I’m minded to hold my tongue when it comes to commenting in detail on recent events in the eastern Mediterranean ocean. The fog of spin, propaganda and confusion endemic to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still thick on the ground and sea surface, and it will likely be a while before we get to the truth of what happened.

For now, the most plausible and charitable scenario is one of Israeli incompetence, in which the country’s military and political leaders seriously underestimated, and with tragic consequences, the likely resistance they would face when sending a few dozen soldiers to deal with several hundred Turkish and other pro-Palestinian political activists on cargo boats heading toward the Gaza coast.

Cue the predictable howls of outrage from every Tom, Dick and Harry politician, eager to speak their minds to camera and microphone, and have their words emblazoned across tomorrow’s front pages. The usual bollocks. And then there are the western world’s Islamic political fronts, and their useless idiot allies among the European and North American ‘left’. Even more bollocks, and this combined with overtly antisemitic demonstrations outside Israeli embassies.

Britishmuslimladsinnit™ purifying their souls prior to baying for Jewish blood.

In London today there were between one and two hundred demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy in London. Now I had no intention of being anywhere near the place, but events conspired to see me on Kensington High Street at around 18:30 this evening. Previous to that I had following an announcement made over at Harry’s Place – the armchair warriors’ favourite haunt – attended a small gathering of pro-Israel people on Whitehall, where a representative of the group read out and then delivered a lengthy statement of support for Israel to the office of prime minister David Cameron, whose foreign secretary William Hague made a substantive and mostly sensible comment about the incident off Gaza:

“We have consistently advised against attempting to access Gaza in this way, because of the risks involved. But at the same time, there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations. It will be important to establish the facts about this incident, and especially whether enough was done to prevent deaths and injuries.

“This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UNSCR 1860. The closure is unacceptable and counter-productive. There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis. I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians.”

Sensible apart from the final sentence above, which shows Hague doing his political duty and going through the predictable motions. Heaven forfend that I should agree with a Tory, even in part!

A small demonstration by London Muslims and ultraleftist wastrels against the Jooz Zionist Entity.

Forgive me if for the remainder of this post I shift the focus away from the tragedy in the Mediterranean to related happenings this evening on the streets on London.

Following the announcement at Harry’s Gaff, I cycled up to London and joined a handful of pro-Israel people outside Downing Street. This was at 18:00. During the very short time we were there, a supporter’s car drew up, and one of the occupants said that “100 people” (pro-Israel) were near the embassy in Kensington, a few clicks away from Whitehall. The few folk on Whitehall then headed for the embassy by foot and tube, and I made my own way by bike.

I arrived first, and saw no pro-Israel people whatsoever. After mingling for a while with assorted Pro-Palestinians and predictably-attired Anglotrots, I spoke briefly with a particularly dense copper who denied any knowledge of the pro-Israel manifestation. Eventually the other Whitehall people turned up, along with a few others. We cannot have been more than 15 in total; some looked very nervous, understandably so. I was a little concerned about the likely chain of events.

An even smaller demonstration by London Jews in solidarity with Israel.

A reckless few then began to display Israeli flags less than 100 metres from the anti-Israel mob, with only a handful of sleepy-looking police in attendance. I managed to take just one picture of the pro-Israel group before the inevitable happened. We were chased down the street, and I swear that one of the Britishmuslimladsinnit™ was frothing at the mouth. A few of our people got hit, and we were quickly forced to leave the scene by the cops.

A principled stand it may have been, but it was irresponsible to attempt a pro-Israel demonstration in the circumstances, and I said as much at the time after studying the scene. To go through with it displayed a lack of tactical thinking as well as foolhardiness. We were too close to the anti-Israel crowd, and it was inevitable that people would get caught by the pursuing mob and beaten. I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt, but I did notice a couple of people missing on the retreat.

An open question for the Community Security Trust…

Where was the planning for the demonstration in London? I know it was short notice, but surely you understand that one cannot risk doing anything like this unless there are sufficient numbers on the ground at one time and in one place. And it is foolish to attempt such a provocative assembly with so few police officers and/or CST heavies to provide protection. As far as I know, no attempt was made to liaise with the police this evening on Kensington High Street, and the few that were there didn’t react until the baying mob was breathing down our necks.

But before I get on with the work I should have been doing earlier, here is a view from an Israeli naval vessel of the military boarding of the Mavi Marmara, one of the six Gaza-bound cargo and passenger ships intercepted in the Mediterranean earlier today…

I wish those poor bastards sent in by Bibi Netanyahu’s dysfunctional government, and for their sins beaten senseless with iron bars and worse, a full and speedy recovery.