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It does not officially provoke Israel (which still might be fuming behind closed doors,but who cares from the Italian POV) - because it’s just a rescue operation, right?
And if Meloni is lucky because the Israelis are doing something stupid (which is not out of the question), she gets a diplomatic card that is incredibly powerful.
Imagine the following scenario: Israel attacks the flotilla again, sadly three people die. Italy doesn’t even need to intervene to win the card. Because the chances that they then have very very detailed and irrefutable proof who did it is fairly high - their frigate is fairly capable.
So there is a good chance they could track the drones or even identify their mothership.
Which then would allow Meloni to blackmail basically half the world. Towards Israel (and to a limited amount the US) she could demand defence products or similar things at a bargain - or she will make the radar records public and then the EU would need to impose sanctions basically as it’s sadly a different thing to kill Palestinians in Gaza compared to kill Europeans in European waters in the mind of most politicians.
Towards the countries in the EU who are still somewhat ambivalent toward Israel(mostly due to opportunistic reasons)they could,behind closed doors, also threaten to release the records to shift public opinion in these countries even more and increase intra-EU sanction pressure.
And of course she could also sell out the records to Qatar for some cheap LNG deals.
It’s a smart move. That’s why.
At the minimum:
It calms down the protesters at home.
It does not officially provoke Israel (which still might be fuming behind closed doors,but who cares from the Italian POV) - because it’s just a rescue operation, right?
And if Meloni is lucky because the Israelis are doing something stupid (which is not out of the question), she gets a diplomatic card that is incredibly powerful.
Imagine the following scenario: Israel attacks the flotilla again, sadly three people die. Italy doesn’t even need to intervene to win the card. Because the chances that they then have very very detailed and irrefutable proof who did it is fairly high - their frigate is fairly capable. So there is a good chance they could track the drones or even identify their mothership. Which then would allow Meloni to blackmail basically half the world. Towards Israel (and to a limited amount the US) she could demand defence products or similar things at a bargain - or she will make the radar records public and then the EU would need to impose sanctions basically as it’s sadly a different thing to kill Palestinians in Gaza compared to kill Europeans in European waters in the mind of most politicians. Towards the countries in the EU who are still somewhat ambivalent toward Israel(mostly due to opportunistic reasons)they could,behind closed doors, also threaten to release the records to shift public opinion in these countries even more and increase intra-EU sanction pressure.
And of course she could also sell out the records to Qatar for some cheap LNG deals.
It’s a clever move.
I don’t think most people are that stupid