UPDATE: Commentator Moshe Yaroni has it exactly right. This is Israel's Kent State. Also see Brad Burston in Ha'aretz.
The usual suspects are already rushing to offer the usual double talk to defend what Israel did. Here is typical claptrap from the Israel-is-always-100%-right American Jewish Committee. Also AIPAC and its media acolytes are out there to tell us that the Israelis are the victims, and if you don't think so, you are an anti-semite. Or a self-hating Jew/
But the massacre happened in international waters and the attack was launched by military commandos against civilians trying to relieve other civilians suffering under an illegal blockade.
There is only one spot in this country where the lobby will be able to sell the story that the humanitarian flotilla was the aggressor and that Israel is the victim here. That is the United States Congress.
By Wednesday, your favorite liberal Democrat (let alone Republican) will be mouthing the talking points AIPAC distributed this morning. Don't let them get away with it. Get to Schumer, Boxer, Van Hollen, Grayson, Weiner, Hoyer and the others before they embarrass themselves by defending the indefensible.
For America's sake, for the sake of the people of Gaza, and for the sake of the good Israelis who hearts are broken by the latest crime done in their name, we need to make Congress understand that America and justice -- and, yes, the survival of the State of Israel -- needs to come before the demands of AIPAC. Enough is enough.
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Original post
The word from Israel is that Rahm Emanuel invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington for a kiss-and-makeup session this week. It will happen Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Washington the word is that Obama will ease the pressure on settlements and the strangulation of Gaza to keep pro-Israel donors to the Democratic party writing checks for the November election.
I certainly don't know what will happen. However, given that nothing has changed since Bibi's last visit, any demonstration of love from the administration will be an proof that US policy is dictated by campaign contributions.
Obama needs to read the United Nations' latest report about how Israel continues to deepen its blockade of Gaza and is now ready to go to war with a humanitarian flotilla heading to Gaza to provide relief.
And then, of course, is General Petraeus' warning (speaking for the Pentagon) that Israel's occupation policies endanger US troops. These things matter. Not campaign contributions.
One last point: Israel is in trouble. At the present rate, the remarkable accomplishment that is Israel will be lost because the right (i.e, Netanyahu, AIPAC, etc) prefers the settlements, smashing Gaza and building in Arab East Jerusalem to Israel itself. So it's for Israel's sake, too, that the President must not yield to the pleas and blandishments of Netanyahu and his cutouts. As for the donors, tell them US foreign policy is not exchanged for campaign contributions.
Bottom line: unless Bibi is announcing a change in policy, a cold shoulder should is all he deserves
from us.
Pro-Israel? Support an end to the occupation NOW. Anti-Israel? Stick with the status quo (AIPAC, Netanyahu, etc).
Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjmediamatters
Brad Hirschfield: Mourning, Not Politicizing, Gaza Flotilla's Dead and Wounded
What matters today, at least in any conversation which claims to be driven by spiritual or religious sensibilities, is the sadness at the loss of life and continued suffering on both sides of this conflict.
Ahmed Rehab: Israel Gaza Attack: Do Actions of the 'Jewish State' Represent Jewish Values?
Israel's failure is not a failure of Jewish values. If anything, it's a failure to apply Jewish values.
Iran captured UK soldiers in their territorial waters, they did not kill them, they fed them and released them.
I can see your correlation, since israel wants to DESTROY Iran using the US as its proxy, then when israel commits genocide and war crimes it lessens its chance to have the US start a 3rd war on its behalf.
By I digress by playing into the distraction...
The more unpopular Israel is, the better position Iran is in.
(Of course the pro-Israeli jockeys would never admit that.)
PS- nice avatar.
My thought on the raid:
Israel failed to get the ships held in Turkey.
Israel knew exactly where the ships were at all times and where they were headed.
Israel chose to board the vessels at night in international waters.
Israel used commandos to take control of the ship.
The commandos were armed with lethal weapons and are highly trained in close quarters combat using hand to hand, knives or guns. The commandos are trained killers.
The ships were not carrying weapons and were a trap set for the IDF.
The IDF ran head first into the trap and acted exactly the way the organizers knew they would.
The IDF does not value a non-jewish life the same way it values a jewish life.
Israel's opponents do not have an issue sacrificing lives to make a political point.
How did the Israeli government not see this tragedy and the subsequent public outcry when they decided on a course of action?”
Yes, it was, in a sense, a trap.
