Israel has taken something of a hammering in the international media over the last few weeks following the interception of the IHH flotilla bound for Gaza. My blog of June 5th summarized my position on the matter and I refer you to that, via my website, should you wish to hear my thoughts on the subject.
 
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of that particular incident the reporting of the event has, in my opinion, often bordered on out-and out racism, with journalists and media organizations from various points on the globe and with a variety of agendas, seeking to demonize Israel before the facts of the matter have been properly investigated.
 
Racism in any form is offensive. Jews through the ages have often borne the brunt of overt racism from people whose ignorance and prejudice and need to find a scapegoat to vent their anger or frustrations at their life situation, has brought about terrible and often catastrophic repercussions. Jews have suffered a great deal, and it is no surprise that many people view this fact as a strong reason for expecting Jews to act by some higher moral code, as if, having experienced the worst humanity can throw at them, Jews should never allow themselves to make the same mistakes.
 
In a perfect world that would be a commendable ideal, but this world is not perfect; it is very far from perfect, and Jews are just ordinary human beings like any other nation or race on the planet, and as such suffer the same flaws, prejudices and weaknesses as anyone else. To honestly expect Jews to be any better is somewhat perverse.
 
I've always believed in the adage 'live and let live'. That's why I strongly believe in the necessity to have a viable two-state solution in this region that recognizes the right of a peaceful Palestinian state, accepting and embracing the existence of its Jewish neighbour to exist on this piece of land. Such a deal with the government of Abu Mazen in the West Bank is quite achievable as the secular Palestinian Authority has to some degree listened to reason and is beginning to make significant economic and social progress that could well lead to a lasting peace deal.
 
The problem is in Gaza, the second Palestinian enclave governed by Hamas, an organization allied to and supported by Iran and Syria, and still pledged to the destruction of the State of Israel, despite Israel having unilaterally withdrawn from the land and given the Gazan people the opportunity to show that they are serious about peace. Sadly, they aren't – or at least those in power aren't.
 
The rabid anti-Semitism and hatred displayed by Hamas is the singular most destructive force in the whole of the Middle East, and yet the self proclaimed 'even-handed' Western democracies, don’t seem to voice this fact often enough. Could it be that they are too fearful of a radical Muslim backlash on their own soil? Does the fawning acceptance of violent dictatorships not lead to catastrophe? Has the first lesson learned by high school students of the background to the start of World War II, namely the appeasement of Germany and Neville Chamberlain's naive belief that he could cuddle a grizzly bear and persuade it to behave like a pussycat, not been learned?  

It's been notable how quiet the Fatah leadership from the West Bank has been during the last few weeks. They hate Hamas and would dearly love the militant Islamic party to disappear into the ether. Unfortunately for Fatah, it appears that Hamas and its supporters are going nowhere in a hurry and are only gaining courage from misguided campaigners who interpret their situation as a cause worth supporting without investigating exactly what it is Hamas stands for, what they have done and continue to do to their own people, and what they would do to their Jewish neighbours if given the chance.
 
The likelihood of so-called peace boats arriving from Iran and Lebanon in the next week or so to attempt to lift the Israeli embargo on Gaza, could well prove very dangerous. Let's not categorize the Lebanese boat with the Iranian vessels, as the Lebanese have to do pretty much what Hizbollah and the Syrian government tell them. But to have Iran sailing into these waters, painting themselves as white knights coming to the rescue of the Gazans is a sick joke.
 
That anyone could possibly accept that one of the most racist, undemocratic, anti-Semitic governments on the planet, who ally themselves with almost equally despicable regimes in Syria, North Korea, Libya and Zimbabwe, has any sense of justice, is laughable. Just ask the leaders of Iran's opposition Green Party who won the Iranian general election last year and now languish in jail after Ahmedinejad manipulated the results to declare victory for the hard-liners, about the Iranian leaders' sense of justice and fair play. Let's not even talk of his maniac threats to blow Israel of the face of the map!
 
