Just diving

Arnold/Frimet Roth
This Ongoing War: A Blog
07 June '10

We haven't checked but the Melbourne Age is almost certainly not the only news medium that keeps spinning the report of Israel eliminating several Palestinian terrorists this morning as if it were about some innocent recreational skindivers getting unfairly caught up in the uncontrolled rage of a badly behaved neighourhood bully.

The Age article itself, written by Jerusalem-based Jason Koutsoukis, is basically accurate:

"THE naval commando unit involved in last week's bloody showdown with a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last night shot dead four Gaza militants it claimed were trying to slip into Israel by sea to mount a terror attack... An Israel Defence Forces statement said the latest attack occurred before dawn in waters near the centre of the Gaza Strip. "An Israel Navy force in the area of Nuseirat identified a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to perpetrate a terrorist attack,'' the statement said. ''The force fired and hit the terrorists.'' Israeli military sources said it was unclear what the men were planning to do, but intelligence indicated that the men had been working on an attack from the sea ''for quite a while''. An unnamed military official later told Israel Army radio that the attack was a morale boost for the elite Shayetet (Flotilla) 13 unit involved in last week's disastrous interception of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara. 'This will be a shot in the arm for the commandos after the hard week they have been through,'' the official said. Palestinian news agencies reported that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed wing of the Fatah movement, had confirmed that four members had been killed, with a fifth person missing. Al-Aqsa Brigades spokesman Abu al-Walid Jabri said the gunmen were on a training exercise near the Gaza coast when Israeli navy boats opened fire without warning."

As we said, Jason seems to have it down pretty right.

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Analysis: Gaza aid deaths: how could it happen?

Anshel Pfeffer
The Jewish Chronicle
31 May '10

Flotilla 13, the IDF's naval commandos, were the toast of Israel's military - until yesterday. The recipients of a rare citation for the entire unit from Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, only last month, the "Shayetet" are credited with numerous secret missions far away from the country's shores. According to the non-Israeli press, these missions included interdiction of ships bearing arms from Iran to Israel's enemies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

So how were they humiliated by a bunch of club-wielding Turks and literally forced to use live-fire, causing nine deaths and an international crisis of unforeseeable dimensions?

The simple answer was that they were unprepared for the level of violence used by a small group in a contingent that claimed to be peace-seeking. They went into battle holding paintball guns designed for situations of minimal confrontation, harmless stun-grenades and their hand-guns holstered. After 40 minutes of hand-to-hand combat, their commander felt that after one officer had been stabbed, two more knocked and kicked senseless and a third thrown off the deck by a crazed mob, his men's lives were at risk if they didn't use firepower. Only then did he give the order to shoot.

But that is an insufficient excuse. The reality is that despite its much-vaunted intelligence capabilities and the most advanced aerial drones and surveillance systems in the world, the IDF failed to detect the fact that the group standing on the Turkish ferry's top-deck were equipped with an arsenal of metal clubs, catapults, flick-knives and Molotov cocktails and what's more, they were prepared to used them to kill.

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A brutal ambush at sea

Ron Ben Yishai recounts bloody clash aboard Gaza-bound vessel: The lacking crowd-dispersal means, the brutal violence of ‘peace activists,’ and the attempt to bring down an IDF helicopter


Ron Ben-Yishai
Israel News/Ynet
31 May '10

Our Navy commandoes fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members. A few minutes before the takeover attempt aboard the Marmara got underway, the operation commander was told that 20 people were waiting on the deck where a helicopter was to deploy the first team of the elite Flotilla 13 unit. The original plan was to disembark on the top deck, and from there rush to the vessel’s bridge and order the Marmara’s captain to stop.

Officials estimated that passengers will show slight resistance, and possibly minor violence; for that reason, the operation’s commander decided to bring the helicopter directly above the top deck. The first rope that soldiers used in order to descend down to the ship was wrested away by activists, most of them Turks, and tied to an antenna with the hopes of bringing the chopper down. However, Flotilla 13 fighters decided to carry on.



Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.

However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.

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Nice Guys Finish Last

Noah Pollak
Contentions/Commentary
31 May '10

To my mind, the most astonishing thing about the flotilla disaster is that the IDF sent its elite naval commandos into a highly charged potential combat situation that was being closely scrutinized by the world media — armed with paintball guns.

The intent, of course, was to show that Israel wished to avert escalating the confrontation and merely sought to bring the ships to port, transfer their cargo to Gaza, send the “peace activists” home, and bring this mini-drama to a close. But the results were catastrophic.

Instead of proving Israel’s good intentions, the commandos found themselves unable to take control of the terrorist blockade runners, who knew, of course, that any bloodshed and violence that followed the Israeli boarding party would be laid at the feet of the Israelis. Armed with the proper equipment, the naval commandos could have done precisely what they are trained to do — take command of a ship decisively and with great speed. This can only be done when the men boarding the ship are able to immediately neutralize their opponents and establish complete control.

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