If the reports from international and Australian journalists are correct, and I believe they probably are, then Israeli military people aboard gunship helicopters and with support vessels boarded whilst armed with automatic assault weapons, a ship in international waters, and that is piracy.
There has been video of the boarding in which the Israel military drop down from the gunship on ropes with guns in their hands onto the deck of a peace envoy headed for the coast, but still in international waters, their mission to deliver aid supplies and make the world aware of the unbearable hardship the Israeli (and more recently Egypt) Blockade is forcing upon civilians in Gaza, particularly women and children.
Reports are that there are 19 who have been shot by Israeli military personnel and of course the Israelis are claiming only 9.
There is no doubt that the Israelis went out to the ship with the intent to make an example or at the very least an incident that would deter others from doing the same.
The video is said to show soldiers dropping to the deck and being mobbed by protesters who used deckchairs and metal objects even sticks to try and force the soldiers to rethink the boarding, apparently even throwing one pathetic soldier overboard.
I have received some very nasty emails responses to my previous blogs about the Israel war on its neighbour, and have had accusations of anti semitism, of purporting a hate crime, and even of using this issue to attack a local person, all of which I strenuously deny, and to that end i removed each comment as they came and did not reply to the emails. However I defend my right to take a position as an independent observer, and report stories as they occur and unfortunately they seem to occur more about Israel attacking Gaza than the other way around.
I have to say I believe Israel's sinking to this new low, an act of international piracy, surely must have the USA looking to withdraw some of its military backing that makes the Israeli attacks on Gaza seem like Godzilla stepping on an ants nest.
28 comments:
One rule for them and one rule
for the rest of the world. The
fact is Israel still treats the
rest of the world like the Gen-
tiles, they still believe they'
are God`s chosen race and they
will go on believing that till
doomsday. And the Israeli mili-
tary thinks it can kill who it
wants, invade anywhere it wants,
all because the people who make
up the Israeli armed forces think
they are a special human being.
Since 1948, every Israeli who
has been born in Israeli has
been taught to treat arabs as
second class citizens who are
not as good as them. Until the
media holds the Israelis to
account for being blatantly
elitist in the extreme and
treating their arab neigh-
bours with contempt, then
the Israelis will continue
to think it is OK to board
ships like pirates in Inter-
national waters and make a
mockery of the Geneva Con-
vention which ironically
was instituted mainly in
response to the atrocities
which the Jews suffered at
the hands of Hitler in the
second world war.
I saw this on the news and couldn't believe that the protestors or Aid convoy people had to defend themselves from being boarded by armed attackers with only stciks and plastic chairs.
I also note that the USA really didn't have too much to say about it, really!
Without the backing from the USA Israel might have to pull back out of the illegally taken gaza strip and actually use diplomacy instead of bullying and military attacks.
The area is blockaded, a blockade that is maintained by Egypt and Israel, if you are going to run a blockade it doesn't matter if you are in international waters and get boarded, the blockade runners are the pirates. They were offered an alternative that would have still gotten the aid through but they chose to run the blockade. The one rule for them and one rule for the rest of the world is used against Israel because anything they do to defend themselves is condemned. They build a fence and are condemned because they are expected to care for the very people attacking them. Israelis get killed it's "oh well", if a terrorist gets killed Israel is condemned. It isn't Israel thinking they can do what they want, it is Israel sick of everyone thinking they have to take whatever is dished out. They give ground, they make concessions, they use diplomacy and they are still attacked and still vilified. There could have easily been a Palestinian home-state in place but it is the Palestinian leadership that doesn't want it choosing to continue to continue the terrorism and receive the funding for it. If the Palestinians lay down their arms it will mean the end of hostilities, if the Israelis lay down their arms it will mean the end of them.
The blockade is to stop the smuggling of weapons through to terrorists. The captain was ordered to another port with assurances that the humanitarian items would be delivered but he refused. Scared of being caught with weapons? It's funny the type of people who go against Israel and in support of the militants in that area given that the militants would have no hesitation in killing them if it suited them, it's not like the militants will reward them and thank them in their prayers before they go to bed.
PS: the Geneva Convention was instituted before the second world war and didn't stop the atrocities and do you really think any of Israels defensive actions anywhere near compare to the Holocaust?
PPS: attacking a blockade designed to stop smugglers is an act of aggression and illegal
PPPS: The Geneva Convention only applies to war time, no war has been declared except by rogue elements like the blockade runners who were looking for a fight. If they weren't they would have gone to the alternative port Israel asked them to go to.