Iran is trying to goad Israel into a fight. I hope Israel will use as much power of self-restraint as is reasonable, up until the point where it becomes clear that the Iranian vessels pose a definite threat and that there is no alternative other than to forcibly ensure they do not break the embargo and continue their flow of missiles and arms to the terrorists.
 
 
On the home front there have been a number of recent occurrences involving the ultra-religious Haredi community that might suggest that the tide is turning and that the Israeli government and judiciary is about to face head on the anomalies and racist attitudes of this religious Jewish cult which has a disproportionate amount of influence in this democratic nation, a nation that perversely many of them don't even recognise even exists! Is there another country in the world that allows people who seek the destruction of the country in question to stand and be elected to parliament? We must be mad!
 
Perceived by many onlookers as being almost beyond the law, and by themselves as having to accept only proclamations from their rabbis whilst treating the law of the land with disdain, the Haredim have suffered a number of high profile reverses of late. 73 black-hatted violent protesters were arrested recently after attacking police with bricks, rocks and iron bars and setting cars alight in protest at an archaeological dig in Jaffa. Their 'enlightened' response to the arrests was to place a curse on the authorities! Nice to know they are people of reason.
 
This week also saw the Ashkenazi Haredim receive a significant setback. It's not enough for the Haredim that they see any secular Jew (like me), or even observant Jews who don't belong to their cult as not being Jewish, they now don’t want their children educated with Sephardi, (eastern or dark skinned) Jews, as they're not 'kosher' enough for them either! The high court has ordered these racist parents to be arrested if they refuse to send their Ashkenazi (white skinned) kids to school with their darker counterparts.

The biggest recent blow to the Haredim however, was the overwhelming 6-1 Supreme Court judgement that the subsidising by the state of many thousands of Haredi yeshiva students at the direct expense of the fee paying secular university students must end. The Haredim are up in arms and in complete shock at the thought that they might have to go out to work and support themselves if they want to study the good book. Well folks, welcome to the real world, the world of the new millennium, a world apart from the 18th century shtetl existence they would return us all to if given the chance.
 
These recent judgements may well be the first line in the sand in the halting of the seemingly unstoppable march of Israel to becoming a religious country within a generation. Could it possibly be that the Haredim, who often have as many as 14 children per household, (as they until recently received substantial social security handouts per child), might cease their prolific breeding once they realise there's no money in it for them and they’ll have to go out and get a job?
 
The Haredim are fully entitled to live their lives as they choose and I respect their chose to believe whatever they wish as long as their believes don‘t impact on others who live their life differently. Hopefully, these people whose often racist attitudes and intolerance of the current secular Jewish majority and whose ignorance and contempt for the world around them has proved so dangerous, might at last be about to be reeled in before the pendulum has swung beyond the point of no return.
 
Could Israel at last be grasping the nettle, facing the elephant in the room, and starting to put its own house in order?
 
 
 
 
 
 

"Good morning. It's 11am. This is the British Broadcasting Association.

"The British government's three year naval embargo on goods destined for the IRA-governed province of Northern Ireland has come under the spotlight once again after SAS commandos boarded a vessel carrying Catholic 'peace campaigners' from Italy, Spain, Poland and South America, wishing to show solidarity with the terrorist government and the suppressed Catholic population of the former British colony.

"SAS commandos had anticipated little trouble from the peace boat, the Mary Magdalene, who had been instructed to divert to the port of Liverpool to undergo routine inspection of her cargo, but were met by a hostile crowd armed with steel bars, stun grenades, slingshots and knives who viciously attacked the British special unit who were eventually forced to open fire to protect their own lives. Nine of the so-called peace campaigners were killed and a number of SAS personnel were seriously injured.

