Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Flottilla victory?

Rememvbering that he had considered the Israeli encounter with Hamas
over the Mavi Marmara an unqualified victory,
While The NY Times and others portray this as a loss for Israel, which
had to bow to world pressure, in reality this outcome would represent
a victory for Israel because the most important goal of the blockade
-- the inspection of all goods whether brought by land or sea to
prevent military supplies -- now has international legitimacy.
To the extent there were purely consumer goods which were barred, such
system was ineffective and senseless anyway, and Israel loses nothing
by loosening up.
The naval blockade is not affected, which is the key because it was by
sea that Iran was planning on supplying Hamas with more effective and
deadly military supplies. Such supplies cannot get through on land in
the quantities and size Hamas desires, although many smaller military
supplies do get through smuggling tunnels.
I e-mailed Professor Jacobson, that a news item yesterday confirmed
that aspect of his analysis.
If we'd known this would work out so well, maybe we would have lifted
the 'blockade' sooner. It seems that not everyone in Hamastan is
thrilled about Israel having lifted its 'blockade' of the Gaza Strip.
In fact, the Hamas rulers themselves may want the 'blockade' back.
Professor Jacobson was thrilled:
I am not someone who tries to keep track of how many of my predictions
have come true. That sort of gamesmanship by hindsight is beneath me.
And I don't try to settle scores with people who criticize me. That
would be petty.
So it brings me absolutely no joy to point out that I was right, and
Carl in Jerusalem was wrong, on the easing of the Israeli blockade of
Gaza.
I bring this up solely to continue recording an accurate history of
current events, not for any other purpose, and certainly not to gloat.
My intentions are pure.
Israel Matzav still argues that there are other considerations too.
From an economic perspective, Professor Jacobson may be correct. Hamas
may have been weakened. They are certainly going to lose some of their
previous profits on the tunnels, but that loss may be mitigated as
described below.
The main reason I argued that Israel was not the winner in the Turkish
flotilla crisis was that Israel got nothing in relation to Gilad
Shalit, and gave up its only leverage for Shalit's release by
weakening the 'blockade' in a way that ensures that the average
resident of Gaza has no incentive to advocate for Shalit's release.
That result still stands.
Even from an economic perspective, Hamas got a cool $50 million in
cash this week as a consolation prize for the Amalthea docking in El
Arish. Will they get that kind of prize every time Israel successfully
turns away a 'humanitarian aid' ship? If so, have we really won
economically? How long does it take Hamas to earn $50 million from the
tunnels?
I didn't mean to start this however there was also this article that
gave me some encouragement. It argues that in a number of ways the end
result of the flotilla incident, which was widely proclaimed a loss
for Israel, was actually a loss for Hamas.
http://soccerdad.baltiblogs.com/archives/2010/07/16/flotilla_victory_for_israel.html

 over the Mavi Marmara an unqualified victory,
il capo del Mossad si dovrà dimettere un anno prima di quanto
preventivato. Cento di queste vittorie, Pirro