Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Aluf Benn has a provocative editorial in today's Haaretz advising the Israeli military to lighten up about the armada of "humanitarian aid" ships that are planning to run the Gaza blockade in May. About 1,000 protesters are expected to head this way aboard twenty ships, and "feverish preparations" are afoot among the Israelis to head it off. Benn's point is that the military option -- which some in the IDF are claiming is the only option -- is simply not viable unless the protesters are trying to bring arms into Gaza. And if they aren't, Benn argues, we would be exceptionally stupid to treat them as anything other than minor pests. If we give them more photo ops of Israeli soldiers descending on ships full of civilians, we align ourselves in the eyes of the international viewing public with the Arab dictators now pointing their weapons on protesting citizens. The only choice, he says, is to let them in.
Opening the gates will neutralize the danger inherent in the new flotilla. In the absence of a confrontation on the high seas, the ships' passengers will disembark on the coast at Gaza and will attract barely ten seconds of media coverage. The Middle East is burning with the flames of revolution, and while the West witnesses history being written before its eyes, no one will pay attention to a few demonstrators cursing Israel and waving signs condemning it. With that it will be over. The ships' passengers will be seen as a nuisance rather than as heroes, and their hosts in Gaza will quickly be fed up with their presence.
Benn acknowledges that the protesters, who are "boiling with their hatred of Israel and their will to undermine its legitimacy," will not be satisfied with a few seconds of international attention, and even grants that he "understand[s] the motivations of Israeli officials and officers who want to teach them a lesson." But that satisfaction would be short-lived:
Nothing is going to convert these "Free Gaza" activists into ardent Zionists, not embracing them or shooting at them. The danger they present lies in the support they mobilize among less involved segments of the public in Turkey and the West and in enlisting them in the fight against Israel. Convincing such people that Israel is an evil, criminal country requires that it be portrayed as such. It's very simple. Like a bull in the ring, Israel, too, reacts instinctively with fury at the sight of the red cape, but then the bull is stabbed to death to the cheers of the crowd.
Benn reminds Israel that the point of the blockade is solely to prevent arms from making their way into Gaza. Arms interception should therefore be the only justification for Israeli interference with the armada, an assertion that contains a criticism of Israeli intelligence that was voiced by Claire and others at the time of the Mavi Marmara: surely an intelligence service as sophisticated as ours is capable of detecting what's in the holds of ships populated by people avowedly hostile to Israel and being sailed towards our enemies. As he puts it:
Someone with the capacity to locate and capture the arms ship Victoria in the middle of the Mediterranean and a Hamas engineer in Ukraine can, and must, also uncover what is hiding on the flotilla ships. If the flotilla organizers are so foolish as to smuggle rockets and bombs in the ships' hulls and are then caught red-handed, Israel would enjoy a huge public relations coup. In the absence, however, of confirmed information on the presence of weaponry on the protest armada, it should be allowed to pass through.
Benn concludes by noting that the world has changed since last spring, and we will be even more vilified than we were the first time around if we are perceived to be using our military might against innocent protesters.
In the spring of 2011, firing at unarmed demonstrators is associated with yesterday's dictators, with Gadhafi and Assad and the president of Yemen. Israel must not become associated with such a band of criminals. No "easing of the blockade" will soften international outrage at the sight of masked soldiers violently taking control of civilian ships. Instead of stopping the flotilla, we must stop the foolishness. There is no other available trick to head off a new international imbroglio.
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Aug '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
I recently confronted a "flotilla collector" on the street-it was a week after the Fogel massacre.Of course he responded to that by referring to the Palestian children "murdered" by Israel. I put it to him that the purpose of the flotilla was to open the way for imports of arms to Gaza which would be used by Hamas to attack Israel. He agreed and said that was to level the playing -field (my paraphrasing). I put it to him that in essence he and his group were taking one side in a military confrontation. He did not deny this. We parted at that point, the word "Zionist" ringing in my ears.PS The Irish media has buried the Goldstone volte face completely, apart from some reports taken from Reuters, etc. Quite a contrast with coverage after the Report was published!
Mar '11
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
I completely disagree with Benn. The best way to handle this now is a torpedo. Sinking the Marmara would have been infinitely better last time around as well.
Rabid terrorist lovers are not in a position to bludgeon soldiers to death when they need to be fished out of the water in their life vests. Moreover, the world hates us no matter what we do, so the old addage that it is better to be feared than liked is doubly true.
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Charles, a quick thank you on behalf of all of us. We'd be lost without friends like you abroad.
