Was the raid legal?

I need to remember that there are two sides to every story. Regarding flotilla business, I've twice fallen into the trap of presuming that Israeli bloggers and newspapers were reporting the whole story. Last week, I accepted at face value the claim that the flotilla had refused to take a letter to Gilad Shalit. Now I see that at least one person, an Irish politician, said last week that he would take any letter and present it to Cpl. Shalit, or to Hamas authorities.*

On Monday, I took it for granted that the raid was legal and made the point that regardless of its legality it was still stupid, as what it accomplished was the very opposite of Israel's strategic objectives. Now, I see that the legal community is divided, with credentialed scholars on both sides of the argument.

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*I'm going to reiterate here what I said yesterday: It's pathetic that only one person from among the hundreds who traveled with the flotilla offered to take a letter; still, Israeli bloggers and newspapers should be acknowledging it.

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