Almost half a year has passed since the historical events surrounding the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara in international waters off the coast of Gaza. This crazed Israeli act of high-water piracy, the vicious violence, the cold blooded execution of wounded peace activists outraged the entire world community and many very impressive statements were made in reaction. Turkey would sever all its diplomatic relations, huge armadas of volunteers would be formed to break the blockade and even planes would be used.
What has actually happened since?
Well, a couple of ships did attempt to break the blockade. They were seized by the Israeli stormtroopers and that’s it. There is something wrong with that picture, is there not?
This reminds me of another colossal success against the Israeli which was also followed by, well, by nothing at all: in 2008 Hamas blew up big sections of the infamous wall separating Gaza from Egypt and tens of thousands of Gazans crossed into Egypt. At that moment, which reminded me of the fall of the equally infamous wall in Berlin, it appeared that this was the end of the attempts to turn Gaza into the biggest concentration camp on the planet. And yet, the wall was rebuilt and all of this was practically forgotten.
In the case of the Gaza Wall debacle, the fault for it falls totally on the rather clueless Hamas leadership which allowed the wall to be rebuilt. All it would have taken to keep the wall down would have been a couple of thousands of Gaza sitting on it back by a couple of hundred Hamas sharpshooters to cover them and Mubarak would never had the political means to put the wall up again. In fact, any open confrontation between Mubarak’s police and the Palestinians at this point would have threatened the Mubarak regime with an insurrection. But Hamas did nothing and so the wall went right back up.
The question now is who is to blame for the almost lack of “political capitalization” for the truly heroic sacrifices of the people who were killed, maimed and wounded in the Mavi Marmara expedition. Even more importantly, it is time to ask what should be done to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The answer, as it turns out, is rather simple.
Let’s look again at what exactly the Mavi Marmara “flotilla” (wrong term, really, as a flotilla is presumed to be an armed, military, naval expeditionary force) did right. Simply put, it did two things:
a) it resisted with non-lethal but determined *force*
b) it documented its resistance
That’s it. And this exactly what the ships which tried to break the blockade of Gaza have failed to do so far. First, non of the ships have attempted any serious resistance, at least as far as I know, and second the attempts to break the blockade were poorly documented. In, I don’t even know how many real attempts there have been. First, there was the “Rachel Corrie” attempt, then one from Egypt I think, then another one from Beirut with only women and then one organized by European Jews, that’s all I can recall (am I missing any?).
Frankly, the sole purpose of any such expedition can only be political. Gaza is not Berlin and it would take a major naval power to actually re-supply Gaza in any significant amount by sea or, even more so, by air. So what is the political purpose of these expedition? To tell the Israelis that the world does not agree with their policies? The Israelis already know that. To show the Gazans that the world supports them? They already know that too.
Look back at the Mavi Marmara is ask yourself, why was this expedition such a stunning defeat for Israel and the answer will become obvious to you: what the peace flotilla did is show the true face of the Israeli regime. That is its only real political success, but it was a stunning success and a comprehensive disaster for Israel. And such a victory over the last racist state on the planet can be achieved over and over again if two basic condition are met. The resistance must be violent (though not necessarily lethal) and it must be documented.
Contrast this with the way the the other expeditions to break the blockade where organized: all of them were absolutely and totally non-violent (that was openly declared) and they were individual affairs, involving one ship and no solid media coverage. What needs to be done is just exactly the opposite:
First, the next peace flotilla needs to be large, in particular in terms of number of vessels. Second, it needs to be escorted while it is in international waters. Third, the participants should immediately declare that they will violently resist any attempt to board their ships. In international waters this violence defense could even involve the use of firearms (perfectly legal in case of defense) while inside Gazan waters it probably should not include lethal weapons. The last leg of the journey to Gaza should ONLY be undertaken during the day and during clear weather conditions. Every single ship should have redundant communications systems including satellite phones, radios in different frequencies. Some ships should remain in international waters as ‘re-brodcasters’ of all the communications of the flotilla. Airplanes in international airspace could serve the same function. “Outdated” methods of communications, including the use of Morse code and light signals, should be implemented (Morse is hard to jam) alongside modern means such as laser (also very hard to jam). The ships need to deliberately support each other in case of an attempt to seize them.