And yes, Israel fell RIGHT into it– even though they had weeks to plan.
The full title is the "San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea", and so it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that this manual is only applicable when there is an "armed conflict" taking place i.e. no armed conflict = not applicable.
There is no armed conflict.
Hamas are not engaged in an armed conflict with the IDF.
The IDF is not engaged in an armed conflict with Hamas.
The last such armed conflict ended when Olmert called off Operation Cast Lead.
There. Is. No. Armed. Conflict.
So you simply can't look to the San Remo Manual to tell you who is criminally responsible for what happened on that Turkish ship because the one thing that makes the San Remo Manual applicable ("armed conflict") is missing.
The law you **do** need to look at is the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, and that document (which is L.A.W., unlike the San Remo Manual) clearly says that if you attempt to hijack a ship at sea then any injuries or deaths that result from this are the fault of those who assault the ship, and not those who are defending that ship from assault.
We need to take heed that we do not do anything against the nation of Israel.
It would be a FATAL mistake of our government!
I read in this old book once about this guy who says we should always support Israel... no matter what!
Why would anyone think that a book written and re-written under the control of a corrupt elite over thousands of years has the answers to the world today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoH19b1TrZo
If you want to drag up the past, don't forget the massacre
of the Israeli athletes a few years ago...
You can always find something to liken something else to,
but not right to be selective.
During the interception of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF naval personnel with live gunfire as well as light weaponry including knives, crowbars and clubs. The demonstrators had clearly prepared weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
Your reasoning is absurd.
Secondly, I was stating above how the incident took place, i wasn't making up any reasons for what happened.
San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea
Section VI : Capture of neutral merchant vessels and goods
146. Neutral merchant vessels are subject to capture outside neutral waters if they are engaged in any of the activities referred to in paragraph 67 or if it is determined as a result of visit and search or by other means, that they:
(a) are carrying contraband;
(b) are on a voyage especially undertaken with a view to the transport of individual passengers who are
embodied in the armed forces of the enemy;
(c) are operating directly under enemy control, orders, charter, employment or direction;
(d) present irregular or fraudulent documents, lack necessary documents, or destroy, deface or conceal
documents;
(e) are violating regulations established by a belligerent within the immediate area of naval operations; or
(f) are breaching or attempting to breach a blockade.
E and F were violated by the flotilla ship Mavi Marmara.
http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=221580
Strawman argument re Israel violating laws and irrelevant to the subject.
What's wrong with the source??? Rosenberg doesn't refer to that source, read the article carefully. And secondly this is a blog by Rosenberg, who is always critical of Israel support groups, especially AIPAC and presents his personal interpretation of facts as "facts". I guess your not familiar with Rosenberg.
Turkey knows that IHH is an organization linked to Islamist terror.
These were NO peace activists, at best they were naive fools led into being human shields for the violent jihadists who were also on those ships.
"Turkish authorities began their own domestic criminal investigation of IHH as early as December1997, when sources revealed that leaders of IHH were purchasing automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups.43 IHH’s bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched, and its local officers were arrested. Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items,including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a “jihad flag.” After analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that “detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.”
http://www.diis.dk/graphics/Publications/WP2006/DIIS%20WP%202006-7.web.pdf
See blogger lj9283 below:
1. Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, says the flotilla was carefully inspected before departure:
"I want to say to the world, to the heads of state and the governments, that these boats that left from Turkey and other countries were checked in a strict way under the framework of the rules of international navigation and were only loaded with humanitarian aid."
2. According to Section 7 (which deals with International Waters) Article 97 of the UN Law of the Sea: "
No arrest or detention of the ship, even as a measure of investigation, shall be ordered by any authorities other than those of the flag State."
The flag of the ship was not Israeli.
3. Please tell me how one can differentiate between real guns and paintball guns when Commandos are repelling from the sky at 11:00 at night.
4. When one is provocatively attacked, as the Commandos did, one should expect resistance in force.
""The current flotilla, Ms. Berlin (one of the organizers) says, is carrying crucial things like cement, water purification systems, notebook paper, and wheelchairs – items Israel does not allow into Gaza. "
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0527/Israel-s-concern-Gaza-aid-flotilla-will-help-Hamas
And that's okay, but much can transpire on the way. All of this could have been avoided if those who were in charge of the Marmara allowed Israel to inspect the boats as the other five have.
Why people chose hostility over peaceful ways is beyond my comprehension.
