Abu Wabu

Via Gabriel Malor at AoSHQ:

Word filtered out last night that there had been casualties, including some deaths, on the pointless, Turkey-backed flotilla attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The "peace activists" had been warned that they must divert to Ashdod where the supplies they intended to deliver would be searched for weapons and then trucked to Gaza.

They refused, choosing to make a political statement (Ed.: some political statement!)rather than deliver much-needed food and medical supplies to Gaza. They got their wish. The IDF released this video (embedded below) of the so-called peace activists attacking IDF soldiers as they board one of the ships. They attacked with guns, knives, and improvised weapons.

According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel. Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.

The flotilla is now under IDF control and headed for Ashdod. The peace activists got their PR message, at the pointless cost of nine lives. The Gazans will eventually get their supplies anyay. The Israeli blockade will continue. And the Israelis will get another scolding from the "international community."

Un-uniformed terrorists armed with guns, knives, flash grenades, firebombs and other improvised weapons, and planning to lynch Israeli soldiers: "peace activists".

I gotta remember that one.

Allahpundit, with more info and more video:

Apparently Israel was either supposed to let the ships run the blockade, not knowing for sure who or what was on board, or instruct their troops to let the passengers crack their skulls open with lead pipes once they were on the deck in the interests of “dialogue” or something.

The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting as I write this, which is interesting since, to my knowledge, it has yet to meet to condemn the North Korean attack on that South Korean ship that’s had the far east inching towards a war footing for months.

Here's an excerpt from YNET News:

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.

Since rather than earning them Obama's proposed new Medal For Courageous Restraint Israel is going to be condemned world wide as if they had violently attacked a ship full of innocents rather than fighting off an ambush by a mob of illegal enemy combatants, perhaps next time they should be more judicious and just sink the bastards with proportional love. This was, after all, an act of war against Israel by Palestinian terrorists and their supporters, possibly sanctioned by Turkey and aided by Iran and perhaps others.

It's time Israel put down the paintball guns and got serious about ridding the world of these barbarians.

Power Line: At Least Ten Killed as "Peace Activists" Attack Soldiers:

The incident is being portrayed in the Arab press as an unprovoked attack by the soldiers. As usual, the flaw in this theory is that if the soldiers had set out to massacre the activists, they would have done a better job of it. Violence occurred on only one of the six ships, because only on that ship was it instigated by the pro-Palestinian activists. But that won't stop the incident from triggering another round of world-wide Israel-bashing.

More from Power Line: Useful idiots on parade; When paintballs weren't enough