Remember how the Israelis used speedboats to come close to the Mavi Marmara? Such speedboats are easy to target and flip. If the Israelis use helicopter, evasive maneuvers can make it impossible to drop commandos on deck. If such measures are implemented the Israelis will have to open fire with 30mm or 50mm guns the ship engines, so the rear section of the ships should be evacuated as soon as this risk becomes real. If a ship is so disabled, smoke grenades can be used to make a landing of commandos difficult. Other basic means would be to cover the deck with tarp making it hard for the Israelis to see what is going on on the ships. Protecting the ship can be done with either barbed or concertina wire and by dropping rubber speed-boats in the water to create chaos and complicated the planning and execution of Israeli operations.
There are literally hundreds of ways to defend a ship and the organizers of such an expedition would have to take a long look at the highly effective operations of the Greenpeace organization in disrupting whaling and other naval operations.
There is, by the way, also a good chance that Israeli communications could be disrupted. I don’t want to go into details here, but suffice it to say that basic principle of jamming radio communications is that if your signal is more powerful than their signal, then you jam them. How hard would it be to put sufficiently powerful transmitters on the boats if all that is required from them is to have more power than the portable radios used by the Israeli commandos?
A basic rule of warfare is that you have to maximize your advantages and make use of the enemy’s weaknesses. The Israelis are phenomenal cowards. While their propaganda says otherwise, all those who have actually fought them will unanimously confirm to you that they are truly terrified of “the Arabs” and that they loathe to actually take a real risk. Beating Palestinian kids, shooting unarmed civilians is just fine by them, but God forbid that an “Arab” has something to shoot back with, and then the call in the Golani Brigade (also formed of cowards, but at least they have lots of firepower). My point here is that even if the Israelis bring in lots of commando units, they will be scared to death and very infective in their operations. This is the real reason why the Israelis always resort to absolutely grotesque amounts of violence: to hide their own cowardice and try to scare their opponents.
And this brings me to the most controversial part of my idea. Yes, resisting the Israelis with violence will inevitably elicit the usual “mad dog” response from them. But this is where the importance of documenting that reaction come into play. As soon as the Israelis go berserk, it becomes imperative to show their reaction to the rest of the planet.
Of course, one could very legitimately report that is is all fine and well for me to speak about how others must risk their lives while I sit at home and make grand statements about what others should do. And that would be a perfectly valid criticism. No, for a long list of reasons, I personally cannot take part in any such expedition, but my personal circumstances are hardly the point. The point is that the risks taken, and courage shown, by those who ARE willing to confront the Israelis must be focused on tactics which work rather than on “feel good” symbolical operations which are only a very minor nuisance to Israel. Innocent people are killed by the Israelis every day anyway. Many these lives are, I say, wasted (throwing stones at a Merkava tank is not my idea of a sound tactic).
Mind you, I am not advocating suicide operations. I would recommend that every person on these ships should wear tactical body armor, a Kevlar helmet, a first aid pack and, of course, a high-quality life jacket. Medics and nurses must be on-board ready to immediately put an IV line into any injured person and to do whatever is possible to stabilize him/her. As I mentioned earlier, the rear area of the ship needs to be evacuated before the Israelis open up with high-caliber guns. Ideally, an makeshift hospital ship should be part of the flotilla, clearly marked by signs; that is the only ship which should not have any means of defense at all. But yes, this approach does involve a serious risk of injury or death. I am not denying that. But has we have seen with the Mavi Marmara, that risk is always present when dealing with racist thugs, and Palestinians suffer that throughout their lives. What matters here is not to make any useless sacrifices and to make Israel pay, dearly, for every murder it commits.
The fact is that the Israeli Navy is neither trained nor equipped to deal with such a situation. Furthermore, good tactics can make things even harder for them. Imagine such a feet of vessels sailing towards Gaza and fully stopping in international waters without making any move towards Gaza. How easy it would be to force the Israelis into a costly cycle of false alarms which would frustrate them and frazzle their nerves? What if some ships decided to quietly leave and then come back? The Israelis would have a hell of a time trying to track all that activity. Mixing big ships with small but very fast speedboats is another way of driving the Israelis crazy; using ultra-light aircraft is yet another one. Even jet skis are an option. The possibilities are infinite, really.
