Knives, batons and attempted lynchings. Don't you just love 'peace activists'?

 

by Douglas Murray

Looking at the papers, I’m still trying to work out why the media seem to think the attempted lynching of Israeli military personnel is the behaviour of “peace activists”. As Haaretz reports:

From the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Captain R. said that every commando who entered the ship was met by a number of activists who charged at the soldiers and attacked them. At least 75 percent of the activists took part in what the soldiers later described as a “lynch.”

“I was the second to be lowered in by rope,” said Captain R. “My comrade who had already been dropped in was surrounded by a bunch of people. It started off as a one-on-one fight, but then more and more people started jumping us. I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who were armed with knives and batons.”

The captain said that he was first forced to cock his gun and shoot once when one of the activists came toward him with a knife.

“At that point, another twenty people starting coming at me from every direction,” said Captain R. “They jumped at me and hurled me to the deck below the bridge. Then I felt a stabbing in my stomach – it was a knife. I pulled it our and somehow managed to get to the lower level. There, was another mob of people.”

The unit had seized control of the ship by that point, save for the lower-most level. “Another soldier and I managed to get out of there and jump into the water.”

The commandos had been well-prepared for the mission, said the captain, and had taken into account that the activists might respond with violence. “We thought it would be passive resistance, maybe verbal, but not at such strength,” he said.

Despite the tragic results, the captain said he felt his soldiers had operated in a justified fashion. “We worked in an outstanding way, with the values that were instilled in us,” he said. “We only turned our weapons against those who put us in danger.”

Now. Why would people on board a “peace mission” behave like this? Surely it couldn’t be because of the involvement of, among others, the Turkish IHH? Or the fact that the whole thing is a Hamas stunt.

Watching the British commentariat condemning instead of congratulating Israel for stopping the opening of a new gun-running route into Gaza is weird. What’s not to like? It’s not as though these knife-wielding Hamas goons weren’t given warning that this isn’t the way to get legitimate aid to the people of Gaza. Besides, some of them seemed really hot for “martyrdom“.

Those on the “flotilla” who weren’t eager to go all the way should be glad it wasn’t the French navy they were up against. Or they would be at the bottom of the ocean by now.

Enough will be written about the double-standards of all this. I would just add the following.

The reaction to this incident demonstrates once again that many people in Britain just cannot see that Israel’s enemies are our enemies. Not because we want it that way. But because our enemies want it that way. Much of the British commentariat seem desperate to pretend it isn’t so, because they wish it wasn’t so.

As they continue trying to wish the uncomfortable facts away I do wish they’d listen to the Egyptian Yemen-based cleric Wagdi Ghoneim. Wagdi’s not always been a favourite of mine. But yesterday, on Al-Jazeera, he explained: “Hamas is fighting America, Europe and all the crusader West.”

Exactly. Which is why we should be thankful to Israel for fighting for all of us.

 

 

Douglas Murray

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