Israel Impounds Aid Ship

Some people just don't understand the concept of a blockade.

The Israeli navy on Thursday intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip and said it was towing the vessel into an Israeli port.

The ship set sail from the Lebanese port of Tripoli Tuesday in a bid to defy Israel's blockade of Gaza. Reporters from Arab TV stations Al-Jadeed and Al-Jazeera who were on the vessel said the Israelis fired at the ship before boarding it and beating those on board.

Organizers said a total of 18 people were on board. Among them was 86-year-old Greek Catholic priest Hillarion Capucci, who while serving as an archbishop in Jerusalem was convicted in 1974 by an Israeli court for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to Palestinian militants. The Syrian-born Capucci was jailed but released three years later at the intervention of the Vatican and deported.

The organizers said four journalists, a Muslim cleric and a lawyer — all Lebanese citizens — as well as a Palestinian Muslim cleric and a British activist were also on board. They had no information on the nationality of the nine crew members.

It will be interesting to determine if the Israeli's were actually "beating those on board" the ship, but somehow it seems odd to me that contact with the ship was lost and yet these types of details were learned. One does not seem to translate into the other.

Regardless, running a naval blockade might seem heroic, but the intent appears to be political more than humanitarian. Nobody praises the guy who runs a DWI police checkpoint, so why should we praise the folks who attempt to run a naval blockade?

I don't believe these folks would be dumb enough to actually be smuggling weapons mixed with the humanitarian supplies, although people do get caught trying to smuggle drugs onto airplanes in the US, so anything is possible.