A Few Thoughts Regarding the Israeli Operation at Sea
May 31, 2010
One thing is certain: no matter what, Israel has already lost its battle… in the media front.
The Israeli operation at sea, which was designed to prevent hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on board six ships from arriving at the shores of the Gaza Strip, escalated to a bloodbath with over 10 protesters killed and others, including a few Israeli soldiers, wounded.
Israel claims that the soldiers were assaulted with knives and clubs by the hands of the protesters on board one of the ships, and were forces to react with gunfire.
The blame-game will now begin as usual, but the big question remains: why, when the whole world witnessed live footage of the events at sea, and when strong denunciations came from all sides – including European countries – didn’t Israel explain its point of view in the media?
Why did it take nine (!) hours for the Israeli minister of defense to hold the first press conference?
Clearly, this so called “Peace Flotilla” was a provocation, aiming at supporting the terror regime governing Gaza. Israel has even suggested time and again, that if the ships would arrive at Israel’s Ashdod Port, it would send the humanitarian aid to Gaza after the routine security check.
But the Israeli assault on the ships was met with confusion, even among many Israeli citizens. Was it really necessary to send dozens of armed soldiers to stop the ships? Couldn’t the soldiers order the ships to turn away without boarding them? Did the IDF have prior knowledge that the ships were carrying arms, money, or anything else that could help Hamas?
Whatever the answers are, the public did not get them from Israel, even after the press conference of the defense minister and the army’s chief of staff at 13:00, nine hours after the assault began.
Israel may have been right to forcefully stop the ships, but the world public opinion has already made up its mind, because the critical first hours went by without a formal Israeli response!
My concern now is, that this incident might ignite furious responses from many parties, including Israeli Arabs, Palestinian in both Gaza and the West Bank, Turkey (which already called its ambassador in Israel back to Ankara), and even the Iran-backed Hizbullah.
It’s summer time in the Middle East, and once again the possibility of war in multiple fronts cannot be ignored.
