In so many ways, the Gaza flotilla is a fitting metaphor for the defining madness of our times. First, theres the sheer absurdity of it. Its supposedly an attempt to draw attention to the "siege" of Gaza by Israel and bring humanitarian relief. But there is no siege. Israel allows in regular supplies, and Egypt recently opened its own border. So, just like the Palestinian cause itself, the whole basis for the flotilla is a lie. And even some of the organizers admit that they will not be transporting anything of practical use. Instead, they will apparently be carrying letters of support to the people of Gaza. This proves that the flotilla is merely a stunt another act in the Palestinian theater of the surreal which plays Western audiences for suckers. Second, the flotilla embodies that poisonous combination of self-obsessed preening and profound ignorance among Western Israel-bashers, whose overriding aim is to advertise their own importance as world-class bleeding-hearts. But with whom are they expressing solidarity? With those whose aim is to exterminate Israel and every Jew in the world the agenda of the Islamists among the flotilla organisers and of the Gaza regime itself. Third, the flotilla demonstrates once again that Israel is under attack on two fronts -- military and psychological. And the latter is arguably the more lethal, because it is successfully manipulating world opinion. It does so not merely through propaganda but through highly theatrical stunts like this, designed to trap Israel into blackening its own image. For the flotilla strategy is to provoke Israel into violence against it so that those on board can pose as martyrs. The challenge for Israel is how to deal with this. Some argue that Israel should ignore the flotilla on the basis that it must not walk into the trap. But the problem is that the flotilla is not merely a stunt. It also poses an actual military threat. Whatever any individual boat may or may not be carrying, Israel cannot allow a maritime supply line to be established for smuggling weapons into Gaza by sea. Israel is not facing mere ships of fools. The organisers of the flotilla include Hamas and other Islamist terror groups committed to the destruction of Israel. To add to the difficulty, certain media organisations have now crossed a crucial line by putting their journalists on board the flotilla. By doing so, they have become openly active participants in the war against Israel. In the immediate term, maybe Israel will handle this second flotilla crisis well; maybe it will not. Reports of the boats being sabotaged are encouraging; other reports of a total absence of any media strategy are deeply alarming. But nothing will prevent the impression in the West upon which the flotilla is capitalizing -- that a helpless people in Gaza is being trampled under the Israeli military boot -- unless Israel changes its entire strategy. This should be transformed from defensive hasbara to aggressively telling the West a series of home truths about itself. The reason the first flotilla turned into a public relations disaster was that Israel allowed it to do so. When ,for example, the British government condemned the Israel Defense Forces for "attacking" the Turkish terrorist boat the Mavi Marmara, Israel should have accused Britain of supporting terrorism. At a deeper level, Israel must change the global narrative of helpless Palestinians versus an aggressive Israel bristling with weapons. The way to do this is not to stress Israels own vulnerability. Thats playing defense and will not be believed. The only way is to turn the words of Western liberals into boomerangs. They attack Israel with the language of anti-racism and human rights. But Israel should be accusing them of supporting Palestinian racism, ethnic cleansing and genocide, as well as the brutal abuses of other Palestinians such as women and gays. What Israel has to understand is that what motivates British and other Western Israel-bashers is vanity. Defending Israel against such people can only work if it destroys their reputation and shows that they are in fact allying with racist ethnic cleansers and genocidal fanatics. The flotilla is merely the latest salvo on the battleground of the mind on which Israel still fails to understand that it is being forced to fight.
