A failure any way you slice it
Perhaps the commanders of the Israel Navy and policymakers should have read history books before sending special forces to raid boats carrying civilians.
By Reuven PedatzurThe operational details of Israel's takeover of the flotilla of boats headed to Gaza won't be clear for many days, if ever. But there's no need to wait for a blow-by-blow account to point out that from the military point of view, it is hard to understand how an action that the Israel Navy spent so long planning ended up in so severe a debacle.
And that's without even addressing the questions that arise regarding how wise it was to carry out a military action against civilian craft in international waters.
First, there's the breakdown in intelligence. The navy and the intelligence agencies had the rare opportunity of being able to keep the ships and their passengers under surveillance for a long time. How is it possible that their preparations to attack boarding Israeli soldiers were not detected? Why didn't they know that knives, axes and perhaps even guns and other light arms had been readied?
The intelligence agencies had plenty of time to learn exactly who the people on the boats were and to evaluate how dangerous they were. Presumably, it was not the peace activists whose identities were known who attacked the boarding party with axes and gunfire. That the commandos were taken by surprise is simply incomprehensible.
On the other hand, if there was indeed apprehension in the navy that the people on the boats would resist violently, then the actual form that the boarding took raises questions. Why weren't teargas grenades dropped onto the decks before the commandos stormed the ship?
The claim made by the IDF Spokesman that the soldiers' lives were in danger and they feared a lynching is hardly complimentary to the men of the elite naval units.
But do these troops, whom their commanders describe as "the best trained and most effective in the world" expect to be faced with the danger of being lynched by a mob of civilians wielding knives and clubs? Especially seeing as this was a military operation that was carefully planned over a number of days?
Also unclear is why the soldiers were not given clear orders not to open fire with live ammunition under any circumstances. The IDF has sufficient means for gaining control over rioting mobs using non-lethal force. And if the navy brass informed the decision-makers that there was a reasonable chance that firearms and other weapons would be used and civilians killed, then there is room for doubting the judgment of the policy makers who approved this mission.
Either way, the inefficiency and the panic that overwhelmed the commandos, leading to the deaths of so many, raises worrying questions about their skillfulness and operational capability.
The decision to act at night is also problematic. Presumably, some of the commotion and the hysteria on the ship was a result of the fact that neither the soldiers nor the civilians could see clearly what was going on. This is a sure recipe for escalation on the part of people who have to guess without being able to see who is approaching them and what they are doing.
In October 1962, the Cuban missile crisis broke out. U.S. president John F. Kennedy decided to impose a maritime blockade on the island, to prevent Soviet ships from unloading their cargo there. That crisis ended without a shot being fired.
Perhaps the commanders of the Israel Navy and policymakers should have read about that episode in their history books before sending special forces to raid boats carrying civilians.
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can not understand this opration
what a sad commentary on our own cowardly propagandists. sickening are their armchair general opinions-
Maybe they weren't in uniform, but these are military fighters. (They avoid wearing uniform when they attack Israel too, so that if they are killed/injured, the world can cry crocodile tears for "poor civilians"). These boat people came with the clear intention of fighting, whether with weapons or with words. (Before they departed Turkey, they all declared "We will not respond with violence - sheer hyprocrisy as the video footage shows).
Again Mr. Pedatsur maintains his impeccable record of negative criticism of the IDF. Without an exhaustive analysis of the shallowness of the position, it is enough to look at his silly use of the US naval blockade of Cuba in the early 1960's to understand the level of the guy we are dealing with. I lived in Miami during that time and recalled how the US Navy BOARDED many ships and inspected their full cargo before allowing them to continue to Cuba. That is want a Navy embargo is Mr. Pedatsur. Again we suffer the shallow analysis and Monday morning quarterbacking of a guy with no responsibility for our security but out to make a buck by being provocative against the Defense establishment in this country.
"How is it possible that their preparations to attack boarding Israeli soldiers were not detected? " Perhaps because there were no such preparations and no such attacks. The whole "lynch mob" story is another IDF lie, like all the other lies they make up to justify their massacres. The video feed from the ship clearly shows the soldiers opening fire the moment they landed on the deck.
Gaza is under Israeli and Egyptian blockade because the terrorist org. hamas with its declared intention to destroy Israel also shot thousands of missiles at Israel to achieve the goal. Israel (like the US against Russia and others) declared that no material will enter Gaza which would enhance Hamas ability to further its goals. Therefore those materials need be checked beforehand. If a ship declares it will violate the blockade, law allows Israel to preempt the search outside the national waters of Israel. the fact that these so called peaceful humanists loaded the ship with butcher knives and axes proves with the films that their purpose was violence and not humanitarian. they reaped what they sowed. the sorry part is that Hamas wanted as many dead boat people as possible for the PR victory. they could care less about the lives of these European dupes.
the video does show the opposite! the "peaceful" protester immediately attack the soldiers.
It has been a while since I watched a good pirate movie. Did the Turks beat to quarters like Captain Blood's crew or Horatio Hornblower's? Now that Israel has attacked Turkey, how will it end?
How is killing me can be considered self-defense when you are attacking me in my own house? I just need someone to explain this to me I am an idiot. Please someone somewhere explain this to me.
'Why didn't they know that knives, axes and perhaps even guns and other light arms had been readied? ' Because they hadn't? Every year, the lies you people have to tell yourselves get sillier.
Boarding a ship on the high seas is piracy. Passengers on those ships had every right to defend themselves. Why is this fact so blatantly overlooked?
And maybe not respecting international laws. In fact, when it sees min risk, , it breaks all rules , to not loose a point for its own part. Of course complying to international rules may have negative consequences, but it is for a purpose. It is for not controlling the war with criminal acts. IDF has used this strategy for years for Palestinians and is systematically doing so. This time, the only problem is that the victims are not from a country like Palestine that Israel and US can shout them up. One day they which is not very far, they will come back and do the same to Israeli Liberal as well.
If the United States declines to condemn Israel for attacking Turkish vessels on the high seas and killing civilians in the process, but still insists that the Security Council sanction Iran over enriching uranium, one can only imagine the reaction of Erdoğan's government -- and, for that matter, many other governments around the world -- to such an egregious display of hypocrisy and double standards. and Israel wants what? good luck
To equate the Cuban Missile Crisis with recent events only shows that Mr. Pedatzur should start to learn history. There is absolutely no comparison and if that is his knowledge of history and international relations he should find another topic to write articles about.
There were so many options, enough time ahead to plan it, and the commandos sliding down a rope into a lynching mob looks just so stupid, so delirant, so misguided. Where do the people who plan this have their heads?
So why would they even look at these things? Any one of which may have prevented them from Killing more arabs...
After reading of IDF soldiers cowering and wetting themselves while under fire in 2006 and losing their heads in this debacle, the invincibility myth is dead.