Nadene Goldfoot
Operation Sea Breeze
This so called peaceful flotilla whose goal was to bring in a shipment of goods for Gazans by breaking the blockade had at least 50 mercenaries on board trained to attack Israelis stopping the blockade.
Who funded the flotilla in the first place? The radical Turkish Islamic group IHH. The leader of this group had gone to Bursa in NW Turkey and allegedly recruited 50 mercenaries from there. About 350 of the passengers on board were from Turkey. These 50 men were not carrying ID cards or passports but each one had an envelope with about $10,000 in cash in his pocket. They were equipped with night-vision goggles, bulletproof vests, stun grenades, knives, axes and metal pipes and of course the bats we saw used against the soldiers on the video.
It had been repeated so often that Israel took them at their word that they were a peaceful flotilla. The leader of the operation was experienced Vice-Admiral Eliazer Marom who experienced the same type of operation in 2002 when they dealt with the ship Karine A, an Iranian arms ship carrying advanced weaponry to Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
They boarded the same way this time that they did then because this ship was so large that they could not do it any other way. They did not realize how they would be greeted this time. The 13 Israeli navel commandos who make up the unit known as the Shayetet, ranking among the IDF's most elite soldiers, were only armed with paintball guns and 9mm glock pistols for emergency. They were told not to fire, and went through training to be prepared only for mild violence and mostly curses, shoves and spitting in the face.
Now they are met with criticism all over the world for stopping a blockade to the Gaza Strip where Israel is continuing to suffer from missile strikes that no one cares to stop except Israel itself. I haven't heard of any criticism of Gazans continuing their missile attacks. Israelis live a life of Russian roulette never knowing when or where they could be hit.
An IDF officer said, "It might just be that whatever we do these days there will be a Goldstone report waiting around the corner." Gosh, I'd love to transplant Mr. Goldstone to Ashkelon and have him live there for a year and see how he would react.