The key to all of the above is training, training and more training. Each participant should have his/her own role and mission clearly defined and he/she would need to practice this mission until it becomes as automated as possible. For most participants, such a level of proficiency could be achieved in 5 days or less, as long as the tasks are simple and clear. More specialized participants, such as medics or radio operators, would, of course, already bring the skills set needed to their specific area of responsibility.
No less important is to explain to each participants the one and only purpose of the expedition: to totally end the blockade of Gaza by creating the circumstances which would force the racist regime of Israel to show its true face. Not to express some nebulous “disapproval” of the blockade of Gaza, not to “show” our “solidarity” and most definitely not to re-supply Gaza. The total end of the blockade of Gaza should be the only goal. Without such a clarity of purpose these naval expeditions will meet the same end as the blowing up of the Wall in 2008.
One of the main problems in the past expeditions is that they are organized by civilians who never had to think tactically. Its folks like Ken O’Keefe which should be put in charge of the organization of future actions. Being a former Marine, he knows exactly the kind of tactics which can truly disorganize or even cripple a seemingly all-powerful military force and Ken clearly has the courage, determination and charisma to explain them to all the well-meaning but mostly clueless civilians who would inevitably form the bulk of the participants.
The Gazans themselves also can play an important role in ending the blockade but for that the seemingly clueless Hamas leadership would need to seriously listen at Norman Finkelstein and his idea that Palestinians act on the World Court decision that the Wall is illegal and simply begin dismantling it.
Israel is not the kind of foe which can be defeated with only good intentions and personal courage. Keeping in mind that Fatah is little more than a corrupt subsidiary of the Israeli Shit Bet and that Hamas has a record of totally lacking any kind of strategic vision it becomes painfully obvious that an external force needs to trigger a change in the current situation.
The martyrs on the Mavi Marmara showed the world that this can be done. Now it is incumbent upon the international civil society (forget governments, they are useless) to make their sacrifice worthwhile.
The Saker
PS: I just did a little google search to see who picked up this piece and guess what? It is posted on, I am not kidding you, Anti-Semitism.net the Jewish-American Heritage month website! Well, I am not surprised one bit that these folks would mistake my unambiguous anti-racism with a form of anti-Semitism. As I always say – there ain’t such thing as an intelligent racist, and that is also very true about Zionists. But I am grateful for the free advertisement of my blog :-)
That’s a very well written commentary, but I’m afraid the Gaza blockade will not likel be lifted in such a manner. The fact of the matter is, no matter how well the people on the ship pull it off, the US news media will find a way to spin it in Israel’s favor. The public will ask few questions. In the Mavi Marmara massacre, Glenn Greenwald said it best.
“To this day, I’m still amazed by how the American media and U.S. Government responded to this incident, given the fact that it was painfully obvious from the start that the Israelis’ conduct was the behavior of a guilty party. The Israelis immediately seized all documentary evidence from the passengers showing what actually happened, blocked all media access to witnesses by detaining everyone on board (including journalists) for days, and then quickly released its own highly edited video — spliced to begin well into the middle of the Israeli attack — that was dutifully and unquestioningly shown over and over by the U.S. media to make it appear that the flotilla passengers were the first to become violent. That was a lie from the start, and it was an obvious lie.”
And that’s why I’m afraid that as for propaganda, the Israelis are for the time being, invulnerable. In fact, incidents like the MM, only emboldens them when they see they got away with it. Next time, if a ship tries to evade the Israeli blockade through maneuver, the Israelis could sink it. They will argue that the ship was behaving “aggressively” or “suicidally” and was threatening to ram into an Israeli patrol boat. So the had no choice but to sink it. Instead of a massacre of 9, they will murder 90. They might even rescue a few of the passengers and the news media will repeatedly video of the rescuers. It’s disgusting but that’s how it is and anyone contemplating such a mission has to know what s/he is dealing with.
Does that mean the Gaza blockade will last forever? Not so sure about that. Here is what I think Israel lost from this incident.
