Paintball Anyone?

They sowed disinformation then...

"Warhaftig asked Dayan how they could present an Israeli first strike as a response, and wondered whether they could stage something. 'We need an alibi', said Minister Bentov. 'I haven't got any tricks other than taking action. If someone has some other trick, I'll buy it', replied Dayan... Alon thought that the prime minister could announce to the world's heads of state that the Egyptians had attacked, and minutes later Israel would respond. The prime minister would risk a lie, but only historians would know the truth. 'I don't think the Americans will dig around to check up on what exactly happened', Alon said. Eshkol pointed out that their actions would be judged by history. The resolution that involved asserted that Israel was acting against 'the ring of aggression tightening around it'." (1967: Israel, the War & the Year that Transformed the Middle East, Tom Segev, 2007, p 336)

"The night before the attack on Egypt Dayan had ordered the censor to maintain 'a fog of war' until the evening. 'For the first 24 hours we have to be the victims', he said." (ibid p 342)

... and they're sowing it now:

1967's ring of aggression is today's flotilla of aggression. The flotilla's peace activists are variously described as "militants"; a pack of "useful idiots" (led by the "violent Islamist" group IHH, "which has been implicated in terrorist operations already in the 90s and then at the beginning of this decade"); or "rioters." Which, of course, makes Israel's stormtroopers "riot police." (Yigal Palmor, Israeli Foreign Affairs Spokesman, The 7.30 Report, 31/5/10)

Now, according to Mr Palmor, this motley crew of militants/useful idiots/violent Islamist terrorists/rioters/whatever, despite innumerable Israeli warnings, persisted in their criminal intent to "break into Gaza by force," and so "chose confrontation" - which is precisely "what they were seeking" anyway - by attacking the "riot police" with "knives, hatchets, and guns." His regret is appropriately "deep," but hey, they were asking for it.

For Ron Ben Yishai of Israel's Ynet News it was an "ambush"! Those hapless Israeli defenders of law & order on the high seas, "Flotilla 13," "fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members" who were waiting for them on deck with "bats, clubs and slingshots." [Not, you'll note, Palmor's knives, hatchets and guns.] At first, we're told, the "rioters" sought to "bring down an IDF helicopter" by tying one of the abseiling riot policeman's ropes "to an antenna"! Then the 'rioters' beat each descending policeman, who were armed only with "paintball rifles," real bad! [Oh, OK, the policemen also had "handguns" but were told "they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations."] And you know what? Such was the steely discipline of the boys in blue that, even though they were having the stuffing knocked out of them, "they kept on shouting to each other 'don't shoot, don't shoot'." It was in fact only when one of these innocents was thrown from "the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below," or so the story goes, that they "ask[ed] for permission to use live fire." (A brutal ambush at sea, ynetnews.com, 31/5/10)

At which point, reported Ben Yishai, "The commander approved it: You can go ahead and fire. The soldiers pulled out their handguns and started shooting at the rioters' legs, a move that ultimately neutralized them. Meanwhile, the rioters started to fire back at the commandoes... using guns wrested away from troops." (ibid)

Did you spot the difference? Palmor's 'riot police' only opened fire when shot at, but Ben Yishai's shot first (with handguns), sparking a shootout with 'rioters' armed only with captured Israeli handguns.

I'm still scratching my head over all those 'riot police' with assault rifles in the film clip.