The Flotilla Farce

AP Photo/Leo Correa

The latest Gaza flotilla was a propaganda bonanza for the pro-Hamas crowd. 

The reason? European elites are looking for excuses to bow to pressure from radicals in their own population, and many have become willing participants in hoaxes that make Israel look bad and the radicals in the flotilla—many of whom are directly associated with Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations—look like victims of Israeli abuse. 

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The flotilla's strategy was simple: put on a performance where fake "humanitarians" make a show of breaking Israel's blockade on Gaza, claiming to bring vital supplies to a starving population. 

It's a farce. The war in Gaza is, for all intents and purposes, over. Nobody is starving, luxury bars and restaurants are open and thriving, and in most parts of Gaza, life is back to normal. There was never a genocide, and most civilians had evacuated the areas where fighting took place. Where they hadn't, Hamas had prevented it. 

The blockade exists for a simple reason: to prevent the flow of weapons into the Gaza Strip. Food and supplies flow into Gaza just fine. 

As has been documented extensively, the flotilla was a big party/sex cruise for the participants until they arrived at their destination. 

Israel stopped the flotilla, arrested the participants, and expelled them. 

Several European countries condemned the Israelis for mistreating the participants, based solely on the "testimony" of the propagandists. They loudly condemned Israel as barbaric after tales of rapes and beatings were spread. 

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Scumbag "journalists" like Nick Kristof, of "dog rape" fame, promoted these accusations, and European governments took the bait because they find it convenient to do so. 

These pictures are within a few hours. Several of the terror-supporting activists were on video walking out of Israeli custody in perfect shape, then pretending to be severely injured for cameras a few hours later, and then at the airport coming home being perfectly fine again. They simultaneously released a statement claiming severe abuse and other absurd charges. 

They have learned this behavior because they know it gets rewarded. They know the mere accusation will get promoted by New York Times writers like Kristof and others regardless if it is true.

The German woman who was one of the flotilla activists who were deported by Israel, as she is being interviewed at the airport in Istanbul on a stretcher with a neck brace after "being beaten every day in prison in Israel," appears a few hours later, at the airport in Germany.... a miracle, or fake assery liars ?

As I wrote the other day, every charge leveled against the Israelis in this case is obviously false. While I have no doubt that abuses take place in Israeli prisons, as they do in every single prison in the world, the possibility that Israel would allow anything to happen to these world-famous propagandists is zero. They were under a microscope. 

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But none of that mattered, as you can see with the Pallywood performance of the flotilla-types. One moment fine, the next on death's door, and the next celebrating victory in the propaganda war. 

There are plenty of people who WANT to be fooled, mainly because it is much easier to give in to the protesters' antics and demands than to confront them. They are like the parents of spoiled brats who indulge their children and give in to tantrums; "gentle parenting," it's called, rather than what it is: failed parenting.

It's the same instinct that has leaders kneeling at George Floyd protests: perform acts of obeisance to appease the unappeasable. 

Just as "gentle parenting" doesn't work, appeasing extremists only encourages more aggressive tactics. Which, in most of the West, leads to even more appeasement. We reward low-level terrorism, and our Pravda Media elevates them to hero status. 

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These tactics have proven to work, despite the fact that they are always transparent and often actively revolting to anybody with an active conscience. Tearing down the posters of hostages? You would think that would repel enough people that sympathy for the cause would collapse. 

But it doesn't, because people don't want to confront evil, so they give in to it instead. That's how and why the antisemitism that used to be suppressed is now so normal that dehumanizing any jew is considered normal, no matter how far removed from Israel the person is. 

I see it all the time; people justifying the Jew hate because the alternative is confronting evil. It is easier to hate a 14-year-old girl than admit that the people who hate her need to be fought. 

This is the same psychology that gets ordinary people to side with the soft-terrorist tactics of the anti-ICE rioters. They find it easier to defend people who stand between rapists and pedophiles being deported than to stand up for ICE, subjecting themselves to the same terrorist tactics the "activists" are using against law enforcement. 

With the flotilla activists, though, the funniest thing happened: they got so rowdy in Spain—in the Basque territories, which apparently aren't quite so soft as Madrid—that the police beat the crap out of them. 

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That is how normal cops should act when being pushed around by people breaking the law, but as you can imagine, the liberals in Spain are acting just like the liberals in the US acted when ICE officers acted to defend themselves. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry trolled Spain, as they should have, about how they abused the flotilla activists. After all, the Spanish government took the word of the flotilla folks about how abused they were in Israeli custody—about which they had zero evidence. But when the flotilla activists acted up in Bilbao, they got pummeled. 

The Chargé d’Affaires of the Spanish Embassy in Israel was summoned today for a clarification meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following severe acts of violence by the Spanish authorities against the flotilla provocateurs

At the instruction of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, the Political Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yossi Amrani, summoned today, 24 May 2026, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Spanish Embassy in Israel, Francisca Pedrós, for a clarification meeting following the publication of videos and images showing severe acts of violence by the Spanish authorities against the flotilla provocateurs.

The Political Director pointed to the hypocrisy of the Spanish government, which sends its provocateurs to Israel and then condemns Israel for its lawful actions to enforce a legal naval blockade - while at the same time Spanish authorities employed severe violence against those same flotilla participants. The Political Director demanded an explanation as to why, nearly 24 hours after the serious acts of violence committed by the Spanish authorities, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez or any of his ministers have still not seen fit to condemn the Spanish authorities’ violence, while they are always quick to condemn Israel on any pretext whatsoever.

The Political Director clarified that the Spanish authorities had to deal only with provocations carried out by some of the flotilla participants against Israel - whereas Israel faced far more serious provocations by many hundreds of flotilla participants during each of the last six flotillas - and yet the Spanish authorities resorted to severe violence that was not employed by Israel.

The Political Director demanded explanations from the Chargé d’Affaires as to why the Spanish government has thus far taken no action regarding flotilla activist and Spanish citizen Saif Abu Kashk, who has ties to Hamas and on whom U.S. sanctions were also imposed last week.

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Personally, I think the Spanish government should be taken to The Hague and prosecuted. 

But of course, the reality is that the flotilla folks got what they wanted, and they did so because Western governments have decided that giving them what they want is easier than standing up for reality and against soft-terrorism. 

ICE activists are back at it here in America, and I expect this to be a long, hot summer with lots of political violence. The left will latch onto it as proof that our society is fundamentally evil, and urge us to let the soft-terrorists have what they want. 

Decline is choice, and our societies are making it. 

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David Strom 3:30 PM | May 25, 2026
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