1) Israel’s relations with Turkey are in decay. I do think that both countries will try to revive it, but I think the process is irreversible. This is not good for Israel’s long term prospects. NATO’s pressure on Turkey to relent did is not working. Did you see this?
http://todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-223058-turkey-china-conduct-joint-air-maneuvers.html
2) While every western government will fall inline behind Israel no matter how atrocious its behavior, the public in Europe and the rest of the world grows sicker of Israel by the day.
3) That’s publics in the Mideast that were ready to grudgingly accept Israel as the dominant regional power are finally rousing.
Still, to end the blockade something outside of the public relations realm has to happen. Namely another 2006 war, started by Israel that ends in disaster for them. I had a crazy thought that next time, several Israeli soldiers would end up in Hezbollah’s hands. More prisoners than at any time since 1973. If Hezb makes their return conditional on lifting the blockade, the Israelis, with great anguish and gnashing of teeth, will lift it.
The public relations battle is all well and good. But to make it really effective, the balance of power has to change. Western elites have to start thinking that they have bet on the wrong horse and that they don’t have enough cash left to double down.
That’s how I see it anyway.
On a separate note, I continue to practice guitar daily. Progress is slow, but there IS progress :-) It’s the only hobby I ever stuck with.
I very much fear that there will have to be a major escalation in which Israeli casualties are far higher in percentage terms compared to their foe than they have been before in any Arab Israeli war.
Even in the July war in which Israel was defeated on the tactical battlefied the ratio of Lebanese civilians killed versus Israeli was something like 25 to 1. I don’t believe the Israelis will offer the Palestinians a meaningful peace deal until they realise that force is no longer an option and that won’t be until there is a level killing field.
Lets hope I’m wrong and moral pressure from the West, possibly a repeat of the anti apartheid movement, will lead to effective sanctions against the Zionist state, thereby making a war unecessary.
But I can’t see the US ever turning against Israel. The Lobby is too powerful and Congress will remain Zionist. So the best hope for Palestine is to endure until the US is no longer the supreme military power on the planet.
Iran is one of China’s main oil suppliers. By the middle of this century chances are that the US and China will be competing for the world’s remaining oil. I can imagine a scenario where both superpowers test their arms industry by helping their clients to fight proxy wars in the Middle East.
@Lysander:the Israelis are for the time being, invulnerable.
Are they really?
I would say that with war of 2006 things went rapidly downhill for them. Oh sure, the US progaganda machine simply saluted and parroted whatever nonsense the Zionist would proclaim, and yet there is real fear in Israel about being “illegitimate”, about the need to organize Hasbara campaigns, about ending up being in the “same situation as Apartheid South Africa”. First, the horrors the world saw in 2006, then the crazy Gaza bloodbath, then the (botched) murder by a Mossad hit squad in Dubai, then the Mavi Marmara PR disaster, the insults to teh Turkish Ambassador, the Goldstone Report, the human organ trafficking, etc. etc. etc. It seems that every single time Israel is in the news, its for something disgusting, revolting and sickening and I way that THEY KNOW THAT and they really fear it. Why? Because its in their nature, just like in the tale of the scorpion and the frog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog). And let me clarify for any Jew-hater reading this that when I say that its in “their” nature I am NOT referring to “Jews” (which is a category which has not factual basis), but to the Zionists *racists* who, like any other racists, are fundamentally insecure yet arrogant, who are violent but terrified and who simply cannot act in a rational matter because thier ideology pre-supposes a total severance with the real world or rational thought.
The Israelis only APPEAR to be, as you put it, invulnerable to public disgust with them. Just as they APPEARED militarily invulnerable for years before Hezbollah showed them for the incompetant and cowardly soliders that they really are. Remember, in 2006 about 1000+ SECOND RATE Hezbollah fighters defeated rougly 8’000-10’000 IDF troops backed by the full might of the Israeli Air Force (by “2nd rate”, I don’t mean the demean them, I only note that Hezbollah kept its best fighters north of the Litani river). The hapless IDF could not even hold the small town of Bint Jbeil just across the border that is even after 33 days of war! As for the IDF propaganda machine, all it could say that “Hezbollah are not supermen” (implicilty showing what most Isarelis did think at the time!).
