And indeed, five of the six ships headed for Gaza were diverted without incident to an Israeli port, where passengers and supplies were offloaded.
But before an almost surreal denouement, the incident diverted Prime Minister Ehud Barak, en route to Washington for talks with President Clinton, back toward Israel.
He kept his job.Mr Sarkozy seems to consider such incidents as froth, diverting attention from the real business of growth and jobs.
In its most recent report into the management of controlled drugs within the healthcare system, the Care Quality Commission noted that feedback from its drug intelligence network had unearthed "an increase in incidents involving healthcare staff diverting controlled drugs for personal use".
But let's not be too po-faced; this is a diverting read, full of larger-than-life characters and fevered incident.
"Chávez is using this incident to divert public attention from his internal problems," he said.
The incident temporarily diverted Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was en route to Washington for talks with President Clinton.
Northlink Ferries confirmed that one of its ferries, which had left Shetland and was heading to Aberdeen, had been diverted back to the incident.
While on the way to drop the man at a location at where he could be picked up by ambulance, the helicopter was diverted to the second incident.
Although Jackson spent the last six months defending herself against criticism for her "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl show, she appears to have gone on the offensive now, and has concocted a theory that the White House used the incident to divert attention away from the war in Iraq.
Under polarized light plane, the sample is anisotropic if it can divert the plane of incident light that is isotropic and does not deflect light.
