The_Dunedan

In a close-quarters situation, where one side has guns, -both- sides have guns. A sidearm accessory which was popular all the way through WWII before falling out of favour (and now gaining re-acceptance) is the pistol lanyard: a length of rope or elastic or even steel chain fastened to the solider/policeman's belt and to the butt of the pistol itself. The idea, obviously, was to prevent the weapon being grabbed away from its' owner and used against him. Someone who grabs for your sidearm means to kill you with it. I have no no truck with Israel or their political/territorial designs, but the -13 commandos in question don't seem to have acted as anything other than professionals.

The problem lies in the fact that they -are- professionals: elite professional soldiers. Head-crackers, ass-kickers, and name-takers. You don't send this kind of person to interdict an unarmed flotilla of hippies. You send the Coast Guard and a few Deputies borrowed from the County Sheriff (or the local equivalent). If heads need breaking, they break 'em with sticks and sap gloves. If somebody gets legitimately life-threatening, they take a .38 to the forehead and take a dirt nap. You send in the likes of these commandos when you want people killed and toys broken and the wreckage deposited on the bottom of the Med without any signal or survivor getting off the boat. That's what they're best at, and sometimes that sort of thing needs doing. But you don't mix the two: you don't send cops to fight Kim Jong Il, and you don't send soldiers to arrest and prosecute petty smugglers, murderers and thugs.