Good article. I think one of the main problems with the current Israeli administration is that it seems locked up in a bubble, a bubble it has been in ever since Cast Lead (arguably since 2006). Its the attitude that the rest of the world is already anti-semitic, and so nothing Israel does can ever affect the world opinion so it doesnt bother even trying. Their only card seems to be the victim card, and they seem quite content on relying on US sympathisers to protect them from the consequences of their own actions.

ANother issue is to what extent the Israeli military understands modern freedom of press. In a country that practices military censorship even on the net, I do believe a certain insensitivity to the rest of the world may develop.

I wonder. Israel sent a message of their own by killing the nine ‘peace’ protesters who thought it was a good idea to attack armed commandos. Yes, they are getting whacked in the press in the short term but surely this will have a long term benefit, if for no other reason that to confirm that this is not a game. And if those on the next vessel decide to start swinging pipe (or whatever) then the Israelis should make him the next example.

One area where Israel should be working harder is dealing with Turkey who helped bring about this mess. Maybe Israel should take the seized Turkish ship, load it up with humanitarian aid and head off on an aid mission to help the Kurds in Turkey… I am sure that the Turkish Government will welcome the gesture with open arms…

I can understand the Israeli position. From their perspective, the propaganda war is unwinnable.

However, conceding the propaganda battlefield gives a flexibility that the Israelis have not exploited. There is a good argument that the correct response was not to try to fast-rope a boarding party, but to put two torpedoes into the ship and sink it. A demonstration that the blockade is deadly serious…and that trying to break it has fatal consequences.

As the Romans said, “Let them hate us. So long as they fear us.”

“That is because the UN and world press have through their actions and words proven that they are anti-semetic.”

“they need to start using the same types of misinformation and media manipulation that the terrorists us.”

“but to put two torpedoes into the ship and sink it.”

“someone running a legal blockade deserves a torpedo in their port quarter”

The flotilla worked because its premise was to prove that the IDF acts with disproportionate force in regards to civilians. All they had to do was to load up ships and try to relieve a beleaguered population. The IDF took the bait from there and ran. If the same sentiments as those displayed above and by the IDF are influencing our own war policy then I can take a guess as to why the Afghans and the Iraqis stopped greeting us with rose pedals along time ago.

IDF blew it. Simple as it gets. Go armed, go ready to lay waste. But also start out with proven non-lethal force. They could have started with stun grenades and CS gas. They could have used bean bag guns. Bring lot’s of zip ties, keep immobilizing as you search the ship. If the ship is carry weapons, then seize the weapons, seize the ship (and quite visibly sink it), imprison the people on board, including the Turkish crew.

It could have been handled differently. It wasn’t.

Galrahn: Actually, the meme dates to *at least* as early as December 1997. I can vouch for this. I suspect that it didn’t really go mainstream, though, until the infamous EDS commercial in 2000(?).

Byron: That’s essentially what they did, only they left out the area effect or offboard support non-lethals like sound or CS. Primary armament was paintball guns, backed up most likely by holstered pistols. I would assume that they did carry zip-ties. On every other ship, this worked just fine. But, this one ship was rigged as an ambush all along. Once the trap was sprung, and troops were down on the deck and being beaten, there was no alternative but to throw the rest of them onto the deck and let them fight their way out of it or to abandon the first couple as hostages (an unacceptable solution). Even then, there was no lethal action (other than the soldiers being Rodney King-ed to death) until somebody apparently got one of the soldiers’ pistols and shot up a couple of them, at which point (speculating here) the soldiers pulled their own pistols and “went lethal”.

Sacto: You haven’t seen the IDF thermal imaging videos from above and beside the ship, have you? Those pretty much put the lie to some of your claims of “civilians fighting for their lives against masked gunmen”. Or, how about the videos taken onboard earlier where said “civilians” were chanting for blood?

I don’t think Israel has any good options here. Their fatalism regarding info-ops appears largely justified. That said, they can still use the occasion to send messages beyond the public to the folks with the power to order attacks against them… by, perhaps, issuing a formal warning that blockade runners that enter Gaza territorial waters will be sunk, and following through on that.

The Israeli attack on the flotilla epitomizes Likud Israel’s FY attitude toward the world, including us. Those ships&boats were too far out in international waters at the time the Israelis attacked them.

Israel has now equated itself with the Somali pirates and North Korea, and we would be well-advised to reconsider our relations with it and not let our country be dragged down to our own self-destruction too.