PPPPS: No where in the Geneva Convention does it say you have to sit back and allow yourself to be exterminated
The atrocities against the jews
in mainland Europe started long
before the second world war, OK
i was wrong about the time that
the Geneva Convention become in-
stituted, but the moral of the
story is that Israel attacked
a boat load of people without
provocation in international
waters. That`s an act or war,
whether or not the Geneva Con
technically views it that way.
And as far as the comment above
says that the Geneva Convention
was in place before the atroci-
ties of World War 2, the fact is
jews were being persecuted by the
germans long before 1939. Karl
Marx, the founder of communism
was not a german in reality, he
was a jew. Most of the propogan-
da which Karl Marx composed, much
of it as an editor of a german
newspaper, was in opposition to
the anti-semitism present on the
mainland of Europe a hundred years
before World War 2 even started.
I know the atrocities against the Jews predate the second world war, I was just saying the Geneva convention didn't stop the atrocities against Jews. Your point about Jewish persecution actually going over quite a few hundred years could show you why now the Jews are actually defending themselves because when they didn’t defend themselves during the holocaust millions of them were wiped out. Given that and the persecutions over time I reckon the Jews are actually being quite restrained given the double standard that is applied to them like your claim about the blockade being illegal because it is in place to stop arms being smuggled to militants and that is an acceptable use of a blockade.
PS: Due to the reasons and purpose for its existence this particular blockade is legal so blockade running in this case is illegal and Israel is well within their rights to stop smuggling as any nation is.
Bobby, . . .the thing is that whenever AID SUPPLIES are dropped into Israeli ports, barely anything survives the "inspection" process, and there for nothing gets into Palestine.
The boarding of that ship was cowardly by armed soldiers who opened fire on activists who were simply repelling them legally in open waters, they had not crossed the line of the blockade and still had enough water to turn away (even though their aim was to make a point by running the blockade)
It's easy to sit on the fence and say because of the holocaust we must allow the State of Isreal to defend it's position by trying to do what was attempted on them, killing off the palestinians, and making their women and children suffer on a daily basis until they die out.
Unfortunately Bobby, you omit to mention resolution 242 from the UN which is agreed to by the required number to be valid and only the US and Israel were against it and several others abstianed from supporting it, but that resolution clearly shows that Israel are continuing to illegally occupy and extend the area which they do into Palestine and also continue to bulldoze homes of palestinians and clear hundreds of acres in Palestine for their own settlements, which they then claim to be defending against the original owners of the land.
Resolution 242 clearly shows that Israel does not have global support for the blockade, nor does it have for it's constant use of heavy military attacks in reply to what they call terrorism but what the palestinians call a fight for their life and their land.
Once Isreal kills off the last Palestinian, will you then be happy?
Israel isn’t expanding, they are backing off. They moved out of many of the occupied territories and moved their citizens out. That fact alone damages the credulity of your comment. And you can quote whatever resolutions you want, they always depend on Israel backing away and giving ground. Please note every truce and every cease fire has been broken by the Palestinians. Israel makes the effort and is paid back with rocket and militant attacks, they try and defend themselves and are condemned for doing exactly what everyone else would do in similar circumstances. Most of the so called aid doesn’t get through because it is contraband. Don’t forget that Egypt is a party to the blockade so they to are also stopping most of the so called aid. Do you really expect Israel to sit back and allow items that can harm Israelis to get through? If your neighbour was importing items to harm you and you could stop it would you let a lot of double standards and pointless speeches stop you from protecting yourself? And I am not saying that Israel should be allowed to make Palestinian women and children suffer because of the Holocaust, I never advocated that so stick to what I have said. And the ‘activists’ ran a legal blockade, if they are so for peace where are they when an Israeli child is killed? Helping the killers of the child perhaps? The only people making the Palestinian women and children suffer is the Palestinian leadership themselves. Enough money has been pumped towards the Palestinian cause to allow all of the Palestinian people live a life of luxury for a quite a few generations and yet somehow the average Palestinian still lives in squalor. Billions have been directed towards Palestine. Explain to me why the Palestinian people live in squalor when there has been enough money pumped in to the areas recognized as Palestinian to make everyone wealthy beyond all dreams.
PS: Argue from a factual stand point. Your argument will go further because on current form anything you say I can disprove because you are so transparently wrong. Nowhere do I suggest wiping out the Palestinians so you have no reasons to suggest otherwise. You’d only do so to try and bolster your flawed argument. And if Israel wanted to kill all the Palestinians they would have already done so. They haven’t. Why? Because they are trying to find a fair and peaceful solution even though everyone else around them isn’t.
