Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Israel needs to stop screwing with the rest of the middle east so we can get our boys home out of harms way.
We are it's biggest sponsor and we asked they not attack.
Why attack an aid convoy?
Why blockade a whole country to punish a tiny minority?
If Americans were disrespected on a daily basis like the Palastinians are we'd strike back too.
Then again nobody seems too upset 46 South Korean sailors just died in the china sea at the hands of a terrorist nation so I can see why folks say this os being blown out of proportion.
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Quote:
Originally Posted by eastbaygordo
Why blockade a whole country to punish a tiny minority?
Well, when the minority imports weapons to strike out at your border cities, and the minority regularly hops on the 420 bus to Al Quds and blows it up...I'm guessing it's Isralei's right and duty to protect their own borders.
You act as if this is a lone-wolf nation stealing territories and treating the poor, pitiful palestinians like dogs. You do realize the UN mandated Israel their own nation, right? Why do you think the Plaestinians don't want the same treatment? Why, when the ongoing offer of statehood arises, does Hamas do everything in their power to prove the palestinians don't deserve it? Perhaps because the other muslim interests in the region are the ones telling us what the Palestinians want. It isn't the Plaestinians going out and seeking weapons. It's the aggressor nations providing the weapons to the Hamas. Big difference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eastbaygordo
If Americans were disrespected on a daily basis like the Palastinians are we'd strike back too.
Cry me a river. Under this administration, Americans are disrespected on a daily basis, and it's getting worse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eastbaygordo
Then again nobody seems too upset 46 South Korean sailors just died in the china sea at the hands of a terrorist nation so I can see why folks say this os being blown out of proportion.
So the North Korean state is a terrorist organization, but not Iran, which is the majority stockholder in Hamas Securities Inc.? What's the distinction between the two...?
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
RT, I'm not saying Iran is good or a good influence. I'm dismayed the Palestinians chose to go to the extreme and put folks nobody the West can work with in charge since they all have blood on their hands, the fact the people are controlled by those we disagree with doesn't make Israel's abuse of civilians ok.
I mentioned South Korean deaths as that should be front page news too.
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Just five days after a brutal attack by Israel on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the Israeli military says its forces have seized another Gaza-bound aid ship, named Rachel Corrie.
"Our forces boarded the boat and took control without meeting any resistance from the crew or the passengers," an Israeli spokeswoman told AFP on Saturday.
"Everything took place without violence," the official went on to say.
The Rachel Corrie ship is now being towed toward the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, Press TV correspondent Yousef al-Helou reported.
The ship, which seeks to deliver 1,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to the besieged people of Gaza, had earlier refused Israeli calls to divert to its southern port of Ashdod.
Israeli officials had threatened to stop the Irish-owned ship from reaching the Gaza Strip.
The Rachel Corrie was also carrying dozens of activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former UN assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday.
The ship is named after Rachel Corrie, a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home in Rafah.
The new development comes as earlier on May 31, Israeli commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, leaving at least nine activists dead and more than 40 others injured.
Israeli forces 'seize Rachel Corrie'
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Six of the nine passengers killed in an Israeli raid on an aid convoy bound for Gaza were shot by a single Israeli commando, who is being considered for a medal of valour for saving his injured comrades as passengers attacked them with clubs, knives and even guns they had taken from downed Navy Seals.
Fresh details of the controversial raid, which has led to accusations of ??piracy? and ??state terrorism? being levelled against Israel, and which wrecked its strategic partnership with Turkey, emerged yesterday. There were reports that passengers who attacked the Israeli boarding party had been dragging three captured commandos into the hold of the ship when the shooting broke out.
And a British passenger who witnessed the deadly pre-dawn encounter in international waters said that some of the more peaceful activists on board had tried to protect captured Israeli soldiers being set upon by a hardcore of passengers, most of them believed to be Turks linked to an Islamic charity accused by Israel of having links to extremists.
The Israeli commando who killed six of the passengers of Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ferry owned by the IHH charity, said that he had been the last of 15 soldiers to rappel down the rope from an overhead helicopter on to the decks of the ship, which he described as ??a battlefield?.
Identified for security reasons only as Staff Sergeant S, he said that contrary to initial Israeli Army reports, the shooting had started within minutes as he and his comrades were set upon by a ??mob of mercenaries?.
As he landed on the ship??s top deck, he said he saw three of his superior officers who had landed ahead of him lying wounded, one with a bullet wound to the stomach, another shot in the knee and the third beaten unconscious.
Taking charge, he formed his men in a perimeter around the wounded, pulled his 9mm Glock pistol and opened fire on passengers he accused of shooting at the boarding party with guns taken off the first soldiers, who had been overwhelmed as they landed one by one.
??When I hit the deck, I was immediately attacked by people with bats, metal pipes and axes,? the sergeant recalled. ??These were without a doubt terrorists. I could see the murderous rage in their eyes and that they were coming to kill us.?
