One politician immediately comes to mind - Ehud Barak. First, because he accepted Turkish intelligence communicated to him & ignored contradictory evidence that was widely available. Second, because he listened to Obama who told him there should be no chance of violence which is why our soldiers walked into an ambush armed with paint-guns.

now you are blaming Obama? Come on- it was bad planning- and lack of communication- no excuses! IF you suspect terrorists- you go in prepared- send in soldiers armed with paint guns? A cover up?Sure to cover up incompetence. There was plenty of time to do it right- the whole world knew about the flotilla- Israel knew about the terrorists- or was it just fishing expedition?

of course to destroy evidence,

paint-ball guns; perhaps if they carried assault weapons, the body count of "activists" would have been much higher and several of the Israeli "commandos" would never have been overwhelmed and had their a$$es kicked.

Havn't you seen his postings here before? Useless brainwashed and i suspect Eilat did some damage which you not be able to repair Lisa.

"freedom flotilla" goes right back to Ehud Barak ... again. He is an Israeli disaster or, as previously posted, a "serial bungler". Keeping Barak on as Minister of Defence is ruining Netanyahu's governance. Better to drop him and risk an early election. What will Israel do, and not do, should a major challenge break out?

A couple of well placed torpedoes would have been the best idea, instead of putting at risk soldiers' life. Gaza is well furnished, if people is suffering down there, it's due to the dictatorial, primitive and frantic islamic regime imposed by hamas. Wake up people!

As far as I can tell the mistake that was made was to assume that people who claimed to be on a peaceful,charitable mission would,in fact,be themselves peaceful. That turned out to be a SERIOUS mistake.The so-called peace activists were actually thuggish terrorist camp-followers hiding behind dupes,including a baby,who were taken along as human shields. It was heads they win,tails Israel loses.Israel shouldn't gamble when the coin is biased against it. THREE CHEERS FOR ISRAEL!!!

David. You make disparaging remarks about Terry from Eilat without the least bit of actual evidence. Yours is a cheap low blow. Frankly, I find Terry's posts inevitably thoughtful, informed and literate. I don't recall anything of value from you, however. As to Lisa, you misinterpreted Terry's post. He didn't "blame" O'Bama. He merely noted that Barak was unduly influenced by O'Bama. He laid the blame for the fiasco squarely at Barak's feet, a position, incidentally, which can be logically defended. I would suggest, Lisa, that you read the posts a good deal more carefully so as not to allow your own predilections and prejudgements get the best of your reading comprehension. Just some educational advice.

The flotilla ships are being kept in Israel to facilitate theactivists journey on to Iran to protest the planned stoning of a woman to death for commiting adultery. No point in sailing them back and forth! Just the long wait to hear from the activists regarding this mission is becoming unbearable! Maybe they are more fearful of the reception they will receive in Iran.

Putting Istraeli soldiers at risk was the biggest failure. They were 'straddling' ducks as the rapelled down the ropes. They could have been mowed down were it not for the 'activists' sense of PR and not wanting to alienate world public opinion. Whatever happened to frogmen disabling the ship?

Very good & logical advice from Robert. David, your bashing of Terry is most uncalled for.

somebody forgot the most basic principles of any assault: speed and overwhelming force. (and yes, boarding a ship is an assault.) only in hollywood does a single commando disarm 100 "bad guys" without even messing up his hair. whoever planned this mission failed to follow military doctrine, and should be accountable for the resulting failure. no matter what the politically "adjusted" report says.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/g.php?g=55&p=9#gallerytop

in or near many of the taverns/bars in north Philadelphia... I've seen worse. Given the availability of rope/knives on a ship, no "commandos" were lynched nor was any "commando's" throat sliced open.