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At the time this column was being written, on the evening of June 2, the popular news aggregator Google showed close to 18,000 items on Israel's May 31 military operation to prevent a flotilla from breaking its naval blockade of Gaza.

 

Google’s compilation of reports from around the globe on this operation exceeded by far the attention devoted to any other event or even combination of events. If anything, the number of items concerning Israel only seemed to grow by the hour.  The appetite for this story appeared to be insatiable.  And the mood was overwhelmingly negative – highly critical of Israel for daring to intercept, in international waters, ships on a "humanitarian" mission, and for killing nine activists aboard one ship who "resisted" the seizure.

 

Indeed, more than any other factor, the tragic deaths of these civilians sparked an immediate visceral reaction against Israel that all but obliterated Israel's legitimate case for having undertaken the operation in the first place.  

 

There were, of course, exceptions to this pattern of coverage.  For instance, the National Post's May 31 editorial placed Israel's interception in the context of the international embargo to stop weapons from entering Hamas-run Gaza. The Post was faithful in presenting the basic facts that many have glossed over: that members of the flotilla swarmed and violently attacked Israeli commandos, and represented an organization, the IHH, with established ties to Islamic extremists.  
However, as the Post wrote: "For most of the world, of course, these facts won’t matter: 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.”

 

Though critical of Israel's actions as a “disproportionate” reaction to the provocation the flotilla presented, the Globe and Mail's June 1 editorial implied that Israel fell into a trap that provided "a propaganda victory for Israel’s enemies, [and] has made the country vulnerable to international condemnation."  Yet the Globe failed to note the irony that the international condemnation (which indeed came fast and furiously) was itself grossly disproportionate to Israel's actions.

 

As Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, observed (The Daily Beast, May 31): “Well, where was all that international outrage and demand for explanations and retribution when the North Koreans sunk a South Korean ship? Where was it when the Gazans attacked Israel?… This international outrage is highly selective, isn't it?”

 

On the issue of the blockade itself, there is a widespread and persistent impression that Gaza is under total siege and closure. Even the Globe's editorial, while accurately noting that this is imposed by both Israel and Egypt, claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu "will now need to explain to the international community why the Israeli military was preventing basic food supplies [carried on the ships] from reaching Gaza’s people."  

 

In fact, Israel repeatedly offered to allow the ships to dock at its port in Ashdod, from where the food supplies would be transported by truck to border crossings at the Gaza Strip.  The flotilla organizers, however, rejected that offer out of hand even brazenly declaring their real aim all along – to create a confrontation with the Israeli navy in order to "break" the blockade. Still, despite the flotilla’s provocation, Israel fulfilled its pledge once the ships were brought into port, delivering the ship’s cargo to the Gaza crossing after inspection. However, as of this writing, Hamas has refused permission for transfer into the Gaza Strip.

 

Then again, as Israeli authorities explained, the ships' humanitarian supplies were not needed since, on a weekly basis, Israel provides about 15 tons of food and medicine to the people of Gaza. And that's in addition to all the supplies (including not just food but also arms and rockets) being smuggled into Gaza through hundreds of tunnels at the Gaza-Egypt border.  This is not meant to minimize the difficulties many people in Gaza face on a daily basis, but surely the responsibility rests with an extremist regime far more committed to Israel's destruction than it is to ensuring the well-being of its own population.