Yesterday, when Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that the Maltese authorities had offered the Freedom Flotilla vessel “Conscience”, to fully-fund its repairs at sea, the Prime Minister was standing his ground and indirectly challenging Israel.
There is no doubt that Israel wants the humanitarian mission to fail. There is also no doubt that Israel won’t even allow the vessel to dock in Gaza. The last time Freedom Flotilla tried something similar was in 2010 with a vessel called “Mavi Marmara”. Israeli commandoes stormed the ship and killed up to ten crew members. This time it will probably be worse as Israel is more genocidal than ever and is killing a record number of Palestinians, journalists, and medical and humanitarian personnel.
Summing up, the ongoing mission “Conscience” is more akin to a deadly PR stunt rather than an actual mission which is intended to succeed. It’s effect is mostly to raise awareness about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In all probability, the Israelis won’t allow the vessel to dock and distribute humanitarian aid and crew members risk getting killed by the Isreali Defence Forces. It would not be surprising at all, to ascertain that the ship is already being targeted by Israel in mid-journey.
So when the Prime Minister of the EU’s smallest country, without a navy or an army, offers “Conscience” to fund its repairs at sea after allegedly being hit by Israel, that’s really punching above one’s weight: it’s also a direct challenge to Israel who obviously doesn’t want the ship’s mission to succeed.
The Maltese authorities have informed the captain of the vessel that he will be arrested if the vessel enters into Maltese waters because it has no registered flag and no insurance. The Prime Minister doesn’t want to make an exception on this. Palau seems to have removed the ship’s flag on its register while it was at sea. From a legal standpoint, and also a national security perspective, he’s also right. He’s doing the right thing by helping the ship and ensuring the crew’s safety without making exceptional commitments to support the mission. The Prime Minister also did the right thing by discussing this issue in private with the leader of Opposition.
The Prime Minister is acting correctly but taking the next steps, but tuning government policy may prove to be more challenging. “Conscience” may be stranded out at sea for months without a legal solution. On the other hand, Malta’s national security has potentially been threatened with a hostile act by a foreign state – this is the main issue of the story from a Maltese perspective.
This is a wake-up call for the Maltese government and the Labour Party to change its defence policy and address the issue of Hurd’s Bank. The Prime Minister has to understand that times have changed and we don’t live in the 1990s world of champagne diplomacy. Neutrality is self-defeating when today’s nation-states can clearly invade and attack other countries with impunity, most notably with Russia and Israel as examples. The United States even wants to invade Greenland. Being neutral, clearly doesn’t guarantee security, but fire and steel, clearly do. Neutrality is not securing or patrolling the “Conscience”: that is being done by two armed patrol boats from the Armed Forces of Malta.
No wonder, that the Labour Party’s pro-Palestinian charlatans in Brussels are now silent on the whole incident regarding Malta’s national security. Apparently, being over-confident when you are stupid comes at great risks. Alex Agius Saliba and Daniel Attard exploited the war in Gaza for political clout, accused the President of the European Parliament (who is their political opponent) of genocide, and paraded themselves as the prime defenders of Palestinians in the European Parliament, simultaneously while accusing Europeans of being warmongers and of provoking Russia.
Now, that the genocide crew came to Malta (literally), and Labour politicians are faced with an actual and serious problem, as opposed to finding ways to rehabilitate corrupt politicians, Labour’s pro-Palestinian charlatans have retired back into a cowardly silence.
Just as I expected.
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