Avoiding Past Mistakes

Last May, the Israeli Navy boarded the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, as it was attempting to run the Gaza blockade. Initial attempts to board the vessel using small navy ships ware blocked by the activists on board the Mavi Marmara, who successfully pushed the boats away. IDF commandos then boarded the vessel by traveling one-by-one down a helicopter drop rope. Due to the slow rate at which the IDF commandos descended on board, the first few commandos who landed faced overwhelming odds against threatening violent Turkish activists. The activist threat overwhelmed the commandos, who armed with rifles and handguns, opened fire killing nine of the activists on board. 

           

An online article from Haaretz.com reports that Israel’s navy has drawn operational conclusions for the events of that deadly flotilla raid. The conclusion states that “the navy must find a way to assemble a critical mass of soldiers on the deck of the boat as quickly as possible.” This realization has caused Israel’s navy to explore the use of larger boarding ships that are equipped with ramps that will allow commandos to get onto ships at a much quicker rate. The article also reports that the navy who has been “criticized for equipping its commandos exclusively with [lethal arms]” is “contemplating the purchase of non-lethal crowd dispersal equipment.”

The search for nonlethal means has the navy exploring the ideas of using high pressure water hoses (a technology that is currently used by the IDF and Israeli police for crowd dispersal on land) and possibly attack dogs.

            Haaretz reports that following the incident aboard the Mavi Marmara, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi “suggested that a national panel be established to deal with sea-borne attempts to run blockades.” However, since no such panel has yet to be established, “Military coordination against new Gaza-bound ships remains with navy chief Admiral Eliezer Marom.”   

            In recent months, reports of new Arab state-born flotillas have surfaced, although none have yet attempted to run the Gaza blockade.

My own investigation of the flotilla concerned has let me to read the Wikipedia entry for the event. Wikipedia reports that “a BBC documentary concluded that Israeli forces had acted in self-defense against extreme, premeditated violence perpetrated by a group of hard core IHH activists”. The article continues to go on to report that “At first, the soldiers attempted to stop the violence with stun grenades; however, after a soldier was reported injured, the troops asked for permission to use their firearms, which they received.” These statements, epically the account of the BBC report (a news source I trust more than most) lead me to believe that the Haaretz.com article is wrong to report that the IDF is “equipping its commandos exclusively with [lethal arms]”. Though this statement may work well with the overall theme and tone of the article I do not believe that it has any baring in truth, and therefore causes me to doubt the rest of the information presented.

According to his bio on Haaretz.com, author “Amos Harel is one of Israel's leading media experts on military and defense issues.” I find this hard to swallow. In this article (on arguably the most popular conflict to happen in Israel in the last year) he has stated facts that are at odds with the BBC and many other news sources. Though I believe that article in question to be well written and to report seemingly accurate information concerning the feature steps the IDF will take to avoid such incidences, I do not feel that the all the information presented draws an accurate description of the actual events that initially occurred.