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and the State Department just released a statement saying they STAND BEHIND Israel's choice to raid the floating boat of idiots.
Official: US Will Stand with Israel - Political Punch
Another fake Israeli atrocity created by terrorist groups for TV and pushed through the mainstream media.....Nice try. Not this time......SINK THOSE BOATS and throw em posters of Arafat to float on.
Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states.
This was the first mistake of many by Europe and America who believe they can interfere in other countries and there will be no backlash.
Israel is as crazy if not crazier than the people they denounce as terrorists.
01/06/2010 Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi, who was on board the Marmara ship when it was raided by Navy fighters, held a press conference in Nazareth on Tuesday, in which she accused Israel of committing crimes during its takeover of the Gaza-bound aid ship. She called for an international inquiry into the incident.
Zoabi added, "It was clear from the size of the force that boarded the ship that the purpose was not only to stop this sail, but to cause the largest possible number of fatalities in order to stop such initiatives in the future."
She said the flotilla's participants did not have any violent intentions: "Our goal was to break the siege. We had no plans for a confrontation. Israel carried out a provocative military operation. Israel is used to doing as it pleases with the Palestinians. The main problem is not the ship, but the siege."
She also demanded the activists held in Beersheba be allowed visitation. "We also demand a UN inquiry commission probe the Israeli claims. This is an international issue, because the passengers were from different nations."
Of the raid itself, she said, "I entered the captain's room. He was asked to stop by the Israeli soldiers. He said, 'We are a Turkish ship.' We were 130 miles off. It was 11:30 pm. We saw four Israel vessels, they were at a distance because we were in international waters. At 4:15 am we saw the ships approaching. They were dinghies and choppers. At 4:30 am the forces landed quickly. I did not hear any warning from the ships, because noise was coming from the ships and the choppers. Within 10 minutes there were already three bodies. The entire operation took about an hour."
She denied any resistance from the ship's passengers. "There was not a single passenger who raised a club. We put on our life vests. From where I was standing, I didn't see any clubs or anything of the sort. There were gunshots, I don't know if they were live bullets or not. There were gunshots fired from the ships in our direction."
"A clear message was being sent to us, for us to know that our lives were in danger. We convened that we were not interested in a confrontation. What we saw was five bodies. There were only civilians and there were no weapons. There was a sense that I many not come out of it alive. Israel spoke of a provocation, but there was no provocation."
Zoabi was released to her home Tuesday morning after being questioned.
Shortly before the takeover, Zoabi said, "We are part of the Palestinian people. They are trying to break us. The ships took us by surprise and started to call out to us. For four years, no one spoke about Gaza. Only in this past week did the entire world get to the war crimes of Israel, a country that occupies and violates basic humanitarian rights."
GREEK ACTIVIST: ISRAELIS USED BULLETS AND ELECTROSHOCK
Moreover, a Greek activist told of the moment Israeli troops stormed the ill-fated Gaza-bound aid flotilla, using rubber bullets, tear gas and electroshock weapons to subdue those aboard. "Israeli troops jumped onto the boat around 0530 on Monday," Michalis Grigoropoulos said of the pre-dawn raid by Israeli forces.
Grigoropoulos was aboard the Eleftheri Mesogeio, smaller than the lead boat, the Mavi Marmara, which Israeli troops had attacked earlier. "They fired rubber coated bullets, tear gas and then used electroshock weapons on some activists," he told Skai television shortly after Israel deported him and five compatriots to Athens.
"An hour beforehand, at 0430 local time, we heard gunfire on the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara, the Israelis jumped from helicopters onto the boat," he said.
Israel is still holding hundreds of the 686 passengers they seized and took back to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where Grigoropoulos said he was kept incommunicado, denied access to a lawyer and made to sign papers he did not understand.
Grigoropoulos criticized "the wretched detention conditions at Ashdod (where) 500 people were packed in together" saying that "two Greek activists were beaten up" there by Israeli police. "They made me sign papers on my expulsion, without me knowing what was on the papers because I did not have the right to a translator, a lawyer or to communicate with my family," he said.
The Eleftheri Mesogeio's captain, Zaharias Stilianakis, who was among those returned to Athens, said that "after their assault on the boat, the commandos cut all means of communication."
GERMAN WITNESSES: NO ONE ARMED ON GAZA FLOTILLA
Three visibly shaken Germans who experienced the deadly raid by the Israeli military denied on Tuesday that anyone on board was armed. "The Israeli government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This is absolutely not the case," former Member of Parliament Norman Paech, 72, wrapped in a blue blanket, told reporters in Berlin. "This was not an act of self-defense."
His comments were backed up by two others on board the convoy when it was raided at dawn on Monday in international waters, MPs Inge Hoeger, 59, and Annette Groth, 56. "We felt like we were in a war, like we were being kidnapped," Hoeger said. "We wanted to bring aid to Gaza. Nobody had a weapon."
Al-ManarTV:: Released Detainees Deny Being Armed, Say Israel Used Bullets, Gas, Electroshock 01/06/2010
I really don't understand how any American could support these IDF boy touchers after what they did to our own sailors on board the USS Liberty. They killed 'em all. no survivors. This is our friend and ally? :wtf:
It would take some REALY strong zionist koolaid to get me to forget about all that but they do serve it wholesale for free on fox so I can maybe understand how some get suckered into it. Not me. I couldn't give two fucks about isreal.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday reiterated his country's condemnation of the Israeli raid on the humanitarian aid flotilla, calling the incident a "bloody massacre."
