The Mavi Marmara metaphor
Standpoint's Dave Rich observes that the flotilla is a metaphor for the whole left-Islamist alliance.
This is the wider point about the alliance in Europe of leftists and Islamists. Islamism, globally, is a movement with energy, resources, self-belief and, in some countries, real power. Socialism is anything but. It has failed in power and lost its ideological certitude a long time ago, to be replaced by a vague and, at times, contradictory, set of ideas: anti-globalisation, environmentalism, anti-imperialism and so on. This is not an alliance of equals. European leftists, so used to being the junior partner in their cooperation with Islamists at home, have given up any pretence that their support for Hamas and other Islamist movements is one of critical engagement, or that they would rather work with secular, liberal forces in Palestinian society (or even their own). In this respect, the flotilla is a metaphor for the whole left-Islamist alliance. A journey over which leftists have a semblance of influence but little real control, into a confrontation not of their own making, from which they derive no political benefit.
(Strictly speaking, it's more synecdoche than metaphor, but I suppose what you lose in precision you gain in alliteration.)
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Jun '10
Re: The Mavi Marmara metaphor
If this alliance ever succeeds to power in an actual country where they are tasked with governance, the left will be cast aside like corn husk. The little they have in common lies mainly in their hatred of the existing status quo.
Re: The Mavi Marmara metaphor
Sure. Just ask the Iranian Tudeh party--though you'll probably need to do it through a spirit medium, since they've mostly all been executed.