Flotilla of Fools vs. Israeli Navy

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Like a scene straight from the pages of Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints, a group of activists calling themselves the “Freedom Flotilla” have attempted — and evidently, failed — to break the Israeli blockade of Hamas-held Gaza:

The Israeli Navy made its first contact with a flotilla carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza shortly before midnight on Sunday, surprising the boats in international waters, according to activists on one vessel.
Israel has vowed not to let the flotilla reach the shores of Gaza, where the Islamic militant group Hamas holds sway . . .
Named the Freedom Flotilla, and led by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement and a Turkish organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi, the convoy of six cargo and passenger boats is the most ambitious attempt yet to break Israel’s three-year blockade of Gaza.
Two television stations reported early Monday that Israeli warships had attacked the ships, killing at least two and wounding an unknown number of people on board, according to The Associated Press. . . .

More on this episode at Israelly Cool.

UPDATE: So, what kind of cargo was aboard the ships in this pro-Hamas flotilla? Brittany Cohan offers a guess on Twitter:

Things that were probably on the boat: rainbows and butterflies. I think world peace was on there too, I am sure.

Of course!

UPDATE II: Richard Fernandez at PJM:

The Turks, who were heavily represented in the flotilla, have already called in the Israeli ambassador.  There is almost certainly going to be an denunciation of Israeli actions from Europe. The incident will mean that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s forthcoming visit to Washington will be even frostier and more difficult than expected.

Well, it was never going to be warm.

UPDATE III: Now a thread at Memeorandum and Moe Lane at Red State comments:

[V]iolent resistance to a military seizure of your vessel will lead to violence in return, and PR disaster or no the IDF acted as a professional military force following the civilian policy of two sovereign governments (Egypt’s also maintaining the blockade).  But this is all the excuse that an Israel-hater needs to break diplomatic relations with that country.
Which means that we’re about to find out the true extent of this administration’s supposed antipathy to Israel.

And for those who haven’t read The Camp of the Saints, this is from a post I wrote in March 2009:

A few years ago, Phyllis Chesler sent me her book The Death of Feminism, and when I got home with it and started reading, I was shocked to see her citing Jean Raspail’s notorious novel, The Camp of the Saints. (That passage is substantially excerpted in an online essay at her Web site.)
For years, Raspail’s 1973 French novel enjoyed a sort of samizdat cult following among critics of multiculturalism and opponents of open-borders immigration policy (which would be more properly termed a non-policy, but let us not digress.) Raspail himself has said that Le Camp Des Saints could not be published in France today because of the “human rights” nonsense that is slowly strangling free speech in Europe (and Canada). And the book’s reputation as a hateful expression of xenophobic nativism makes it one of those Books You’re Not Supposed to Read.
Thus, I was startled to see Chesler, a liberal feminist all her life, citing Raspail’s book as prophetic. Yet Chesler had been able to see past the superficial text of the novel to comprehend its deeper significance as a metaphor for the demoralization of the West. In this sense, Raspail was describing the same larger phenomenon that Shelby Steele describes in White Guilt, that Pat Buchanan describes in The Death of the West, that Michelle Malkin describes in Invasion, that Thomas Sowell describes in The Vision of the Anointed, and that Peter Brimelow describes in Alien Nation.
These are all very different writers, with different interests, different aims, and different philosophies. However, they all share the fundamental understanding that liberalism is a soul-destroying disease, a sort of intellectual anti-virus that exposes its host to destruction by weakening the individual cells of the national immune system. To the extent that your mind is cluttered with the glittering generalities of modern liberalism — “social justice,” etc. — you will be unable to resist and will inevitably succumb to the agonizing spiritual death that beckons at the end of that road.

There is another Memeorandum thread, and comment by Israpundit, Liberty Pundits, Jawa Report, Powerline and Atlas Shrugged.

36 comments

  1. Naturally CNN is taking Obama’s side in all this and is behind the Palestinians and Hamas, that is their old routine never standing by our allies always standing up for the Terrorists and Traitors.

  2. Naturally CNN is taking Obama’s side in all this and is behind the Palestinians and Hamas, that is their old routine never standing by our allies always standing up for the Terrorists and Traitors.

  3. All these “humanitarian supplies” come in already – none of it is prohibited. The controls are solely to prevent the importation of weapons, which history shows will be done the minute the Israelis relax their guard.

    From WHERE do people suppose the weapons, rockets, and explosives the Palestinian terrorists periodically rain down upon Israel come? There are no manufacturing facilities in Gaza or the West Bank capable of this, so it must be imported. Israel wishes to stop this trade, so as to stop the rockets and bombs.

    Clear enough?

    Leftists have amazing abilities to blind themselves to reality. Of course if they didn’t, they could hardly be leftists, could they?

  4. All these “humanitarian supplies” come in already – none of it is prohibited. The controls are solely to prevent the importation of weapons, which history shows will be done the minute the Israelis relax their guard.

    From WHERE do people suppose the weapons, rockets, and explosives the Palestinian terrorists periodically rain down upon Israel come? There are no manufacturing facilities in Gaza or the West Bank capable of this, so it must be imported. Israel wishes to stop this trade, so as to stop the rockets and bombs.

    Clear enough?

    Leftists have amazing abilities to blind themselves to reality. Of course if they didn’t, they could hardly be leftists, could they?

  10. This was a deliberate planned provocation of Isreal. I believe it is the well planned 1st step in a multistep plan 2 attack & weaken Isreal by Iran. This may well be the Archduke Ferdinand moment we are all concerned about & on watch 4.

