Don't jump gun on Libyan ship, ministry tells military

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The Foreign Ministry advised the defense establishment yesterday to wait until the Libyan aid ship reportedly headed for Gaza approaches or enters the coastal strip's territorial waters before making any attempt to stop it. The ministry made the recommendation to avoid the risk of breaking international law.

The Foreign Ministry made the same recommendation over the previous flotilla from Turkey, but was not heeded.

The recommendation, which was written by the Foreign Ministry's legal department and distributed to the defense establishment and the Prime Minister's Bureau yesterday, said that the ship's documentation indicates it is headed for El-Arish, Egypt, and not Gaza, and so it cannot be determined whether the vessel intends to break the naval blockade.

The ministry advised that unofficial statements by the ship's crew indicating that they do intend to reach Gaza might not be legally sufficient to justify stopping the ship at sea.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/don-t-jump-gun-on-libyan-ship-ministry-tells-military-1.301561

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1. Doesn't matter

If they take any action to stop the ship, no matter how legal that may be, they'll be heavily criticized for it by the international community. The only acceptable response is to let the ship go, and deliver whatever they darn well please to Gaza.

Last time, when the flotilla was stopped at sea, five ships were stopped without incident. On the sixth, when the people on board attacked the Israelis and were fired upon, Israel received heavy criticism for attacking people who were attacking it.

This doesn't mean I like what Israel is doing. I am by no means an expert on Israel and its occupation of Gaza, so I cannot condemn or condone it, and I do think that much of the time they use heavy handed tactics. But the world at large has already made up their mind and will continue to criticize Israel regardless.