I had to laugh when I heard British Prime Minister David Cameron mau-mauing about how the Israelis had to end their blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling it a "prison camp."
"The situation in Gaza has to change," Cameron said during a speech to a Turkish business association in Ankara. "Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."
He continued to tell the Turks what they wanted to hear: "The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable. I have told Prime Minister Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous."
Ooooh. Tough guy.
I'm guessing he forgot the role his nation played during and after World War II when it blockaded Palestine, refusing to allow Jews to emigrate there. Many of them died as a result.
I'm guessing he forgot more recent history – like the way Israel came into the reluctant possession of Gaza in 1967 in a defensive war. It had previously been part of Egypt. Israel was eager to return it, but Egypt would have nothing to do with the piece of real estate teeming with hostile, radical Arabs. So Israel was stuck with it, and endeavored to make the best of it by creating jobs and a modicum of prosperity where none had previously existed.
I'm guessing he forgot also how Gaza gained its autonomy from Israel just a few years ago – caving in to international pressure and granting the mostly Muslim inhabitants their wish, even forcing communities of Jews to leave at their demand.
I'm guessing he forgot how and why Gaza was sealed off – after relentless rocket and missile attacks and suicide bombers took the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians.
I'm also guessing he forgot how Gaza's other neighbor, Egypt, has erected walls at the border to keep Gazans out of its country for the same security concerns Israel has.
I'm guessing Cameron and his friend Barack Obama forgot how the U.S. even helped Egypt build that wall with U.S. taxpayer dollars, while telling those same U.S. taxpayers that building walls on its southern border made no sense at all.
I'm also assuming Cameron and Obama are unaware of the fact that while Egypt is doing everything in its power to ensure there is no trade or commerce with its neighbors in Gaza, Israel is actually transferring massive amounts of food, medical supplies and actual wealth into Gaza on a strictly humanitarian basis every day.
All Israel is trying to do is to ensure terrorists and weapons don't come out of Gaza and into its towns and cities where they will kill more innocent people.
But mostly I'm thinking about another seemingly unrelated story that unfolded last week that put the lie to all this phony outrage from Cameron and the "international community."
That was the story of how Obama and British and Scottish officials colluded to release a mass-murdering Libyan terrorist convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.
It seems British Petroleum, better known as the infamous BP to Americans, was eager to sign a lucrative oil contract with Libya. So BP put pressure on British politicians to free Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, among other terrorists being held in actual prisons in the United Kingdom, not fanciful ones like Gaza. While denying he knew anything about the deal, Obama, it was revealed last week, was well aware of the plan and even gave it his implicit written approval. Of course, it had to be on the basis of "humanitarian concern" because al-Megrahi was dying of terminal cancer and was not expected to live to see the new year in 2010.
Now, it turns out al-Megrahi's diagnosis was paid for by Libya's Muammar Gadhafi. It was as phony as Cameron's outrage about Gaza. Al-Megrahi is alive and well and living in a plush mansion – a neighbor of Gadhafi's, and a hero in his native land for killing hundreds of Brits, Scots and Americans.
It's enough to turn your stomach – if you know the truth.
But you've got to work to know the truth in this age of disinformation and self-serving propaganda.
People like Cameron and Obama don't care about truth. They don't care about justice. They don't even care about innocent human lives. They just care about who's got the oil, who's got the money and who's got the power.