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Jack Cohen

Floptilla

After the flotilla and the flytilla, we have the “floptilla.” The enemies of Israel made another attempt at a publicity stunt designed to embarrass Israel, and once again they failed. Few managed to get as far as Ben Gurion airport, most were stopped in their countries of origin thru good Israeli intelligence. And most of those that did arrive here, who tried to carry out a demonstration by showing placards saying “this is Palestine,” were quickly ushered away to deportation back to where they came from. They found that it is in fact Israel.

To those who said “why not let them in, they are peaceful, they only want to go to Bethlehem” this is nonsense. They are our enemies and could do anything, you never know. It was reported that some of the activists are funded by Iranian-backed organizations. Anyway, why should we tolerate them, this is our sovereign country and they can go to hell. The official Israeli Governmentr letter supposedly handed to each one of them suggested that their “demonstration expertise” for human rights would be better spent in Syria, where the Government is viciously murdering thousands of its civilians or in Iran that is supporting terrorism world-wide. I add such places as Tibet, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq, but no they’d rather choose the only democracy in the Middle East where women and gays have equal rights and the press is free. Such is the twisted logic of their position. Overall it has was a successful response. There was no major disruption at Ben Gurion airport where ca. 50,000 Israelis returned home after the Passover holiday abroad.

Taking a larger view one is struck by the fact that the enemies of Israel are currently forced to attempt publicity stunts in order to draw attention to their cause and oppose Israel. Previously they tried war, terrorism, economic boycotts, missiles and diplomacy. None of these have worked. I suppose we should consider it a victory that we have left them little alternative but to try to attract media attention. Currently the Arab countries are in no position to threaten Israel. The only significant remaining threat is the nuclear one from Iran. That is currently being discussed by the “great powers” with Iran in Turkey. Few believe that such discussions can lead to any real breakthrough with Iran over their nuclear weapons program, so Israel may face one more military challenge before we can finally declare victory.

About the Author
Jack Cohen was born in London and has a PhD in Chemistry from Cambridge University. He moved to the US and worked at the National Cancer Inst. and then Georgetown Medical School. In 1996, he Moved to Israel and became Chief Scientist of the Sheba Medical Center. He retired in 2001 and worked as a Visiting Professor at Hebrew University Medical School for 5 years.