"They have to be punished for this action," Erdoğan told a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
Turkish PM Erdo?Ÿan says Israel 'must be punished' for raid on ship
1. Organize an emergency protest against Israel's attack on the humanitarian flotilla. Find events near you and post your event details by clicking here.
2. Contact President Obama at 202-456-1111 or send him an email by clicking here. Ask him to:
* Condemn Israel's attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and support an international investigation of it.
* Find Israel in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and immediately end all military aid to Israel.
* Pressure Israel to end its illegal blockade of the occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip.
* End U.S. support for Israel's illegal 43-year occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.
3. Request an emergency meeting with your Members of Congress during this week's Memorial Day recess. Many Members of Congress are in their home districts this week to meet with constituents.
We will be developing more materials for these meetings soon and posting them here.
4. Get the story out to the media. Use our talking points below, and for tips on how to engage in media activism, please click here.
* The Gaza Freedom Flotilla boats were attacked by the Israeli military in international waters, a clear violation of international law. The Israeli military killed civilians in international water, arguably a war crime.
* So far there has been a complete media blackout of the flotilla members. Why aren??t we hearing from those who have been attacked? Why aren??t media outlets making a bigger deal about Israel denying them access to those who have been arrested?
* The ships were boarded by an elite commando unit of the Israeli military, armed with heavy automatic weapons. Israel must be held responsible for this use of disproportionate force and for recklessly endangering the lives of all civilians onboard.
* The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was attempting to break Israel??s illegal and immoral siege of the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. These Palestinians have been denied rebuilding materials after Israel??s December 2008-January 2009 assault on the Gaza Strip, codenamed ??Operation Cast Lead.? In addition to killing more than 1400 Palestinians, Operation Cast Lead caused $2 billion in infrastructural damage, but Israel has consistently refused to allow rebuilding materials into the Gaza Strip. High-end medical supplies, as well as a revolving list of items that has included pasta, jam, and cardamom, have also been denied.
* This act of piracy in international waters, which has reportedly resulted in the deaths of as many as 19 activists, the wounding of 50-80, and the abduction of the Freedom Flotilla ships, is aided and abetted by U.S. military aid to Israel. In July 2008, the United States signed a contract worth $1.9 billion to transfer the latest-generation of naval combat vessels to Israel at U.S. taxpayer expense. Currently, Congress is in the process of appropriating a record $3.2 billion in military aid to Israel this budget year.
5. Learn more about the deadly impact of U.S. military aid to Israel and take action to end it by clicking here.
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation : Take Action
The Israeli military has killed at least three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a day after Israeli commandos killed 20 activists aboard six aid ships in international waters.
Medics in Gaza announced that the Palestinians were killed in northern parts of the strip on Tuesday, AFP reported.
The head of Gaza emergency services, Muawiya Hassanein, said the bodies were taken to a morgue in Gaza City.
Earlier in the day, Israeli forces killed two other Palestinians in Khan Younis.
The Israeli aggression against Palestinians comes one day after a raid on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, some 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza.
The bloody assault, carried out by Israeli naval commandos, left at least 20 people dead and dozens others wounded, provoking angry protests by governments, organizations and people across the world.
Israeli forces kill three Palestinians
How much kool-aid did it take to forget about the region's history, UN mandates on setting-up Israel as a nation, and exactly where the Palestinians came from, and why they were not welcome in their 'home' country. (there was no country...just secular tribal alliances)Quote:
Originally Posted by boaz
Hell...'Palestine' was, in the 1920's an insult.
From:Origins of Palestinian Arabs:
"No "Palestinian Arab people" existed at the start of 1920...
Until the late nineteenth century, residents living in the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean identified themselves primarily in terms of religion: Moslems felt far stronger bonds with remote co-religionists than with nearby Christians and Jews. Living in that area did not imply any sense of common political purpose.
Then came the ideology of nationalism from Europe; its ideal of a government that embodies the spirit of its people was alien but appealing to Middle Easterners. How to apply this ideal, though? Who constitutes a nation and where must the boundaries be? These questions stimulated huge debates.
Some said the residents of the Levant are a nation; others said Eastern Arabic speakers; or all Arabic speakers; or all Moslems.
But no one suggested "Palestinians," and for good reason. Palestine, then a secular way of saying Eretz Yisra'el or Terra Sancta, embodied a purely Jewish and Christian concept, one utterly foreign to Moslems, even repugnant to them.
From: History of Palestine and Palestinians
"It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of an Arab Palestinian nation was created and marketed worldwide. Jews come from Judea, not Palestinians. There is no language known as Palestinian, or any Palestinian culture distinct from that of all the Arabs in the area. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. "Palestinians" are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East. The great majority of Arabs in greater Palestine and Israel share the same culture, language and religion."
Anyway...That floatilla did not come un armed. They had a full compliment of hand-to-hand weapons, and the goal was to use them as such in a surprise attack on the team sent to search all incoming vessels. (it is a blockade, after all)
Next time, I'd recommend you know what the full context of the middle-east history, both recent and distant, before pretending to know the situation. Otherwise, you look like an under-educated left-leaning parrot. :jointsmile:
Rusty, next time I'd suggest you keep your lables to yourself, otherwise you sound like a fox news parrot. :jointsmile:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome
Yeah man, it does seem like there is a lot of Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc. fans here. Does not matter though because anything mainstream spouts out lies.Quote:
Originally Posted by boaz