By Steve Kramer in Kfar Saba, Israel
What is the purpose of the many flotillas which have attempted to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza? (The blockade exists to help prevent Hamas receiving weapons shipments.) Organizations which promote flotillas towards Gaza purport to help the “starving” Gazan population by sending them aid and support. There have been many Gaza flotillas which have attempted to gain entrance to Gaza but none have succeeded. As far as Israel is concerned, these boats are a political stunt meant to harm Israel’s reputation.
The boats contain negligible amounts of aid but those on board do enjoy tremendous amounts of “virtue signaling.” Despite these malevolent attempts to defame Israel, the boats would be permitted to unload “aid” in an Israeli port near Gaza. But that wouldn’t promote the sanctimonious activists’ anti-Israel cause. Proclaiming “starvation” in Gaza is their ploy to promote hatred of Israel; helping the Hamas terrorists is their “solution.”
There have been at least eight flotillas which have attempted to land in Gaza: in 2010, 2011, 2015, 2018, (3) 2025, and recently in May 2026, when 50 boats were intercepted by Israeli naval forces. After the horrors of October 7, Israelis are no longer willing to tolerate activists who attempt to come by sea, not promoting peace but supporting Hamas and demonizing Israel. Opponents of Israel (and of Jews) feel free to criticize and foment nearly every day against Israel, the only working democracy in the Middle East – and even to send flotillas to confront it.
Much of the Western world’s media is in a tizzy over the inhospitable, “uncivilized” treatment that participants in a recent flotilla suffered at the hands of Israeli authorities. (See Times of Israel story) Some of those arrested claimed that they were treated like terrorists. How quaint. They didn’t speak up when Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis, including foreign workers in Israel. Did the activists approve of the October 7 massacre and the kidnapping of 251 Israelis, dead or alive? Or the horrific terrorism that those who survived suffered? The truth is that these activists hate Israel, Israelis, and they’re not fond of Jews either. The fact is that they were supposedly coming to give succor to people who are “starving” but it’s all about bashing Israel.
Mass media jumped at the chance to circulate pictures of flotilla members being humiliated upon their arrest in Israel. Actually, they were only being detained in an uncomfortable manner. One wonders: did those in the boats expect to be welcomed by Israeli authorities? If so, they didn’t reckon on Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. A strong defender of Israeli sovereignty, Ben-Gvir welcomed the attention the world press gave to the fate of the incarcerated activists.
Ben-Gvir is a controversial figure in Israeli politics, but many like his strong posture against enemies of Israel, from terrorists to Israel-hating activists who think that they can roll over Israel. A successful lawyer, in 2019 he founded the far-right party Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit), which supported Prime Minister Netanyahu in the election four years ago. He was rewarded with the National Security ministry. He has relaxed restrictions on private gun ownership, promoted armed neighborhood watches in Israeli communities located near Palestinian towns, ended soft prison treatment of convicted terrorists, and politicized the police force to some extent.
A religious Jew, Ben-Gvir has been instrumental in relaxing rules against Jewish prayer on Judaism’s most sacred site, the Temple Mount, where the First and Second Jewish Temples were located, (The Western Wall is the retaining wall supporting the Temple Mount.) While Muslim prayers on the Mount are in the hands of the Muslim Wakf, and have few restrictions, Jews now are allowed to pray there. Before Ben-Gvir’s administration, any Jewish prayer was prohibited. He is considered by many to be a very disruptive figure for his militancy against Arabs, but nevertheless, Ben-Gvir is a proud Jew who won’t be pushed around.
Anti-Israel activists must now consider that acting in a provocative way against Israel will result in uncomfortable consequences. Some will do it anyway to evoke bad publicity against Israel. While many Israelis and other deplore Ben-Gvir’s tactics, they may have been necessary. While many Israelis and Diaspora Jews may be discomfited by Ben-Gvir’s forcefulness, it is a suitable way to treat propagandists defaming Israel.
*See the “welcome” the flotilla activists received when they returned home to Spain.
Steve Kramer is an American-Israeli freelance writer based in Kfar Saba, Israel.