What they are saying in Israel about the flotilla, plus a word of advice to hasbarah bloggers

Some RW bloggers like to shut down debate about Israel by screaming "you don't live here" -- as if the location of their own armchairs makes them more qualified to evaluate the news reports all of us are reading. So, in the interest of demonstrating that many Israelis, too, are convinced that the flotilla raid was a dumb, dangerous, detrimental decision, here are some selections from that country's newspapers:

Yossi Sarid

Had we simply let the flotilla reach Gaza - an option that was proposed - a cry of victory would indeed have erupted from the other side, but it would have died out in a day or two. But the Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak, of ministers Moshe Ya'alon and Benny Begin, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Eli Yishai and even Dan Meridor, is vying with Hamas and Hezbollah over who can produce the most resounding demonstrations of strength - which amount to nothing but humiliating evidence of weakness. [Haaretz]

Avi Shavit:

Endless questions are being asked. What happened to Israel's vaunted creativity? Why was the worst of all possible options chosen? Where was the army chief of staff? Where were the intelligence services? "Why didn't we see that instead of tightening the siege on Gaza, we were about to tighten the siege on ourselves?"[Haaretz]

Ben Caspit:

"The naval operation ... was complete stupidity. A mixture of failures that led to a disgraceful fiasco. [Maariv]

Sever Plotsker

"There isn't a broom broad enough to sweep this failure under the rug" [Yediot]

How stupid was the IDF? Apparently, they didn't even attempt to clear the decks with smoke grenades or tear gas before dropping one by one into the middle of an angry mob. Is this how the heirs of Entebbe fight now? As Saird put it, this is now an army that "trips every time it is ordered to march."

The only thing more mystifying then the IDF's tactics was the strategic decision to intercept the flotilla in the first place. How did anyone in Israel's strategic command think this would turn out well? And the only thing more mysterious than that strategic choice, is the deaf, dumb, and blind applause of the hasbarah bloggers. Why can't they see the writing on the wall? By attempting to tell us that black is white, and that a defeat is a victory all these armchair warriors for Israel are doing is undermining themselves and demonstrating how out-of-touch they are. They call themselves ambassadors for Israel, but who trusts an ambassador that can't report simple facts? Let the hasbarah bloggers follow the example of the columnists and acknowledge the failure, and encourage smarter decisions and more efficient tactics next time.

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