Sink the Flotilla

Israel’s enemies come at her from all directions. They use missiles. They use tunnels. They use the air. They use the land. Now it’s the sea.

Another year, another convoy to harass the Jewish State. They say it’s to end the blockade of Gaza and they’re due to arrive any day.

They’re really coming for the pictures.

They want flare-ups. They push. They bully.

Any sign of Israelis pushing back lands on the front page of The New York Times. For the official condemnation, the UN only needs the usual paperwork.

They’re calling it Freedom Flotilla III. So this is a sequel. We’ve already seen the movie and it never comes with a happy ending.

The 2010 installment ended in disaster, which is exactly what they want.

Back then even the Times could not help but admit that shipmates on Mari Marmara “were seeking a confrontation – and got one.”

No Flotilla or anything of the kind is en route to Yemen where thousands are being starved and killed from a blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia.

This year’s ship of fools – what would they do with their silly lives if there were no Israel to kick around? Five such vessels are leaving various ports for Gaza. They bunk some very serious people. So we are told. Among the terrorists wearing the finest suits are dignitaries from various republics, and even an active Arab member of Israel’s Knesset.

Not her, the lady with the constant smirk on her face.

No, this is some other guy, Arab MK Basel Ghattas who is part of a truly powerful Arab contingent of Israel’s Parliament.

He’s coming to represent Israeli “apartheid,” no doubt.

Serious people? Yes. They seriously want to destroy Israel one picture at a time. Cameras are their weapons of choice in this war of images.

Late word from the UN has it that Hamas was only partly at fault for last year’s war in Gaza. Israel, of course, was fully at fault for shooting back after years of swallowing more than 10,000 rockets on its home soil. 

The Jews ought to know better than to defend themselves, is how the tune is whistled.

That Hamas started the war – never mind. By the way, the Allied bombing of Dresden, a city of culture and of no military value, scorched the earth and incinerated 25,000 Germans. The United States and Britain dropped 4,000 tons of bombs on the town….and were later found to be justified for what they did.

War is hell.

For these Flotilla “humanitarians,” war is a game to taunt the Jews. For them, the UN findings arrived just in time. Once again Israel is on the ropes.

As before, they’ll be coming to provoke, hoping to create a scandal, daring the IDF to respond to their fake piety.

Israel will have to choose between sitting pretty for its close-up or soldiering forth for the dignity of the nation, images be damned. 

Patton comes to mind: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other dumb bastard die for his country.”

But for Israel, no such latitude because she always plays fair and sometimes forgets that in war or for any provocation it’s “us against them.”

Headlines and captions have already been written. Reporters and cameramen are already on site, ready to snap and roll.

They’re awaiting these ships to record a conflict that at the moment is less about boom boom and more about click click.

The Israelis don’t need pictures. For Israel it’s all too real. Every day the Jewish people of Israel are in a fight for their lives.

Israel’s enemies come at her from all directions. They use missiles. They use tunnels. They use the air. They use the land. Now it’s the sea.

Let no harm come to the passengers. This is no call to have them sleep with the fishes. Give them rafts to deliver them back home in safety.

At worst, they’ll be met on the high seas by seafaring Somalis who will offer them the usual Islamist hospitalities.

But sink their ships. Scuttle their hateful designs. Send the message. Israel refuses to be pushed around.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.Website: www.jackengelhard.com