Spengler on the Flotilla

"Israel mishandled the Gaza 'humanitarian aid' flotilla through extreme forebearance, and will suffer a marathon on tongue-clicking and hand-wringing by diplomatic hypocrites who know better. The Jewish state lost the propaganda battle the moment the floating time bomb disguised as a humanitarian mission sailed from Turkey. ... Jonathan Schanzer, a former US government official specializing in terrorist financing, provides the details and links to the relevant US government documents in a post at the Weekly Standard blog. ... Turkey's secular government of a decade ago banned the IHH from contributing to earthquake relief because of its terrorist ties, as Caroline Glick observes in the Jerusalem Post. The fact that the present Islamist government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erodgan has embraced IHH is consistent with Erdogan's public support for Iran. ... Israeli authorities offered to allow the flotilla to land at the Israeli port of Ashdod and ship its cargo of humanitarian aid to Gaza overland after appropriate security inspection; the flotilla refused. ... In short, the Gaza flotilla caper was the invention of an organization with deep ties to terrorist financing of Hamas to ameliorate a humanitarian problem that doesn't exist while refusing an Israeli offer to deliver its aid to Gaza. ... Evidently, Israel has trouble accepting the reality on the ground, just as other governments do. There is not going to be a peace negotiation, but rather a war, and that war will be terrible and bloody. ... The Gaza flotilla affair should teach Jerusalem that no matter how gingerly it approaches the threats on its borders, and how gently it responds, it ends up holding the bag for the region's problems. It might as well get down to the business of war", Spengler at Asia Times, 2 June 2010, link:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF02Ak03.html.

As usual, I agree with Spengler. In part, the flotilla was designed to enable Turkey to unseat Iran as Hamas major '"protector".