Drumbeats of War - Libyan Ship for Gaza Heads West
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. He has lost all the cachet he had garnered in the Arab world and at home from his ‘Mission Impossible’ release of the Pan Am terrorist. And now there is talk in the US senate of investigating that shady deal, as well as looking into Seif’s ties with British Petroleum. He has bought both himself and the oil giant some real trouble with this escapade.
Which makes me wonder if he can afford to just cut bait and run.
The question about where the ship is actually heading is still in the air. It seems eminently reasonable that it will make landfall in Egypt. But it is not certain until the lines are thrown from the dock at El Arish and the Amalthea is tied securely to the pier.
Even if Seif has some sort of clever plan in mind to get out of his situation, it is not clear if the crew and activists on board would go along with it. Seeing a flotilla of very serious Israeli gunboats a few yards away puts a different sheen on things. Not as easy to do something flamboyant when the threat of physical confrontation is palpable.
So most likely, the Amalthea will turn out to have been a tempest in a teapot… yet the waves it has created will continue to expand outward toward BP and who knows what else.
Unless things change again, it looks like the schedule for the next great conflict in the Middle East has not been interrupted. To get a feeling for what that schedule might be, see Iran War Conference.
July 16th, 2010 at 5:26 am
One can never know for sure what a deserted area looks like
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