Under no circumstances would any country ever allow itself, its safety, and its resources to be used for foreigners of any sort to enter its territory. On the contrary, this is no media debacle, in fact the media has hardly noticed this--good grief, we are surrounded by countries killing their own people. Not only is the story overshadowed, the media at some level has a sense of what is ordewrly conduct and what is entitled destruction. We would have looked like absolute fools had we let even one of these so called protesters onto any of our land.

It was an Israeli win on the PR front.

And there are figures to prove this claim? The current consensus is that Israel has no obligation, legal or moral, to allow entry to those who declare their intention to demonstrate against the policy of our elected government.

You know the old maxim about insanity; trying the same approach multiple times and hoping for a different result. Bravo on your commenrary The Israeli gov't is acting like they are in the shtetl. This is not the response if a well thought, confident administration.

What is the problem entering from Jordan or Syria to Bethlehem?

author's assertion that "The global fly-in made huge headlines over the weekend. " is totally incorrect. I have not heard a single mention of it anywhere in MSM. People here have much more important issues to address. Does anyone know what about other countries?

What makes you so sure that all of the flytilla participants are peaceful and "good people"? Some certainly would try provoking the Israel Defense Forces or block roads and the like. Others may stay here longer illegally. I think you are quite naive.

in any German newspaper. the embarrasment will be to big when they reveal that only ultra-leftists and social welfare recipients had joined that hillarious endeauvour.

“The handling of the Gaza flotilla was such a failure because Israel gave in to its aggressive reflex to being with.” What??? Failure? Aggressive reflex? Only committed lefties would twist reality this way to make themselves feel better. Let’s try this. A failure would have been willing media supporters broadcasting hundreds of jubilant Pal supporters denouncing Israel from Bethlehem. That propaganda coup didn’t happen. Aggressive reflex? HEY YAKIR, have you taken the time to peek across the Syrian border?

It is a delicate question. While there is not a honoured peace among Israel and Arab Palestine, people that goes to Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, etc, must be free to do it, on landing into Israeli territory. But they have to be inspected. If they don't show any danger, "good trip". On the contrary, the necessary measures. Moderation over all. Greatness, too.

Selling a house to a Jew should not be a crime punishable by death. But that's the case in the Palestinian Authority. Abu Shahala acted as broker in the sale of a Hevron house to Jews. Now he is to be executed by the Palestinian Authority. Some Jewish leaders have appealed to the Israeli government to do something to save his life. Will Israeli Jews call for their government to do something about it? Or will they remain silent? Will activists who travel all the way to Israel protest the abuse of human rights by the Palestinian Authority? Or will they remain silent? It should also be noted that the PA recently closed a local human rights organization because - according to Ma'an News Agency - their activities were not consistent with the interests of the Palestinian people.

The truth us that the present Israeli government is more concerned with shoring up the base among evangelicals and right wing zionists then making the case among liberals And academics that are not as yet a lost cause. Bibi wins only when the left Is totally seen ad against us.

Allowing fly in Palestinian militant activists to reach Bet-Lehem, a provocation by itself would have created more provocations. No matter what Israel will be blamed. Israel will also be blamed if 1500 Jewish activists would have flown in to march on Har Habaiit. Than what?

Have the sign read "Free Israel from Palestinian Terrorist"

Nobody talks about the flytilla oputside of Israel. This non event made the headlines nowhere, not even in the arab media. This is another failure for the antisemites disguised as antisionists.

all the ports and airport and just give peace a chance

It is also high time Israel stopped being the whipping boy of the said idiots. Simply put: enough of this BS, go find another cause and that includes you Yakir! PS. Meaning of Whipping Boy A scapegoat. One who is singled out for blame or punishment. Origin It seems an odd notion to us now that a royal court would have kept a child for the purpose of beating him when the crown prince did wrong. That's just what did happen though. Whipping Boy was an established position at the English court during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the 15th and 16th centuries.

They didn't make any 'history at all and their 'impression was not very small but very nothing on the International Media front (except in Israel & maybe some Arab countries). So, Israel didn't ''lose the media game, because it's not a game but the right of every normal country to keep FOREIGN hatefull agitators with a distorted, toxic political agenda outside their borders. The protestors of this world must be made to understand that Israel will come for their ''valuable advise & opinion when needed, but untill than they should give their opinion to someone who cares. I want to see when Israeli flytilla's will come to any EUS country with the same agenda, how the authorities will react. So stop defending the indefendable and stop being so understanding. It's nauseating.

Here in Italy, the top newspaper online, Corriere della Sera, has an article about Vauro Senesi, an anti-Israel cartoonist who at first claimed to have made it into Israel, and then was forced to admit that he was still here in Italy. He said: "I was supposed to leave, but then I cancelled my trip for work reasons." Uh-huh. The vast majority of the Italian public is much more concerned about our scary economy and job situation than a handful of "useful idiots" who spend their money on airplane tickets rather than sending them to charity. I personally would love to see these hypocrites fly to Damascus or Tehran to protest some real human rights abuses for a change.

Probably didn't make the Jewish owned American media. But I can assure you it is all over European Media. But more importantly is all over the social media eg Twitter Facebook etc mediums which were successfu in overthrowing Ghadaffi and Mubarak

inhabits?! I am not going to slip into the abim of psychoanalise the guy, or his commitment to the world he lives in. Its the symbolism, stupid. We do share an imperfect world that goes in symbolic acts, rather than trying to face a truth. The ubiqutous tweeter, blogging, facebook and other socialmedia avenues breath and aspire to symbols. There is room for 'lets suppose' in this war of symbols that unfortunatly creates "cyber facts" which translate into dynamism of defeat or victories. And that Elkarif you are under different 'cloud' as they say in our new world. Wellcome: live or dye by those new cyber favts.

Would it have been so terrible to deport all the treasonous Israeli leftists to North Korea or Syria??

I'm appauled that an Israeli newspaper can publish the false facts that foreign media published on Israel. Do we need to remind that the soldiers were attacked violently, butchered and almost abducted before lethal shots were fired in self defense ?

Kol hakavod Israel, it was about time to bar entry to those Israel enemies. enough with those "piss activists" Edmond from Montreal, Canada

A typical senseless, upside down apologist argument which captures so well the mindset of these loony leftists!

These are not mostly good people they are procovateurs motived by anti-Semitism. Even if you grant all their accusations against Israel, there are far worse things going on in countries all over the world. What other motivation can there be for focusing all their time and energy on Israel? What harm can they do? They can breach Israel's sovereignty and strenghten their argument that Israel is not a legitimate country which must be respected as any other country is.