that because each blockade by itself cannot be shown to cause the dire situation in Gaza, Israel must be absolved of what is happening there because the Palmer/Uribe inquiry was not given a mandate to look at the effect of the two blockades but to look into only the naval blockade. Well, my friend, neither you nor I need to be a philosopher in the caliber of Immanuel Kant to determine that this thing does not pass the smell test of common sense. The whole thing is so indecent, only an evil mind could have weaved an argument as sick as this and only a feeble mind would accept it.
Now you wonder if there are more revelations to come and to surprise you further. And you discover that yes, there are more revelations and more surprises. Look what happened here. After blockading Gaza by land and by sea, Israel attacked a Turkish ship carrying relief supplies to Gaza and killed people there too. The Israeli inquiry concluded that because the naval blockade alone did not collectively punish the people of Gaza although both Israeli blockades might have done that, Israel cannot be held responsible for the dire humanitarian situation in the strip because no one was given the mandate to probe into both blockades at the same time. This being the reality of the matter, Israel had every right to kill Turkish citizens on the high seas for trying to bring relief supplies to the people of Gaza. You see how simple things can get when you grow up in the Yiddish tradition and when you put your mind to it? And guess what the Palmer/Uribe inquiry said in this regard. It agreed with all this garbage. So clear and so simple!
At this point you stop denying to yourself the reality that there is a connection between this rotten Judeo-Yiddish mentality and the fact that Alvaro Uribe of the Palmer/Uribe inquiry is a running dog of the American Jewish Committee. A Colombian, he studied law at Harvard University in America where he mixed with the likes of Alan Dershowitz. He then became President of Colombia at a time when that country was engaged in a war against the drug cartel and was supported by the W. Bush Administration. He was approached by the American Jewish Committee and persuaded that to get what he wants from the US Congress he must learn to worship Israel and all the Jewish causes. He did that and they gave him an award they call: Light Unto The Nations. He has been wearing it like a leash around his neck; and this makes him a running dog of the Jewish organizations. But as you can see he is not allowed to run too far because the leash is kept very short indeed.
This Palmer/Uribe inquiry was set up by the Secretary general of the United Nations. The lesson to come out of it is that the next time the Secretary General wants to set up an inquiry, he ought to run a smell test on the people he appoints because one skunk of the Uribe caliber with a leash connecting him or her to the Jewish organizations will turn the thing into the stuff of the toilet. Before you know it, the United Nation will come to look and to behave as uselessly as the Congress of the United States of America.