(JNS) Another “flotilla” has set sail—this time from Genoa—with organizers promising up to 70 vessels converging on Gaza.
The spectacle is being marketed as humanitarian relief, but in truth it is something far darker: a coordinated propaganda stunt designed to delegitimize Israel, embolden Hamas and sway European opinion in advance of the UN vote on Palestinian statehood later this month.
We have seen this before. In May 2010, six ships carrying 718 activists from 37 countries attempted to breach Israel’s blockade. The confrontation ended in bloodshed and the rupture of relations with Turkey. Far from delivering aid, the operation was spearheaded by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a group with clear political and ideological agendas.
Since then, flotillas have reappeared periodically—Greta Thunberg even made an appearance. But today’s iteration is different: it comes in the middle of an open war, with Hamas still holding Israeli hostages and firing rockets. Now, some 70 ships—large and small, sophisticated and makeshift—are steaming from Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey, loaded with what they call “aid packages.” In reality, they are gift-crates for Hamas, timed for maximum political impact.
If the real goal were humanitarian relief, the path is simple: the port of Ashdod, from which Israel has facilitated the transfer of thousands of tons of food, medicine and supplies—“down to the last yogurt,” as one organizer cynically put it. Every day, hundreds of aid trucks cross into Gaza, except when Hamas seizes them at gunpoint.
The flotilla’s mission is not to feed Palestinians. It is to inflame the masses. In Genoa, dockworkers rallied behind the ships, vowing to shut down Mediterranean ports if Israel dares to defend itself. “If a hair on our boys’ heads is harmed, we will block all commerce,” union leaders thundered. This is not humanitarianism. It is mob politics—something closer to a pogrom than to charity.
The timing is no accident. By the end of September, the UN will vote on Palestinian statehood, backed by France and others. Organizers want cameras rolling when the IDF blocks the flotilla, so they can accuse Israel of “starvation” and “genocide”—words that have become Hamas’s most successful weapons. The fact that Israel delivers daily aid and that Hamas diverts it will not matter.
Among the flotilla’s passengers are not only activists but also known extremists. According to press reports, Jaldia Abubakra, founder of the Masar Badil Revolutionary Path, boarded in Barcelona. Masar Badil is linked to Samidoun, a PFLP offshoot banned by Germany, the US and Canada for its terror ties. Another leader, Khaled Barakat, remains on the US terror lists. Also participating is Saif Abu Kish, a familiar Palestinian activist with a long record of incitement.
To be clear, not everyone on board is a jihadist. Some are naïve, well-meaning individuals misled by propaganda. But their presence does not change the flotilla’s intent: to save Hamas and to attack Israel—the Middle East’s only democracy, where women, minorities and freedoms are protected.
Behind the sails lies real money. Who funds such an armada? The same sources that always have: Iran’s proxies, both Shiite and Sunni, flush with billions for terror and propaganda alike. This flotilla is simply the maritime face of that financing.
European politicians are lining up in support. In Italy, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni, Angelo Bonelli and Elly Schlein are already waving the banner. In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron prepares to push Palestinian statehood at the UN. In both cases, the objective is the same: to reward Hamas and to punish Israel for surviving.
The flotilla is not about food. It is not about medicine. It is not about human rights. It is about turning European ports and parliaments into accomplices of Hamas.
Israel will stop this flotilla—because it must. And when it does, the real story won’t be about yogurt, or trucks, or ships. It will be about whether the West chooses to side with terror theater on the high seas—or with truth, law and democracy.
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