Greta’s flotilla

[TheSnugMoose]

What are you thoughts on this? 13 people including Greta Thunberg were travelling to Palestine via boat with supplies. It’s been intercepted by Isreal and diverted.

Whatvare your thoughts? I’m guessing they will simply be deported, maybe with a severe telling off? The UN and the Palestinian foreign ministry have vocalised their support and asked for them to be allowed to continue their journey, however Isreal have said it was nothing more than a vanity exercise and they had very limited supplies on board to actually give aid.

What do you think will happen to the activists on board? Do you think they were right to go? Do you think they genuinely wanted to help or it was more about raising awareness?

I like Greta and I love that she has, so far, used her life to champion causes and she seems like a clever and funny woman. But I wonder if this trio was always doomed and what their long term plan was, especially if they had little aid onboard? But if that was their intention, maybe they just wanted to raise awareness of their feelings on the situation? Should anyone be trying to intervene like this or should it be left to proper channels?

I know feelings are high about this and I want to say I don’t support any of the awful things that have happened and recognise bad things on both sides. I don’t care for Israel’s terrible behaviour or Hamas’ awful doings, I do however care for the innocent people in the middle on both sides. This thread is just to get general thoughts on this…’mission’.

Just to add my thoughts: if this was a genuine aid mission then I respect them putting themselves potentially at risk (due to the boat trip) to care for others but also feel like it’s extremely naive and not actually the right thing to do, there has to be better ways to support?

The title of the thread says it all. It became all about GT, not the cause.

Anyway, gently bobbing into a naval blockade area in a sail boat was never going to work was it? They made Israel look good by quietly taking over the boat, bringing them to port, making them watch a video and, as far as I know, sending them home like naughty children. It's an active war zone and things could have gone differently.

Just looked at the news media pictures. The boat isn’t exactly very large, and seems to be full of people rather than supplies.

So as a publicity stunt, then it’s been successful, although a foolhardy risk, but in terms of taking out much needed supplies, then not successful. Even if they’d arrived safely, then they don’t look like they were carrying much onboard.

You actually believe that they're not. Also unbelievable. More than one thing can be true at the same time.

This is my feeling on her. She was a child who put herself up to ridicule for what she believes in - very few people are willing to do that and I admire her for ignoring all the hideous and downright misogynistic comments about her - the things Trump and Clarkson said about her, they way people discussed her looks and her turning 18. It was awful. But she made jokes and carried on supporting the cause that means so much to her and I admire that.

I hadn’t realised she was involved in this situation until I read about the flotilla. I am just not sure I think this action is the right action.

But why are Hamas blocking aid to their own people? I don’t like Hamas but this makes no sense?

We obviously have very different ideas of what makes a country look good.

Illegally intercepting a boat in international waters that you have no jurisdiction in and detaining the occupants paint them in a favourable light for me

All aid was going through Hamas who are the government, police, army. They would stock pile it and sell what they didn't want to the people. So a company in America got involved to supply aid directly to the people with the the help of the IDF. Hamas did not like this loss of control and starting shooting at aid workers and those queuing for aid. Hamas don't care about the people, they are evil terrorists. Israel wants rid of Hamas not the people. They're are thousands of muslims living side by side with Israelis. Hamas was rid of all Jews.

Bunch of idiots. Doing nothing of any practical use. I would have had more respect if they had a meaningful amount of aid rather than a couple of bags of flour. They are desperate to have been “kidnapped”. As opposed to picked up and then flown home after a telling off.

I didn’t realise this. As I said I don’t like Hamas but I didn’t realise they were also doing this.

Agree with this.

I'd take that with a fairly hefty grain of salt tbh. There is no independent verification of what's happening in Gaza as Israel have refused entry to international journalists. There are reports that both Hamas and Israel are withholding aid and shooting at those trying to access it.

Just virtue signalling and out for a jolly on a sailing boat. Nice work if you can get it.

Ask yourself why Hamas isn't starving.

Try telling my son in law’s relatives who live in Gaza that it’s Hamas who are blocking the aid - they will beg to differ! Or should I say those of them have them who are still alive and haven’t been murdered by the Israeli forces.

I actually think Thunberg is only on there to a) boost her profile and b) deflect attention from the other very questionable passengers on board. Terrorist sympathisers and antisemites by some accounts. Greta adds a certain air of “we’re ever so morally righteous” and stops people looking too closely at who she’s allying herself with

I think she did a good thing.

