Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Dangers of Gunboat Diplomacy

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Israel learned a nasty lesson in the dangers of gunboat diplomacy with its interception of the aid ships bound for Gaza. Public opinion, fanned by the media interviews of the ship's participants, has already convicted Israel of "crimes".

Was this a setup? Of course it was! Turkey, a NATO ally, was heavily involved in the facilitation of this fiasco, at least according to the media reports. It is very obvious to anyone with a brain that this operation was designed to provoke a strong response from the Israelis. The "activists" who were participating were just the pawns, used by those who would incite more violence for their own ends. They(the "activists") were naive to think that Israel would just let them sail into port with impunity.

Israel is not without blame itself. Poorly considered tactics, intelligence failures, lack of preparedness, and other factors made this incident a bonanza for their opponents. I'm sure their enemies are laughing their butts off at their gullibility.

It is obvious that the radical elements among the passengers were ready for the assault by the soldiers who boarded the largest vessel. Look at the video. Does this look like non-violent resistance to you? Not hardly.

The "activists" were prepared to resist with violence. Here's a cache of weapons found on board.

Whoever was in command of this operation played right into the hands of their opponents. Stupid. Really stupid.

What is sad is the fact that the soft-headed and naive "activists", who most likely had good intentions, allowed themselves to be used by unsavory elements to foment violence. It's clear that violent types were secreted among them, ready to ignite the fire.

That fire is now burning Israel in the blaze of public opinion.

The fact that the same public opinion is mostly ill-informed and clueless, lacking in any evidence of what really happened on board that ship, seems to be overlooked by the media. Oh, they put a small line at the end of their articles stating that the facts or statements cannot be independently confirmed....how nice of them! Such journalistic integrity!

Many of the "statements" given by some of the released "activists" are totally crazy. Even a child can tell they are grossly exaggerated. Those with an ax to grind are known to bend the truth "a bit". No, really? These good people? I'm shocked!(laughing)

There should certainly be a thorough investigation. But even if that investigation shows Israel is in the right, it won't matter. People will already have made up their minds what happened, and changing them will be almost impossible. We all know how difficult it is to get someone, especially governments, to admit they were wrong.

Time to ClearOurBrainZ !

Reality check:

What do we know?

Not much. We know the ships were sailing into a security zone in defiance of Israel's warnings.

We know that they were warned repeatedly to stop.

We know that Israel offered to let them dock, and transfer the supplies they carried to Gaza. They refused.

We know that they attacked the Israeli solders who boarded the ship, using pipes, baseball bats, knives, and firearms. We saw it on the video.

We see what appears to be a deliberate attempt to provoke Israel into a violent over-reaction. It worked.

More facts will emerge.

Should we wait to see what the real facts in this matter are, or just go ahead and condemn Israel anyway?

Your comments, please.

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