"The international community led by the Catholic block have been quick to condemn the British government and have called for an immediate lifting of the naval embargo which is, of course, complimented by the closure of the land border with the Republic of Ireland, also a Catholic nation, but one which rejects the violent armed struggle being waged by the IRA and who have a long standing peace agreement with Britain.

"After more than six years of rocket attacks from Northern Ireland that terrorised the communities of Manchester, Liverpool and the west coast of England, in 2005 the British government took the decision to unilaterally withdraw from the province as a gesture of goodwill and to give the people of Northern Ireland an opportunity to elect a peace loving government that would work for the betterment of all of the Northern Irish people.

"Following the elections of 2006 which saw the IRA gain a majority vote, all political opposition in Northern Ireland was eradicated with many opposition politicians and spokespersons being summarily executed, whilst others have been forced to flee for their lives.

"Despite being granted autonomy, the IRA continued a sustained barrage of rockets into the west coast population centres of England, forcing millions to live in fear of their lives and spend long periods of time every week living in bomb shelters; children unable to go to school, businesses forced to close, civilian deaths from indiscriminate rocket fire, and local authorities and public services unable to function.

"The British government's decision in 2008 to send in the RAF to destroy the IRA bomb factories, callously and calculating placed in built-up city areas, resulted in a significant loss of life as a result of the IRA effectively using the captive Northern Irish civilian population as human shields. Once again there was a massive international outcry at the disproportionate number of deaths on the Northern Irish side, as opposed to the 13 military and civilian casualties sustained by British forces.

"The decision to enforce the naval embargo to ensure that more weapons materiel and bomb making equipment cannot arrive at the port of Belfast or other smaller ports on the Northern Irish coast, has been roundly condemned by the UN and other major international organizations, many of whose members appear fearful of a violent backlash within their own communities from the radical Catholic population who demonstrate daily on the streets against the British and in support of the IRA, an organization which has been and still remains on the international list of terrorists organizations.

"Despite the British government bending over backwards to allow as much humanitarian aid as possible into Northern Ireland, it is widely acknowledged that the IRA have commandeered most of the humanitarian aid and are using it for profiteering and raising cash to purchase more weaponry from sympathetic nations such as Venezuela, the Seychelles and Libya. There has been little or no distribution of the aid to the civilian population who are suffering daily due to the actions of the IRA government.

"It has now been revealed that there were as many as 50 people amongst the 600 on board the Mary Magdalene that are wanted in a variety of countries across the globe for anti-British and anti-Protestant offences, including the attacking of Church of England premises and the murder and attempted murder of regular Church of England worshippers. A number made statements to their local media before the Mary Magdalene set sail, saying that they were prepared to die and be martyred like Saint Joan if necessary, in order to break the naval embargo imposed by Britain. It is quite clear that this hardcore of violent activists were spoiling for a fight with the SAS all along and duped the genuine peace campaigners aboard the ship into believing that they had only peaceful intentions.

"It is now understood that a new flotilla of boats seeking to break the embargo has set off from Brazil, Mexico and Italy, whilst it is also reported that President Chavez of Venezuela, a man who has expressed his total support for the terrorist IRA and whose government has allegedly given billions of dollars to the terrorist government in order to buy missiles and weaponry to use against the British, is to send two warships to the Irish Sea in an effort to ensure that the breaking of the naval blockade will succeed, even if that means engaging the British navy to do so."
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Makes you think, doesn't it?  Thankfully, the IRA laid down their arms and decided to follow the path of peace. It could all have been so different.

Isn't it a shame that Hamas refuse to do the same?

Life in semi-rural Israel can be a real pleasure, especially if, like me, you appreciate nature and enjoy being in relatively close contact with the animal kingdom.

When my wife and I chose to live in Zichron Yaakov it was because it offered all we were looking for; a relatively small community, but with nearly all the everyday facilities one could possibly need, good schools for our girls, close proximity to the beautiful beaches north of Caesaria, and a green outlook with the Carmel hills rolling down around us. It's a pretty idyllic spot.

