This Year's #Nakba--The Land Version Of Last Years #Flotilla?

In One If by Land, and Two If by Sea*Another Hostile Flotilla Attacked Israel, but This Time by Land, Lenny Ben-David looks at the similarities between between Sunday's Nakba riots and last year's Mavi Marmara Flotilla:

There are remarkable similarities between the Mavi Marmara flotilla in May 2010 and the Nakba marches from Lebanon, Syria and Gaza on May 15. The Israeli intelligence services seriously underestimated their threats, and IDF soldiers were unprepared for the violent ambush that awaited them. The media portrayed Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians as unarmed civilians in both cases. The Israeli army's reaction was deemed by some as disproportionate and possibly in violation of international law. And Lebanon's government copied a page out of Turkey's play book and screamed about Israeli war crimes.

In 2010 it took days for the world to learn the true belligerent nature of the Mavi Marmara's passengers. They may have been in civilian garb, but they were determined combatants nonetheless. Such was also the case in the Gaza, Maroun al-Ras, and Majdal Shams invasions.
Many of the photographs of the May 15 Nakba incursions have not been published in the media, but they are posted on the news agencies websites for purchase. Almost 200 can be found on Yahoo's news photo website. [Photos from Reuters and AP are presented here for illustrative and educational purposes and not meant for commercial use.] 

Analysis of the pictures provides several important lessons.

Continue reading: One If by Land, and Two If by Sea*Another Hostile Flotilla Attacked Israel, but This Time by Land

It remains to be seen whether the true nature of yesterday's riots will be learned quite as readily by a world that is still fixated on the idea that the Middle East is going through an Arab Spring on its way to a true democracy.

Technorati Tag: Nakba.