Three years ago when the Iranian-backed fanatical Islamic group Hamas were elected into power in Gaza, Israel immediately set up a naval blockade to prevent ships landing there because they did not want what would effectively be an Iranian port set up on their doorstep, and wanted to cut off the supply of all weaponry to the area.
The blockade had a desirable effect: in the year before the blockade began, over 30,000 rockets were fired at Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. Following the start of the blockade this has reduced dramatically. It is important for Israel to enforce the control of weapons in the area because it is a little democracy surrounded by a handful of aggressive dictatorships that would blow them off the face of the map given the chance.
On the 31st of May, a six-ship flotilla organised by the Turkish IHH movement approached Israel. The lead ship was the Mavi Mamara and had on board 600 people. Its captain was warned three times by the Israel Defence Force to turn back due to the naval blockade. He was told that Israel would prevent entry to this area at all costs.
Now, I don’t know about you but I have seen the kind of responses that Israel comes up with when they’ve been wound up, and they usually involve overwhelming, disproportionate force, lots of helicopters and a path of destruction.
Anyhow, the flotilla continued towards Gaza, and Israel Defence Forces deployed a helicopter full of commandos from their Shayetet 13 special forces team to commandeer the ship and direct it to a port of their choosing. Shayetet 13 (‘Flotilla’ 13) is the equivalent of our Special Boat Service. As the commandos abseiled down from the chopper, they were immediately set upon by supposed peace activists wielding iron bars, clubs and knives.
It has been said that because the commandos had guns – supposedly the IWI Galil micro assault rifle – that it’s somehow not fair for them to have opened fire when set upon by up to 600 activists. The trouble I have with that is that these activists would have happily beaten and stabbed the commandos to death had they not tipped the balance of power by opening fire. Had that happened, it would have been spun as acceptable by the media, and as a victory by Hamas.
Had they been peaceful and just stood there whilst the commandos boarded, there would have been no deaths, as was the case in the more recent takeover of the Rachel Corrie just 35 miles from Gaza.
Iran has now said it will send its Revolutionary Guard to protect subsequent flotillas.
What beats me about these aid ships is why they are sailing like lemmings into the clutches of the Israeli navy. In no cases were Israel going to let them past and the ships’ captains were aware of this. It doesn’t matter whether or not they were carrying weapons or humanitarian aid – there are approved channels for aid to enter Gaza by land so the blockade remains. Israel later delivered the items from the flotilla that it deemed ‘legal’ but these were rejected by Hamas anyway.
If Iran were to send its own boats to protect these apparent aid flotillas as the Ayatollah has offered, Israel would just torpedo them and then we’d have another Cold War style Mexican standoff with international powers trying to convince both sides not to nuke each other.
In the case of the Mavi Mamara, I can’t get to grips with why these so called peaceful activists started assaulting the soldiers before they’d even let go of the abseil rope. What did they expect would happen? On the one hand you have representatives of ‘peaceful’ groups saying that nothing will be resolved by violence and on the other hand these groups were surrounding the abseil rope like hungry wolves ready to pounce on everything that came down. Unfortunately for them, the people coming down the rope were part of one of Israel’s toughest elite units with orders to stop the boat at all costs.
It seems suicidal to attack them, however it has been reported by the families of those Turks that were killed that they were seeking martyrdom. In fact according to the Israeli government there was a hardcore group of 40 Islamic fundamentalists wanting to die for their cause. So there may have been a humanitarian cargo, but there was also a highly dangerous one too.
Some witnesses have claimed that these commandos opened fire before they had even touched the ground. Maybe they did, but could this not have been due to then getting battered and stabbed whilst still on the rope, or seeing colleagues that have already landed getting battered? Obviously Israel will, and has, put out a hard line on this but you also have to say that there may well have been collusion between witnesses to put out a completely anti-Israel line.
Following this incident, foreign ministers have been reeling off endless platitudes whilst distancing themselves from Israel’s point of view.
Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp is not one of these people. He has gone on the record to say that some of those on board had a clear anti-Israel agenda and that they were more ‘extremist activists’ than terrorists. He also went on to say that there were those on there for peaceful purposes, but that they may have been duped into boarding under false pretences.
