June 7, 2010:  Within a week, it became clear that the May 30th battle between Islamic terrorists and Israeli commandoes on a Turkish ship trying to reach Gaza, was a set-up. The Islamic charity, IHH, that organized the six ship flotilla, has frequently been identified, over the last two decades, as a supporter of terrorist operations. Messages broadcast, by IHH terrorists on the ships, before May 30th, indicated that the objective was to trigger a lethal battle with the Israelis, and claim an unprovoked Israeli attack on peaceful demonstrators. The IHH operatives were quick to share their anti-Semitic, genocidal and suicidal goals. The mass media took the bait, and the story of Hamas the Police State, and decades of Palestinian propaganda (in Arabic, anyway, they tell you what you want to hear in other languages) calling for the destruction of Israel and expulsion of Jews from the Middle East, got ignored. Also ignored was the abundant Arabic discussion of how important Information War operations like this were, because it has proved impossible to defeat Israel with conventional military operations (major Arab defeats in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973) or terrorism (the Palestinian campaign against Israeli civilians, begun in 2000, but was defeated by 2005, something the Palestinians don't like to discuss.) A clearly stated Hamas objective is to amass a large stock of long range rockets, and other weapons, in Gaza, and use them for another major attack on Israel. Iran has been caught trying to ship these weapons in, and they are trickling in via smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile, the Gazans are suffering more from Hamas misrule than from the blockade (which allows food and other necessities in, but not anything that can be turned into a weapon.)

A recent opinion poll showed that 95 percent of Israelis agreed with how the government handled intercepting the Turkish blockade runners. The incident united Israelis as usually only happens in wartime. This is more in response to the growing success of the Arab Information War campaign to demonize Israel, and make the Arab plan to destroy Israel, and its Jewish inhabitants, generally acceptable, or at least ignorable.

June 6, 2010:  Turkey and Iran have offered to provide warships to escort another aid convoy for Gaza. This is pure posturing, as neither Turkey nor Iran could carry that out in the face of Israeli naval and air power. Moreover, the Turkish military is much more pro-Israel than the current Islamic government (which is using all this to divert attention from economic and corruption problems.)

June 5, 2010: The EU has offered to check ships headed for Hamas, for weapons and military material. Currently, Hamas is refusing to accept aid from the ships trying to break the blockade, because Israel intercepted those ships, thus tainting (as "stolen") the cargo. Israel will not allow a third country to check for contraband, noting how much corruption there was during the "Oil for Food" program in Iraq (sponsored by the UN, and some of the same countries now stepping forward) and other international efforts. For Israel, this is all about survival, for the nations lined up against Israel, it's all about scoring political points or diverting the attention of people living under the misrule of Moslem despots.

The Israeli Navy stopped another ship trying to run the Gaza blockade. There was no violence from the blockade runners this time.

Egypt ordered the opening of the Gaza border, at the Rafah crossing. But people were still checked going in or out (and less than a thousand people a day were allowed in, or out.) And bans on weapons and other military goods was maintained. Egypt sees Gaza as a threat because Hamas allows anti-Egyptian terrorists to use Gaza as a sanctuary.

Iran, which leads the effort to destroy Israel (and makes frequent public announcements to that fact) sees the May 30th incident off Gaza as an excellent diversion from efforts to move more missiles into Lebanon (for Hezbollah to use against Israel), and gather more European and Arab support to break the blockade of Gaza. Most Arab states fear Iran (historically, a real threat) more than Israel (mainly a threat to Arab pride). But pride and reality don't get along in this part of the world, and currently pride is winning. That will quickly change as Iran makes another move against an Arab state, something that is happening with increasing frequency these days.

Iran is also making nice with Turkey. This, historically, is an unnatural act. The Turks and Iranians have been arch-foes for over a thousand years. They have never made peace before, just ceasefires. The current phony peace ignores Iranian calls for Iran to replace Saudi Arabia as the guardian of Mecca and Medina, and for Iran to establish a new Caliphate (Turkey had held that largely empty title for centuries, but gave it up in 1924). The only thing the Turks and Iranians have in common is the rough way they treat their Kurdish minorities. Iran has a large (25 percent) Turkic minority, but these Azeris tend to be anti-Turkey and very Shia.