The U.S. move has aligned Washington squarely with Tel Aviv at a moment when European allies seem to be heading in the opposite direction. What the flotilla incident illustrates is the fragmentation of the Western bloc over Gaza. Allied governments that once deferred to American cues are increasingly unwilling to do so, and symbolic pressure campaigns, like the flotilla, are proving capable of exposing those differences in real time.
Read MoreThe strategic logic is not hard to follow. Russian intelligence reportedly told Iran that Israel's power grid is characterized by a high degree of isolation, and unlike European nations, Israel does not import electricity from neighboring countries. This means that damaging even a few central components could trigger a total and prolonged energy collapse. Russia has spent years learning exactly how to do this to Ukraine. Now it is teaching Iran to do it to Israel.
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