Israel's attempts to blackout the truth about their attack on the Mavi Marmara and the other boats that were aiming to break the illegal blockade of Gaza continue to unravel.
Here's Michael Oren on the Diane Rehm show on Wednesday.
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show today that the Mavi Marmara was too big to stop without the use of military force.
"The particular ship that did encounter the violent incident was simply too large to stop by nonviolent means. The others ships were not and that is one of the reasons they were towed safely to port," Oren said on the program that aired today.
Max Blumenthal has unveiled evidence in the Hebrew press of Israel planning for attacking the flotilla with violence more than a week in advance.
Statements by senior Israeli military commanders made in the Hebrew media days before the massacre revealed that the raid was planned over a week in advance by the Israeli military and was personally approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. The elite Israeli commando unit known as Unit 13 was tasked with carrying out the mission and its role was known by the Israeli public well before the raid took place. Details of the plan show that the use of deadly force was authorized and calculated. The massacre of activists should not have been unexpected.
On May 28, three days before the raid, top Israeli military officials revealed details of their strategy to Maariv, Israel’s most widely circulated paper. The caption of the Maariv article reflected the military command’s plan to use force: “On the way to violence; one of the boats is on its way.”
This corroborates what our own Kossack, Assaf Oron, an Israeli citizen living in United States, was telling us regulars in the I/P diaries well before the attack. On Facebook, Assaf was live-blogging as the attack unfolded:
Live from the Turkish ship: 3 Israeli ships circled them with helicopter circling on top, told them to leave. This is 90 miles from coast - well inside international waters. Flotilla decided to continue on a more westerly course towards Gaza. Navy ships disengaged from now. It seems Israel is singling out the Turks; they already turned IHH in the Israeli press into a terror organization.
Blumenthal's analysis goes on to quote the Israeli Hebrew daily, Maariv from May 28. Note that the operation was code-named "Cheney". How could it not be wrong?
This operation was approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak and will be led by the commander of the Navy, Lieutenant Colonel Eliezer Maron, who is nicknamed “Cheney.” If the people aboard the boats will not agree to turn around, the operation will transfer to the stage of force. “We are afraid that there will be a terror attack by the boats,” said a high ranking officer. “If terrorists have gotten on the boats or if there is an intention to use hot weapons against our forces, we will use full seriousness and caution. We want to avoid using force but as soon as there will be danger to the life of our forces we will be forced to use live fire as a last resort.
They were readying the Israeli public for the violence planned. And the Israeli public has fallen for it. As Assaf noted here on May 29,
As a statistician I know online click-in polls are not scientific. But still...
Israel's leading news portal Walla, whose editorial stand is left-of-center, ran an online poll in Hebrew asking surfers what Israel should do. 12,634 surfers clicked in. The responses:
Take over the flotilla - 92%
Let them pass - 8%
It is my opinion, shared by other progressive observers, that the term "public opinion" has become meaningless in Israel of the 2000's when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. On this issue, the government propaganda pretty much marks the leftmost boundary for anyone wishing to avoid being branded as a pariah.
I predict that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is stronger than ever. This attack was launched for the Israeli electorate.
Update from Assaf's comment below:
I don't think Bibi's govt. is stronger than ever. Israelis hate losers, and even within Israel it's become impossible to spin this as a success of any kind (although some are still trying).
I want to re-emphasize, that the baiting of the Turkish ship was the most salient feature of Israeli press coverage in the 2-3 days before the attack. In Israel now it is completely a "fact" that the IHH is a terror organization. Now they might treat MV Rachel Corrie differently, and they already say to the world this is because "the organizers are different, the people are different.
This is crap. Free Gaza was the overall organizer of the entire flotilla, and MV Rachel Corrie was an integral part of it that just happened to be delayed by a few hours and therefore escaped the attack.
All the "evidence" against IHH is part of the general criminalization attempt of all Muslim charities, started under Bush. They quote a single "report" penned by a young Neocon hack and published by a Danish institute 4 years ago. Fact of the matter, no govt. seriously took these accusations and IHH continued to be legal everywhere except Israel (which banned it and pretty much all Muslim charities in 2008). Fact of the matter, there were no weapons/explosives/etc. on the Turkish ship.
Soysauce here:
This is part of a larger strategy of demonizing Islam both in Israel and the West. It works because our culture reinforces terrible stereotypes each day and so many anti-Muslim and anti-Arab comments are not even recognized on Kos, a progressive blog. It works in Israel and it works in the United States. It is always wrong.