Investigate the flotilla
Nations around the world are condemning Israel for its interdiction of a six-ship flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, specifically of or the fighting aboard Mavi Marmara — the flagship in this self-described “Freedom Flotilla”.
Yet evidence — physical and documented, and first-hand — abounds that the activists at the head of this flotilla were less interested in delivering aid than forcing a confrontation.
We hope you visited our blog Yinz/Yidz in the past 72 hours. There, you would have a seen a video of an Israeli naval officer hailing the Mavi Marmara, informing its crew that the waters they were entering were off limits to maritime traffic.
Then, in perfect English, he said this:
“The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the [Israeli] Ashdod port. Delivery of the supplies in accordance with the authorities regulation will be through the formal land crossing and under your observation. After which you can return to your home port aboard the vessel on which you arrived.”
So if the real objective of this crew, which was linked to IHH, a Turkish humanitarian relief fund with a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation, was to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazans, why not steam to Ashdod, oversee delivery of the supplies and go home?
And according to Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egypt also offered to deliver the aid if the flotilla made for the Northern Sinai port of El Arish. Therefore, even if the activists didn’t trust Israel to deliver its cargo, which they have said, they had another peaceful option.
By the way, Israel did deliver the aid. According to JTA, Dozens of trucks loaded with cargo from some of the ships intercepted on the way to Gaza crossed into the coastal strip on Tuesday. The cargo was scattered throughout each ship and not packed up in an organized fashion, Ynet reported. One wonders why.)
Could it be because the IHH, or whatever pro-Palestinian activists aboard, didn’t care as much about delivering assistance as provoking a confrontation?
It takes more than cargo in a hull to make a humanitarian mission; it also takes intent.
It’s disconcerting that so many people continue to refer to this flotilla as a humanitarian mission, even though Israeli soldiers were attacked and injured in the fighting.
If the world wants a truly fair investigation of Israel, then bring it on. But let’s have a real probe; let’s investigate the flotilla as well. Let’s see proof that this was a real humanitarian operation instead of taking someone’s word for it.
Let’s find out why participants in this so-called humanitarian mission attacked the commandos with knives, batons and pistols, injuring seven of the soldiers, two seriously.
And let’s hear why the flotilla’s leaders ignored the offer to steam to Ashdod where the objective of this so-called humanitarian mission could have been easily — and peacefully — carried out.
We don’t think the enemies of Israel want a real investigation. They just want the propaganda value of clamoring for an investigation. Sadly, the world community seems eager to give them just what they want.
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