  11. This was a deliberate planned provocation of Isreal. I believe it is the well planned 1st step in a multistep plan 2 attack & weaken Isreal by Iran. This may well be the Archduke Ferdinand moment we are all concerned about & on watch 4.

  12. The Navy should move to end this Israeli piracy. While they are at it, maybe get a little revenge for the attack upon the USS Liberty.

  13. The Navy should move to end this Israeli piracy. While they are at it, maybe get a little revenge for the attack upon the USS Liberty.

  15. I’m afraid that there appears to be many of you, quite unable to do one very simple thing – to imagine yourselves in the position of others.

  16. I’m afraid that there appears to be many of you, quite unable to do one very simple thing – to imagine yourselves in the position of others.

  19. 1) Regarding the anticipated reaction of Barry-O: as Raspail would say, Could this be one explanation?

    2) The trolls are out this Memorial Day! Not surprsing since, as far as they are concerned, today is just another day off.

    3) The Camp Of The Saints…hmmmm… that would be a great name for a blog.

  20. 1) Regarding the anticipated reaction of Barry-O: as Raspail would say, Could this be one explanation?

    2) The trolls are out this Memorial Day! Not surprsing since, as far as they are concerned, today is just another day off.

    3) The Camp Of The Saints…hmmmm… that would be a great name for a blog.

  22. if the author had been born in “hamas led” gaza he probably would have been pretty happy a boatload of relief supplies were headed there.

    Israel should pick it’s battles better. keeping this boat out wasn’t worth all this.

  23. if the author had been born in “hamas led” gaza he probably would have been pretty happy a boatload of relief supplies were headed there.

    Israel should pick it’s battles better. keeping this boat out wasn’t worth all this.

  25. If Lester had been born in “Hamas-led” Gaza he probably would know that relief supplies are always headed there AND GET THERE; the blockade is to ensure weapons and bomb-making materials aren’t stashed among the legitimate relief supplies.

    If there had been arms in the blockade-runner shipment and it got through, with the result that hundreds of innocent Israelis were killed, I think Israel would come to a much different conclusion than Lester has.

    Would Lester?

  26. If Lester had been born in “Hamas-led” Gaza he probably would know that relief supplies are always headed there AND GET THERE; the blockade is to ensure weapons and bomb-making materials aren’t stashed among the legitimate relief supplies.

    If there had been arms in the blockade-runner shipment and it got through, with the result that hundreds of innocent Israelis were killed, I think Israel would come to a much different conclusion than Lester has.

    Would Lester?

  29. Does anyone think for even one second that if the roles were reversed and all the people in Gaza were Jewish and were being blockaded by Muslims, that the Muslims would let in any humanitarian relief at all? Of course not. They would let them starve. And if the people on that boat were Jewish, and the commandos boarding the boat were Muslim, we all know that they would have gone in guns blazing up front, and there wouldn’t be a single person from that boat left alive if they could help it. As far as I am concerned, given the genocidal nature of the enemy they face on a daily basis, Israel is entitled to do what ever it deems necessary to defend itself. When you yourself are surrounded and outnumbered by fascists who have sworn your death and the death of your entire people, just as Israel is, then and only then do you have the right to criticize a single Israeli action.

  30. Does anyone think for even one second that if the roles were reversed and all the people in Gaza were Jewish and were being blockaded by Muslims, that the Muslims would let in any humanitarian relief at all? Of course not. They would let them starve. And if the people on that boat were Jewish, and the commandos boarding the boat were Muslim, we all know that they would have gone in guns blazing up front, and there wouldn’t be a single person from that boat left alive if they could help it. As far as I am concerned, given the genocidal nature of the enemy they face on a daily basis, Israel is entitled to do what ever it deems necessary to defend itself. When you yourself are surrounded and outnumbered by fascists who have sworn your death and the death of your entire people, just as Israel is, then and only then do you have the right to criticize a single Israeli action.

  31. “If this occurred in international waters it is clearly illegal.”

    Surely I’m not the only one who’s cracking up at the fact this comment was left by one called “Ishmael.”

  32. “If this occurred in international waters it is clearly illegal.”

    Surely I’m not the only one who’s cracking up at the fact this comment was left by one called “Ishmael.”

  33. How can the world not see what is in front of their very eyes?
    There were 6 ships!!! how come nobody was hurt in the other 5 ships?!
    If the israeli soliders were the attackers it would have happened on all ships.

    On that specific ship was a bunch of terrorist hiding behind a peace activists planning to attack the soliders!!!

    Its not the first time! they use children, they use citizens, they use peace activists, they used ambulances for their terrorist acts and then they play the underdog card, saying israel kills children, citizens, stops umbulances etc.

    they have no limits, no moral and the whole world Plays right to their hand.

    I feel like terror is winning this war

  34. How can the world not see what is in front of their very eyes?
    There were 6 ships!!! how come nobody was hurt in the other 5 ships?!
    If the israeli soliders were the attackers it would have happened on all ships.

    On that specific ship was a bunch of terrorist hiding behind a peace activists planning to attack the soliders!!!

    Its not the first time! they use children, they use citizens, they use peace activists, they used ambulances for their terrorist acts and then they play the underdog card, saying israel kills children, citizens, stops umbulances etc.

    they have no limits, no moral and the whole world Plays right to their hand.

    I feel like terror is winning this war

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