International peace schlamazels

Later this month, yet another futile attempt by propagandists to "break the Israeli blockade" will be made, this time aboard the "Rachel Corrie."


Lenny Ben-David
Op-Ed/JPost
15 May '10

Toward the end of the month, a naval invasion will be attempted near the Mediterranean coast. A ragtag armada of rust buckets loaded with international “peace” activists from the US, Europe and Turkey will try to “run the Israeli blockade” and dock the ships in the tiny Gaza port.

The navy announced on May 10 that the boats will be blocked.

This attempt will be the latest of a series of schlamazel [Yiddish for one who is always getting the soup spilled on him by the schlemiel (the one who spills the soup)] Palestinian propaganda efforts to reenact the Jewish campaign of the 1940s to bring survivors of the Nazi camps past the British blockade.

Like the Jews’ famous Exodus of 1948, the Palestinians even name a flagship to lead the convoy. In 1988, the Sol Phryne ferry was purchased in Cyprus and renamed the Awda – the Return – in dedication to the Palestinians’ insistence on returning to Israel. That ship almost sank in a Cyprus port when a mysterious explosion blew a hole in the bow, seriously damaging it. At the time, Israeli-Arab affairs analyst Ehud Ya’ari wrote, “By sabotaging the ship before it ever weighed anchor, Israel turned what was meant to be a dazzling media extravaganza into a public relations fiasco for the PLO.”

In 2007 and 2008 other international aid ships were blocked by the navy. In January 2009, the Iranian aid ship Iran Shahed was intercepted, just as tons of Iranian arms shipments destined for Hamas or Hizbullah were intercepted.

In December 2009, international activists suffered their worst PR disaster. Organized under the aegis of the anarchist Code Pink group, they attempted to stage a “freedom march” with a convoy of trucks from Egypt to Gaza. But the Egyptian government refused to permit their transit, and in an embarrassing fiasco, the activists ended up holding protests and demonstrations in Cairo where they clashed with Egyptian riot police.

But they did achieve one historical, monumental fete: They boasted that they floated 1,400 candles down the Nile River in memory of the Palestinians who died in the Israel-Hamas war the year before. Of course, the activists made sure that the candles were in biodegradable cups. Really. Truly, a kumbaya moment.

(Read full article)

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