By Patricia H. Kushlis
In this year’s tussle between the Israeli government and European and North American peace activists whose aim is to highlight the five year Israeli blockade of Gaza through a high visibility freedom flotilla of small boats attempting to run it and deliver aid and mail, the Israeli government is stuck in overdrive, an overdrive that began weeks – perhaps months - before the boats were even to have set sail. The goal: to prevent them from leaving port and thereby to avoid a repeat of last summer’s disaster.
That was when Israeli overreaction resulted in nine deaths on the Turkish ship the Mavi Mara in an incident at high sea that made the Netanyahu Government and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) look far worse than just ridiculous, stubborn and incompetent in the court of world opinion. It also almost destroyed the country’s relationship with Turkey, one of its few friends in the Middle East. But did it change the hard line Israeli government's poor treatment of the Gazans? Well yes, it did loosen the blockade - but the new Egyptian government did a lot more and let's face it the Israeli noose is still there.
This year, supposedly to prevent such public embarrassment from happening again, the Israelis decided to make a full court press to block the ships in the flotilla from sailing: first through heavy handed diplomatic pressure on a variety of governments including, obviously, the US, which likely strong-armed the Quartet statement that basically sides with the Israeli government - while simultaneously warning the American activists to stay home.
What did happen?
Whether Israeli frogmen sabotaged two of the boats is debatable. I’ve read charges and counter-charges but it's clear that the Israelis placed tremendous direct or indirect pressure on the Greek government – a government still reeling from near demise as a result of last week’s debt crisis – to the point that the Greek Maritime Ministry not only refused to allow all boats joining the flotilla anchored in Greek waters from leaving for Gaza but also arrested the captain of the US ship on questionable grounds over the Fourth of July Weekend. The grounds change depending upon the source. Here's The New York Times; the previous link is to Kathimerini. Regardless, some Independence Day.
Discretion is sometimes the better part of valor
I have to wonder what would have happened if the flotilla organizers had simply not notified the Greeks – or any one else - of their ships’ intended destination. The high seas are, supposedly the high seas – are they not? Isn’t there something called freedom of navigation on the high seas – or did I miss something here? Who’s to say which way a rudder is turned once 15 miles out?
Israeli Goliath to the Flotilla's David
Now not only does the Israeli government looks like Goliath in a David and Goliath wrestling match, but the Greek government comes across as weak - appearing to have been blackmailed, frightened or bought, depending upon how one looks at it from the outside.
Meanwhile, Israeli propaganda – or Hasbara – has been operating with all throttles open. Much of it is aimed at the Israeli population itself – with the attempt to persuade Israelis that the flotilla’s passengers and crews are armed terrorists - not the peace activists they claim to be and that these terrorists are planning to run guns to the Gazans (gun-running is illegal under international navigation law). Only secondarily is the Israeli propaganda barrage aimed at a worldwide Jewish audience which the Israelis consider friendly and useful to their cause.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
After Netanyahu's charges of armed terrorists against the flotilla last week raised eyebrows, the Israelis then claimed that the passengers were carrying sulfer to be used as a weapon and thrown at the IDF when it tried to stop them from approaching the shore.
Huh? Who thought that one up? So now, I suppose, the IDF is undergoing training in anti-acid self-defence and its commandos are being suited up with expensive anti-acid protection gear. Sounds like the 1960s song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to me.
I know, I know . . . the weather’s beastly hot in July in the Mediterranean – but these charges are delusional. The only good thing is that the source is identifiable.
Who are the American peace activists?
Meanwhile, take a look at the biographies of the 36 people on the US ship: They include two retired US civilian government officials one of whom is also a lawyer and a retired military officer, another retired US military officer who runs a respected peace organization for veterans, and an art gallery owner. (Full disclosure: I know the retired State Department Officer and the art gallery owner but have not communicated with either about this trip.)
Several of the other passengers are Jewish pacifists estranged from an Israeli right wing that - if the country employed a normal electoral law would be languishing on the backbenches - has wrapped itself in the Blue and White in pursuit of an ultimately unsustainable Greater Israel policy. Just read Tom Friedman at The New York Times on this issue if you don’t believe me.
Gun runners, acid throwers, I don’t think so. The worst term I can think of that could be applied is provocateur – but these activists don’t throw bombs, they won’t throw acid and they don’t run guns. Their goal is to publicize and internationalize a cause in which they believe deeply and which the Israeli propaganda and diplomatic machine works very hard to keep buried under the sand.
Yet just imagine a different scenario
Had the Israelis simply allowed the flotilla to reach the Gazan shore, hand off the letters and packages the passengers were carrying to recipients, then in all likelihood this would have been a non-event. A non-story or just one of those many headlines that chase each other across the bottom of a television screen. Instead, the Israeli overreaction blew it way out of proportion once again. That’s what makes the story.
The worst part of it all, however, are the ridiculous lies being told about the passengers by the Israeli Government from the top down. Did no one ever tell them that that's not what public diplomacy is all about? Of course, tell your side of the story but lying about the opposition ultimately weakens a case, not strengthens it.
As a consequence, looks like the peace activists are winning this year's round too – and they didn’t even need to leave the Greek ports. It's a shame, however, for the Greeks to be caught in the middle and forced to appear to flounder yet again in the eyes of the world.