This is a big big big big fuck up (yet again I find myself saying this at the moment, its getting tiring)
Israel had a lot of options as to how to deal with this ship, and chose basically every wrong option that was available to it. The fact it was in international waters really isnt helping things right now.
In terms of PR strategy its hard to think of how the israelis could have done things any worse than they did with this incident. They knew this boat would not stop, and that it was full of people wanting to cause trouble, there were many other ways of dealing with the situation. The CGS of Naval Command needs to resign for this, as does defence minister Barak (ofcourse he wont, he loves power too much), the clean up operation in PR terms is as bad as this oil spill in the gulf of mexico...it may take considerable time to fix the diplomatic relationships that have been lost because of this.
the most jerking thing about it, is that bunch of dickheads better known as Hamas will be laughing themselves to sleep tonight, knowing 90% of the political universe now thinks they are the injured party....I feel like bashing my head against a wall.