To make matters even better, we found a house that looks directly onto the Rothschild nature reserve of Ramat HaNadiv, on the edge of a steep ravine covered in olive trees and scrubland on the opposite side. And, on our side, a variety of plants and trees, most of which I've been unable to put a name to. Directly opposite the house on the other side of the ravine – about 100 metres as the crow flies – is a huge cage which is run by the park rangers as an R&R retreat for injured birds of prey. Eagles, buzzards, vultures, owls and hawks are all restored to good health by the expert ornithologists who gradually train them to return to the wild, training runs that frequently cross over our heads and send the green parrot population heading for cover for fear of ending up on an eagle's dinner table.

Crickets whirr loudly through the evening and into the night, competing with jackals that roam the reserve and get a bit of a howl on when the female of the species 'puts out' that she's ready to be 'covered', as they say in the horse breeding business.

Our only domestic pet is our faithful dog Mocca, a mongrel we chose from the animal rescue centre at Hadera just over two years ago and who has become a much loved member of the Alster family. Being the only one that doesn’t answer back, who is always happy to see me, and costs a relatively small amount to keep, it would be fair to say that there are times when he goes close to being at the top of my family favourites list, if only for a brief while. 

The girls walk Mocca morning and afternoon, and I take him out for a stroll at night, where he struts around the neighbourhood as if he owns the place, exchanging pleasantries with the other hounds on the block. He's never got into a fight and all the dogs, both male and female seem to like him – I suspect he might be gay, but I don't love him any less for it!

His evening ritual is to pad around slowly, sniffing here and occasionally woofing there, and then, as we return to within sight of the gate at the bottom of the steps up to my house, he always sprints the last 30 metres, rather as I used to do at the end of cross-country running at school as we were being counted in, and I wanted to impress with my physical fitness and stamina. The fact that I'd walked most of the previous five miles is neither here nor there! 

Anyway, a few nights ago Mocca headed around the corner of our street towards an open area of scrubland, whereupon I found him rooted to the spot, furiously sniffing the air as his tail curled alarmingly between his legs. I asked him if there was a problem, but he refused to explain. Then, with a feeble whine, he turned around and scooted back in the direction of the house at high speed. 'Stupid dog'.

I peered curiously into the darkness. Despite my lack of foresight in not packing night vision goggles for the 10 minute stroll, it didn't take the instinct of James Bond or David Attenborough to sense pretty quickly that there was something out there. Then an audible rustling noise made by 'something of substance' emanated from the bushes. Had I happened upon a young couple 'pitching-the-woo' as they said in days gone by, or was a terrorist about to leap out and 'make my day' by making me a 'martyr'? Before I had time to hatch a 'cunning plan' all was revealed. It was big, it was hairy, and it definitely wasn't kosher! A white tusked, bigger-than-I-had-ever-suspected wild boar started trotting slowly, but most definitely towards me.

'Surely it must be frightened of humans', I thought briefly. But then, as it continued its progress in my direction, I soon formed the opinion that maybe I was more frightened of it, than it was of me, and that discretion was definitely the better part of valour. First rule of warfare – never turn your back on the enemy. 'Oh sod that' I thought, as I shouted out 'Ohhhhh shit!', turned on my heels, and ran at a pace that I swear would give Usain Bolt something to think about. I'd gone at least 50 metres when I glanced behind and noticed that 'old pigface' had ground to a halt, probably offended by my turn of phrase. 

He stared at me, and I stared back at him. My faithful, fearless hound was already hidden behind bushes half-way along the street. It was nearly midnight and there wasn't a soul about. The crickets whirred in the silence. From the eagles' cage I could hear a squawking noise that almost drowned out the beating of my heart – but not quite. The boar – I'm talking about the one with the tusks, not me, - looked me up and down for a few moments and then appeared to decide I just wasn't worth the effort, turned its piggy tail and headed back into the night, from whence it came.

