Keep in mind that the commandos had been ordered not to use their handguns without prior permission, something that’s coming in for more than a little criticism right now since four of them are in the hospital. Here are the “humanitarian activists” that the international community is currently wringing its hands over:
For completion’s sake, here’s CAMERA dinging this morning’s deliberately obtuse NYT article by Isabel Kershner. The article parroted the leftist meme of the moment – trotted out by the head of the Turkish Grand National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Commission – that Israel had no right to intercept the Flotilla on the high seas:
Kershner also reports without clarification the Turkish claim that Israel’s forcible boarding of the ships was a violation of international law: “Israel launched this operation in international waters and to a ship flagged white, which is unacceptable under any clause of the international law,” the head of the Turkish Grand National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Commission, Murat Mercan, said on the Turkish station NTV. Yet, according to the San Remo Manual, it is permissible under rule 67(a) to attack neutral vessels on the high seas when the vessels “are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture.”
So the question is, did Israel have a reasonable basis for believing that the ship would attempt to call on Gaza? Check out the very end of this tape:
This is black letter law. Israel has a right to interdict the vessels if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they intend to breach the blockade. The vessel captains announced that they intended to breach the blockade. Anyone who implies otherwise isn’t so much disagreeing as much as making things up.
References:
* A brutal ambush at sea [YNet]
* NY Times Misses the Boat on Israeli Warnings [CAMERA]
* So A Bunch Of Stoners, Some Hamas Thugs, And Two Well-Armed Antisemites Float Into A Blockade… [Mere Rhetoric]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Palestinians
* Law
* Diplomacy
