"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?
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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.
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