Middle East: The week that was...and changed things

Let it not be said that the last week has not only been tumultuous as the world has watch the attack on the humanitarian-carrying boat being attacked by the Israelis - and the fall-out.

The Guardian tries to put into some context in "Gaza flotilla attack: A week that changed Middle East politics":

"Israel's relationship with its closest Muslim ally, Turkey, has been pronounced fatally wounded. A succession of European leaders, including David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, have lined up to pronounce Israel's long-term embargo of Hamas-run Gaza as unsustainable and indefensible. Most serious of all for Netanyahu, Israel's closest and most assiduous ally, the United States, has also endorsed that view, going out of its way to reveal that it had warned Jerusalem to show restraint when dealing with the six-ship convoy.

Behind the inevitable bluster, the real question many Israelis are now asking is: how did it come to this? The answer is that the bungled raid on the Mavi Marmara has been a powerful catalyst for the escalating sense of repugnance at Israel's policy of collective punishment of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, while sharply underlining the perception of the intransigence of Israel under Netanyahu. It has also exposed how slow Israel's leadership has been to appreciate the profound changes that it faces on the regional and international stage – and how it should respond to them."

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