Has Israel been acting contrary to international law? I don’t know, but it seems fair for them to defend their shores in whatever way they see fit. They did warn the boats three times that they would be stopped at any cost, and the people on board the boats saw the commando units approaching on small boats followed by a helicopter.
The operators of the flotilla have to accept some of the blame for the deaths. They didn’t pull the trigger, but they might as well have done.
This situation has a lot of similarities to the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960′s where the Americans went all out to stop the USSR supplying missile bases it had constructed on nearby Cuba. Okay, the Free Gaza ships aren’t carrying missiles or nuclear bombers, but Israel is blockading the international waters around Gaza in the same way as the Americans did with Cuba: to stop weapons or materials that could be used to construct military facilities being brought in and to stop Iran setting up a base there. Unfortunately this is being taken to the extreme by Israel: even basic supplies such as concrete are forbidden into Gaza in case it is used to construct underground bunkers or missile launching facilities.
The blockade of Soviet ships in the Cuban Missile Crisis prompted the Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev to declare is as “an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war.”
On Question Time last week there was a bloke from the Times called Matthew Paris whose opinion I have sympathy with. He said that he’s bored of reading about the Middle Eastern conflict. He said that if we stopped talking about Israel and Palestine all the time and got rid of all the camera crews and other media from there then the situation might actually improve.
He continued that Britain can’t make any difference to the situation anyway and that we should just let them get on with it.
loading…
Israel’s fear of missiles entering through the seaports is without doubt valid but a total blockade is an over use of force. In fact if Israel were allowing all UN aid that is going by land in and not rationing it (which is in itself wrong) then this sea blockade would not be seen as so harsh.
Why a total blockade?
Why not allow UN aid in and why ration it?
As for removing reporters in a simple belief that the problem would disappear what a good idea it worked so well in Zimbabwe. The reverse is truer that without the reporters the Israelis would act far worse.
loading...
May have been the case in Zimbabwe but Israel is not a dictatorship so I don’t feel it’s the same. Israel is not empire making nor seeking to advance the riches of a select few.
They have said they will allow concrete in but only via UN convoys. I don’t think the UN is banned/blocked is it?
loading...
Excellent article Phil,it seems these aid ships are being used to provoke a response which would/will result in condemnation of Israel, its ina lose lose situation there.
Although I do believe genuine aid does need to get to the Palestinian people more quickly,they need that help and it would reduce tension.
One thing I will say for the Israeli govt,is that when dealing with Islamisist scum;they dont fuck about.Shame our previous govt of 13 years didnt do the same thing.
loading...
” Israel is not Empire making”
The Popes not catholic
loading...
Support your statement!
loading...
lol I thought the pope was jewish, after all he wears a skull cap, lol
loading...
UN aid is not coming by sea and has had a secure supply route since 2007. The last time I read how much aid was going via the UN to Gaza it was around $4.5 billion. So the question is why is the sea blockade causing any difficulties to Gaza? The answer is, sadly, that between 50%-80% is not going to Gaza the Israelis, who take control of this aid from the UN at their borders, disrepute it, or don’t as the case my be. This is done in full view, by an elective government, of the world press. The question is why doesn’t the Israelis let the Gaza government (democratically elective government) disrepute it? The answer according to Israel is Hamas steals it and gives it to the highest bidder, something that has never been proved, so it seems to the Israelis its better for them to steal it then for Hamas to???
As for Israel not acting like Zimbabwe they have tried to depopulate the Palestinians from their homes and replace them with Israelis for decades and it was only the constant reporting of the misdeeds done by the democratic government which stop and reverse this.
loading...
It’s not all that simple though. If Ireland had ever had a government of IRA (not Sinn Fein) then I doubt the UK and Ireland would be getting on well – especially if IRA bombs were constantly being planted in Northern Ireland as a result.
It is UN tinkering creating the state of Israel after the genocide of the second world war and Palestine’s reluctance to agree that the territory should be shared which has caused such entrenched bitterness.
Personally I don’t understand why the press loves Palestine so much anyway. These are the people that after 9/11 fire guns in the air to celebrate the falling of the Twin Towers and all the deaths that followed. Back Israel in a corner and it uses a lot more force than it needs to. Leave it alone to deal with such situations itself and we might just avert a war between Iran and the west. At the moment all they are asking for is to check that weapons aren’t being transported to its neighbour who has a record for using them against them. That’s only like the public of Cumbria wanting to stop guns getting into irate taxi drivers’ hands.
loading...
