These clips help show why I put "'" around "Peace Activists".
Video embedded below.
Past related posts:
Berman Post: Bloody Clash Off Coast of Gaza When Activists Tried to Break The Blockade
Berman Post: Turkey May Send Navy Ships to Accompany Next 'Gaza Aid' Ship
Berman Post: Gaza Supply Ship 'Peace Activists' Actually Al-Qaeda And Muslim Brotherhood Members
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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@Ian Spencer Dubrowsky - If they wanted to send aid to Gaza Israel was more than willing to deliver it for them, after the shipment was screened for weapons. If they really did not think Israel would deliver the supplies, as they have countless times in the past, they could have asked Egypt to do it.
ReplyDeleteIf the Israelis expected the kind of violence that descended upon them before the first person managed to get two feet on the deck do you really think they would have played it the way they did?
How many people in Gaza have died as a direct result of the blockade; Jew or otherwise?
Could they have given it first to the Israeli's? maybe. If you consider the blockade in the first place, or gaza for that matter, an area within Israeli jurisdiction, for which Israel has the right in the first place to say what goes in and out of Gaza- which I don't think it is. Even if you do, Israel would, in the expected arbitrary and corrupt fashion, confiscate many things- like cinnamon, cement, cilantro, sage, jam, chocolate, French fries, dried fruit, fabrics, notebooks, empty flowerpots and toys, none of which are particularly useful in building Kassam rockets.
ReplyDeletethe Egyptian dictatorship has actually lifted their blockade, but again. the Point of the Flotilla was to draw attention to what Israel is doing, and insofar as that is true it was a success.
Your vision of what happened on the boat itself is skewed. Even what you put on the website if just the snippets of clips released from the Israeli government, of whom you like to carry water for. Actual testimony from people on the ship, such as journalists heavily contradicts the propaganda you are regurgitating. Notice that Israel has not released the whole video, why would that be if they are the "victim" I think what actually happened on the boat is besides the point (for one thing they could have disabled the boats a many number of ways- plus it is Israel who attacked the ships first- they are the ones who sent commandoes in not the other way around)
well the purpose of the blockade is not to kill Palestinians, it's as Olmert's foreign minister put it: "to put the Palestinians on a diet". It's a war crime, form of collective punishment for electing Hamas. I have these reports linked on my site if you want to actually know something instead of acting as some government's PR agent:
"the formal economy in Gaza has collapsed" (More than 80 UN and aid agencies [.pdf])
* "61% of people in the Gaza Strip are … food insecure," of which "65% are children under 18 years" (UN FAO)
* since June 2007, "the number of Palestine refugees unable to access food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water, has tripled" (UNRWA)
* "in February 2009, the level of anemia in babies (9-12 months) was as high as 65.5%" (UN FAO).
Also 45 percent of the population in Gaza is children, of whom you would also like to hold responsible for what Hamas does? From a strategic standpoint I think it is obvious that Israel hopes that the population of Gaza becomes crazy by the state of their living standards, and then wants to get rid of Hamas. Ironically this may be true, as Israel goes on starving people, the Gazans may get rid of Hamas- and replace it with something worse.
@Ian Spencer Dubrowsky - Do you think all blockades are illegal or is Israel just special? If, as you say, Egypt has fully lifted the blockade and the only point of the flotilla was to get aid to Gaza why not just send it through Egypt?
ReplyDeleteThe video speaks for itself. It shows that the Israelis were attacked the instant they were close enough for the people on board to hit them with pipes; and even a bit before that with projectiles.
"food insecure" - so what you are saying is that no one has actually starved to death, nor is anyone in the process of starving to death, but people still want to make Israel sound evil.
All blockades? I can think of few state imposed blockades that actually make sense from a moral, ethical and legal standpoint- South Africa for one in the 1980s (of which the Israeli government was resisting). The Khymer Rouge Regime in the 1970s- which was actually imposed by Communist Vietnam, and later ended in one of the few actually humanitarian invasions of a country I can think of. If we are talking about Israel's blockade on Gaza specifically then it is absolutley a crime and the only way you can think otherwise is if you are disregarding evidence because of your own ethnic prejudices (something You would think Jews would feel a special responsibility to avoid).
ReplyDeleteI don't think the only point of the flotilla was to get aid to Gaza, I think a part of it was to call international attention to Israeli atrocities, which as I have said, insofar as that's true, the flotilla was a success. Besides, to say that the blockade imposed by Israel has legitimacy because the dictatorship in Egypt does it too (the second largest recipient of U.S. aid) is insane and reveals a lack of understanding of how the blockade is actually impacting the lives of people
The video is propaganda. Not that it isn't actual footage, but that Israel has selectively released footage and so to draw any kind of conclusion of what happened on the boat is a farce and a practice in propaganda by you. In fact even accounts by israeli commandos themselves contradict your own conclusion such as "the instant they were close enough". Not to say anything about the accounts of the people on the boat, including journalists who say differently. But again I think what actually happened on the boat is besides the point considering that it is Israel who 1) actually sent armed troops with a green light to use live ammo on board 2) that this entire event wouldn't even be discussed if Israeli's insane blockade didn't exist in the first place.
"food insecure"- are you morally bankrupt, a total ideologue or just an anti-muslim bigot? I'm trying to ask you in the most polite way I can because to say that because no one is "starving to death" but just having babies with anemia should resolve Israel of a serious policy failure if not a crime against humanity because maybe someone, somewhere out there, (like countless human rights organizations and other independent observers?) want to make Israel sound "evil" is a terribly dumb statement by you.
Also I think it should be pointed out, that by the admission of Israeli officials themselves, the purpose of the blockade is not to keep weapons out of Israel.
ReplyDelete@Ian Spencer Dubrowsky - What do you think of this http://www.bermanpost.com/2010/06/israel-tries-to-deliver-flotilla-aid-to.html . Is that too Israel's fault?
ReplyDelete"But again I think what actually happened on the boat is besides the point considering that it is Israel who 1) actually sent armed troops with a green light to use live ammo on board 2) that this entire event wouldn't even be discussed if Israeli's insane blockade didn't exist in the first place." - the blockade was valid, the armed troops had their side arm with strict orders not to use deadly force unless they absolutely had to. They landed with paintball guns and were bet with weapons meant to kill and maim.