Greta Thunberg is good at drama. That’s part of her power. She stages visual stunts – school strikes, impassioned speeches, long-haul voyages across oceans – and those stunts go viral, giving her message reach far beyond what a traditional press release or op-ed could ever achieve.
So it’s no surprise that she turned to the sea again this week, setting out on a yacht – carrying minimal “humanitarian aid” – bound for Gaza to “raise awareness” about the situation there.
And it’s no surprise that Israel stopped the boat early Monday morning, calling it a virtue-signaling stunt – one the Foreign Ministry aptly named the “selfie yacht” – that helps no one and ignores some very inconvenient facts.
Because while Gazans are indeed suffering, the root of that suffering is not Israeli policy – it’s Hamas. And if Greta, or anyone else in her camp, really wanted to help the people of Gaza – or even raise meaningful awareness – they’d launch a very different kind of flotilla.
Call it the Hostages Flotilla.
A group of small boats could sail not toward Gaza, but away from it, carrying the photos of the Israeli hostages still being held inside by Hamas. They’d fly banners reading: “Free Gaza – from Hamas,” and “Let the Hostages Go Home.” The boats would carry signs in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, reminding the world that Hamas isn’t just at war with Israel – it’s at war with its own people.
Hamas is not only holding the hostages captive but also the enclave’s entire population. This would really be a freedom flotilla – to free the hostages and Gazans from Hamas’ cruel, jihadist rule.
Flotilla should highlight Hamas’s true character
Instead of pretending that Hamas is some kind of misunderstood resistance movement, instead of romanticizing it à la Che Guevara, the Hostages Flotilla would highlight the group’s true character: a barbaric terrorist organization that murders Israeli civilians, uses its own people as human shields, caring not if they suffer and die, and brutalizing any Palestinian who dares to dissent.
It wouldn’t be a comfortable protest. It wouldn’t make the rounds on progressive TikTok. But it would be honest. It would be brave. And – unlike Greta’s yacht – it might actually help truly raise awareness of what needs to be exposed: that Hamas could end the war and the suffering by releasing the hostages, surrendering, and disarming.
Israel, for its part, played this particular “flotilla” episode well. It learned the hard way from the disastrous 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, which ended in bloodshed, diplomatic fallout, and international condemnation. This time, there was no drama – just a smooth, strategic interception.
The “activists” aboard the ship – including Thunberg and French European Parliament Member Rima Hassan – were looking for one thing: a provocation. Thunberg had already cast herself in the role of Joan of Arc, releasing a breathless video where she declared: “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family, and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
As if Israel wants to keep Thunberg any longer than absolutely necessary.
Kidnapped? Really? Prevented from breaking Israeli law, detained temporarily, and then deported – yes. Kidnapped? Give everybody a break.
You want to know who is kidnapped, Greta? The 55 Israelis still being held by Hamas captors. They were abducted and brutalized, and their families are being tortured daily. And you, the self-appointed Great Progressive, have opted to side with their captors and tormentors.
This latest flotilla stunt made some headlines abroad, but not major ones. Israel played it smart, filming the ship’s passengers being given sandwiches and water, and reportedly jamming communications to prevent those on the yacht from live-streaming the interception, dramatizing it, and turning it into a viral confrontation.
Ordered to watch Oct 7 film
In a moment of poetic justice, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz ordered the passengers to view the 43-minute film detailing the atrocities of October 7, hoping against all odds to awaken them to the true source of the crisis; to remind them who and what started this war.
Want more irony? Try this: Hamas saluted those on the boat and demanded their release, calling their detention “a flagrant violation of international law.” Among the credits Thunberg can now put on her CV is this: Hailed by Hamas.
Israel has, over the years – since the Mavi Marmara – blocked several other efforts to break the naval blockade of Gaza, most of the time quietly and diplomatically. Any boat with Thunberg aboard, however, was not going to slip under the public radar – that, after all, is what she is all about.
Even so, Monday’s event was handled calmly and without incident. No casualties. No headlines of bloodshed. Just Hamas’s fellow travelers, the less charitable may call them the terrorist organization’s “useful idiots,” escorted to port, detained, fed, and shown a video of a barbaric reality they had chosen to ignore, before being deported.
There will be more stunts like this by people claiming to care about the suffering in Gaza. But to care without being honest about Hamas’ primary responsibility for the suffering is not solidarity; it’s dishonesty that helps no one.
If Greta and her ilk truly wanted to bring attention to suffering in Gaza, they wouldn’t aim their sailboats at the IDF.
They’d aim them at Hamas or design them to expose Hamas’ barbarism and cruelty. And they’d demand that, along with the release of the hostages, the people of Gaza also be freed from the terror group that has ruled over them for nearly two decades with fear, fanaticism, and force.
Until then, we’re left with another image of Western “activists” sailing straight past the real villain, signaling virtue and waving a flag of compassion while looking entirely in the wrong direction.
Jesus Christ is King