Mar '11
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Did we expect any better? As for Goldstone, while he admits that the IDF didn't intentionally target civilians, he won't retract the report and, according to this article, pins the blame for his mistake on the Israeli army.
Heshmon is right about the flotilla.
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
No, Heshmon is wrong. Israel needs to put the time, care, thought and strategy into this that the IHH and the Free Gaza Flotilla strategists and publicists do. You're making the very serious mistake of thinking they're stupid. Before coming to a judgment about the right way to handle this, please have a good long look at the IHH website and a good think about it, particularly how it looks to an average Turkish guy who has no way of knowing much about what's really going on in any of these places, but has a decent heart and is moved by the idea of charity. Then poke around, particularly, in the long PDF downloads about Palestine--transcripts of conferences about it, a lot translated into English. Look at what they're trying to achieve, and how.
If after really grasping this you think you'd be doing yourself any favors by cooperating step-by-step with this plan, I don't know what to say, except that the Zionist reputation for cunning is really overblown.
Jul '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
I am astonished at any suggestion that the boardings should stop, or the bizarre notion that all of the pressure should be laid on the intelligence component for detecting weapons. There is no magic wand for this. Here in the US, our screeners have proven too stupid to detect assembled weapons on the screens in front of them a large percentage of the time. And bills of lading are not always complete nor accurate.
Clearly there is uneasiness given events in the region, but that is all the more reason to exercise sovereignty, judgment, and restraint. Any change in policy at this time may be interpreted as weakness or belligerence by new players under new conditions. I have no doubt that Israel is prepared to defend herself brilliantly once more, if required, but if peace can be maintained so much the better.
Sinking ships outright without displays of discovered weapons for the camera, and so on, would rightly create doubts and issues even among Israel's firmest friends.
Best of luck.
Oct '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
What's your opinion, Judith?
Feb '11
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Ya gotta board the ships to find out what's on them. (Reminds me of Nancy somebody...)
Dec '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
What Benn is saying is that Israel is the only country not allowed to maintain the integrity of her borders during wartime because it will look bad in the eyes of her enemies. Heshmon is right. If Israel caves then the perception will be that Israel is weak. This will only encourage more arms smuggling. Israel has announced a legal blockade. Those who seek to violate that do so at their own risk.
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 4:00amMay '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Well, the intelligence authorities are not omniscient. Sometimes they commit errors or fail to discern certain activities. Does this mean that the threat posed by these "humanitarian aid" vessels should go unmitigated simply because the PR-friendly method of detection via intelligence operations has failed to discover the presence of armaments? It seems that Benn is asking the Israelis to choose pleasant public images over safety.
May '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
I think that governing the conduct of the IDF in accordance with arguments that appeal to the public image of Israel and the Israeli government to foreign observers are fatally flawed if the images desired are those that propitiate said foreign observers. The argument claims that the IDF should not be permitted to execute certain security precautions because doing so will increase foreign resentment, from governments and civilian populations alike. It assumes that the detrimental effects of executing security precautions and thereby increasing foreign resentment exceed the detrimental effects of failing to execute security precautions.
The problem with this argument is that it assumes Israel's opponents are capable of being propitiated. An objective of belligerents such as Hamas and Hezbollah has been the elimination of Israel. Given this constant, there are virtually no measures that the Israel government can take that will successfully discourage the pursuit of this objective unless they demonstrate via military assertiveness that any and all acts of violence or threats of violence aimed at Israeli citizens by organized political factions such as Hamas and Hezbollah will be responded to, in kind and with a zeal that is required to end the threat posed.
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 4:25amJun '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
" Someone with the capacity to locate and capture the arms ship Victoria in the middle of the Mediterranean and a Hamas engineer in Ukraine can, and must, also uncover what is hiding on the flotilla ships."
This sentence just makes me laugh.....as if the past success of preventative anti-terrorist measures translates to 100% certainty that all future attempts will be similarly stopped. Benn sounds like Pollyanna.
Of course these flotilla strategists are winning the PR war. Not because they are brilliant, but because they have a corrupt media to spin their story however their press releases present it. But if the holds of a ship have weapons, show the proof & then sink it. It breaks my heart to see all the American soldiers who have died in Middle East battles because they are forced to tippy toe around, rather than perform as soldiers must. It would be tragic to have Israeli soldiers or citizens similarly killed during an attempt to gain some kind or PR victory, handling this flotilla with kid gloves.
