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Terrorism from page 32

Were there alternatives Israel
might have pursued in dealing
with the Gaza flotilla? Did Israel
have the right intelligence and
expectations about what it would
encounter? Why was an elite
Israeli force unable to subdue the
vessel without real fire?
In an interesting article pub-
lished before all this happened
about the naval force gathered in
Haifa to intercept the flotilla, naval
sources were overconfident they
could deal with the matter without
giving the enemy a propoganda
victory. "This is a relatively simple
mission, the likes of which we have
carried out a number of times in
the past, even against armed ter-
rorists," a Navy source boasted.
The naval source emphasized:
"Experience shows that a large
number of forces diminishes the
volume of violence needed to carry
out the mission. The mission is
relatively simple and we are aware
that the other side will try to make
us look bad. We will show restraint
and not respond to provocations,
we will do only what is necessary to
carry out the mission, no more, but
no less either."
Do we have here a triumph of
unintended consequences? Did
the act of showing restraint and of
both overestimating the mission's
ease and underestimating the
activists' response create a dynam-
ic that contributed to catastrophe?
Now voices in Israel and outside
are calling for an investigation.
Who decided, and what analysis
considered the consequences of
using live fire in a confrontation?
Was there sufficient concern about
propaganda damage from an
operational failure?
Was such an effort using force
the only alternative? Could the
flotilla have been blocked by alter-
native methods? Above all, was the
deployment of force in a way to
avoid force — that is, with non-
lethal weapons and pistols — the
best way?
These are not idle questions,
as the organizers of the flotilla
make plans to launch other ships
to break the Israeli blockade of
Gaza.

❑

Kenneth Waltzer is professor and
director of Jewish studies at Michigan
State University.

The

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June I() 2010

33