He said he saw one of the passengers holding a seized pistol to another Israeli commando??s head.
His accusation that his assailants were mercenaries was based on the large amounts of cash found on a number of the detained and killed passengers, although other officials have suggested the money was destined to be given to Hamas in Gaza if the convoy succeeded in breaking the Israeli naval blockade.
New footage released by Israel, and apparently filmed by activists before the boarding had started before dawn on Monday, showed an Israeli assault craft full of helmeted commandos pull alongside the Mavi Marmara, where men waving metal pipes and a chain leant overboard to ward them off.
Others were emptying fire hoses at the Israeli boat below, while a stun grenade was dropped into the vessel, exploding among the soldiers.
Some Israeli officials have accused the Turks who attacked them of links to terrorist groups, although it was unclear why, in that case, the soldiers of Flotilla 13, the elite Navy Seals unit involved in the operation, were briefed only to expect peaceful resistance.
The question also remained as to why the passengers, if they were indeed terrorists, did not use deadlier weapons against the approaching naval launches and helicopters hovering overhead.
Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 37, an activist from Hackney, was on the Mavi Marmara when it was stormed and described seeing an Israeli soldier taken down into the stairwell below the deck where the soldiers landed.
??I went down the stairwell and there was a massive crowd of people and lots of shouting,? she said, after being deported to Istanbul.
??They had got a soldier who had boarded the ship from the roof. There was a sense of ??My god, we??ve got an Israeli soldier??. I don??t think we really knew what we were going to do.?
??I saw a gun being taken. His gunbelt was removed and someone, I don??t know who, ran past me with the weapon and disappeared. They could have shot him but didn??t.? She said around 25 people were gathered around the soldier, who was held by his legs and stripped to his underwear as he was restrained.
??The women who were there were shouting ??Don??t hurt him??.? Ms Lort-Phillips denied he was beaten, but said: ??There were obviously some guys there who were extremely agitated by the situation. It is like you??d expect when there??s a fight between men.? As Israel desperately tried to limit the damage caused by the bloodbath on the high seas, the organisers of the aid flotilla said another boat was due to challenge the blockade and make for Gaza at the weekend.
The Rachel Corrie, an Irish-flagged ship, is named after a young American peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while trying to prevent the army from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza. Organisers said it was steaming straight for Gaza with Mairead Maguire, winner of an Irish Nobel Peace Prize, on board.
Israeli commando who shot six passengers in aid convoy in line for medal - Times Online
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
http://www.jewishjournal.com
Why Glenn Beck Hurts Israel
by MJ Rosenberg
On Thursday, Fox News?? Glenn Beck devoted a segment of his television program to attacking me for condemning the Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound relief flotilla.
I have no problem with that. But I can??t help but feel a little sad that the Israeli government??s most vocal supporters are now on the extreme right. (My discomfort on that score was only heightened today when Beck endorsed a book by a notoriously anti-Semitic author.)
It??s no surprise that liberals are not too enamored with Israel these days??not with the Netanyahu government firmly choosing occupation and blockade over negotiations with the Palestinians.
Does that mean that the extreme right is more pro-Israel than progressives?
Actually, it means the opposite.
Progressives oppose Israeli policies that would almost inevitably lead to Israel??s dissolution. There is hardly a mainstream political figure in Israel, dead or living, (including current Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert) who hasn??t evinced the belief that Israel cannot survive if it maintains the occupation of the lands taken in 1967. Netanyahu??s choice of confrontation over negotiating the end of the occupation appears suicidal.
But that is the policy supported by right-wingers like Beck. They don??t admire Israel because of its intrinsic qualities but because they view it as fighting the good fight against the people they most despise: Arabs and Muslims. They will happily fight to the last Israeli in a struggle they view as part of the ??War on Terror.? If Israel is sacrificed in the name of that goal, so what? There are more important things to the right than the survival of one little Jewish country??like fighting Islam.
No doubt, the Israeli right welcomes this kind of support because beggars can??t be choosers. Nor do they much care that, when Israel finally chooses the path of peace with the Palestinians, which it will, these rightwing ??supporters? will disappear.
Israel is their proxy in the war against Islam. Once Israel stops fighting, you can count on Beck to denounce it for selling out to the socialists. (And that is appropriate. Pretty much every major institution in Israel??including the state itself, the agricultural and industrial sectors, and the military??was built by socialists.)
There is so much wrong with Beck??s response to me that I can??t respond to them all here although PoliticalCorrection.org (a project of Media Matters Action Network) does.
But there are a few points I do want to make.
continue . . .
