Reply #92: here is an explanation from an Israeli citizen's POV, not a politician's [View All]

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Dear M&G,

It seems almost a hopeless task to try and explain what happened
yesterday. We are really bad at public relations, while those who hate
us are brilliant at it. But I'll give it a try.

The blockade on Gaza, as you probably know, is to prevent the
abundant flow of armaments that are used to kill as many of us as
possible. The Hamas, which controls Gaza, and does not recognize
Israel's right to exist, has been sending rockets and missiles into
Israel for years. Since the blockade, and since our defamed but
justified attack a year ago January, and since Egypt has helped to seal
the tunnels from Sinai, there have been less missiles. If the blockade
is removed, Iran will have no hesitation to send as much weaponry as
possible. Meanwhile, we are supplying the residents of Gaza with food
and medicine regularly and also treating their sick in our hospitals.

Therefore, when we were informed about the fleet that was coming to show
the world how monstrous we were to the poor children in Gaza, there was
a big debate about whether our policy about the blockade should be
changed. It was decided that in order to protect our citizens we could
not affort to lift the blockade. But what to do about the flotilla? We
offered them time and again to bring their supplies to our port of
Ashdod and we would let them personally supervise their transport to
Gaza. They refused because they wanted a confrontation and a provocation
with lots of publicity. Their response to our offers were coarse (fuck
you) although they showed pictures of how peace loving they were. Our
naval fleet announced to them with loudspeakers in English that they
were requested to dock in Ashdod, and they responded with "Jihad".

Nonetheless, when our commando sailors came down ropes onto the
decks, without weapons in their hands, they were immediately mobbed,
stabbed, hit with hatchets, and thrown overboard. It was clearly an
attempt at lynch. One sailor's gun was snatched and he was shot at, as
were all the others. Therefore, they returned fire. We saw pictures of
this twelve hours after all the world had heard about how we had mowed
down innocent peace lovers.

We made some serious mistakes. We should have thrown tear gas. But
for some reason our navy also believed the propaganda that there would
be no violence, and that was stupid. Tomorrow more ships are coming and
I hope we handle it differently. The five ships that did not respond
with aggression were safely brought into Ashdod.

On board one of the other ships was an Arab member of Knesset. Is
there another country that would tolerate a state representative showing
allegiance to a terrorist organization? Why are we always shown to be in
the wrong? Does anyone outside Israel hear our point of view?

No one wants Gaza. The Egyptians don't want it although we offered to
have them take over many times. We certainly don't want it, and we
showed that by withdrawing several years ago. The people there voted in
the Hamas, and now they are suffering with the results. There is enough
hatred bred there to poison the Arab world and more. What a bind. They
could be living in peace and prosperity if they stopped sending missiles
and acknowledged our right to exist. Now, as usual, we are the bad ones.

Please excuse this diatribe. It's all just so frustrating and I felt
I had to make some kind of an explanation.

Lots of love,
Anita