Posted on 05/31/2010 2:41:31 PM PDT by Salem
On Sunday, Israeli naval forces intercepted the ships of a Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel had demanded that the vessels not go directly to Gaza but instead dock in Israeli ports, where the supplies would be offloaded and delivered to Gaza. The Turkish NGO refused, insisting on going directly to Gaza. Gunfire ensued when Israeli naval personnel boarded one of the vessels, and a significant number of the passengers and crew on the ship were killed or wounded.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the Israelis. That was certainly the case. The mission was designed to demonstrate that the Israelis were unreasonable and brutal. The hope was that Israel would be provoked to extreme action, further alienating Israel from the global community and possibly driving a wedge between Israel and the United States. The operation’s planners also hoped this would trigger a political crisis in Israel.
A logical Israeli response would have been avoiding falling into the provocation trap and suffering the political repercussions the Turkish NGO was trying to trigger. Instead, the Israelis decided to make a show of force. The Israelis appear to have reasoned that backing down would demonstrate weakness and encourage further flotillas to Gaza, unraveling the Israeli position vis-à-vis Hamas. In this thinking, a violent interception was a superior strategy to accommodation regardless of political consequences. Thus, the Israelis accepted the bait and were provoked.
(Excerpt) Read more at stratfor.com ...
Where did I say you said that?
best response yet!
Let me make my stand clear:
The flotilla is made up of Islamofascists and their supporters.
They are entering Israel illegally.
There is a chance that they are not carrying arms this trip.
If they are not carrying arms this trip, future trips will most certainly see them doing so.
Is there any part of that you do not understand?
He says that as if it's a bad thing. An army is SUPPOSED to use deadly force. The sooner the better. "The only good enemy is a dead enemy" must be an army's guiding motto.
Currently Israel has the only army in the western world.
My opinion is that ‘flotilla’ is a euphemism for ‘pirate ships running aid to terrorists.’
Fascinating, thanks for the ping.
Thank you. You can just call me Godzilla. lol
Freely translated:
Olmert good
Netanyahu bad
“Over and over, the policies of force fail. The problem is that with each failure, the part of the world in which we would like to belong is losing patience with us.”
Well, isn’t that perfect 20/20 hindsight. Such a smart appeaser. Chamberlain would have been proud.
Interesting choice of words to describe this group of aid ships as a flotilla. That term has decided martial connotations.
What types of weapons were found on the boat?
All that I have read, so far, says that only personnel weapons were found. It seems that they used young recruits from AQ, who were told to bring along whatever weapons they had at home. They were going to be martyrs for the cause, and only needed enough firepower to injure a few soldiers, who only had paintball guns.
Using the flagship as bait, one could safely assume the terrorists hid the military ordinance on the other ships.
I think what is needed is a ‘flokilla’.
They need one of those in the Gulf of Mexico too.
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