What you say is true but I feel that frustrated is overly simplifying the situation. Hamas aren’t nice people but at the time neither are the Israelis. Frustrated is right it would be simple (ish) for Israel to search all ships for weapons and then let the ship through so why don’t they? You can’t help but feel that this is more about destroying Hamas as a political force then anything else and stuff the lives of the people that are suffering.
loading...
Even if Israel is only doing this to destroy Hamas as a political force could you blame them for wanting to? (And I’d again use the IRA comparison)
Surely the UN should be providing a security force to check all goods landing into Palestine if it seriously wants to stop Israel sticking its oar in. The UN helped create this mess – it should use its powers to diffuse the attempts by both sides to inflame each other.
loading...
Lets keep with the IRA comparison, when the IRA plant bombs in Britain did we respond by planting bombs in catholic areas of Northern Ireland at a ratio of 50-1 on the off chance that we would kill the IRA and their supporters? Israel did with the missile attacks by Hamas. Also did Britain starve the catholic in NI and keep them in poverty just to try and break the IRA? This is what the blockade is doing its not right and its will not work.
loading...
Did the Irish public elect the IRA into power though? No. Did Britain starve the Catholics in Northern Ireland? Well indirectly yes they did in the Potato Famine as they were frightened any aid would be used to buy arms (not all that disimilar to the Gaza blockade).
If Gaza had not been used to deploy weapons and was currently ruled by terrorists it would be exceedingly hard for Israel to defend its actions – but it has and is. Israel did not use violence on most of the ships – only one where protestors were filmed beating soldiers with iron bars and throwing them overboard. Am I now going to feel sorry for those people? No. This protest ship was nothing to do with aid and everything to do with propaganda and I refuse to buy into it. Hamas is in power because the majority of Palestinians support it. It is the fault of those who voted Hamas and Hamas itself that has caused this blockade and checking of goods. Rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel this month – some on Saturday. This is an ongoing problem so how can you reasonably expect the Israelis to lift their blockade when there is still a very real threat and the blockade is at least reducing the number of attacks?
loading...
May I suggest you reappraise your history of the potato famine event. In the period 1845 – 1852 there was no partition so as such the famine extended across the Island and affected people of all religions. It is plainly wrong to suggest otherwise as the crop blight affected many Countries across Europe.
In addition there was no credible terrorist or otherwise threat at the time as it was to be around another 60 odd years before the worlds Irish Provisional would be formed.
As a matter of conjecture the long awaited Saville report (events of 30th Jan 1972) is due quite soon and will no doubt be yet another Provo appeasement exercise. More on that and why when it happens. But for a taster it is widely known in Military circles that the first person to open fire that day now sits in Government in Stormont.
loading...
You were talking of Northern Ireland so I made that comparison. Of course I know Ireland wasn’t partitioned during this time but as Northern Ireland is in Ireland I didn’t want to be pedantic as it made no difference to the point being made. I also know it was a very minor part of the whole discussion as the two places don’t compare exactly – except for the effect of terrorism in the 80s for the IRA/Britain and now for Hamas/Israel. And I have also on 4 separate occasions either narrowly missed being blown up or should have been at a bomb location due to the IRA so I hold no tenderness for terrorists. And at least these people did give some warnings (if often far too little) to minimise loss of life rather than Hamas deliberating targeting everyday ordinary citizens just because of where they live.
If the IRA had ruled Ireland there is no way the people of the UK wouldn’t have agreed to and supported actions identical to the Israel now. Appeasement only works when the terrorist side genuinely relinquishes its arms – not appoints terrorists to be its legal government. These same terrorists would happily blow you and I up for being western alone and celebrate it. Israel is letting goods through – so although it’s austere it’s not like Israel are starving the people of Gaza at all. But do I even care if they starve? Until they stop rocket attacks – not in the least. And I suspect all those that have lost relatives and friends to terrorist attacks or maybe even worse survived them as a radically different person would agree rather than this pathetic pandering appeasement approach to people who don’t want to relinquish violence.
loading...
