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Last update - 10:15 26/08/2008
Israel foiled the Gaza blockade-busting boat 'provocation' - but who gets the credit?
By Amos Harel and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Israel, boats, Gaza Strip 

The arrival of two activists' boats at the Gaza City shore on Saturday went smoothly as far as Israel was concerned. Israel allowed the boats, carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in efforts to break an Israeli-imposed economic blockade, to dock in Gaza to avoid what was described as a "provocation." Now that the provocation was foiled, Israel's political and defense echelons are scrambling to take the credit for the success.

Senior government sources in Jerusalem said that it was the government that decided to allow the boats to dock in Gaza, despite the Israel Defense Forces plan to commandeer them. This decision, the sources said, "took the wind of the activists' sails, who were seeking to create a provocation." They added that the IDF had proposed using force to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza's shore during discussions on the matter last week. According to the sources, IDF officers suggested commandeering the boats at sea and forcing them to dock in Ashdod for inspection, where the activists would have been questioned.

On the other hand, defense sources paint a very different picture. They said that at no point during the discussions was a hostile takeover suggested. They stressed that a "police operation without weapons and without violence" would be utilized if the need arose. They added that it was ultimately decided that no such operation was required. A defense establishment source said that the final decision on how to handle the activist mission was made during a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and it relied on the joint recommendation of Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
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The defense establishment prepared for the arrival of the boats for weeks in advance. At first, several options aimed at foiling the activists' mission were raised. Among other avenues, diplomatic pressure was unsuccessfully applied on the Greek and Cypriot authorities in efforts to prevent the boats, which left from Cyprus, from setting sail.

Haaretz discovered that the Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the activist group offering to help in transferring the group's humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in exchange for aborting the mission.

When the diplomatic efforts failed, other ideas were raised to prevent the boats from breaking the Gaza siege. IDF sources told Haaretz that throughout the discussions, the military avoided raising aggressive proposals based on the understanding that the activists' mission was merely a publicity stunt and that the boats posed no actual security threat. Intelligence reports suggested that the activists on the boats were in no way affiliated with terrorist activity and that there was no attempt to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

The decision to allow the boats reach Gaza was kept secret at first, and only on Friday did official spokespersons begin answering questions, saying that Israel will not be dragged into a provocative stunt staged by leftists. On Friday evening, it was officially announced that Israel would not prevent the boats from reaching their destination.

The defense establishment stressed that the fact that these boats were allowed passage did not mean that future attempts to break the blockade would be met with similar lack of resistance.

Related articles:
  • Haniyeh: Arrival of blockade-busting boats spells end of Gaza siege
  • Israel: We let protest boat reach Gaza to stymie bad press
  • Israel not planning to detain activists' boats leaving Gaza
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      2.   Good decision 22:56  |  Dave Duncan 25/08/08
      3.   Backwards Logic 23:09  |  Lee Kaplan 25/08/08
      4.   Deluded Zionists 23:25  |  Sailor 25/08/08
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      6.   `Palestinians` and their nut job supporters 23:38  |  Scharker Yid 25/08/08
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      10.   Naive Thinkers 23:54  |  Francis Levine 25/08/08
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