How could of Israel handled this better?

Kia Ora,

Interesting development in the middleeast & emotions are running high on all sides.

So, how could of Israel handled this better? Basically this is a security issue & what works at the local level can be used at an international level.

First of all we need to look at the international law & if Israel was within its rights to intervene whilst the ships were still in international waters.

They could point to the British torpeding of the General Belgrano during the Falklands war, but then the Belgrano was a heavy warship heading into a war zone so it is not comparing apples with apples.

In local law the situation is much the same. As security we can not interfere with issues outside our area of responsibility unless life is in danger (or believed to be), the person has exited from our area & we have a responsiblity for their actions(people debate this but from a liability point of view I would say so) or as they are about to enter our area & for some reason we have to stop them. We can though call the police or authorities to deal with their actions.

For the Israelis I would of taken the same look at things.

First let the convoy, after warnings, enter Israeli territorial waters thereby giving them legal & moral rights. Stop the convoy in force & search for weapons, which Israel has a legitimate right to be concerned about.

After a thorough search I would of then allowed them to continue as a gesture of goodwill & for humanitarian reasons.

Any resistance shown would be in breach of any laws & by their actions the Israelis would of shown they are not all hard & without reason.

In a local sense we don't usually have the powers of search, excpet if under certain acts of parliament (so usually a government department, not private security), but can enforce conditions of entry. Which means in practice you must consent to a bag search or not bring it in & there are ways in which it should be carried out.

To ensure there is no claim of favouritism then all people in both situations need to be treated the same.

Most people get very upset  when security check small kids bags for alcohol, but they forget that first everyone must be treated the same & second the amount of alcohol adults put in childrens bags is astounding.

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