Well! What a palaver! A quiet evening stroll had turned into a spot of man versus beast short-course athletics. Mocca, looking somewhat embarrassed at his lack of canine backbone, eventually came ambling over to see if I was OK. 

'You big puff', I told him, and he jumped up to show me how happy he was that all's well that ends well. 30 metres from the gate, his dawdle suddenly turned into the customary sprint and he shot around the corner, up the stairs and onto the lawn, impressing no-one - particularly not me.

Good old Mocca.

There have been a lot of accusations and counter-accusations flying about over the last few days since the Israeli naval operation to stop the Turkish IHH vessel attempting to break the embargo and deliver goods to Gaza.

In my last blog I pointed out that no country in the world would be satisfied to just take the word of those on board that goods described as "aid' were in no way capable of being used for military means and to allow the vessel to enter uninspected. The fact that the other five vessels in the fleet were boarded without incident suggests that there were many in the flotilla who were genuinely wishing to offer their support to the Gazan people – even though most of what would be delivered will go to Hamas to launder and profiteer. Nevertheless, the sentiment was genuine, and I wholly respect their right to make a point and protest peacefully.

It was the pre-meditated intent of those on board the flagship of the flotilla, the Mavi Marmara that precipitated the loss of life last Monday. Whilst I have no doubt that serious Israeli intelligence gaffs led their Navy seals into a well laid trap, unbelievably rappelling down to the deck of the ship armed with paintball guns before the violent altercations that led them to draw their .22 pistols to defend themselves, this still does not alter the fact that the intent of a hardcore of up to 50 of those on board the ship was to incite violence and use the guise of being peace campaigners to obscure their real intent. 

Amongst those 50 were a number who made statements prior to their departure from Turkey to their own respective foreign media, which you can read for yourself at the    link on my blog page. http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4265.html

They include statements of a desire to be martyred, to kill Israelis, to never accept the right of Jews to have a homeland, and are made by people who are wanted in a number of countries for terrorist related activities and some who have already served time for such crimes.

Unlike the Irish registered ship that attempted to break the embargo on Saturday morning and whose genuine intent was to deliver the goods, - which will now be done, the Irish having peacefully allowed a boarding party to inspect the boat and escort them to Ashdod where they will view the Israeli inspections before the goods go to Gaza – those on board the Mavi Marmara were far more interested in killing Israelis than delivering aid. Their use of stun grenades, iron bars, pistols and other weapons sets them completely apart from the peaceful protesters on the other six boats.

Those killed by Israeli forces were all Turkish and would have survived completely unharmed if they had not incited the violence that came their way. Saturday's release of the communications between the Israeli Navy and the Mavi Marmara at last gives a lie to many of the accounts of the supposed unprovoked Israeli violence against benign peace flag wavers.

According to SKY News, no friend of Israel's on past form, when told: "“This is the Israeli Navy. You are approaching an area which is under a naval blockade”, the response from the Turkish ship was “Shut up, and go back to Auschwitz.
“We have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter”, says another female voice from the Mavi Marmara. "We’re helping the Arabs go against the US, don’t forget 9/11 guys", says the male voice again.

Hardly the comments of peace activists and humanitarians, are they?

Adding fuel to the flames of this highly volatile diplomatic incident is the alarming rhetoric of the right-wing Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan., a man who wants to steer Turkey away from her traditional secular society towards a more Iranian way of life. His comments since Monday night have been highly inflammatory and he clearly is spoiling for a fight. Erdogan's latest tirade about personally leading a naval flotilla to break the naval blockade of Gaza is two-faced in the extreme. If Israel sent a flotilla to Turkey bound for the PKK, the Kurdish separatist movement that the Turks deem a terrorist organization, would they allow that to go unchecked and pass without question? And, during the times of the troubles in Northern Ireland, would the British government have allowed a shipment of goods to the IRA to pass freely into the terrorists hands without inspection? I think not

Turkey rely heavily on Israel to provide surveillance on the PKK and I think it would not be unreasonable given the circumstances and inflammatory language used by Erdogan, for Israel to close down the satellite links they have granted Turkey that allow them to keep tabs on the PKK's movements on the Turkish/Iraqi border. As for Turkey's threats to sever diplomatic ties with Israel, it would be better for Israel to take the initiative and withdraw their ambassador immediately as a protest against Turkey's involvement in the whole affair and their attempts to destabilize the region.

