It was only three-and-a-half years ago that the Israeli army killed 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza - almost a third of whom were children. At the time the Israeli public barely reacted. The country's media covered the massacre in a way that either reflected or enabled a 94% approval rating for what was happening - within sight - in the name of the whole nation.

It wasn't until Judge Richard Goldstone recommended that Israel and Hamas both investigate potential war crimes (14 Israelis were killed; four of them by friendly fire) that some people began to worry. But just a little. And not enough to prevent the killing of 9 unarmed Turkish human rights activists in international waters.

The "elite" Israeli commandos commandeered the flotilla and returned home. They were saluted and lionized in the press - but only in Israel. Elsewhere, Zionists struggled to explain the Israeli line to skeptical publics. Justifying an invasion in international waters proved impossible. The til-then-unnoticed, unrecognized, or unacknowledged deterioration in Israel's legitimacy suddenly accelerated. And not just in Europe.

Today, the conversation about Zionism in America is dramatically different from what it was only a few years ago. Few credible people are willing to insist that the Palestinians and Israelis engage in "negotiations." The fiction that underpinned the call for a "peace process" - that the two parties are mutual antagonists to a symmetrical dispute - has been unraveled.

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/05/why-brand-israel-is-failing.html