And think about Mubarak. The ONLY reason why he can hold unto power and continue acting like the Zionist puppet he is is because there is no sustained political crisis in Egypt over these policies. I personally see Egpyt as THE weak link in the Zionist network of power. I have it from a very good source that the Islamists have strongly infiltrated the miltiary there, and that the population is disgusted with its self-image as the official “Israeli bown-noser” of the Arab world. How long would that regime be able to sustain its policies if the outrage of the “Arab street” becomes stronger and stronger? And what about Jordan?
Lebanon is for all practical purpose Hezbollah-land. Syria is rather spineless, but its not in Zionist hands quite yet. Sudan and Lybia are still anti Zionist. All this leave Israel AND Egypt pretty much surrounded. So even if you do not believe that Israel can be beat up by public outrage, how long can the Mubarak regime sustain it? Don’t you agree that every PR disaster for the Zionists is also an automatic PR disaster for Mubarak whose regime is far less stable than the one of Netanyhu and his crazies?
Cheers!
@anonymous: But I can’t see the US ever turning against Israel. The Lobby is too powerful and Congress will remain Zionist.
Agreed. The USA is turning into a Fascist dictatorship precisely so that its public opinion would not hinder the “special relationship” (really one of a parasite to its host) between Israel and the USA (I also believe that 9/11 was basically about that).
But look at my reply to Lysander about Egypt. What happens if the Mubarak regime collapses? I firmly believe that the Israeli policy towards Gaza represents a major threat to the Mubarak regime.
Do you disagree?
Yes I read a Stratfor report a couple of years ago that said that Egypt is potentially Israel’s biggest problem especially if a radical Egyptian regime had the sponsorship of a major power like Russia or China. It really is pathetic how Mubarak kow tows to the Israeli regime.
Isn’t Egypt bankrolled by the US? I believe one of the terms of Carter-Sadat’s Camp David treaty was that the US would pay Egypt to basically give Israel no more problems.
@anonymous17:35:Isn’t Egypt bankrolled by the US?
Yes, it is. But so was the Shah in Iran.
In fact, I would claim that Mubarak is in a very Shah-like situation: both there in power only thanks to Uncle Sam and the Savak in one case, and the Mukhabarat in another.
The best scenario would be if left Islamo-nationalists were to subvert the Egyptian army just as the Bolivarians did in Venezuela. If any regime deserves to fall this one does.
The other thing to watch for is when Mubarak is too old to continue. I believe his son is in line to inherit the throne in what has become yet another corrupt Mid East monarchy but chances are his son won’t be as effective in the role.
The Israelis assume that there will always be enough American Jews and Christian Zionists committed to Israel to ensure that the Pentagon will supply the Zionist state with more advanced toys than anything the Muslims have.
But by the second half of this century the Eastern powers; Russia, China, India, the Muslim world (including the European Muslim diaspora) will have scientists and engineers ever bit as brilliant as anything America and Israel have, and there will be more of them. The Israelis might win the first engagement in a cyberwar but if they cause serious trouble it will eventually come back to bite them.
I fear Israel’s long term future is bleak unless they reform themselves.
robert
I think this is an excellent debate, one very much worth having. But my position is that people of conscience, acting in unison, intelligently, willing to confront Israel head on, can end the blockade and have the greatest chance of doing so with non-lethal force. Although I support the right of self-defence 100%, and it would be perfectly legal and right to use lethal force to repel a lethal and unlawful attack by a rogue/pirate state in international waters, I do see that the propaganda machine would use this against our just cause with great effect. So this is my only disagreement with this proposed strategy. Nonetheless I again support this debate and I encourage people to be creative, serious and to act. Count on myself and many others doing just that, together we can render the entire Israeli Military useless.
@Ken: Although I support the right of self-defence 100%, and it would be perfectly legal and right to use lethal force to repel a lethal and unlawful attack by a rogue/pirate state in international waters, I do see that the propaganda machine would use this against our just cause with great effect. So this is my only disagreement with this proposed strategy.
First, I want welcome you here and express to you my deepest admiration, gratitude and complete support for everything you have done and are still doing.
I do not disagree with your criticism and, yes, there is really a risk in the use of lethal force. I was not so much advocating for it, as stressing that the use of it, in international waters, was a right which should, I believe, be carefully considered. The core of the strategy I propose is based on the use of non-lethal, but violent force.
