Netanyahu Blasts West for Not Being Convinced by ‘Gaza Ship’

Briefly pleased by his heavily publicized unveiling of a captured cargo ship near Sudan, putatively an Iranian ship bound for Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again back to his default status of enraged, this time furious that Western nations weren’t as excited as he was by the “capture.”

Netanyahu angrily condemned Western nations as “hypocrites” for continuing nuclear negotiations with Iran, saying the ship proved Iran could never be trusted, and singling out EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton for shaking hands with Iranian officials.

Iranian officials have dismissed the allegations, suggesting Israel orchestrated the whole thing as a chance to grandstand during last week’s AIPAC conference. The “evidence” of Iranian guilt is primarily secret, though Israel did publicize a picture of a bag of cement with the words “made in Iran” conspicuously written in English on it.

Netanyahu saw the whole thing as such a fool-proof story it should’ve convinced everyone of his policy demands, but even some in the Israeli media were rolling their eyes at the “meaningless Hollywood-style propaganda” display.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.