As to Turkey, it is already lost as an ally – and it was our best Muslim ally in the Mideast, before our wrongful/illegal invasion of Iraq (and our Israel lobby was one of the principal supporters of that) and subsequent atrocities so horrified, enraged, and radicalized the Turkish people. (See the Turkish film The Valley of the Wolves.) The German use of “shock and awe” in both world wars elicited the same kind of reaction, but who are we to learn from history and others’ stupidity?

And the Turks are one of the last peoples on this planet anyone would want to start a war with. Their reputation in Korea is the stuff of legends.

The machinegunning of the USS Liberty’s liferafts and the fact that the Israelis only stopped their 1967 attack on it after the crew was finally able to get a radio working to get out the message that it was being attacked by *Israelis* clearly indicates that their intent was a false flag massacre to draw us directly into the Mideast wars, like 9/11 did … and the allegations of Israeli operatives’ involvement in 9/11 are well known.

Since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel has been run by fanatic, mafiya-allied extremists, and Israelis’ only hope to survive now is to get moderates back in power who will bring these criminals to justice and salvage Israel’s right to exist.

Lou Coatney finally got the question right – why were the blockade runners attacked in international waters? However, once they were within territorial waters different tactics should have been used.

Since they were announced as blockade runners, I doubt a tug would have been the proper tactic, but certainly putting something bigger in front of the one(s) that refused to stop to force them to maneuver or ram may have been a better option. In addition, the US standby of shooting across the bow, and THEN into the engine room to stop the ship would have been better than boarding.

I just don’t get the commando drop onto a hostile crowd at all. That was a looser from the beginning. The goal should have been to stop the ships first – as in any other interdiction mission. I’ve been on ships that have done it south of the US and in the Adriatic, and would have never conceived of doing it the way Israel decided to do it!

“Israel has now equated itself with the Somali pirates and North Korea”(Lou Coatney)

It, in itself, says about the integrity,the intention and may be the intelligence.

I wonder why the manager of this web site doesn’t block the corrupt practice and the foul language that the blogger Lou Coatney uses.

“Simply put, Israel needs to get off it’s high horse and ask the expert at boarding and searching: The United States Coast Guard and US Navy. ”

I doubt any is prepared, but probably would still not make the drop zone mistake. I am sure this operation will go right away for the books and every forces are actively thinking how to deal with those situations. How to stop 50 fanatics in a close quarters.
If you want a historical picture is how to stop a banzai charge without killing. Also every leftist/rightwing mob is actively taking their lessons too.

The problem starts with an erosion of Rules of War which is the leftist objective, also the internal destrution of nation states. We now see non uniformed combatants having more rights(civilian justice etc) than those respectful of war rules. The inexorable tendency will be for Civil War everywhere.

—————
This is what a Turkish lawyer said in a Turkish newspaper:
“Countries could stop vessels at a reasonable distance in international waters if they believe that they could pose a security threat,” Hakan Hanlý, a senior attorney-at-law and an expert on international law, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday.

And if my memory serves, JFK had Soviet merchant ships stopped far out at sea. Nations will always act in their self-interest as they should.

A Rickover: while I don’t agree with Lou, I’ll defend his right to say it. Goes with being American and that whole First Ammendment thing.

Sacto43 you are wrong when you imply that the Israeli blockade turns away humanitarian aid. They in fact ensure that humanitarian aid gets through to the Gaza Strip, and for you to say that they “cause people to starve” shows your disregard for facts. The purpose of the blockade is to stop arms and material support (concrete to build tunnels and bunkers, repair parts for military equipment, etc) from getting to Hamas, and if anyone in Gaza is starving it is because Hamas is not distributing the thousands of tons of food which flows into the area.
You misrepresent the purpose, the practice, and the result of the blockade.
What do you think Israel should do stop Hamas from attacking Israel?

If the working knowledge here is that Gazian or gazian ativist equals Al Queda then there is no point to debate. However, most of the world, including many jews, have come to believe that the people of gaza need humanitarian relief. All the major humanitarian groups have decried the blockade. From Amnesty to the Red Cross. From former presidents to the pope.

“An occupying power is obliged to follow the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which seeks to protect the civilian population.[20] The Security Council held in 1979 that the Fourth Convention applies in the territories captured by Israel in 1967, including Gaza.” wiki.

