An Israeli’s Perspective on Gaza Flotillas
Deaglán de Bréadún
Being the German Correspondent of an Israeli newspaper must be an interesting experience but it was a different subject that engaged the attention of Eldad Beck from the daily Yedioth Ahr0noth when he spoke in Dublin this morning.
We don’t tend to get too many Israeli public figures visiting our shores. A former ambassador explained to me once that the prospect of demonstrations was an offputting factor and he delivered himself of the immortal line: “You have a lot of do-gooders in Ireland.”
I take no responsibility for Beck’s views which are bound to arouse the ire of some who read this blog. He was very critical of the Irish and the Turks for their role in organising flotillas to Gaza.
Readers will recall the tragic results when Israel forces landed on a Turkish vessel on its way to Gaza some time back. The occasion was organised by the Israeli Embassy and the topic was “Revolution and Peace in the Middle East”. Here are Beck’s remarks on the flotilla controversy:-
“The Turkish Government was considered to be one of our best allies in the area for decades and they are sending this ridiculous flotilla to provoke the Israeli authorities.
“You are not getting enough information about the [living] standards in Gaza. Most of you, living here and not knowing what is happening in Gaza, you are living on misconceptions of the way people live there.
“Because if indeed people were dying of hunger in the Gaza Strip, we would have known that. Nobody has died of hunger until now.
“So what is the need to organise these stupid flotillas, unless people really want to create conflict, including Irish radical groups?
“There is no need: they [the people of Gaza] get whatever they need, through the Egyptian frontier, through the Israeli borders, everything is there, through the tunnels that they have built under the Egyptian [border], everything is there.”
Beck condemned what he called “this hysterical attitude”, which he attributed to “people who just want to get attention and they know that they would get attention if they would create conflicts”.
“And this is exactly what we see with the Hamas, they are suffering from the fact that they are not in the centre of international attention and they are trying to get there by provoking the Israeli [authorities] to react.
“All of these groups organising flotillas from Turkey to Ireland are doing exactly the same.”
Over to you (no trolls please):-
