"It's not a military event; it's entirely a diplomatic
event. Ultimately, we failed in this regard, and the ship set out from the
shores of Sicily and arrived here. Therefore, the last barrier before breaking
the maritime security blockade was carried out by the Navy," Marom said.
"The whole event is entirely civilian; it's not a
military event," he continued. "We have dealt with many such events -
some of which you may not even know about, as they never made headlines over the
years - and we failed with this one. After the Mavi Marmara incident in
2011, a flotilla of 20 ships was organized; we acted diplomatically and legally
in various ways, and ultimately, not a single one reached the shores of
Israel."
"We imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. The blockade
was imposed in December 2009, if I'm not mistaken. It's a blockade recognized
by the whole world, and it means something very simple - a country has a right
to defend itself; it imposes a blockade, and it must be enforced equally on
everyone," Marom said.
Breaking Gaza blockade would mean Iranian ships in Gaza
within months. "If you allow one ship in, then everyone can enter.
Meaning, if someone says, "Let's allow this ship to enter," then
there's no longer a blockade. To stop that ship, you need the blockade itself.
If you cancel that blockade, within three months Iranian ships will
be in Gaza - and you don't want that to happen," he added.
Regarding the Madleen incident, "I don't
think the world is too excited about this," Maron said. "There have
already been flotillas since the Marmara incident, and we handled them just
fine. The Navy knows how to learn lessons and take things seriously. I want to
commend the fighters who did an outstanding job."
