The world is shocked, again, after an Israeli military action. Nevertheless it still unclear which part of the story bothered public opinion the most. Is it the fact a number of activists were killed during the operation? Or is it because of the operation itself?

People dying are never good news; nevertheless sometimes unfortunately this is what happens at war. Today’s war is not what is used to be, rarely states confront one another and asymmetric conflicts are the new form of war almost everywhere. So we should not be surprised to see a regular state army on the one hand and non-state actors on the other.

Said so, who were exactly these activist? Where they non-state actors that threatened Israel or where them, as they defined themselves, peace activist? The doubt concerning the nature of their group and their activities is exactly the reason that pushed Israel to verify what the ship was carrying. In fact as it happened already in the past, ships that were apparently peaceful were found carrying weapons and explosive, as the case of Karine-A few years ago. 

Once the operation started death was hard to avoid. It is difficult to believe that a soldier or a police officer or any person with or without a uniform would have not responded to a physical attack that was threatening his own life. This is exactly what happened on the ship when the IDF soldiers were attacked with knives and axes and obviously responded to save their lives.

Now, the question whether it was is necessary to send navy special forces to assault the ship at night in order to verify the what the vessel was carrying is the main issue. I could say that it might have been necessary from a strictly military point of view. I am not an expert on military tactics, but even I can understand that the surprise effect of an assault in the dark of the night can help any army or an armed group to succeed.

Notwithstanding Israel cannot anymore think in military and security terms first and then try to activate the communication machine to explain the world what truly happens. This tactic is a failure, no matter how much Special Forces are efficient and no matter how security is important. The Israeli army must think now in new military-communication terms and even military tactics should be built upon those two principles.

After a good start of inviting the ship into the Ashdod port and after the refusal of the activist to accept the invitation, since the situation did not seem to be such an emergency, the IDF could have surrounded the ship with its navy and waited. They could have waited for days until the ship would have either accepted to let the soldiers control the vessel or in alternative until it would have entered national waters. This way the whole world could have witnessed patience and good will of Israel that only wanted a legitimate control of the “humanitarian aid”.

We are in a new area, where there are no secret operations anymore and the world is ready to judge any situation according to what they see and what they already think. While keeping security as a priority, Israel must find new ways to prevent threats that can be efficient both in military terms and in public opinion terms, to make sure the democratic nature of the State of Israel is never put in doubt.