And the IHH, owners of the Mavi Marmara and backed by the Turkish government, are they really just a charitable Muslim NGO? Well, according to respected US-based Middle East and United Nations correspondent Ben Evansky, as far back as 1996 the IHH was named by the CIA as having links to a number of Islamist terrorist groups and were subsequently implicated in the failed Millenuium bomb plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport. The IHH is also strongly suspected of links to terrorist groups active in Algeria and Iran.

The IHH has for a number of years been closely associated with the leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, and unlike most governmental and non-governmental bodies around the world, does not accept that Hamas, the organization responsible for indiscriminately firing more than 5000 rockets into southern Israel over the last few years, responsible for public executions and mass murders of its political opposition, and suppression of the everyday Gazan citizens to further their own aim of a fundamentalists Islamic entity that will wipe out the State of Israel, is a terrorist organization.

In light of these facts, as I suggested earlier in the week, it would be unwise to jump to too many conclusions at this stage.

It has been a depressing week here in Israel. People are dismayed at Monday night's bungled operation as a result of bad military intelligence that placed the lives ofIsraeli soldiers in unnecessary danger. People here are angry and embarrassed at the way the government has so ineffectually dealt with the media fallout and diplomatic crisis related to the incident, and, probably more than anything else, I believe that Israelis and many Jews around the world, are fearful of the now unveiled anti-Semitism that has for so long been masquerading as anti-Israel sentiment.

Let's hope that the next few weeks see the situation become significantly calmer, both in this region and around the globe.

 

This week I had planned to discuss matters of less gravitas, but the events surrounding the IHH flotilla on its way to Gaza are understandably dominating the thoughts of everyone here in Israel, and quite obviously many people further afield.

At the time of writing, reports are still coming in depicting the scenario that greeted the Israeli soldiers attempting to board the main vessel that was on its way to Gaza to apparently deliver humanitarian aid, and it might well be that by the time you hear this blog more evidence will have come to light that sheds quite a different perspective on the matter.

As things stands, the loss of human life in such a situation is always highly regrettable but it does appear that blame lies on both sides and not solely on the side of the Israelis, as was indicated by initial reports from a variety of mainstream international news media.

As the flotilla made its way to this part of the world it was, for a while, refused entry to Cypriot waters, apparently on the grounds that the Cypriot authorities were unwilling to accept the assurances of those on board that the cargo was wholly humanitarian and there were no items that could be used by the Hamas regime in Gaza for more ulterior purposes.

The day before the alarming pitched battle that occurred at sea, a variety of news sources reported that passengers aboard the lead ship were singing a song glorifying Islam and pining for the removal of Israelis from the land and a return to the teachings of the prophet Muhammed. A strange ditty, I thought, for a humanitarian organization whose sole aim is to relieve the acknowledged suffering of the ordinary people of Gaza. Could it possibly be that those on board had more on their collective agendas than simply offering supplies to a people let down, abused and kept in poverty by their own militant leadership?

Here in Israel most people from across the political spectrum felt that the flotilla was most likely a carefully orchestrated anti-Israel publicity stunt, just as much as it was an alleged humanitarian mission. The test of the voracity of the mission was whether or not the flotilla would accept the offer made many times by the Israeli authorities that the ships' cargo should be unloaded and inspected at the port of Ashdod, and then, subject to the consignment being legal and above board, would be delivered by lorries, in full, to Gaza. Surely any humanitarian group whose prime objective was to deliver goods to the Gazans couldn't have any possible objection to that?

