Thomas Friedman and Jeffrey Goldberg are both suggesting that the flotilla was not a humanitarian mission, but a political setup. How would you respond?
I would have to ask you, How the hell would they know? Sitting behind their desks, wherever it was. And the second question I would ask is, Are they known as critics of Israel? And the anwer to that question is no, they are not. I don't fault them for this. But they are known as card-carrying supporters of Israel. OK, you're allowed to do that. But don't expect me to take what you have to say as necessarily the unquestionable truth. Both of these are intelligent journalists and honorable men and all that, but their views are different than mine. So if you asked me what I think about what they wrote, I would have to respond with a Bronx cheer -- when you stick your tongue out and make a rousing noise.
I tend to discount what comes from hard-line anti-Israelis and strong-held pro-Israels, because you get their opinions, which aren't necessarily related to the facts.
Why do you think this incident, as opposed to Gaza in 2009, has attracted so much interest here?
It's partly because there were people involved from 30 countries. This is the sort of thing that organizers worked hard to get done -- despite what Mr. Friedman and Mr. Goldberg said -- to get activists, people who are aware of what is, and isn't, going on in Gaza. You can accuse that of being politically motivated. That's true to a degree. The idea was a humanitarian program.
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