The Flotilla flop: International community stops provocateurs

BY ROZ ROTHSTEIN AND ROBERTA SEID, PHD

The Jewish Journal Online

The Mavi Marmara was one of the Gaza flotilla ships of 2010

The Free Gaza" Flotilla II campaign appears to be a flop. Leaders of the international community essentially pulled the plug on what they recognized as a provocative and potentially dangerous anti-Israel publicity stunt.

Flotilla organizers had planned to launch ten to fifteen ships with self-described 'peace activist' passengers on board in an attempt to violate Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-held Gaza Strip. They hoped to provoke Israel into a military response that would be widely publicized and severely condemned by the international community.

But things are not working out as they had hoped. The flotilla boats gathered in Greek ports, but Greece is refusing to give them permission to sail. Some boats ran into mechanical problems. Others ran into problems with insurers who, alerted to the flotilla's purposes, feared potential liability. Most important, the US, UN, EU, Greece, Canada, and France all were extremely critical of the flotilla and underscored that it was an unnecessary provocation that endangered passengers.

These international leaders laid out clear facts and principles that refuted the flotilla organizers. accusations against Israel and that undermine the accusations made in other campaigns to delegitimize and demonize Israel, from the boycott movement to the scheduled 'flytilla' in which anti-Israel activists plan to fly into Ben Gurion Airport this Friday.

Flotilla organizers claimed Israel's naval blockade of Gaza was "illegal." International leaders underscored that it is, in fact, legal and that Israel is entitled to militarily enforce the blockade. As the Canadian Foreign Minister explained, "Canada recognizes Israel's legitimate security concerns and its right to protect itself and its residents from attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including by preventing the smuggling of weapons."[i] The organizers have been stopped short in their effort to misapply international law on naval blockades in order to single out and defame Israel.

The organizers claim that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been exposed as a ruse. The international community, including the International Red Cross, has made it clear that there is no humanitarian crisis and whatever goods are needed can be delivered through legal, official entry points where they can be inspected for weapons. "We want to just reiterate that there are established and efficient mechanisms for getting humanitarian assistance through to Gaza." US State Department Spokesman Mark Toner, June 1, 2011[ii]

The international community recognized that the flotilla was not on a humanitarian mission, but rather engaged in a provocation that was intended to trigger violence by compelling Israel to enforce the blockade militarily. They held the flotilla organizers, not Israel, responsible for any violence that might occur. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on all Governments concerned to use their influence to discourage such flotillas, which carry the potential to escalate into violent conflict. Passengers on the American-flagged ship Audacity of Hope, were furious that the U.S. State Department refused to demand that Israel let them sail safely into Gaza, and instead warned the activists not to breach Israel's blockade.

The international community also recognized that the flotilla activists' primary aim was to lend support to Hamas, the Iranian proxy and a terrorist organization according to the EU, the US, Canada, and Japan. Corporations involved with the flotilla and passengers were warned that they could be held liable for aiding and abetting a designated terrorist organization which is a violation of American civil and criminal law.

The activists themselves have been exposed as extremists and agents provocateurs. It is now clear to the international community that members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas organized and raised money for the flotilla. Radical anti-Israel groups, like the International Solidarity Movement which has called Palestinian suicide bombing "noble" and Code Pink, whose leaders met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and gave him advice about how to carry on his war against Israel, joined with the Islamists and brought often naive "peace activists" along with them.

Anti-Israel activists should learn from their flotilla failure. Their mission to cause potentially dangerous mischief is transparent, and is discrediting them in the eyes of the public. Their focus on Gaza, when just miles away Syrians are desperately fighting for their freedom from a brutal, dictatorial regime, exposes the warped values and priorities of their anti-Israel obsession. It is time for them to discard the extremism that propels them into their bitter vendettas against the Jewish state. If they are interested in improving the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, they should be promoting peaceful coexistence and negotiations, not engaging in political stunts that pervert international law and endanger their fellow travelers as well as Palestinians and Israelis.

Roz Rothstein is CEO of StandWithUs, the international Israel education organizations, and Dr. Seid is Education/Research Director of StandWithUs.

