Pundits weigh in on the flotilla

A sampling of some of the reactions:

• Peter Beinart: The embargo was designed to weaken the organization, and bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But, in fact, Abbas himself is reportedly considering a visit to Gaza in an effort to bring Hamas into a national unity government. Besides the ordinary men, women, and children of Gaza, in fact, the entity that the embargo has most weakened is Israel. It threatens to rupture the Jewish State’s vital alliance with Turkey, whose government was furious about the embargo even before yesterday’s attack killed several of its nationals. It has wrecked Israel’s relations with Qatar, which offered to re-establish trade ties if Israel allowed the Gulf State to send supplies to Gaza. And now it has produced a public-relations disaster that will further destroy Israel’s reputation around the world.
• Max Boot: Israel’s actions in boarding the flotilla of ships bound for the Gaza Strip were entirely justified and perhaps even unavoidable. Unfortunately they turned into a tactical and strategic fiasco that does further damage to the Jewish State’s tattered international reputation.
• George Friedman: Israel is now in uncharted waters. It does not know how to respond. It is not clear that the Palestinians know how to take full advantage of the situation, either. But even so, this places the battle on a new field, far more fluid and uncontrollable than what went before. The next steps will involve calls for sanctions against Israel. The Israeli threats against Iran will be seen in a different context, and Israeli portrayal of Iran will hold less sway over the world. And this will cause a political crisis in Israel. If this government survives, then Israel is locked into a course that gives it freedom of action but international isolation. If the government falls, then Israel enters a period of domestic uncertainty. In either case, the flotilla achieved its strategic mission. It got Israel to take violent action against it. In doing so, Israel ran into its own fist.
• Leslie Gelb: Israel had every right under international law to stop and board ships bound for the Gaza war zone late Sunday. Only knee-jerk left-wingers and the usual legion of poseurs around the world would dispute this. And it is pretty clear that this "humanitarian" flotilla headed for Gaza aimed to provoke a confrontation with Israel. Various representatives of the Free Gaza Movement, one of the main organizers of this deadly extravaganza, have let it slip throughout Monday that their intention was every bit as much "to break" Israel’s blockade of Gaza as to deliver the relief goods.
• Caroline Glick: The reality is simple and stark. Israel is the target of a massive information war, unprecedented in scale and scope. This war is being waged primarily by a massive consortium of the international Left and the Arab and Islamic worlds. … But until our leaders finally recognize the nature of the war being waged against our country, these basic facts will remain ignored as we move from one stunning defeat to the next.
• J.J. Goldberg: Israel got suckered, the same way it gets suckered over and over. It walks into situations where it will inevitably come out looking like a bully, arouses worldwide anger and then gets indignant when it’s condemned. It’s like watching Charlie Brown charge the football, knowing that Lucy will snatch it away as she always does. … As for the bloodshed at sea, the verdict isn’t so clear cut, and it’s important to draw a clear line between the boneheaded thinking of the Israeli government that walked into this situation and the actions of the Israeli troops who were sent into action.
• Isi Liebler: I have little doubt that when the facts are assembled, this debacle will not reflect adversely on the IDF. However, the surprise ambush does imply a breakdown in our intelligence. … The other principal failure was the government’s unpreparedness in presenting its case to the world in a timely and effective manner. The authorities did manage to convey that the flotilla rejected Israel’s offer to enable the transfer of the goods, supposedly dispatched on humanitarian grounds, to Gaza following inspection at the Ashdod port. But despite being aware months in advance that a major international information campaign would be required after the event, the government was once again unprepared. When it did address the foreign media, it was in a totally unprofessional manner.
• Anat Lapidot-Firilla: The Turkish authorities’ deep involvement in organizing the Gaza aid flotilla serves the aim of further delegitimize Israel and to internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian problem. The goal of this campaign was to establish Israel’s image as barbaric and uncivilized, and to question its basis of its historical existence. It was also aimed at the Arab regimes who did not rush to the Palestinians’ defense, describing them as dictatorial and lacking in moral legitimacy. But mainly, it intended to establish that Turkey, under the leadership of the AKP, has become the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, a regional superpower and the key to world peace and political stability.
• Ralph Peters: Yesterday’s "aid convoy" incident off the coast of Gaza wasn’t about bringing humanitarian supplies to the terrorist-ruled territory. It wasn’t even about Israel. It was about Turkey’s determination to position itself as the leading Muslim state in the Middle East. Three ships of that six-ship pro-terror convoy flew Turkish flags and were crowded with Turkish citizens. The Ankara government — led by Islamists these days — sponsored the "aid" operation in a move to position itself as the new champion of the Palestinians. And Turkish decision-makers knew Israel would have to react — and were waiting to exploit the inevitable clash. The provocation was as cynical as it was carefully orchestrated.
• Shmuel Rosner: With all the all-too-familiar outcry about public relations, public opinion, world opinion, Israel’s image etc, one has to remember that PR – as important as it might be – is not all in life. Definitely not all in military life. If force had to be used as to prevent the flotilla from going into Gaza – if there was no way around it – than PR becomes a secondary issue and will have to be dealt with later.
  
• Yossi Sarid: Had we simply let the flotilla reach Gaza – an option that was proposed – a cry of victory would indeed have erupted from the other side, but it would have died out in a day or two. But the Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak, of ministers Moshe Ya’alon and Benny Begin, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Eli Yishai and even Dan Meridor, is vying with Hamas and Hezbollah over who can produce the most resounding demonstrations of strength – which amount to nothing but humiliating evidence of weakness.