ISRAELI MEDIA REACTION:ALTHOUGH IT may take weeks before the full diplomatic and security ramifications from Monday's Israeli naval interception of the aid flotilla become known, Israeli newspapers yesterday were scathing in their criticism of what was dubbed the "flotilla fiasco".
Sever Plocker, a commentator for Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, called on Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak to resign.
“There isn’t a broom wide enough to sweep this failure under the rug,” Plocker wrote.
“If Ehud Barak doesn’t resign, international public opinion will perceive Israel as a country that is deserving of collective punishment as a sovereign entity. It ought to be hit, if not over the head, then at the very least in its pocket by means of an economic boycott. That is a clear and immediate danger.”
Ben Caspit, writing in Ma'ariv, noted the botched raid would cause Israel astronomical damage in innumerable spheres. "At the top of the pyramid of failure are those who gave the incredibly dumb order to land dozens of brave fighters into a floating hornets' nest, with hundreds of violent, hate-driven Islamic radicals."
Writing in Ha'aretz, Ari Shavit asked: "Why didn't we see that, instead of tightening the siege on Gaza, we were about to tighten the siege on ourselves?"