Contrary to common perception, the "activists" on board on the infamous Gaza-bound flotilla were not activists at all; they were terrorists, many of whom were members or associates of the Muslim Brotherhood. At the very least, many were individuals collaborating with terrorists.
Further, the so called "humanitarian mission" to Gaza was not a humanitarian mission at all; it was a combat mission. As Eli Hertz writes, the international community should start by blaming Turkey for what happened: it was Ankara's responsibility to make sure that the vessels and their captains were completely legal, an with only peaceful intentions -- they clearly were neither.
Fundamentally, however, the real blame here must be put on the terrorist paramilitary organization, Hamas, which has been smuggling in thousands rockets from the Egyptian side of its border through 1000 illegal tunnels (a broken blockade could import thousands of rockets on each boat) -- and which is openly sworn in its charter to Israel's destruction.
What is surprising is that even well informed politicians, such as the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, are blaming Israel for the incident. Frattini said that Jerusalem must "must give an explanation to the international community" and that the killings are "absolutely unacceptable, whatever the flotilla's aims."
Here is one brief explanation Israeli politicians could offer Frattini: Hamas, a terrorist organization, is at war with Israel; in order to prevent this organization's terrorists and suicide bombers from bringing even more weapons into Gaza than they already do -- as has happened with the Hezballah in Southern Lebanon, which the international community was supposed to keep demilitarized -- our government was forced to impose a marine blockade, which is completely legal and legitimate under international law, as instituted before by the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the the UK during the Falklands war, in which Britain sank the Argentinian ship, the Belgarano, killing over 300 Argentinians.
Regarding the killings, Israeli MPs could explain that it is naive to state that "whatever the flotilla's aim," the death of nine terrorists (or activists that are collaborating with terrorists, if you wish) is unacceptable. What if a flotilla of terrorists (organized by a terrorist organization to support a terrorist state) were navigating towards Italian territory? Would your army salute these people and welcome them?
Unfortunately, though, Frattini is only one of the many influential politicians who, throughout these days, have been calling for a sudden policy shift toward Israel. The newly elected English Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the marine blockade is "completely unacceptable," despite its perfect legality against an adversary openly sworn to your destruction, and as long as it does not prevent other neutral nations from entering the area upon which this blockade is imposed. Vessels of the flotilla were well aware of the status quo in the area, were also repeatedly warned about the IDF's potential countermeasures, and were offered a safe landing in the Israeli port of Ashdod, with the ability to supervise the transfer of all permitted goods to Gaza.
And how about America? To quote from the New York Times: "The Obama administration considers Israel's blockade of Gaza to be untenable and plans to press for another approach to ensure Israel's security while allowing more supplies into the impoverished Palestinian area, senior American officials said Wednesday."
What is, in actuality, "untenable" in this entire situation is the fact that the terrorist organization, Hamas, is ruling over a piece of land and that surprisingly, in this case, the international community is not pointing any finger at it at all. Further, the only reason the "impoverished" Palestinian area is "impoverished" is because of Hamas. For some reason, however, the notion of "terrorism" seems to change and fade into something less serious when it comes to the so called Islamic Resistance Movement. It is made to look as if this terrorist organization's very existence could be justified by the presence of Israel. The word "terrorism" gets magically replaced by the word "resistance" in the eyes of many of the Western's media outlets, probably in an attempt to neutralize its danger in the minds of readers.
Parenthetically, whatever the source of the problem, Israel is already suffering from another equally damaging blow to its reputation as happened with the Mohammed al-Dura case: the media. By simply omitting a few words, or facts, any media outlet can easily distort reality.Try to read the following sentences without parentheses: "a humanitarian aid flotilla (made of terrorists and sponsored by terrorists) was attacked by the Israeli army in international waters (but the flotilla was heading towards an area subjected to a legitimate marine blockade). Israeli soldiers opened fire on the activists (who were taking part into a terrorist operation against a democratic state) and killed nine innocent people (many of whom were affiliated with terrorist-affiliated groups such as the IHH, and the Free Gaza Movement, and only after these "innocents" started attacking the soldiers).
The international community and all the Western pro-democratic states should immediately hold accountable terrorists organizations such as Hamas -- and all nations which give them financial aid, safe harbor, and which incite their people to violence.