Aid workers have been killed trying to deliver aid to Gaza. She knew she wouldn't be harmed because of her status, but she also knew the IDF would never allow her to deliver even a symbolic amount of aid.

Israel's PR war machine will be spinning it to make her out to be a naughty schoolgirl. Don't buy it. They had no reason to stop the boat delivering aid other than to continue their deliberate starvation of the captive population.

I have no idea whether they’re starving or not to be honest.

I’ve only heard reports that it is Isreal withholding food and water. It’s all such a mess.

I think it's brilliant that the IDF made them watch a video of the 7 October massacre.

And ignore the widespread reports of blockades and attacks of aid workers.

How do you know whether they are or they aren't? They are not exactly parading through the streets. But I'm sure they will have their own supply lines back to other strongholds outside Gaza. But it is Israel that has stopped the aid convoys.

I may regret giving my view given how heated this all gets, but let’s go for it.

Greta’s being a useful idiot for Hamas, Greta generally is fantastic and I fully understand why she’s ended up doing this, but it’s silly. As a previous poster said, it’s well documented that Hamas was taking all the aid, just as they have done through the years of ‘peace’ beforehand, taking all the resources to feed their men and build tunnels and amass arms.

They fire rockets, cause terror and then melt back into family homes, hospitals, schools and then point at Israel if they ever go into these places to check as ‘They're hurting civilians’

Hamas do want peace, but the peace involves the complete removal of Israel ( not all Jews, Israel) from the world. There is no discussion, no movement, no compromise. Almost all ceasefires end in Hamas firing rockets into Israel. Almost all major conflicts start when Hamas blow up buses or commit atrocities like October 7th, though that one was extreme even by Hamas standards.

Israel respond, Hamas cry, a ceasefire is agreed, rinse and repeat.

We now have an Israeli leader that seems to feel about Hamas the same way they feel about Israel. They now want to obliterate Hamas (not all Palestinians) from the planet, and are past caring who gets hurt.

Hamas are behaving stupidly, immorally and cruelly, Netenyau is also acting stupidly, immorally and cruelly.

This will only end by Hamas backing down and accepting a two state soluiton, and Israel seriously providing one with a united Palestinian population (not two bits on opposite sides of the country) and crucially, by returning settlement areas to Palestine.

Either that, or one WILL be wiped out (or it’ll start WWIII)

As always, innocent people on both sides suffer for their leaders intransigence,who are far more determined to win an argument than stop a war.

It’s perfectly possible to criticise Israel’s conduct and also recognise that Hamas is making life worse for ordinary Gazans.

Hamas really does obstruct humanitarian aid. A May 2024 convoy organised by Jordan and the UN reached Gaza only to be “intercepted and diverted by Hamas” according to the U.S. State Department and Reuters reporting. The head of UNRWA has urged “Hamas and other armed groups to stop attacks on humanitarian crossings, refrain from aid diversion and make sure assistance reaches all those in need.”

Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election in 2006; there has been no general election in Gaza since then. Human-rights monitors record regular arbitrary arrests, torture and violent crack-downs on dissent, including the suppression of the 2023 “We Want to Live” protests over living conditions.

There is no democracy. They are not the good guys and I promise that Greta definitely wouldn't be better off if she was intercepted by Hamas.

Condemning Hamas doesn’t excuse Israeli policies that harm civilians, just as condemning Israeli actions doesn’t turn Hamas into “liberators.” Pretending otherwise only obscures the reality that Gazans are trapped between a Israeli blockade and authoritarian terrorist leaders that exploit them and use them as cannon fodder for their agenda.

Standing up for Palestinian civilians means holding both power centres to account and you CAN have compassion for the innocent civilians on both sides. I hope Greta has some of that after watching Oct 7th footage.

Grrr. I just typed out a long post and the page refreshed and I lost it all.

In a nutshell:

This is an ego trip for Greta. What was her actual purpose? Very little aid onboard. No need to raise awareness as we hear about Israel/Palestine constantly.

As PP said, plenty of other places that desperately need more sunlight on the atrocities - why not pick Yemen, for example?

It feels like Greta fancies herself as a modern Boudicca, sailing in to save everyone with her presence.

I have mixed views about her. She’s passionate about the environment and I admire her commitment and drive.

But she’s also arrogant at times, dismissive of other opinions, and seems to think she’s the only person who knows anything.

I just don’t think this was genuinely helpful and I fail to see what the point was.

Greta's taking a massive risk she still looks like a child, the IDF will probably shoot her.