I’m in the middle of writing about the Lod Airport massacre, in which twenty-six people were killed and eighty were injured by three Japanese gunman acting on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. I’m writing about how my family discovered the next day– 38 years ago this morning to be precise – that my sister had been shot in the leg. But I’ve been distracted by the Gaza flotilla disaster, which is unfolding as I write, and I want to put down a few thoughts before I hear about what Israel should have done.

This was always going to end badly – certainly from Israel’s point of view – once the activists refused to allow the cargo to be unloaded in Ashdod.

No doubt the inevitable inquiry will show that we could have handled it all very differently. But it has to be said clearly from the outset that this whole mission was a deliberately provocative act. The activists knowingly entered what is in effect a war zone. As usual, there was not even the slightest acknowledgement that there are two sides in this war, as evidenced by the fact that the activists’ concern for human rights in Gaza did not stretch to Gilad Shalit.

Despite the fact that my own family has been affected by terrorism, I do not believe in ‘my country right or wrong’. I am very concerned indeed about some of the things my country does, and I myself am an activist for many causes here in Israel.

But the aim of these activists was as much about provoking Israel as it was about providing humanitarian aid to Gaza. They thought they could sail wherever they pleased as though this was some kind of pleasure cruise. But as they have now discovered, our conflict with Hamas is deadly serious.