Source: IDF
Monday, the IDF released a video of the weapons they found among the Gaza-bound flotilla. Among the things taken filmed are baseball bats, smoke torches, slingshots, hammers, and Molotov cocktails. Now, I can see carrying some of the things. The baseball bats were obviously to go to some Gazan kids, so they could play baseball. The knives (hunting knives says this story) might be useful for cutting their food. However, I fail to see what use a bunch of Molotov cocktails has, except as a device of destruction. The flotilla passengers seems to lose the argument that they’re only peaceful activists and humanitarians when that kind of thing is found.
Now, I am very surprised the video below has not gotten more play, especially from the pro-Israel blogosphere. You would think they’d be parading it as evidence of the violent intentions of the flotilla folks. I’ve been looking for it all night, and I simply can’t find it in many places. The story I linked above was my first tip-off that the video existed, but even they didn’t post it. I guess I’ll do my part in getting the word out for them. So here it is:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvS9PXZ3RWM[/youtube]
Disclaimer: This is from the official YouTube account of the IDF spokesperson, so take it with a grain of salt, I suppose.
The flip-side to all this is that Israel clearly didn’t find what they most feared: weapons caches that would be used in a sustained siege against their country. I’m talking about guns, grenade launchers, and that kind of thing. Most of what was found would only be useful at a close distance; the kind of thing, say, to be used against a regiment of boarding Israeli commandos. Only the Molotov cocktail has the ability to cause more damage than the rest, and that is what is most disturbing to me. It is the kind of thing they may have tried to throw at an Israeli boat that got too close.
It is for this reason that I stand by my position from yesterday of supporting the boarding of the flotilla. I remain open-minded, of course. As I say, this video is coming from an IDF-run YouTube channel. But I have seen enough now, both from official Israeli channels, and from accounts filmed by the likes of Al Jazeera, to know that at least some of the people aboard the flotilla were clearly not who they claimed to be. And that was good reason for the IDF to keep the boat from landing in Gaza.
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