In the late 1980s, during what came to be known as the Second Palestinian Intifada, I was out on the road south of Jerusalem one day, on my way to cover the afternoon's rioting. Just outside Bethlehem I noticed a group of Palestinian teenage girls coming out of their school. The girls began hurling angry insults at a nearby unit of Israeli troops and then started throwing stones at them from a carefully prepared ammunition pile.
The Israelis responded by revving up their motors and racing their jeeps towards the girls who first ran away, then quickly resumed their torrent of abuse and rocks. Eventually the Israelis opened up with tear gas canisters and one or two IDF boys fired off some rubber bullets.
The girls began shrieking in terror. Three of them took refuge alongside my "PRESS" marked car.
"See what they do to us," shouted said one of the girls in English! "Tell the world to make them stop!"
Perhaps it was naive of me, but I turned to her and said, "maybe if you stop throwing stones at them, they'll stop shooting at you." To no avail.
I thought of that 20-plus-year-old incident this morning when I heard about the events off the shores of Gaza aboard the Turkish ferry the Mavi Marmara.
No one likes to see needless death and injury. But let's not mistake it. While I'm sure there were some well meaning souls aboard the ship, the so-called "humanitarian flotilla" to Gaza was primarily a deliberate Islamist political provocation aimed at breaking the Israeli-Egyptian security blockade of Gaza and embarrassing Israel -- no matter what the cost.
Cypriot authorities had wisely refused to allow the flotilla to set sail from its shores. Israeli authorities had clearly warned the flotilla days ago that it would not allow any of its ships to land anywhere in Gaza -- which is sealed to make sure that arms do not arrive for the Hamas and other terrorist groups that rule there to use against Israel and its population -- something that Gazans have been doing since Israel withdrew from that wretched stretch of land in 2005..
In fact the Israelis had announced several times last week that if the convoy of six ships would divert to the Israeli port of Ashdod, Israel would allow it to offload its aid shipments and then after inspection (to insure they didn't include military contraband) would facilitate their direct delivery to Gaza and its people -- just as Israel allows 10 to15,000 tons of humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza each week.
Five of the six ships agreed. But the sixth, the Mavi Marmara, ignored Israeli warnings. it was clearly looking for a fight. Small wonder. Like much of the flotilla, the Turkish ship was controlled by militants of IHH, a Turkish relief fund with a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation. In addition to legitimate philanthropic activities, IHH supports radical Islamic networks, including Hamas. It also has had ties to global jihad groups.
When Israeli marine and naval units tried to board the Mavi Marmara from helicopters , militants on the ship responded by attacking them violently with poles, iron rods and firebombs, threw some of the Israelis into the sea, tried to lynch one, stole weapons and according to some reports, actually opened fire. The Israelis eventually opened live fire themselves and we know the rest .
In the days ahead, we will hear another outburst of enthusiastic outrage against Israel - just as we did when Israel attacked Gaza last December to defend itself against Palestinian rockets. Some of my Huffington Post colleagues have already begun. But please remember who caused this incident and why they caused it. And imagine how U.S. Marines would have reacted had they been attacked by a flotilla of foreign vessels trying to break an American imposed blockade.
When will the agony end? When Hamas and other Palestinians renounce their sworn goal of destroying the Jewish state and agree to live in peace and prosperity with their Israeli neighbors. No blockade of Gaza will be needed then.
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.
Clearly words which you have no concept of meaning or application.
Thanks for showing us all who signs your paycheck.
Hamas as usual has themselves to blame for getting more people killed or injured.
Well the rest of your post makes no sense either.
Don't flatter yourself that pulling the usual stunt of 'all you israel haters' has any worth.
"During the party meeting Finkelstein was expelled from ranks of Soviet Communist party. The blow was unbearable, he was devastated. At night he suffered from nightmares. It was dreadful dream. Israel and Russia were at war and at the end Israel won. In the victory parade Golda Meir was galloping on a white stallion along ranks of Jewish armed forces appealing to victorious military. Jews, what do you want now? Do you want Russian treasures? No, was a thunderous response. Do you want Russian women? No, we have better girls our own. Do you want Russian land? No was a response. Baffled, Golda appealed to Jews last time. So, Jews, what do you want? There was enthusiastic cry in unison of all Jews. We want Finkelstein reinstated back to the party. "
As you see here people are tormented by duplicity of their allegiance. They rooted out from their culture and religion.
An attack on a sovereign nation's ship in international waters, is not piracy? and the deaths that result, not murder?
Clearly 40 years of so-called "global news work" are hardly credentials for impartiality!
Mankind has a universal right to oppose OCCUPATION, including stealing of land, water, resources, bulldozing of homes and orchards, walls, apartheid, blockades, humiliation, aerial bombardment, racism, collective punishment, and so on. If you put your hands around somebody's neck and strangle them you should not be surprised if they fight back. You can always claim the person is a terrorist for trying to fight, or fighting "dirty", to remove your hands from around his neck, but at the end of the day it is your strangle hold that is the problem. Just keep saying "OCCUPATION", maybe in front of a mirror, enough times until it overcomes your denial.
OCCUPATION. OCCUPATION. OCCUPATION. OCCUPATION. OCCUPATION. OCCUPATION....
Maybe you should try repeating "HAMAS CONTROLS GAZA" until it overcomes your denial.
(If Hamas had spent the last five years working to improve the lives of its people, instead of working to make the Israeli's lives more difficult, we might be in a very different place right now.)
Way too late and of no value.
To more objective people, the truth is valuable even when it goes against their preconceived notions.
Secondly, like most Israeli leaders, you fail to understand the concept of proportionality. The young girls in your first story were throwing stones, propelled by teenage arms. The IDF's response was to fire tear gas and rubber bullets, both of which through unfortunate examples have proven to be fatal. Even if we do not consider the fact that the Israeli Navy had no right to board the flotilla, as the boat was in international waters, the killing of so many activists, of whom none were wielding lethal firepower, is clearly disproportionate.
There is no moral compass when inhumanity drives.
Israel had a choice as well. They could have chosen to let the humanitarian aid reach the Palestinian people of Gaza. It would have been the right thing to do.
You know this, but you will ignore it, because 100 percent of what you type is anti-Israel.
And Hamas can decide to stop firing rockets almost daily on Israeli citizens and release the kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Alas we live in a real world where these things don't seem to happen and Israel need to defend itself, partly by enforcing a blockade around the Gaza strip.
Take it you thought the word sounded good.