“The 1977 amendment to the Geneva Conventions protocols prohibits the use of collective measures that do not distinguish between civilians and military. The amendment protects civilian populations in time of conflicts that fall short of war.” wiki

These two protocols alone may make the blockade illegal. There is certainly enough ambiguity that warranted greater handling of this supply flotilla. The fact that Turkish nationals, under a Turkish flag, were murdered in international waters is a crime and its perpetrators must be brought to justice. The same way that ANY player who kills unarmed civilians should be. This ship was not Hamas. It was not intended to strengthen Hamas (The Irish authorities backed this up). It was to provide humanitarian relief and to prove the IDF’s heavy-handed tactics that many are already aware of.

Former Ambassador EDWARD L. PECK and USS Liberty survivor Joe Meadors were also part of the flotilla. The next ship headed to Gaza is named after an American. The arab moderates are desperately tying to send us a message. We need to act even handedly with ALL parties for the sake of all parties involved.

To the poster who wrote “Bringing the Liberty is the usual anti semitic tripe” I can only say this.

Me bringing up the Liberty makes me anti-semetic? I guess me remembering the lives lost on Dec 7th makes me anti Japanese as well. I will never feel sorry for bringing up the lives lost on USN ships.

Has FREEGAZA publicly renounced HAMAS and HEZBOLLA?

Is there a link that shows this public renouncement?

“There is not one, repeat, not one major aid organization that says the Israel is letting enough aid get through.” By all means, send more. This stuff does not appear out of thin air. Don’t kid yourself that the aid arriving by this ship was any meaningful quantity. It was a small share of what goes to Gaza every day. As it is, Hamas has rejected the Aid. Also remember that Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. There are two parties playing this game and Hamas is just as responsible for this blockade as Israel is.

“There are two parties playing this game and Hamas is just as responsible for this blockade as Israel is.”

Agreed.

Now lets move on to figure out ways of ending the collective punishment on civilians so that the extremes on both sides loose power.

Without getting too far into the politics lets get back to tactics.

Its been said that to be effective in conflict one must apply your strengths to an opponents weakness and to protect your weakness from your opponents strength. If one agrees that the extremes in this conflict are responsible for the continuation of hostilities how does this maxim apply? The extremes have the monopoly violence. Thus to confront with military strength on either party does little to end the conflict. The middle ground (on both sides) is discovering that to apply non-violent direct action robs the ability for the opposition to respond with force without looking like thugs. Many Israelis and Palestinians have formed groups to work toward peace. They are all condemned by the extremist. Many are working for economic boycotts against settler goods. One guy even painted himself blue, a la Avitar, and went unarmed to a checkpoint. The images of him being tear-gassed went around the world. This is the New War. The moderates are applying soft power against hard power in direct relation to the maxim above. I think this strategy is troubling to some because we cant shoot a missile at it. A fully loaded $1 billion Burke could not stop this flotilla. The proper response would have been a creative, non-violent response. In fact many ideas were given to Mr. Netenyahoo in the press conference a week before. Including one were the cargo would have been un-loaded by victims of Hamas bombings. He dismissed them all and chose the hardline response. It was not a lack of technology, intelligence, or ideas that lead to this. It was him ignoring the above maxim.

And for the record there is no international law that authorizes the killing of unarmed nationals, sailing under their own flag, in international waters.

“Now lets move on to figure out ways of ending the collective punishment on civilians so that the extremes on both sides loose power.”
Perhaps the local population should stop supporting Hamas. The population is punished partly as a result of their poor choices. It is not Israel’s job to kick out Hamas. It is the Palestinian’s job.

“And for the record there is no international law that authorizes the killing of unarmed nationals, sailing under their own flag, in international waters.”
They were not unarmed. The ship itself was the weapon.

At the very least every single person on that vessel was a human shield. They were armed, just not with firearms. On top of that, they threw the first punches. there are no rules against neutralizing human shields. It is only doing so that makes for bad press, which is why bad actors like to use them.

One point not yet mentioned is that the NGO came prepared for the media war.
Their broadcasts and pictures were the first ones out there. The cooperation of Turkish TV guaranteed that they would be able to make the first releases and cast the IDF in a bad light regardless of the facts.
The use of weapons to provoke a fight with casualties is also a common tactic of Islamist groups. One of the people on the Mavi Marmari even expressed regret that he had not become a Shahid (Martyr). Add to that the misguided do-gooders that really feel they are trying to help, keep them away from the actual combat, but let them see the bloody and injured, and you have stories the international media will jump on with both feet.
Playing on mis-information, like claiming the ship was outside the 12 mile limit and therefore the IDF were involved in piracy is another PR ploy that was used. Organizing supporters to repeat these canards over and over in the media helped make this a lose-lose scenario for the Israeli side in the short run.
The Israeli response has not been that bad. They provided sufficient real time footage to the media, with explanations, proving that the blockade is legal, the ships were breaching the blockade, and people on board the one ship of the 6 where violence occurred were the instigators and the IDF personnel behaved with admirable restraint. Despite all that, the first images make the strongest impressions, so it’s an uphill fight to get the truth recognized.