Count on myself and many others doing just that, together we can render the entire Israeli Military useless.
I do Ken, I very much do and I will support your efforts in every way I can.
With great admiration and respect, kind regards,
The Saker
The Zionist control of the press in this country is total, so provoke them into a rabid response would not work well from a PR perspective. In the rest of the world, maybe, but not here. I could not bring myself to ask people to die to expose a ruthless enemy in front of a sycophant US press. There are utube underground film snipits of Israeli settlers acting horribly, but they stay underground, and without exposure, nobody cares. I can’t see any way direct action would work.-
Unless some NATO power like Turkey got involved. That would be hard to sweep under a carpet with absurd lies of some sort. I’m afraid our free press was for sale – not free but cheap, and was bought for chump change.
When the history of America’s decline in the new millennium is written, I imagine scholars will marvel at how much time and effort U.S. leaders spent trying to influence the behavior of enemies who seemed beyond the reach of our threats…. Iran is a case in point. It appears our frequent threats have served mainly to raise that stature of the theocratic Iranian regime at the expense of American credibility in the region….
“@Lysander:the Israelis are for the time being, invulnerable.
Are they really?”
Hey Saker! I guess I should have clarified. What I meant was invulnerable in the PR arena here in the US. Not invulnerable militarily, economically or politically.
@Lysander: What I meant was invulnerable in the PR arena here in the US.
But even that, I firmly believe, is not true. Jimmy Carter and Mearsheimer and Walt have a huge difference in this respect. Oh, I know, their books are really a lukewarm and highly toned-DOWN description of the real issues, but that is not really their merit. Their merit is that the put the entire topic of US-Israeli relations into the mainstream. I am also observing a very steady increase of, shall we call it, “Zionism-awareness” amongst progressives in the USA and the fact that, say, CNN had to fire a very popular guy like Rick Sanchez over totally tepid and rather self-evident truisms just goes to show that Zionists in the USA are definitely in a panic over the changing atmosphere. And what do you think is behind Joe Lieberman’s “Internet kill switch” idea? Or about the total and absolute refusal of anybody in any official capacity to even support a new 9/11 investigation? Its all the same stuff – the Zionists are freaking out because they know, they KNOW FOR A FACT, that they image in the general public is going down the tubes. Long gone is the era of Leon Uris and all the rest of the Zionist teeny-boppers who fed us a diet of “heroes who made the desert green”. Israelis are now seen as South Africans used to be, something which makes you shiver in disgust.
Young Jews in the USA are, according to many reports, becoming gradually disgusted with Israel too. Most young Jews are rather liberal and what Israel does totally clashes with what they believe in. And there is only that far which the canard about the “new anti-Semitism” can go before people get fed up with that nonsense.
You might retort that these are only small cracks in a big massive wall and you would be right. But its not just any wall, its a wall which, like a damn, is feeling the huge pressure of the rest of mankind’s absolute disgust with Israel and, believe me, when this wall eventually crumbles in the USA, it will go down with a big loud BANG! which will trigger the “Mother of all Blowbacks” if you allow me that expression ;-)
You tube interview with Walt and Mearsheimer back in 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSXZNm2jGVE
Saker, I think that changes in Zionism awareness (I like that term) in the US will follow changes in the balance of power in the middle east. The US spends extraordinary resources to maintain Israeli military and political dominance in the region. In the past, the US was able to afford that cost relatively easily. Post Iraq and Afghanistan, and with Iran rising and the 2006 war with Hizbullah, not to mention the rise of other competing powers (the BRIC nations) the costs have gone up considerably.
What you are seeing with Walt and Mearshimer is that people in the establishment are starting to notice the costs. And those costs are likely to go up even more. America’s means to pay them are under growing strain.
Sooner or later it will snap. And I agree with you that at that point the eyes of the US public will finally open.
BUT!!!! And this is very important, if we DON’T reach that point, the eyes will remain shut and the courage of those aboard the Mavi Marmara and other ships will not open them.
In other words, the decisive factor will be the resistance axis confronting Israel. If (or preferably when) they raise the price of America’s commitment to Israel to unbearable levels we will see a sea change in American perception of Israel. Until then, we will not.