Sorry Bobby, you haven't given one bit of proof to back any of your propaganda, it's just bullshit.
So you are saying that everyone in the world is wrong and you & Israel are right? I don't think so.
Israel is deliberately forcing Egypt to follow this blockade by refusing to allow free trade and use of transport corridors, egypt has been ever sinc ethe blockade started the source of every contraband item for the Palestinians, including cars, fridges and food, even animals.
When you start to haev rational thoughts and coherent ones that actually back up your arguement, maybe you'll not appear to be a racist palestinian hater like you do now. You're the worst kind of hater actually, because you don't have to prove your bullshit, you just keep sprouting it and hope that amount of it will stop replies contradicting the biased, racist and ill informed rubbish you say.
I don't expect a reply from you, and I think even Israeli's would eb embarrassed by your lack of concern for other humans who deserve to live without being constantly attacked with fighter jets, tanks, gunships and bulldozers just because a few kids threw stones.
Go back under your rock, you bigot.
I don’t think it’s a matter of you not expecting to hear from me as opposed to not wanting to hear from me because you’ll be proven wrong every time. Where am I wrong? You say I offer no proof while offering none yourself followed by the all encompassing accusation of racism and bigotry. Nothing I have said follows the pattern of bigotry. It’s more a matter that it doesn’t go along with your point of view and you have no realistic rebuttal so you resort to the all purpose accusation of bigotry in the hope that somehow you won’t have to back it up and with that I cannot respect your opinion. No one else here is panicking and calling the opposing view racist, everyone else is relying on the points they are putting forward. How is asking why the Palestinians still live in squalor bigotry? The answer of course is it’s not. You just can’t counter it so you cry racist. Offer some facts yourself and practice what you preach.
Look Bobby, I've given you United Nations Resolution 242, a difinitive sign that the world as a whole is tired of Israel's lack of maintaining it's own borders at the correct place and all you've given is Ad Hominem rot, generalisations akin to racism, actual racism, and bigotry.
You've made broad statements wothout a shred of credable substantiation and you've made claim to some of the worst propaganda as being true.
I think you need to have a long hard look at why you're such a hater, because if Israel would actually try, and it's going to be a generational thing, there could eb a solution to the problems there, but they have to stop raising palestine first, and rightly so after all they do claim to be the chosen people, they should set an example.
Regardless of whether you want to say hater or bigot you’re still relying on insults to shore up your argument. Saying I hate one group when I haven’t said anything of the sort is again, you trying to shore up your argument. You saying I hate someone is just you saying it. As I said before stick with the facts and leave the cheap name calling out of it.
As for Resolution 242 of 1967 it doesn’t mention the Palestinians, it was rejected by the PLO until 1993 and no where does it say Israel cannot defend itself. Hardly definitive of anything. Also nowhere does it say the whole world is sick of Israel. And you saying the whole world is sick of Israel is hardly evidence that it does. Practice what you preach and offer some proof.
Here is some proof to back my argument, I previously mentioned enough money has been pumped towards the Palestinian cause to allow all of the Palestinian people live a life of luxury yet the average Palestinian still lives in squalor. It wouldn’t be enough to allow them to live in luxury for several generations as I initially said but it definitely would help the Palestinian people yet it was diverted away from them.
I also mentioned that Israel is backing off from occupied territories which was all over the media at the time. Here are two links for you to have a look at.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/60minutes/main582487.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html
Spare me the cheap name calling. I have already put forward my argument and I’m not going to keep repeating it just because you think of new names to call me.
This comment hasn`t got any
thing to do with those of
Bobby or his opposing anon
commenter, but just for the
record, Palestine by & large
is a christian stronghold. It
is not a predominantly muslim
territory which the media por-
trays is as being to further
the pro-Israeli cause. Hamas
has most probaly brainwashed
a lot of decent Palestinians
into converting to Islam so it
can bolster its powerbase with-
in Palestine. But believe not
the media, Palestine is not an
arab muslim country, it is an
arab christian country by any
accurate definition. 90% plus
of Israeli`s are Judaists who
have absolutely no respect for
christianity. Hamas is made up
of evil terrorist thugs, that
is not deniable, but Israel is
effectively running an anti-
christian war against the
occupied territories with
the help of propoganda from
a so-called pro-christian
media which is in reality
being run by the jewry.
