We thought that the ridiculous flotillas to Gaza had come to an end after Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was declared legal by the UN itself. But we were wrong.
Flotillette Follies Flop
The latest stunt is a women’s flotilla, henceforth named by me “the Flotillette”, due to set sail from Barcelona heading for Gaza’s coast.
The small fleet of two vessels was slated to carry dozens of women from various nations, including Israel, with the aim of breaching and boycotting Israel’s naval blockade of the coastal Palestinian enclave.
Meanwhile, Israel was prepared to thwart the flotilla from illegally infringing on the maritime blockade of Gaza, which was established in 2007 following the terrorist group Hamas‘s takeover of the Strip.
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With the capacity to haul 15 passengers each, the Amal (Hope) and the Zaytouna (Olive) sail boats were expected to dock at various ports on their journey across the Mediterranean. After setting sail from Barcelona following two days of anti-Israel events and lectures, the boats were slated to first stop in Corsica.
Among the pro-Palestinian activists due to board the vessels were European Parliament member Malin Bjork from Sweden, retired US army colonel Ann Wright and doctor Fouzia Hassan from Malaysia.
Among the Israeli nationals expected to take part in the flotilla was the media spokeswoman for controversial Arab-Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List), who was on the 2010 Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla.
Unfortunately for them, the flotillette has suffered certain mysterious delays and of course the female activists lost no time in blaming Israel:
One of the ships, the Amal (Hope) was forced to turn back after facing engine trouble. The second ship, the Zaytouna (Olive), set off only late in the afternoon after being delayed for many hours by local Italian police.
This reminds me of the sinister delays suffered by a previous flotilla, which were also attributed to the dastardly Israeli government. The blame-game continues:
The flotilla’s organizers accused Israel of causing the delays and stated that they hope the Amal will be able to return to sea after being repaired.
One of the passengers of the Flotilla, Zohar Regev, an Israeli who grew up on a kibbutz and has since relocated to Spain, spoke in an interview on the flotilla’s website. Regev discussed her expectation of Israel to use force to stop the flotilla.
“We are committed to non-violence. We will not give Israel a reason to attack us violently,” Regev stated.
She continued, “You need courageous people to set out on a flotilla like this. Silence on Israeli actions would be an outrageous injustice and shame.”
As with similar anti-Israel stunts, the flotillette floptivists raise a straw man, only to knock it down. Israel has never attacked any flotillas, violently or peacefully. Israel has legally prevented the boats from entering Gaza’s waters, and the only violence occurred on the Mavi Marmara after the IDF boarding party was violently attacked by the terror-supporters on board.
As for calling themselves “courageous” to sail in such a flotilla, that is the biggest load of codswallop I have heard in a long while (probably since the last flotilla). The only reason these women feel safe enough to sail is precisely because they know the IDF will not attack them as long as they keep the peace.
The entire enterprise is a pathetic publicity stunt that is not fooling anyone at all, possibly not even themselves.
Arguably, more humanitarian aid flows into Gaza than ever before. And strong evidence indicates that Hamas chooses to divert significant amounts of construction material that should be used to rebuild housing in order to gear up for future terrorist attacks against Israel.
And so a flotilla aimed at drawing attention to Palestinian suffering hopes to set sail shortly and make it to Gaza by Oct. 1.
Its message: Israel is to blame for everything.
The Jewish Press article has some practical suggestions for the flotillette activists:
There are things the passengers can do to help, however, if their agenda truly is about improving life for Palestinians and not some feckless attempt to discredit Israel.
Start by condemning Hamas political leaders for making jihad a priority over improving living conditions. As much as 95 percent of cement meant for rebuilding Gaza gets diverted to tunnel building. The Los Angeles Times also described a concern among some Gaza residents that the money that does go toward home construction benefits Hamas insiders and mosques first.
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The boat women also can demand that Hamas stop indoctrinating Palestinian children with messages glorifying violent jihad and martyrdom. It has been going on for years. Simply put: It is indefensible.
