What was originally meant to be a huge flotilla of 20 ships carrying thousands of pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza, had over the past two months slowly dwindled away until the grandiose plans ended Tuesday with a single 16-passenger yacht.
When they set sail on Saturday and declared the Alexandria port as their destination, no one seemed to care anymore...
Haaretz, IDF learnt from last year's mistakes when dealing with latest Gaza flotilla, July 19, 2011
Israel's handling of the 2011 Gaza flotilla was almost the direct opposite of the way it dealt with the previous flotilla 13 months ago, in terms of diplomatic, judicial, intelligence, and operational resources:
- It was hard for the groups to purchase ships
- The various groups in the flotilla had difficulty getting insurance
- There was difficulty getting permits
- Some ships had technical / bureaucratic problems
- Final two ships were detained by Greece
For once, the IDF was not only controlling the battlefield but the media as well. The moment the Israel Navy contacted the yacht on Tuesday morning, the IDF activated a full electronic takeover, stopping both the activists and the Al Jazeera crew from publishing a single image, video, or even Tweet.There are those that will claim that those latter operations deprived the members of the floatilla of their right to free speech. Those would be the same people who conveniently ignore Israel's right under international law to impose the blockade to begin with.
Simultaneously, the IDF Spokesperson supplied media outlets with real-time updates on every stage of the negotiations between the navy and the French yacht, released the IDF chief's orders to intercept the vessel, and, after 10 minutes, put out a statement on the IDF interception, which had been carried out quickly and smoothly. Pictures and videos taken by IDF ships were also immediately circulated.
It is the same as a group that gets together for a protest--but does not file for a permit. When the police comes to disperse the crowd that has gathered illegally, the leader of the group claims that the police are violating their right to free speech. Since the crowd has gathered illegally, they cannot claim the right of free speech as an excuse to assemble illegally.
Left unsaid in the Haaretz article is that the IDF still has to develop different strategies to handle Flytilla than what it used this time around--and the techniques used on the Floatilla won't work on the Flytilla.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza Floatilla.
1 comment:
Israel is quick to learn from mistakes and assimilate lessons. The country is not as helpless in the face of global BDS warfare as seemed to be the case in the past. Someone in Jerusalem has grasped the multi-faceted nature of anti-Israel warfare in the Internet Age and crafted an appropriate Israeli response to it. And we will see Israel adapt very well in the face of future challenges to its existence and sovereignty as the Jews have always done!
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