Like they don’t already have enough problems.

Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters — A Greek coast guard vessel escorted the ship The Audacity of Hope. Greece prevented the boat carrying U.S. activists from sailing as part of a Gaza-bound flotilla.

NYT

Greece, the country that is ever revered as the cradle of democracy, philosophy and pretty much the entirety of Western civilization (no oxymoron jokes, please), is having a tough year. A recent economic near-collapse, European bailout, the difficult passage of a raft of unpopular austerity measures and, of course, angry demonstrations, protests and bloody riots in the streets have tested the country’s fortitude. The fact that the world is still forcing its high school kids to read Plato’s “Republic” can hardly be of any solace right now.

Now Greece finds itself squarely in the middle of yet another unwanted international crisis as the home base for the flotilla that has launched a thousand accusations and recriminations, but so far, no actual ships.

The organizers of the group of eight ships now docked in Greek waters, which are carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from several countries, including dozens of Americans (among them, the novelist Alice Walker), announced plans to sail to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid in defiance of Israel’s naval blockade there. As of today, they have not. (Two more ships withdrew because of damage, reportedly the work of saboteurs. Last year, nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli forces on a similar mission.) After weeks of an international public relations war involving misinformation, condemnations, ominous warnings, video hoaxes, nautical sabotage and more, Greece announced on Friday that is was prohibiting the boats from sailing. The Coast Guard was forced into action when an American vessel called The Audacity of Hope left the harbor without permission and had to be turned back. A protest organizer complained that Greece was not within its rights to stop private ships from sailing.

Scott Sayare of The Times reported the latest on Friday, and quoted one activist, who described the situation this way: “It’s like they’ve moved the blockade from Gaza to Greece.”

(Original here.)