Since September first, a flotilla of 40 ships from various nations have been slowly sailing across the Mediterranean to deliver a token amount of aid to Gaza. This is a PR move — the reason they are taking so long is because they’re not bringing huge amounts of relief, but are instead trying to bring attention to Israel’s oppression.
Because it specifically has the goal of bringing the world’s attention to the crimes of Israel, you know it would not undermine its message by, for instance, secretly hauling crates of AK-47s. It’s just food and medical aid, and people who are talking on their cell phones to spread the message. That’s why the flotilla has been harassed by electronic countermeasures along the way, and getting buzzed by drones to deprive the passengers of sleep.
And then, yesterday, the Israeli navy boarded the ships and detained people, ending the flotilla’s mission. They have excuses!
Israel has argued its actions constitute a lawful naval blockade needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics consider it collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza.
Whether the blockade is militarily justified is a point of contention. But the flotilla argues they are a civilian, unarmed group and that the passage of humanitarian aid is guaranteed under international law.
Uh, Israel? You’ve seized the ships, you’ve got troops on board, if they were importing arms, you could be releasing photos of those imaginary crates of AK-47s. You could produce documents that you’ve seized showing correspondence with terrorist organizations. They haven’t! It wouldn’t be believable given Israel’s history of faking evidence, and given the flotilla’s obvious goal of establishing a peaceful propaganda coup.
Well, they succeeded. Israel’s ham-handed attack on the flotilla is just demonstrating that they are criminals who don’t like their ongoing genocide being interrupted by peaceful activists.
“Israel” also doesn’t want witnesses of both the ongoing crimes and those already committed. Images taken from the coast could easily show the extend of the indiscriminate destruction. The IOF has been shown to target journalists on the ground (killing them in the hundreds ) not allowing international journalists inside Gaza and restricting or attempting to restrict camera crews filming from the air. I still can’t believe this “Israeli” government of racist religious lunatics is getting away with all these crimes .
The flotilla may be fortunate that Israel didn’t just follow the US’s current Venezuela policy.
@stevewatson #2:
The flotilla is sufficiently high-profile that even the current government of Israel realises they wouldn’t be able to get away with casual murder on the high seas. You can bet that Mossad are trying to get an agent provocateur onto one of those boats, though.
If Israel is so worried about weapons being smuggled to Gaza through aid missions, then my modest proposal is that Israel should be doing the aid missions themselves.
The israeli military government under naziyahoo is pure evil. It is so sad that decent Jews are caught in this genocidal country.
stevewatson@2: the flotilla was well aware of the risk, which is why they did a huge media campaign and got notable people from dozens of countries. Blowing up a global celebrity like Greta Thunberg would be risky PR; blowing up an MP from an EU country would likely spark sanctions from that country.
Italy has been having general strikes to force the Italian government to support the flotilla or otherwise do something about the genocide.
There was another flotilla more than a decade past.
The ship called Marvi Marmara was conquered by IDF forces after the ship’s commander did their best to be torpedoed, after he closed the ‘women’s deck’ , so that women couldn’t have escaped a sinking ship,
On the ship were obviously provocateurs planted by the eevil Mossad, which were by some reason summarily killed by the IDF.
Here’s the Wikipedia article on the 2010 Gaza flotilla. wereatheist’s statement sounds simplistic, to put it mildly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Gaza_flotilla_raid
@ ^ wereatheist : I remember hearonmg about the Marvi Marmara and the raid on it years ago – the exact circumstances are disputed but:
Source : Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Gaza_flotilla_raid
However, the bit about the “women’s deck” and torpedoing thing, not so much, that’s news <i(& sounds a bit wrong or at least unlikely) to me.
@8. timgueguen : You beta me to it. hadn’t seen your one there.
In other related news here :
Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/3/trump-issues-sunday-deadline-for-hamas-to-accept-gaza-peace-proposal
The IDF has been much smarter since the MV Mavi Marmara. If you’re going to attack peaceful people but you don’t actually want to kill them, take your time and let them surrender. Dropping in with rifles ready, looking for all the world like you’re there to kill people, it’s not at all surprising the sailors would have picked up whatever random objects they could find to defend themselves.
Who is responsible for the Mavi Marmara massacre is the commanders who ordered an attack that obviously was going to turn violent. They probably hoped it would.
Hamas has apparently agreed to the latest Trump peace plan – Its over now? Phew? I don’t trust Trump or Netanyahu or for that matter, Hamas here but still, thsi might finally be the end of the war & genocide maybe? I hope. Great news to wake up to. Albeit tentative. See :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-1/#comment-2279556
Unbelievable how many countries abandon their own citizens in favor of Israel. This should trouble the residents of every country.
Events have forced me to reluctantly resort to the Jewish Prophetic tradition. Therefore I say, with the ancient prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and also modern prophets such as Noam Chomsky and my big sister Debby:
Israel has sinned. It must repent, reform, and atone, lest disaster strike.
I am not optimistic. Hamas too has sinned, as have their Islamic neighbors, and also the USA. Peace in the Middle East would require a miracle.