10:26 p.m: Now that the dust is starting to settle, here's the casualty count from the IDF Spokesperson's Blog:
7 soldiers wounded
9 activists dead
The deaths are regrettable, but what happened today can't be called massacre by any stretch of the imagination. It won't mitigate calls for an inquiry though. I'll let Robin Shepherd explain why:
But why call for an investigation if you’ve already drawn your conclusion that the use of force was excessive?
9:35 p.m: Jonathan Kay (via Martin Kramer) on WWNKD (what would North Korea do):
If Israel truly had wanted to “massacre” the Hamas sympathizers and fellow travellers aboard a six-ship Gaza-bound flotilla, the operation would not have been complicated. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would have used the trusty North Korean solution: Torpedo the ships and watch them sink to the bottom of the sea. That’s certainly what Hamas would have done to a boatload of Jews, if it got the chance . . .
Like the bogus Jenin massacre, this episode will be used as just another stick to beat the Jewish state — even by those same pundits and activists who can’t be roused to say a single word when genuine “massacres” unfold in other parts of the world, such as the slaughter of more than 90 members of the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan. On sea, as on land, this is the double-standard that Israel always must battle when it acts to defend itself against terrorists and their media-savvy enablers.
9:28 p.m: Clothes make the man. David Hazony writes:
A good friend of mine is a nurse who was on duty in the emergency room at a Jerusalem hospital when some of the injured “activists” were brought in. She tells me that many of them are wearing camouflage. “Not sure they were official Turkish army clothes,” she says, “but they weren’t civilian dress, that’s for sure.”
9:13 p.m: Does this AFP caption from the NY Times front page prove that politics makes for strange bedfellows? Who knew there was any disparity of views between anti-Israel demonstrators and Iranian police?
9:01 p.m: Back after dinner and bedtime with the kids. I see Israel's statement to the UN Security Council is on the Washington Post web site (pdf format).
6:14 p.m: My prediction for the unfolding media battle: UK papers to lynch Israel anyway. Worth watching is how the Israeli intercept plays out in North American op-eds over the week. Everyone's coming back from Memorial Day weekend preoccupied by the latest from the Gulf oil spill.
5:57 p.m: The Channel 2 video that originally started this post is now on YouTube for your embedding-sharing-posting pleasure. Credit Elder of Ziyon for uploading.
5:37 p.m: Bibi's White House meeting cancelled.
5:20 p.m: I agree with Stephanie Gutmann on the affair being "win-win" for Hamas:
Over the last few years, Hamas, controller of the Gaza strip, has increasingly discovered the joys and cost efficiencies of media war. If you’re lucky, a rocket fired from the Strip kills one or two Israeli civilians. Meanwhile a well-timed Al Jazeera or BBC videotape of Israeli military “atrocities” goes around the world. Increasingly Hamas and its international supporters have attempted to engineer such atrocity tapes; civilian lives are considered a small price to pay.
5:09 p.m: I'll just continue updating this post in reverse chronological order. I didn't plan to live-blog today, but one post with everything makes the most sense. The IDF posted this video filmed from a helicopter hovering over the Mavi Marmara.
Commandos also recounted what happened to YNet News.
3:52 p.m: Israel's Channel 2 has footage of Gaza "peace activists" attacking soldiers with knives and crowbars aboard the Mavi Marmara.
To better understand the video, the Free Gaza people are the ones in the orange life vests.
