Israeli navy seals actions are defensible

Gaza is under military blockade by Israel.

I think Israel is justified in doing this although opinions may differ.

Gaza is also sealed off by Egypt at their joint border, although no peace activists tried to attack Egypt and fight their way through that land border.

The peace activists flotilla therefore tried to force their way through a military blockade.

Israeli military were attacked as the came on board.

Peace activists were shot and killed.

These peace activists died because their organisations chose a violent confrontation with the Israeli military.

The flotilla seems to have been manned by a selection of Islamic terrorists and left-wing militants, all sailing under the pretence of being peace activists.

Peace activists who commit violent acts against the military of any country will be killed.

These people chose their path.  I have no sympathy for them.

 PETER FARIS QC

 Geoffrey Bloch wrote:

The actions of Israeli navy seals are defensible. It is quite obvious that the well publicised flotilla had far more to do with militant resistance than with delivering aid to Gaza.

It is likely that the flotilla was a trial arms run, under the cynical guise of delivering aid to Gazans. The catalyst was likely the increasing difficulty in smuggling arms over land via Egypt (it seems that Israel is at long last making some headway there).  It is significant that the peace activists did not choose to try to deliver aid via Egypt which shares a border with Gaza but rather chose military confrontation.

The rejection of Israel's offer to the promoters (to deliver the aid by land if the flotilla docked at Ashdod after security checks) betrays the promoters’ real agenda... the flotilla has more to do with militant resistance than with delivering aid.

When you analyse it, Israel had no alternative but to divert the ships at all costs. If the sea blockade of Gaza is breached, then arms will be delivered by sea.

Arnold Roth wrote:

Peter Faris' comments are true, dry and dispassionate. If they had been made by an Israeli political leader (and to a considerable extent such things ARE being said here by Israeli public figures, but in Hebrew and for a domestic audience), they would largely be ignored in the world. The current global discourse on all things Israel is based on a far more passionate theme - the perception of infringed rights of an underclass via the excessive and illegitimate actions of an overbearing neighbourhood bully.