’)
Juan Cole offers two possible reasons for the IDF raid on an aid flotilla:
One is that the Israeli troops boarding the vessels met some sort of resistance and over-reacted. Aid volunteers are unlikely, however, to have posed much real challenge to trained special forces operatives.
The other possible reason is that the far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu and his foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman gave a green light to the commandos to respond with excessive force. That is, the deaths and woundings may have been a brutally frank warning to any future Gaza aid activists that they are taking their lives in their hands if they plan any more flotillas to help the Palestinians. The Israeli far right may have felt that there was otherwise a danger that in a few months there would be an even bigger flotilla and that eventually the blockade of Gaza would be broken.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhahu has canceled his upcoming meeting with President Obama. Turkey is warning of “irreconcilable consequences.” It is a “propaganda coup” to Israel’s foes, such a Hamas. Freegaza.org is updating the relief efforts via its Twitter feed.
