itself, and nato thu operation sharp guard enforced this, had a blockade on shipments to yugoslavia. >> woodruff: is the real conflict whether israel had the right to establish the blockade in the first place? >> i think the ambition of the peace flotilla, so-called, is to basically denude israel of what it thinks it was guaranteeed in the 1993 oslow accords, the control of the external borders of gaza, and west bank. and their desires to have this gaza become an open port. the problem with that, again, is you could easily have a rearming of hamas, which caused a terrible conflict. tony, whom i love dearly, can call it what he wants, but the rockets that went into israel and the response of invasion of garza was not armed conflict. >> woodruff: professor d'amato, what about this question of whether the blockade is the principal barrier irritant here. >> well, first of all, i don't think-- i don't defend hamas' rockets against israel. in fact, i'm as opposed to that scenario as ruth is. as for the balkans. yes, there was a u.n.-sponsored blockade, but it was the most permal blockade y