Don’t get me wrong Frustrated Israel is on to a bit of a loser here but thier actions are wildly over the top if you compare them to how Britain delt with the IRA.
loading...
I saw QT too Matthew Paris is a twunt. He had huge (undeserved) sympathy for the thief that was until last week chief sec at the treasury. Even the studio audience thought so.
His fame (if I can call it as such) was achieved from asserting gay rights (nothing wrong with that) so he has absolutely no credibility when he comments on other issues particularly one such as this.
None of us understand the issues in the Middle East and probably never will. To even make a start to move the situation to peaceful negotiation The Arabs need to stop lobbing missiles around and the Israelis need to stop setting up settlements on disputed land. Neither show any sign of doing so.
I have no sympathy for Israel in this situation, they committed an act of piracy in international waters by boarding that ship. In such circumstances those ships masters have every right to attempt to repel those boarders. This explains World Governments revulsion at the act.
What is the difference between what occurred here and what happens off of Somalia? How can it be acceptable to fight off piracy there but not here?
loading...
One difference is that the boarders were an accountable navy whereas the Somali pirates are not. Another is that they’re not doing it for profit or ransom money, and they’re not keeping crew hostage. In most cases where the crew are peaceful, all that happens is they get a free ride back to where they came from.
If what you say about those on the ship having every right to attack the commandos, does that therefore not open the door to say that the commandos therefore have every right to shoot them all (bearing in mind they are not political activists – just soldiers following orders)?
That’s what happens in Somalia.
Whatever people say about the blockade, the fact is it’s there and Israel have been actively enforcing it since it was started. Doesn’t it suggest that you have to be pretty stupid to keep sending boats to try and break it, regardless of whether or not it’s a legal blockade?
What’s the difference between this and the Cuban Missile Crisis? Why was it OK for the Americans to blockade the international waters and search ships around Cuba?
loading...
I see the Israeli Government have made no effort to publish the Rules of Engagement of the forces of that day.
In the British Army the situation is very explicit and has been subject to peacekeeping operations in Ireland and elsewhere. ROE are explicit and lay down conditions where live fire may be used. One example would be a soldier does not have an automatic right to open fire on a person he sees carrying a weapon this can be anything from a bladed weapon to a firearm. He may only do so once it begins clear that persons intends to endanger life with said weapon.
The crucial bit here and the bit the Israelis fecked up big time on was the force used must be proportionate. No more rounds are fired as is necessary to counter the immediate threat So yes if the person down from the heli was attached with bladed weapons and otherwise then it would have been proportionate to shoot to protect that one individual. The force should then have been withdrawn. as has been shown to happen what they did in rampaging thru that ship was not much better than Bird rampaging through the Cumbrian Countryside shooting at random.
There are other ways to enforce a blockade by more peaceful means. Israel has a sizeable navy it could have forcibly blockaded the port and not allowed the ships to dock. After all its not like Hamas will send out their battle cruiser to engage them is it?
Israel is a bully and most of the world knows it. Yes it suffers with rocket attacks across its Southern border but it responds with a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Arab kids with sticks and stones are no match for sort of armoured fighting vehicles they deploy to try and stop it.
Did we send Chieftain Tanks (as was then) onto the streets of Belfast during the troubles? Of course we didn’t! At first it was light skinned land rovers then armoured carriers but only to counter the threat posed from rockets and petrol bombs.
loading...
And hundreds of the British army lost their lives. In fact 3,600 people from all sides lost their lives so is this a good model we should be TELLING the Israelis to use?
loading...
Another difference is that people are throwing the book at Israel for boarding ships whereas nobody seems to do a thing about the Somali pirates, but that all goes back to the first point that Israel’s navy is an accountable force.
loading...
You are right the difference between the two is one is outside the law and the other may still be brought to account for their actions isn’t this what the world debating about now.
This blockade has been going on three years when should it end? Perhaps it will only end when people begin to protest about it in the public eye.
loading...
I usually avoid discussing the middle east situation for obvious reasons.
I agree with Matthew Parris about both David Laws and Gaza.
What really winds me up is the biased reporting of these events.
These people who died were hardly “innocent victims” I don’t think they deserved to die but they knew exactly what they were doing when they attacked Israeli special forces.
loading...