Facts About the Flotilla

A short while ago, a “peace flotilla” of six ships set out to bring relief to the so-called “beleaguered” Gaza Strip and to break a naval blockade that Israel had imposed. Five of the ships peacefully obeyed the instructions of the Israeli military to unload their cargo in Ashdod, an Israeli port. There the cargo was examined. That which was, indeed, peaceful cargo, was promptly transferred to Gaza. The sixth vessel, the MAVI MARMARA, offered violent resistance to the Israeli commandos who had boarded the vessel. A melee ensued in which nine of the “peace lovers,” all Turks, offered violent armed resistance and were killed.

What are the facts?

Sponsored and egged on by Turkey. This “peace flotilla” was sponsored by a Turkish terror organization disguised as a “charity” and encouraged and egged on by the Turkish government. Its principal purpose was not to bring supplies to Gaza, but to confront Israel, which had instituted a naval blockade against the Gaza Strip. It was a win-win situation for the flotilla: Either they would reach Gaza and thus accomplish their stated purpose or they would become “martyrs,” an almost more desirable outcome for this group.

Gaza is under the control of Hamas, which is considered to be a rogue terror regime by the United States and many other countries. It is sworn to the destruction of Israel. Israel, in a splendid gesture of good will, had abandoned Gaza, removed its military and evacuated all 9,000 of its citizens, who had lived there for generations. This gesture of good will was a futile one. Instead of showing any appreciation for Israel’s accommodation, the Hamas government of Gaza showed its “gratitude” by lobbing thousands of rockets on an almost daily basis into Israeli cities within its reach.

Hundreds of tunnels connect the Egyptian-controlled Sinai with Gaza. Huge amounts of contraband, including rockets and other weapons – virtually all of them of Iranian provenance – enter Gaza through these tunnels, under the benevolent neglect of the Egyptian military.

No hunger or emergency in Gaza. The clamor that Gaza needs outside help, that its inhabitants lack the essentials for leading a normal life, is simply not correct. It is a propaganda ploy to demonize Israel. There is no hunger in Gaza and no hardship other than that imposed by its terrorist government, whose only inalterable purpose is the destruction of Israel. Tens of thousands of truckloads of food, medicines, and other essentials are allowed into Gaza on a daily basis. There is no shortage of medicine. Gasoline and diesel oil are amply provided. Israel supplies electricity to the Strip. The only thing that Israel does not allow to enter is material that could be used to construct weaponry.

Every day all Gazans who need medical attention that is not available in the Strip are allowed passage to be treated (without cost, of course) in Israel’s world-class hospitals. It is remarkable that all this help is being extended while Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas over four years ago, is not allowed even a visit by the Red Cross.

The blockade of the Gaza coast is essential for preserving the peace. Had Israel allowed the “peace flotilla” to enter a Gaza port, it would inevitably have led the way to the establishment of a de facto Iranian port in the Mediterranean, 40 miles from Tel Aviv and not much farther from Jerusalem. It is quite likely that the cargo of the “peace flotilla” was indeed peaceful goods. But there can be no question at all that, once the blockade was broken or abandoned, subsequent shipments would have included Iranian armaments too bulky or too heavy to supply through the tunnels and, most likely, also well-equipped and well trained-Iranian military personnel. What country would possibly allow anything like that to happen?

It is, of course, most regrettable that the intervention of Israeli commandos to stop the “peace flotilla” caused the deaths of nine Turks. But it was unavoidable. The trained “activists” of the MAVI MARMARA confronted the Israelis with hatchets, spears, clubs, and firearms, threw one commando overboard, and insured that a fire fight could not be avoided. Nine deaths, nine martyrs, was the expected and ultimately desired result.

Israel acted exactly as it should have and as could have been expected. No country would allow a blockade to be broken. Can anybody imagine that, even without an established blockade being in place, the U.S. Coast Guard would allow a vessel of a foreign country to dock in an American port without obeying an order to stop and be searched if necessary? But the world got into an uproar, the U.N. went into overtime, and Turkey – the instigator of the whole affair – declared Israel to be a criminal nation and recalled its ambassador. All of this happened only a short time after North Korea, without provocation, torpedoed a South Korean vessel, causing the deaths of 46 sailors. The world barely noticed. Angry mobs did not parade through the capitals of the world and no North Korean flags were burned. But Israel’s effort to stop the “peace flotilla” exercised the irate attention of the whole world and cast righteous Israel (once again) in the role of villain. What a sham!

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