Finally, a flotilla of women hoping to improve life for Palestinians in Gaza should say something about the treatment of women under Hamas rule. Something is amiss in a society when women riding bicycles creates a stir. Women in Gaza also cannot dance or smoke in public or have their hair done by men
The article notes that the flotillette is not even going to be bringing in any goods for poor starving comfortably middle class Gaza. No surprise there, considering the desperate state of “concentration camp Gaza”:
Even Hamas itself has been publicist Gaza’s amazing attractions in a bid to lure tourists! Seriously! And I must admit they seem to be doing a blooming good job. Shame about the rockets…
But wait! There’s more! Israel is about to enjoy some more entertainment value as Israeli fishermen and sailors plan to meet the Flotillette when it arrives:
A group of sailors from the South, including some who had been expelled from Gush Katif, are a planning a flotilla in reaction to the “Women’s Flotilla” of left-wing activists to depart this week from Barcelona, Spain for Gaza.
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Avi Farchan, who was expelled from the community of Alei Sinai in Gush Katif and is organizing the alternative flotilla of southern residents, called on all boat and ship owners to join him in greeting the pro-Arab flotilla as it arrives. “If they want to talk about humanitarianism, they should sail to Syria and not Gaza. Gaza is not lacking for anything.”
“We will recommend that the leftist women take the humanitarian aid that they brought and divert it to Syria via the Lattakia port, for the good of hundreds of thousands of refugees there,” he said.
However I think the Israeli sailors can remain sunbathing on the beach because it looks like the Flotillette might not make it to Gaza, or even Israel, at all. They seem to have gotten lost after stopping to ask for directions: [satire unfortunately, via the brilliant Daily Freier]:
Barcelona: A Women-Only “Flotilla to Gaza” has run into an unexpected problem after getting lost somewhere between Barcelona and Sardinia. The Flotilla, which set out to show Solidarity with
a regime that promotes Honor Killings and Polygamythe women of Gaza, has been at sea for four days and according to the latest Blog entry of Bree Skyfire-Williams, one of the Ship’s four Co-Captains, they have “like no idea where they are” and “need to maybe stop another ship and ask for directions or something.” The Daily Freier was able to communicate further with the crew via What’s-App whenever they got some decent Wi-Fi.“I think our problems started before we even got on the boat.” explained Jade, who took a month off of work from her job at the World Bank in order to participate. Jade, who was appointed to the Packing and Supply Committee, described the chain of events. “I mean our Ships’ Manifest didn’t account for everyone packing way too much stuff for the trip.” To further drive home this point, Jade showed us the packing list of Melissa from the (Fair Trade) Coffee Committee:
“A cold weather outfit, a warm weather outfit, some formal wear in case we go some place nice, a hat, boots, my laptop, Uggs, a yoga mat, yoga pants, French press, a little black dress, 5 swimsuits, hair dryer, 9 pairs of shoes, waffle iron, Crocs, coconut oil, scrunchies, my journal, crystals, ‘The Alchemist’ by Tony Coelho, a headscarf, and my rice cooker.”
Jade continued. “Now just multiply that by 20 women, and, well, we had to unload the two boxes of stuff we had for Gaza.”
Just keep reading and enjoy a good belly-laugh.
I know the above is satire, but I just cannot bring myself to take these stupid flotillas seriously. The “activists” are either radical-chic ex-hippies looking for a cause they can join, or they are antisemitic politicians looking to raise their profile amongst voters who have lost interest in their antics.
May their engines continue to founder, may their sails always tangle, and may they find other fish to fry.
Or maybe they should just try sailing to Syria where they really could use any help they can offer.
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The best bit about this article,and I must admit I did enjoy reading it including the satire! ,was about Avi Farchan and fellow sailors who will set out to meet these idiot women.Obviously it’s all bout eeeevil Israel,otherwise they would have set their agenda,manifest,and gps towards Syria.
Possibly they can’t afford a gps,that’s why they are literally lost at sea!May they continue that way until they run out of diesel and have to be saved by some other poor sailors!