Well Bobby, you're way too smart for me, for the life of me I can't see any logic or proof of the any of the anti Palestine / pro Israel spurious prose you have put up as an arguement.
You're very clever, you must be because I guess if you can hide your facts that well but still maintain that they are there, you're a genius.
Google Israeli's war on Palestine and see how many youtube video's there are smuggled out with disgusting images of brutality and oppression rather than defence of the declared state.
The point is mute with you because you aren't open munded, but there really are two sides to the story, the real side and the made up one that Israel wants you to hear, and the one you have chosen to accept over reality.
You have to ask yourself some questions, Why can't palestine Israeli inhabitants own property? why can't Palestine inhabitants of Israel vote? why can't palestine Israeli's hold manegment positions in government or finance? why is it that every time there is a military strike on Palestine the first thing to go is the TV stations. Could it be that it is to prevent real footage of events getting out to the world? Why is it that Isreal deaths are insignificant compared to Palestinien deaths? why are the numbers of Palestinien children killed in Israeli offencives higher than Israeli deaths? If the palestiniens are truely the aggressors and the terrorists you claim where is the video of it?
The thing is the question list just gets longer, and yet still there are no answers, and no proof from you to back any of your cleverly disguised facts (that totally escape me )
If you actually have any answers, could you make them plain enough to understand, because as yet I don't see the proof you are claiming to have to back up facts you put forward (I don't know where they are either).
OK guys, enough, if you have some fact by all means let's see it, because this is going nowhere.
Israel is continuing to defy resolution 242, which keeps coming around and has been ratified again in it's current form, they are also continuing to move into gaza, building settlements and raising Palestinien buildings sometimes with people still inside.
Those are facts, they are documented and they have video on youtube supporting them.
I won't accept further slanging in this thread, thanks.
Nice try Bobby, once again, nothing new in this comment just more of the same.
Bobby, people are allowed to formulate their own opinion, and I am not asking you to agree with mine, but I am asking you to forget the repitious whinging about how i run my blog and the repeating of how the people on the ship were at fault. We know they were, if they weren't there there would have been no incident. However once again for your benefit, that didn't warrent a need for Israeli military to open fire and kill and wound aid activists to prove their resolve on their inhumane blockade.
It also does not show any humanity toward women and children in Gaza who take no part in either retribution geurilla attacks or by the elected government's mititaria, the punishment of them shows that Israel is at was with Palestine and therefor they cannot use the term terrorist and yet to get world sympathy they continually do.
It's time for peace, and the only road to achieving it is through an Israeli government policy not continued military aggression.
Nice try, yeah. Whatever you reckon there. The repetition is from your side, you cling to Resolution 242 as if it is some form of gospel that encompasses all. You ignore the counters put to you by simply repeating your point and only look at the whole picture when forced to. Don't you find it strange that the leader of the PLO was a billionaire while the Palestinian people starved? Do you deny that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in the name of peace only to be attacked again? Those facts were put forward and no counter was offered except for the cries of '242' which was already shown as flawed. How does resolution 242 disprove that Yassar Arafat died a billionaire or that Israel pulled out of Gaza? And what about other Arab nations treatment of the Palestinians? They're not exactly humane to them. I backed up my claims with two links to credible news sources, that's two more than anyone else offered.
Look Bobby, as I said, you've said all this before, and now you're saying it again, but that's not wat the Blog story was about anyway.
I have had several from anon as well, and you just can't keep going with this line that isn't getting anywhere. The idea of debate is to present fact, and rebut,is it not? and you and anon have not been doing that you've both stalled on very limited information.
Isreal cannot continue to be the victim while they use military might against kids throwing stones, etc. If the Israelites are truely the chosen people they can do a lot better than they are at assisting the peace process, so why aren't they? And you also have to ask yourself if their god would be happy with their little effort which saw them become the phone sex capital of the world just a few short years ago.
Bobby best make that one your last on this thread, because without new info, they're gone ok.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/fury-follows-deadly-attack-20100531-wrh5.html?autostart=1
Try this for size.
http://media.smh.com.au/world/world-news/israeli-forces-storm-aid-ship-1527568.html
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-fails-to-condemn-israels-lethal-attack-on-aid-flotilla-20100602-wx0g.html?autostart=1
Sobering stuff. and Bobby won't like it. :)
http://www.smh.com.au/world/there-was-a-lot-of-blood-in-the-stairwells-and-then-the-sound-of-ammunition-hitting-metal-changed-again-20100604-xknm.html
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