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Personally, I was struck at the image of Israeli trucks full of fresh produce pouring thru the now open Egyptian block aid the very next day after this event. Maybe some good will come out of all this. :) maybe. :jointsmile:
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
06/06/2010 The captain of one of six boats in a flotilla raided by Israeli occupation forces to prevent aid reaching Gaza said commandos roughed up women passengers and humiliated others, in an interview published Sunday. "It was traumatic; we were obviously expecting some hassle from the Israelis -- but nothing like they dished out," the 55-year-old Cyprus-based British skipper, Denis Healey, told the Cyprus Mail.
He said that at about 4:00 am (0100 GMT) last Monday, as the aid flotilla steamed towards Gaza but while still in international waters, he saw the lights of Israeli patrol boats and helicopters. "We were travelling at around 18 knots, so we managed to hold them off for about 20 minutes; then they sent one of their bigger steel vessels so I thought they were going to ram us or shoot us with the gun on the front," Healey said.
"I had to slow down because I was fearful of being rammed, then the commandos boarded -- there were no shots fired -- but they used a taser on one female Australian journalist then they shot a paintball in the face of a Belgian woman, which made her nose bleed," he said. "They were very rough with the female passengers."
Healey's boat was carrying around 20 passengers including three German MPs, a Swedish MP and a US former colonel. A much larger boat in the Free Gaza Movement flotilla, the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara with some 600 passengers, was being boarded at about the same time by commanders who rappelled from helicopters onto the deck. In the mayhem that followed, nine activists were killed and scores injured including seven navy seals.
Israel claims its commandos only resorted to force after being attacked as they reached the deck, but activists say the soldiers started firing first. The situation on Healey's boat was calmer but no less tense.
"The commandos had stun guns, tasers, paint balls, machine guns and they even brought a dog on board -- poor thing," he told the Cyprus Mail. "The passengers on the lower decks were trying to conduct a non-aggressive defense of the boat by linking arms, but the soldiers just pushed them down and even walked over them."
Healey was ordered to sail to the port of Ashdod under military escort, before being hauled off the ship, paraded before local television cameras and taken to a makeshift detention centre. "They lined up their police and marines on the quayside to make a spectacle of us, they had people with cameras. We were then taken into detention, they denied us access to telephones, and they wouldn't let the British consulate in to see me. They told me nothing -- their policy is to say nothing, and when they do its lies."
Healey from Portsmouth has a longstanding involvement in the Palestinian movement and has captained boats on previous aid journeys to Gaza, including one two years ago in which his boat was rammed by an Israeli gunboat. "I would do it again," he said in the interview. "Yes, I think I would -- yes."
Al-ManarTV:: Flotilla Captain Tells of High Israeli Aggression toward Female Passengers 06/06/2010
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Quote:
Originally Posted by WIlDuce1883
That's coming from a lying Israeli website ... :rolleyes:
Oh. Ok. Then what's this crap:
Quote:
Originally Posted by WIlDuce1883
06/06/2010 The captain of one of six boats in a flotilla ...blah, blah, blah.
Isn't that cute...the pot calling the kettle black. ^^^
So instead of telling us your feelings or thoughts on the issue, you chose to post drivel such as this...? Without even a comment about the subject from you...?
This 'first-hand' account is hardly evidence that the Israleis were the aggressors here. Your post is neither accurate nor is it balanced with support from the video evidence. What do you expect these terror-supporting assholes to say..."they legally boarded our ship so we prepared a preventative sneak attack"...? Why was this the only boat and crew in the 'floatilla' attacked? Why didn't the Israleis attack all the boats they boarded? Why just this one? Likely because the Israleis were not the ones drawing first blood.
This whole incident has become nothing but unsupported (garbage) propoganda. For a story to be true, it must be backed by the facts. Bending the story to compliment the facts, is bullshit.
So, what...is it "cool" to have your thoughts herded like a sheep by the Obamedia? Seems you are being led down a path of blatant misconception, and are marking your path with dissolving assumptions.
Good luck with that. :thumbsup:
Gaza aid flotilla attacked, 10 killed
Following the bloody attack on the Freedom Flotilla, a survey shows that 40% of Norwegians want Israeli products to be boycotted.
According to the survey conducted by the InFact Institute and published Wednesday, 9.5 percent of Norwegians are already boycotting Israeli products, AFP reported.
The news comes a day after the Norwegian Health Minister and leader of the country's Socialist party, Kristin Halvorsen, called on the international community to ban arms trade with Israel.
On Monday, Norway summoned the Israeli ambassador to Oslo and slammed Israel's deadly attack on the Freedom Flotilla as an unacceptable act. Norway has also called for an immediate and independent international inquiry.
Three Norwegians were among the international activists in the flotilla and are now held in custody by Israel.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was carrying food and medical supplies to Gaza, came under fire early Monday morning by Israeli naval forces in international waters more than 150km off the coast of Gaza.
Twenty international activists are reported to have been killed and 50 others injured in the incident.
Norwegians: 'Ban Israeli products'