Human shields? Technically speaking, wouldn't the boat had of been weaponized in order for there to be a need for human shields?
Your argument is ludicrous.
I know the answer to that question, and it's not "let's just let them dock and see what happens."
(No surprise there, coming from the man who, in an earlier post, equated criticism of the Israel government with anti-Semitism.)
Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator states: "No one believes that our small boat constituted a threat to Israel. We carry medical, reconstruction supplies, children’s toys. Our passengers included a Nobel peace prize laureate and former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed; at no time did we approach Israeli waters."
Our people on the ship reported live as the soldiers came onto the ship, and reported that soldiers were opening fire as they were coming onto the ship, and they were descending from helicopters. The Israeli soldiers opened fire. There was a live feed coming from the ship using satellite, video satellite, on satellite, that has been rebroadcast on CNN, on CNN Turk, on Al Jazeera, on Press TV, on numerous media outlets, not one image from this entire footage shows any of the passengers holding any kind of object that could be construed as a weapon.
The United States, the Europeans, and Turkey, and the other governments who had citizens on board should demand an independent investigation, not an Israeli investigation, an independent investigation.
This attack took place in international waters, not in Israeli waters.
The Israelis would like the world to believe that they were the ones being attacked as they assaulted these ships, but this is just Israeli spin.
It's a well known and well used practice, and it works great !
Just in case, here are the facts we should all ignore:
1) Israel made all the attempts to have the ships content screened and forwarded to Gaza.
2) It is legal to board a ship on international water if it has declared it will try to run a blockade.
3) Israel boarded the boat(s) with 0 lethal power, for heavens sake they had paint ball guns ...
4) Soldiers were met with brutal force and had to respond.
Besides those facts, you might not agree that the blockade is legal, that Israel is an occupier, that Israel is at fault for the global warming and that the easter bunny was killed by Jews for Mazos. I can not argue with hallucinations.
Keep lying, keep perpetuating the terible situation the poor Gaza people live in.
I mean, it's not like you could see Israel for the EVIL entity that it really is, so ask the Egyptians to grant access from Raffah... that would be too complicated and of course wouldn't serve the cause.
Oh wait, isn't the cause to help the poor people of Gaza with goods ? Surely Egypt wouldn't screen anything and simply grant access, no ?
[ Slim chance this message ever gets published here... but if so - kudos ]
If they boarded with 0 lethal force...how did the deaths happen?
Sidearms. They carried sidearms.
The rest of you post is just as uninformed/confused.
I did not abuse or used profanity, however I did not agree with the general idea of this article.
YEY! Free Speach !
It's great to hear only from those who agree with us !
Good bye ...
The allegation that the ship crew initiated violence is of no importance, neither the Turkish plot theory (a joke indeed) since the attacking a vessel in International Waters is a crime of piracy, included in the Laws of the Sea.
The headline over at Haaretz read "Israel Navy commandos: Gaza flotilla activists tried to lynch us".
I laughed so hard I fell off the couch. Israel can attack Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and anyone else that doesn't agree with their failed policies. They can hold 1 million plus humans in the biggest outdoor concentration camp called Gaza. They threaten anyone who opposes them with military action.The IDF can invade, bomb, white phospherus, kill, and maim and they are claiming THIS?
Let's see, when the Palestinains throw rocks at the IDF they are shot, killed, maimed, detained, tortured and killed. When the illegal settlers throw rocks, the IDF does nothing.
Now the IDF illegally boards a humanitarian ship at night and is met with resistence and they are claiming they are the victims? Ridiculous.
Israeli is becoming a parody of right-wing lunacy: the last refuge of discredited neoconservatives, supply-siders, extremists, and desperate hasbara.
"hey can hold 1 million plus humans in the biggest outdoor concentration camp called Gaza" - Israel has cleared Gaza. Israel enforces blockage LEGALLY according to INTERNATIONAL LAW, but why would you care ?... making Holocaust references is fun !
Israel gave them 2 options. You may not like them, but Israel is a state (which might be the real problem for you, so just say it): 1) Have Israel scan the goods. 2) Send them through Egypt.
Why didn't chose either f the options ? Could it be because they wanted to stir something ? Nah....
http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/2010/142381.htm
They don't care... as usual. Mr. Rosenberg explained it nice in the article and we have a proof now.
you are fanned I make that 3
Here are your "starving people of gaza"
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paltoday.com%2Farabic%2FNews-64161.html&sl=ar&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8