I registered on this website a while back, and have mainly been a lurker, reading the barometer of political content, and discontent both locally in the U.S. and internationally, and every once in a while I feel the need to chime in. On the issue of the Gaza flotilla raid, I believe that Israel was wholly justified in keeping the blockade intact, and preventing the ship from reaching it's destination. I believe that the flotilla, while probably devoid of a weapons shipment, was a feint by malefactors (muslim, or otherwise) as a P.R. stunt, in which Israel could have acted in one of three ways. 1)Allow the flotilla to pass through without interference emboldining Israel's enemies to repeatedly violate the blockade, or 2) Israel intercepts the flotilla, sending commandos aboard, and is provoked to take maximum measures to ensure the safety of its own, resulting in a P.R. nightmare, which is what happened. The first two scenarios both result badly for Israel, with public perceptions showing Israel as ineffective, leaving the proverbial blood in the water, or too heavy-handed. Thirdly, what they should have done instead is disable the engines of the vessels as they approached Israel's territorial waters, then tow them to Ashdod, to be unloaded, with a heavy guard to ensure no resistance. However, hindsight is twenty twenty, and Israel's enemies always find a way to take advantage of an angle, casting Israel in a bad light. However, it is through this angle, this advantage, in which Hizbullah and Hamas both harass and attack Israel, consistently, and usually effectively. I do not live in Israel, and have never been to Israel, having no real idea of what Israel does to combat these propaganda attacks, but apparently whatever they are doing is not effective, because they are taking a hammering in the international media and I think Israel should mount a more potent, robust P.R. campaign to counteract this weapon that Islamist, and Islamist supporters, and just plain Israel bashers use to unjustly smear Israel. This campaign should be two-pronged, consisting of both an informational component, and an action component, with the informational component being subordinate to the action component. More specifically the action component would be a modification of what Israel already does for the Palestinians(or attempts to do for them, since Hamas interferes, allowing innocents to starve): bringing in food aid to the impoverished masses of Gaza. This modification would entail the use of air drops of food instead, under cover of darkness, which would reduce the chances of Hamas meddling, and with a message on each item of food explicitly explaining where the food came from, with messages of support for a Palestinian state free of terrorist elements, alongside Israel. Additionally, the wall between Gaza and Israel should have medical aid stations with heavy weapons emplacements guarding them, allowing any non-violent Palestinians(once they have been identified as such) to seek medical aid. The informational component will highlight what Israel is doing to help engender and cultivate a state for it's Palestinian brothers, spreading the information to the rest of the world, helping to dispel the cloud that Israel's enemies kick up in order to spread more hatred of Israel and Jews in general. Israel has one of the best weapons armaments in the world, one of the best armies in the world, and utilizes innovative tactics on the field of battle, but, I believe that Israel has a chink in it's armor when it comes to public relations, and Hamas is tirelessly stabbing through this hole. One thing I have noticed is, that throughout history, the Jews enemies always carry out a propaganda campaign against them before taking violent action against them. This weapon should be wrested out of the hands of Israels enemies, for it is the only weapon that is stopping peace from being achieved. Most importantly of all, the blockade should be kept enforced until peace is assured, and until that time, Israel should be the sole source for Palestinian aid(minus weapons, unless it reaches a point where Palestinians are willing to use them against their Hamas masters). Until that time Israel holds the line, protecting it's citizens, and hopefully casts a spotlight on the hand of peace that is already outstretched to it's Palestinian brothers, for Palestine, and the world at large, to see.
