Ship of fools // By Ben Frankel

ago, the other more recent:

In 1988, 131 members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who had been deported from the Palestinian Territories following the outbreak of the first intifada, intended to set sail to Gaza from Limassol, Cyprus. Their boat, called Al Awda (the Ship of the Return), was accompanied by 200 journalists.

Publicly, Israel announced that it would use any force necessary to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza. Behind the scenes, though, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff, including then Deputy Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, recognized that while seizing control of the ship or blowing it out of the water were not operationally complicated, the international repercussions of such plans would be grim if the Israelis were met with resistance and a battle ensued.

For this reason, the idea of a direct confrontation was abandoned, and the IDF decided to implement a covert operation instead. On 15 February, hours before it was due to set sail, the empty ship was blown up in Limassol harbor by a team of Mossad agents and frogmen from Shayete 13 (the Israeli equivalent of Navy Seals). The team was led by Yoav Galant, then a young officer and today a major general in the IDF. The operation was a success. There were no casualties on either side and the PLO gave up on the idea of sailing to Gaza.

More recently, in August 2006, two ships carrying peace activists and food aid set out to Gaza, again from Cyprus. Under instructions from then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the vessels were boarded at sea without resistance. After a search uncovered no weapons, the ships were permitted to continue on toward the Strip. The Israeli naval forces went home, Hamas declared victory, and that was that.

Creativity and guile, strategic determination coupled with tactical flexibility, non-doctrinal, case-by-case approach: This is the way to do it.

5. Advise to the UN: Save money and effort

There is now talk of an investigative committee, run by the UN, to look into the events earlier this week. Here is an idea which will save a lot of money and effort. Since this will be a UN-run committee, we know two things for certain: the facts of the case will not matter, and the result will be a harsh condemnation of Israel (for a recent example, see the Goldstone Report, which was the result of a similar UN-led effort to investigate Cast