As it happened they did, and refused many times point blank to make their way to Ashdod, raising suspicions that the contents on board the ships weren't all for 'humanitarian' purposes. Any country in the world anticipating the arrival of suspicious cargo in its territorial waters has the right to make an inspection. At this point Israel was doing everything by the book.   

Unfortunately, Israel has become a past master at scoring own goals on the PR front and of often turning a perfectly reasonable argument into a cause celebre for its opponents. What transpired when Israeli commandos boarded the ship appears to have been a doubly flawed policy which went disastrously wrong. With the most reasonable and legitimate of intentions, Israel managed to somehow 'cock it up' by first boarding the ships in international waters and not in its own territorial waters, and then launching a highly flawed and amateurish raid that saw individual soldiers being dangled and dropped into crowds of armed and baying pro-Palestinian protesters, without any recourse to an element of surprise or safety in numbers. 

One soldier, under what appeared from video images to be an alarmingly vicious assault from the supposed 'peace' flotilla, had his automatic weapon wrenched from his grasp, thus turning a potentially challenging situation into one that would soon resemble a war zone, with at least nine protesters dead and a number of Israeli soldiers seriously injured.

Reaction to the events of the boarding of the flotilla have been predictably swift, with Hamas calling for a 'day of rage', human rights organizations chiming in with 'war crimes' comments, and the good old UN recalled for an emergency session to discuss the matter and doubtless issue a stern condemnation of the Israeli authorities without mention of any extenuating circumstances.

What upsets me most in this whole affair is not that Israel intercepted the flotilla – they were perfectly entitled to do so – but that the planning and execution of the inspection of the boats was carried out with less brains than your average Somali pirate can muster! Worse than this, the resultant reaction has provided a desperately needed lifeline for the terrorist regime of Hamas in Gaza. 

At the start of this week it was widely reported that there was distinct unrest in the territory due to the wages of public workers not having been paid for three months, the perceived cronyism and corruption of the government, and the significant deterioration in the standard of living of Gaza residents. Since Hamas came to power, and as a direct result of their refusal to acknowledge the right of the State of Israel to exist and their determination to carry on an armed struggle, the Israeli blockade of the territory for all but humanitarian aid and essential supplies has brought very hard times to the average Gazan. Hamas' populatiry was at an all-time low and there was a distinct chance of a popular uprising favouring a return to rule by Fatah.

Israel has now presented the Hamas leadership with a gift wrapped publicity coup that has turned their popularity completely on its head. What a stupid a mistake for the Israeli government and armed forces to make. Time might show this error will prove very costly indeed.

The atmosphere in Israel now is very tense. Latest reports indicate that Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran in southern Lebanon have now amassed up to 40,000 rockets (some capable of reaching further than Tel Aviv), and most of which are sited within the supposed UN security zone or ' blue line'. How can the 'impartial' UN explain how it has let the terrorist Hizbollah forces re-arm to a far greater strength than was the case before the last Lebanon War in 2006? 

On top of the Hizbollah situation in the north, with Gaza in the south now on the verge of re-igniting, a growing appetite for confrontation coming from the West Bank, Syria and Iran making inflammatory statements, some Israeli Arab leaders talking of an uprising and the US diplomatic line failing to bear fruit, the signs all point to a major armed conflict in the region, most probably within the next 3-6 months.

These are difficult and dangerous times here in the Middle East. Israel has a right to defend herself and to use reasonable force to do so. Israel has the right to exist in this historic, but much troubled region. But Israel must not alienate the few friends that remain by using flawed military tactics and initiating amateurish commando missions. 

The Gaza flotilla debacle might pass without an immediate conflict being lit by this particular touch paper, but it is merely a matter of time before another incident, most likely of far more serious proportions comes along and Israel and its neighbours face each other once again at the point of a gun.