My Take: The flotilla's lessons for Mideast peace advocates

[BootinUp]

This is pretty good

Editor's Note: Jeremy Ben-Ami is president and founder of J Street and a former deputy domestic policy advisor to President Bill Clinton.

By Jeremy Ben-Ami, Special to CNN

I had the good fortune of spending last week with Ami Ayalon, former commander of Israel’s Navy and former director of the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service), as I processed the lessons and consequences of the Gaza flotilla.

Who better to help reflect on the deeply troubling events than one of Israel’s most decorated military heroes – who happens to have commanded the very naval commando unit that carried out last week’s raid.

Here are some important lessons I learned.

One, distinguish between victory and revenge. If your enemy hits you (rockets from Gaza, metal pipes on a ship deck) it may be satisfying to hit back harder (Operation Cast Lead, taking over a civilian boat with commandos), but ask whether such actions bring you closer to real victory.

“Winning” for Israel should mean achieving a safe, Jewish and democratic Israel. Perpetuating the occupation and relying only on force and power against Hamas is a losing strategy.

More...CNN Religion blog

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1. I think the main lesson learned is after Israel kills innocent people they can tamper with evidance

without anyone in the US making a big deal out of it.

[howard112211]

2. Oh jeez.

Meddles rockets from gaza in with pipes on the ship deck. Suggests Israel was fighting back on those ships. And says Isreal should achieve to be Jewish.

:eyes:

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3. The article might as well read "Lessons Van Der Sloot should learn"