We touched on this yesterday, but there’s more information this afternoon. The move is absolutely idiotic. For starters, the blockade is effective and necessary for the security of Israel, which is surrounded by nations seeking its unconditional destruction. These countries aren’t driven by hatred for the blockade but by the very existence of Jews in the Mideast. The blockade was established as a result of constant attempts to kill Israeli citizens.

But let’s accept for a moment, for the sake of argument, that the blockade does need to end. It would be a reckless and downright stupid move, but let’s accept the premise for a moment. Why the hell would you make the move immediately after jihadists stage a PR event intended to further destroy Israel’s image in the world? All you’re doing is affirming that terrorist actions will get results, which will undoubtedly lead to more violence against Israel in the future.

As Allahpundit says:

You’re sending a crystal clear signal here to the Muslim Brotherhood scumbags responsible for the flotilla and their Turkish sponsors that, yes indeed, dangerous confrontations can be leveraged into bringing western pressure to bear on Israel. This is going to turn Erdogan and his Islamist pals in the Turkish government into Muslim heroes, which practically guarantees further provocations from the new “champions of the ummah” or whatever.

Erdogan being the Prime Minister of Turkey, the nation that has been moving towards Islamism recently and actually sponsored the jihadist flotilla intended to provoke Israel.

Here’s the idiocy of the current administration on display:

“Gaza has become the symbol in the Arab world of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians, and we have to change that,” the senior American official said. “We need to remove the impulse for the flotillas. The Israelis also realize this is not sustainable.”

You know how you “remove the impulse for the flotillas”? By destroying Israel. There seems to be an assumption in the current American government that there’s a reason besides hatred for Israel and the Jews behind jihadist aggression toward Israel. As if removing the blockade would make this jihadists reconsider their opposition. That’s naive.

There’s no logic behind the hatred for Israel. It’s pure, unadulterated hatred. Israel could end the blockade, open its borders, and shrink to the size of a postage stamp tomorrow. And you know what? Jihadists will do everything in their power to destroy what’s left. They will not rest until the Jewish state has been removed from what’s perceived as Muslim lands.

That’s the story. You’re not going to persuade these jihadists to accept Israel’s right to exist, regardless of what Tel Aviv does to make peace and prosperity overtures with Gaza. Here’s the question jihadists ask when deciding whether or not to attack Israel: Does Israel still exist? If the answer is “yes” then they’re going to attack Israel.

Back to Allahpundit:

You’ll never remove the “impulse for the flotillas.” The real impulse is, as it has been for 60 years, Islamic regimes wanting to incite and exploit their populations’ sense of grievance over the Palestinians to further their own regional ambitions. If the blockade lifts and Iranian weapons start to flow and, inevitably, a new war erupts between Israel and Hamas (and likely Hezbollah too), then that’ll be the next thing to exploit, replete with Erdogan pandering for even more votes by screeching about how Israel’s betrayed Turkey’s “friendship” or whatever.

It’s like politicians in Washington blaming one another for destroying the non-existent spirit of bipartisanship and creating a toxic atmosphere. Outside of reverting to a one-party system with no free speech, there will always be partisanship and toxic behavior in Washington.

Israel will always be blamed for jihadists, evidently including the government of Turkey, not being friendly. It’s latest attempt to survive will inevitably be targeted for termination under the guise of everyone being friendly and hunky dory if only that policy is reversed. Then we’ll all love you. We swear. And we’ll still respect you in the morning.