I’m looking at a Voice of America photo of the Amalthea being escorted to the dock at the port of El Arish by harbor tugs.

So ends the journey. But not the saga.

Seif and BP have some loose ends hanging for Congress to latch onto. I wonder if that will proceed now, or if it was just part of the pressure to turn away from Gaza.

And Hamas, who really wanted the Amalthea to run the blockade, has put the call out for more ships to try to break the Israeli hold on Gaza.

Several are said to be preparing to heed that call.

The engine troubles of the Amalthea having been ‘repaired’ when whoever is actually controlling the ship made up their mind about which way to go, a westerly course has been laid in, away from the escorting Israeli warships.

Good call, everyone is saying. Heavy pressure by both the United States and Libya seems to have helped pushed Seif Qaddafi’s media circus away from Gaza. Nearly everyone is saying that the ship is now headed toward Egypt. Or back to Libya.

Not so good for Seif. (more…)

Here are the clear facts…

1. On Wednesday morning, Israel local time, the Amalthea, renamed the Hope by the activists aboard, breached what Israel calls the ‘closed military zone’ that extends seaward from the Gaza Strip.

We know that because the Israeli navy told the Amalthea that it had done so.

When initially declared on December 28, 2008, the zone extended unevenly from 1 to 2 miles from the Gaza shoreline. It has expanded exponentially since then. Now, apparently, it extends 80 miles or perhaps 100 miles.

2. But they have not actually broken the Gaza blockade, because they have not landed in Gaza.
Or anywhere else, as yet.

3. Now the Amalthea is drifting in the vastness of the ‘closed military zone’, in company with several Israeli Naval ships.
(more…)