Actually, this was as good a result as could be expected

Submitted by Dan Simon (United States), Jun 1, 2010 at 00:41

I disagree completely. Letting the flotilla through would have been a disastrous capitulation, and given the level of preparation and dedication displayed by the thugs aboard the Mavi Marmara, casualties during the boarding operation were simply inevitable, no matter how perfect the execution. Those casualties (and footage of them) would have been waved as a bloody shirt by Israel's enemies (including, it now seems, Turkey) regardless. That the Israeli Navy's unpreparedness resulted in footage of Israeli soldiers being stabbed and beaten by supposed "peace activists" is probably (with apologies to the injured commandos) the best result that could possibly have been hoped for, and may indeed help convince some open-minded fence-sitters of the untrustworthiness of the "peace activists" and their Hamas allies.

The next big test will be the disposition of the boats. Now that they have been involved in a violent operation against Israeli forces, they should be viewed as captured enemy materiel, and confiscated. "Activists" may be a dime a dozen, but boats are expensive, and even Hamas' backers can't keep supplying them in quantity indefinitely. Refusing to return them would be the quickest route to squelching the anti-blockade flotilla movement.

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