May '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Reformulated in an alternative way, Benn's arguments amounts to the following: we should refrain from defending ourselves because doing so may aggravate our enemies and encourage neutral parties to evaluate us unfavorably. I say that if imposing security precautions serves to agitate neutral observers such the hypothetical Turkish fellow that Claire alludes to, then so be it. As Heshmon argues, it is sufficient to be feared. If the Israeli government refuses to crack down upon these aid ships, their refusal will be assessed as gutlessness by those looking to subvert Israel, not as kindness. Ironically, the aim of the restraint desired by Benn is impossible to achieve if Israelis are to maintain their dignity. Israel is not going to improve its public image unless it reduces itself to abjection and groveling before their grievance-laden Muslim and non-Muslim plaintiffs.
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 4:41amFeb '11
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Mar '11
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
It never ceases to amaze me how those who are sitting in the comfort and safety of their homes and for whom the main danger in visiting their neighborhood Starbucks comes from a careless driver on a cell phone running a red light and not from a homicidal sociopath wearing a bomb vest can become hysterical when they are talking about the right of anyone with a boat to violate Israel's border in order to deliver humanitarian weapons to its sworn enemy. And so, by the same token, I would defer in such matters to those like Mr. Benn and Ms. Levy who are living with the everyday danger of terrorism when deciding how best to deal with this sort of thing. We are all free, of course, to have our opinions and express them and I know that we mean well but I believe that it is proper that the opinions of those having to put up with the immediate consequences of certain actions weigh much more.
Nov '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
I attend one of those churches known variously as "peace churches". Half our church knows people who know people who were on the boats; we are organizationally close to groups that were involved. I went to the small group in which I'm involved only a couple of days after the event armed with a clear memory of the IDF boarding videos and the story they told, expecting to be pummeled over my take on the issue. I was shocked to learn that my friends had also paid attention to the backstory, and knew in detail what had happened and how tainted the flotilla organizers had become. I had little to explain; the facts spoke for themselves.
What I'm saying is that this was a public relations coup for the Israelis, as they managed to get the truth through to this particular audience. Sure there were missteps, but on the whole Israel came off clean and the flotilla groups were exposed. This also showed the ineffectiveness of the MSM in selling their narrative.
Israel should hold their line, ensure faultless behavior by soldiers and videotape the bejeezus out of what ensues. Don't let the ISM control the narrative!
Nov '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
In my view this is the important conversation to have. As I argued in a post in the member feed, "leveling the playing field" in the name of peace is idiocy. Balancing forces only works when both sides are committed to detente. It fails when the weaker side is committed to aggresssion. Unbalanced wars are shorter and do less harm than protracted, "balanced" confllicts.
Nov '10
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
If this word rings in your ears as it does mine (I'm not sure whether I fit the category strictly), perhaps you might use the reply I now give to this "accusation", Charles. Say, "Why do you call me a Zionist? I'm a gharhad tree!" (See the last line of Article 7 of the Hamas Charter.)
(Sorry all for 3 comments in a row -- I'll stand down.)
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
Joseph, I've been thinking for hours how to answer your question. The fact is these people want us to board their ships; I have no doubt that the organizers of this armada are counting on our being drawn in and are hoping against hope that we kill people. We're operating at a tremendous disadvantage. Anything we do to defend ourselves -- and I do mean anything -- is instantly wrenched out of reality and shoved into the meticulously constructed narrative of Israeli aggression. We are not even permitted to cry to the heavens when Palestinians break into a Jewish home on the Sabbath day, strike down a mother with a butcher knife, stab a sleeping father to death, reach across his bloodied body and decapitate his infant daughter, stand over her sleeping three-year-old brother and stab him in the heart until he dies, slaughter his 11-year-old brother, and then run home to cheers and celebrations -- we are required to listen to "flotilla collectors" explain that we are not entitled to rage or grief or sympathy because we are born in sin. We deserve it.
Re: Let the Aid Flotillas Sail?
(cont'd.) The fact is, any other country in the world would consider the deliberate running of a blockade set up to keep arms out of the hands of a sworn enemy who is committed to our total destruction nothing short of a cassus belli, and would act accordingly. Maddeningly, we simply do not have that luxury. There are serious consequences to us when we are excoriated on the world stage, and we therefore have no choice but to calculate the costs of our own acts of self-defense. We cannot simply blow these people out of the water, and to do so would, in fact, run directly counter to the ethos of the Israeli Defense Forces.
We will do what we did the first time: tell the ships they are permitted to dock at an Israeli port to have their cargoes examined prior to being given clearance to proceed to Gaza. The armada will do what the Mavi Marmara did: it will turn down the offer. Unless we do something to disable the ships (take out their propellors?), I don't see that we will have any choice but to board the ships to inspect their contents. (cont'd...)