Charles' moment of truth

Charles' moderate-liberal bona fides are about to be put to a serious test... because even though he has publicly flip-flopped on every other issue imaginable, his unconditional support of Israel has, apparently, remained steadfast.

Now the IDF has killed several foreign pro-Palestinian activists on a flotilla of boats -- which may or may not have been in international waters -- trying to deliver supplies through the Gaza blockade. To the extent that Charles cares about retaining his current leftish fanbase, which he surely does if he wants to hold on to whatever traffic he has left, he will have to tread very, very carefully -- for the almost unanimous reaction to this, at least for anyone to the left of Robert Spencer and Pammy Atlas Gellar Shrieks, is shock and horror.

If this were 2007, he would of course be coining amusing nicknames for the victims, heaping scorn on Turkey and Europe and the UN and (why not?) the moldering corpse of Yassir Arafat, and cheering silently as his readers spew every anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian cliché imaginable. But this is 2010, so he can't do that.

So what'll it be, Charles? Back to the future, ignore it completely, or (gasp!) criticize Israel for once?