Israeli army has reported soldiers have been wounded (they were stabbed and fired at). Open fire at soldiers (while already trying to dispute a country's authority) and yet be surprised there's a response?
Stupid, stupid people.
Would the any country not respond to vessels coming to their shores and firing?
That's hearsay at this point, and could very well be propaganda.
The civilians being shot by IDF soldiers however is not hearsay at this point, it has been confirmed by the Israeli government, it was hard not to in the face of the footage from the Turkish crew that made it past the black-out.
What I find most-interesting is that this is the leading Israeli daily newspaper that's publishing this, and that it doesn't pull back any punches. I'm actually comparing it to the AlJazeera article on the same (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010531...), and, honestly, the Haaretz article evokes more sympathy and more clearly states the plight of the activists on the flotilla.
Interesting tidbit: AlJazeera says "Israel 'attacks' Gaza aid..." with "attacks" between quotes while Haaretz says "At least 10 activists killed as Israel Navy opens fire on Gaza aid flotilla"
That's a mis-representation. You cannot get get more mainstream than Ha'aretz. I think this is a sign that Israeli society is more capable of having honest conversation about it's government action than you are willing to admit.
The organizers of the flotilla are probably ecstatic. This is exactly what they hoped for.
And BBC says they did not turn back "to avoid a confrontation" they turned back to make sure the confrontation would be during daylight so they could get the most publicity from it.
They chose to do #2, which isn't particularly surprising. Letting ships run the blockade for any reason effectively ends the blockade.
This doesn't get into rightness or wrongness of the matter, but the Israelis are very tough people and a little less concerned about newspapers than most developed countries. I have to think the organizers knew this was the inevitable outcome, and that they must be trying to get sanctions, reprimands, or otherwise lower Israel's international standing. And again, not looking at rightness/wrongness, it seems to be working.
This seems to be a major focus of modern warfare and strategy - Israel has overwhelming military superiority, so its opponents only have two options - asymmetrical warfare ("terrorism", I hesitate to use the word because of how often it gets thrown around) and this sort of international public relations, which is proving remarkably more effective than anyone could have imagined 100 years ago.
