https://www.frontpagemag.com/flotilla-falsehoods-or-lie-but-know-when-to-stop/
In the play “Woe From Wit” (Gore ot uma) by the Russian playwright Aleksandr Sergeevich Griboedov (yes, he has the same name and patronymic as Pushkin) the character Repetilov says to the play’s protagonist Chatsky “Vri, da znaj zhe meru,” which means “Lie, but know when to stop.” That line came immediately to mind when I read the pack of lies the flotilla flotsam and jetsam have been spreading in the media about how the Israeli sailors mistreated the Gaza Sumud Flotilla’s participants when they boarded their 47 boats and then put the pro-Hamas demonstrators on dry land, to be briskly processed and deported. More on those lies can be found here: “‘They dragged little Greta by her hair,’ Turkish flotilla activist claims – report,” Jerusalem Post, October 5, 2025:
Environmental and social activist Greta Thunberg accused Israel of subjecting her to harsh treatment following Israeli forces’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, according to a report by The Guardian.
An official who visited Thunberg in prison said she claimed that she is being held in a cell infested with bedbugs, with little food and water, the Swedish foreign ministry said in an email.
The email, which was disclosed by The Guardian, read, “The embassy has been able to meet with Greta. She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”…
The Swedish author of this email simply accepts Thunberg’s charges as true, when he ought to have said “Thunberg claimed….Thunberg claimed,” and not “she informed” and “she stated,”
Really, how likely is it the Israelis would have mistreated Greta Thunberg or any of the other flotilla participants? The international media were right there to record the moments when the boats, one after the other, were boarded. They filmed the proceedings; I saw myself a video on Italian television showing a sailor doing nothing more than placing a blanket on Great’s shoulders to keep her warm. The Israelis also could be seen distributing food and water. As to the bedbugs that Greta says “she suspects” caused her rashes, this is calumny. No evidence of bedbugs were presented by her or anyone else, and no other flotilla participants complained of them. It’s a story made up out of whole cloth for the media.