Some of us may benefit from the following legal background that was submitted on another site:

A Blockade is a legal concept in which the delivery of certain materials (contraband) is prevented from reaching elements hostile to the blockading power. The contraband in this case is materials that are, or can be used to manufacture, weapons or fortifications.
The existence of a blockade must be announced publicly. Ignorance of the existence of a blockade is not an excuse for attempting to break it, and, in this case, is not an issue. The individual ships were contacted by radio and reminded that they were violating a blockade.
In order for a blockade to remain legal it must be effective. That means that any vessel that declares intent to travel to a port or shore being blockaded, and does so successfully without being halted by the blockading power, has essentially put an end to the blockade.
The claim that the cargo is humanitarian aid is immaterial. The blockading power may examine the cargo, and, if it is not contraband, allow its entry. This offer was made to the flotilla and was refused.
a vessel attempting to breach a blockade is liable to capture from the moment a voyage with such intent begins. The concept of territorial waters or 12 mile limits has no bearing whatsoever on this matter. A vessel trying to breach a blockade could be captured and taken to a friendly port where the cargo could be examined. A warship enforcing the blockade has the right to request that any vessel identify herself and indicate where she is bound. The warship may stop a neutral merchant vessel bound for a blockaded port in order to board her and check for contraband. Such a visit and search is normally handled by bringing the vessel into port so the cargo can be thoroughly examined. If no contraband is found, the vessel would normally be released with no penalty being assessed against either the vessel or the warship that detained her. Forcible resistance, or flight by an outwardly neutral merchant ship may be treated by a blockading warship as a suspicious circumstance which justifies the capture and detention of the offending vessel, by force, if necessary. In the case of forcible resistance, and liability attached to the consequences would belong to the resisting party.
The above paragraphs are a brief summary of international law governing maritime warfare that have been in effect for more than a century, beginning with the Hague conventions of 1906-7.
It should be noted that allegations of “Humanitarian” issues are completely absent from the legal framework regarding maritime blockade. The only question regarding the cargo is whether it can be classified as contraband. Contraband, by the way, has been interpreted since the two World Wars as all goods destined for an enemy which may be susceptible to use in war. Weapons are absolute contraband, while construction materials are conditional contraband because they might also be used for peaceful purposes.
It would appear, therefore, that the so-called “Aid Flotilla” was intent upon breaching the blockade. The cargo on board was irrelevant to this aim.
It also appears that Israeli forces acted entirely correctly under the law.

LL: “Bringing [up, presumably] the Liberty is the usual anti semitic tripe, ….”

So (Americans’ demand for) truth and justice (in the case of the attack on the USS Liberty) is “anti-semitic.” This old smear job doesn’t work anymore, LL. And you should remember that those who are always falsely/wrongfully yelling “Wolf!,” eventually do attract them to their door.

A Rickover: “I wonder why the manager of this web site doesn’t block the corrupt practice and the foul language that the blogger Lou Coatney uses.”

Because Lou Coatney obviously hasn’t used them, unless you too consider facts and truth to be corrupt and foul. Now take your attempts at censorship back to whatever country you’re from.

Someone claimed Israel is a democratic state with humanitarian values. Among other things, Israel has been cited as one of the worst human trafficking countries in the world.

VP Joe Biden has now stated that an investigation of this by Israel would be sufficient. So presumably Joe thinks a North Korean investigation of the sinking of the South Korean ship would be sufficient too. What university was that that graduated Joe?

The intent of the flotilla was ultimately humanitarian (as well as provocation), and Israel has little moral ground to stand on, defending its botched boarding, especially that far out to sea. I have read that Turkish warships will be escorting the next flotilla, and it is a sure bet they will be ready to fire. Is Israel really so suicidal that it is ready to start a regional war over this? All indications are yes, and we should carefully consider the danger of supporting Israel: another superpower – less cautious than Russia – may now be set to match our Asian escalation.

Burma Shave

@Lou

You may also want to look into how many Muslim countries actually have human trafficking laws that are enforced.

“Fred, your post isn’t much better. Both of you are using metaphors to justify the killings. If deadly force is to be used there had better be more than f-ing metaphors involved.”

OK, non-metaphor comment. Deadly force in return should be expected when you strike an armed soldier with a steel pipe.