Israel long ago lost its mind—and its soul. That’s what occupation does to the occupier. Now we are merely witnessing the violent spasms of the irrational.

You cannot attack a humanitarian relief ship in international waters and kill at least 10 people and get away with it.

And Israel isn’t getting away with it.

Its act of lawless aggression against the Gaza relief ship, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 civilians, has sparked international outrage.

Protests have erupted all over the world.

Some of the largest have been in Turkey, where most of the people on the flotilla were from. Turkey used to be Israel’s best ally in the Muslim world.

You can forget about that now.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan denounced the act as a “bloody massacre” and as “state terrorism.”

And what did our President say?

Virtually nothing, even though there were American citizens aboard the ship that Israel attacked.

In a written statement, Obama expressed “deep regret” at the loss of life, but he didn’t name Israel as the aggressor. In fact, his only specific mention of Israel was to say that it’s treating some of the wounded in Israeli hospitals.

When armed forces from one of the world’s strongest militaries storm a relief ship at gunpoint, it is safe and accurate and morally necessary to name the aggressor.

But somehow it slipped Obama’s mind.

Since the assault, the Israeli government and its apologists have been feverishly attempting to claim that the Israeli soldiers were the victims of aggression, not vice versa. Even if some of the relief activists resisted, that doesn’t constitute aggression—more like self-defense.

As Uri Avnery, leader of the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, put it: “No sensible person in Israel or abroad will buy the collection of lies and pretexts with which those responsible are trying to justify themselves.” Avnery added: “A band of foolhardy, irresponsible and power-drunk persons decided on an action that was bound to result in people being killed and injured.”

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, did not mince words. “"Israel is guilty of shocking behavior,” Falk said. "It is essential that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior, including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally accountable for their wrongful acts."

With this assault, Israel may finally have lost any hope of finding its moral compass or restoring its reputation. The invasion of Gaza seventeen months ago was a war crime. The embargo of Gaza is a war crime—an act of collective punishment causing astronomical levels of poverty, malnutrition, and joblessness.

It was this embargo that the flotilla was trying to break. The ships were carrying 10,000 tons of medicine, food, and building materials, along with toys and chocolate for the children of Gaza.

“How did we get to this point?” asks Robert Fisk of the London Independent.

“Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks. Or Europeans. Something has changed in the Middle East these past 24 hours – and the Israelis (given their extraordinarily stupid political response to the slaughter) don't seem to have grasped what has happened. The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent.”

At times like these, it is difficult not to conclude, as the great Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch concluded late in her life, that there is

No point hiding it any longer:

We’re an experiment that went awry,

a plan that misfired,

tied up with too much murderousness.

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.