Just a quick follow-up to yesterday's diary detailing the threat issued by Israel's Government Press Office to foreign journalists covering the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
The New York Times is reporting today that the threat has been rescinded:
Officials said that the earlier decision had been taken by bureaucratic staff, who applied to journalists the regular policy against infiltrators and those who enter Israel illegally....
Moshe Yaalon, the minister for strategic affairs, said on Monday that he had first heard of the decision on the morning news, “like the prime minister did,” and that it was “problematic.”
“I don’t think it is possible today, in the modern era, to block the media,” Mr. Yaalon told Israel Radio. “And since there will be media, better that we don’t clash with it.”
Maybe it happened that way. Maybe the blowback was too hot. Whichever, the Israeli government came to its senses. Maybe now, they can convince the IDF not to shoot at unarmed civilian protesters...