August 29, 2011: For a second time in two years, pro-Palestinian leftists and anti-Semite activists assembled a group of ships, for an attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. This time, only one of the ten ships got anywhere near Gaza (and that one was stopped by Israeli patrol boats). Last time around, six ships got close, were stopped by Israeli patrol boats and Israeli commandos boarded to divert all ships to Israeli ports. But on one ship, Turkish activists, armed with knives and iron bars, attacked the boarding party. The Israelis defended themselves and killed nine of the attackers and wounded over a dozen others. 

Hoping to avoid a repeat performance by suicidal activists, the Israelis used lawsuits to halt this year’s blockade runners. A group of Israeli activist lawyers worked with the Israeli government to keep the blockade runners tied up with red tape. Turns out the blockade runners thought, because they were on the side of all that’s good, they could skimp on paperwork and ship safety regulations. Moreover, the blockade runners were going to the aid of a place (Gaza) run by a group (Hamas) that was officially recognized as international terrorists. This provided even more openings for the Israeli lawyers. Nine of the ten blockade runner boats eventually gave up, and the operation was officially a failure. This proved that lawfare works both ways.