Goodness, Greta, what's the point of your Gaza flotillas?

In common with many, I suspect, I have been tracking the progress of the 40-ship Global Sumud Flotilla since it left Barcelona a month ago, with campaigner-for-everything Greta Thunberg as its standard-bearer.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

This latest attempt to deliver food and medical aid direct to Gaza made sometimes fitful progress, thanks to inclement weather and a fire caused by a suspected drone attack, but has now reached what always seemed its inevitable finale. Israel said the ships had been stopped from entering “an active combat zone”; the charities and others organising the flotilla said the interception was illegal - and both statements can be true.

Not in dispute is that the lead ships were blocked a good distance from the shore, after the Israeli Navy jammed their communications. They were then boarded by Israeli commandos, who detained those on board in preparation prior to transferring them to Israel for deportation. “Greta and her friends”, an Israeli statement said, were safe and well. We have been here before. This is the third, though by far the biggest, aid convoy to have tried and failed to reach Gaza this summer. To do the same thing and expect a different outcome was quite simply unrealistic.

Time was when there were certainly different outcomes. In 1985, the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, was blown up in New Zealand, in a clandestine sabotage operation conducted by the French secret service, which caused the death of a photographer. The