Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Israel Agrees to Ease Gaza Land Blockade to Quiet International Criticism

Associated Press
June 17, 2010

Israel agreed Thursday to ease its three-year-old land blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, hoping to quell international outrage over its deadly raid on a flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory.

In one of the major changes, Israel will allow in more desperately needed construction materials for civilian projects as long as they are carried out under international supervision. And it will no longer limit what types of food can go in. However, Israel signaled it would maintain its naval blockade meant to keep weapons shipments out of the hands of Hamas militants.

The decision reflected the intense pressure Israeli leaders felt after an international outcry over the May 31 raid on a blockade-busting flotilla. Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists and both sides claimed they acted in self-defense.

"This decision proves the imposed siege failed to oust Hamas from power and did not achieve its objectives, but brought devastating damage to the legitimate Palestinian economy," said 34-year-old Yaser Abdel Baki, owner of a food shop in Gaza City. He said he had lost more than $1 million in the past three years.

"This new policy will not recover my losses," he said.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction, violently seized control of Gaza. It was meant to prevent the Iranian-backed group from arming and to put pressure on it to free a captive Israeli soldier.

But it has failed to weaken Hamas or bring the soldier home, while grinding the already impoverished economy to a standstill. The sanctions have cost tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered hundreds of factories, banned exports and prevented Gaza from rebuilding thousands of homes and buildings destroyed in an Israeli military offensive last year. Ordinary Gazans have suffered the most.

Israel's shift came just one week after President Barack Obama, the country's most important ally, said the blockade was unsustainable and called for scaling it back dramatically. Israeli officials said the Cabinet decision was made after consultations with Europe and the U.S., which have both been pressing for changes since the raid.

The international community welcomed the easing, but urged Israel to do more to reopen Gaza's borders and revive its stagnant economy. International Mideast envoy Tony Blair called it "an important step toward easing the lives of Palestinians in Gaza."

He said a system must be reached that prevents weapons from entering Gaza while "allowing into Gaza the items of ordinary daily life." He also said the international community would work with Israel in the coming days to "flesh out the principles now agreed."

Hamas was not satisfied.

"We want a real lifting of the siege, not window-dressing," said Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil.

For the most part, the blockade only allowed in basic humanitarian goods for a population of 1.5 million. Israel severely limited goods such as cement and steel, fearing Hamas militants could use them to build weapons and fortifications. It also limited what foods could enter.

"This morning, the government of Israel took decisions to liberalize the system under which civilian goods may enter the Gaza Strip, to expand materials for projects inside Gaza which are under international supervision," government spokesman Mark Regev said. "But of course we must remain with the security procedures that prevent the import into Gaza of weapons and war materials that strengthen the Hamas military machine," he said, indicating the naval blockade would remain in force.

While the easing seemed to buy Israel some time with the international community, it appeared unlikely to significantly change the quality of life in Gaza. Most food items prohibited by Israel already came in through smuggling tunnels along the southern border with Egypt.

The government did not mention easing bans on exports or the import of raw materials needed for industry. There was no word on how much construction materials would be allowed in.

Israel has agreed to allow the U.N. to import cement in the past, but in practice permitted only small amounts.

U.N. spokesman Richard Miron said officials would be working with Israel "to learn more" about the decision.

"We continue to seek fundamental change in policy ... so that commercial goods and people are able to flow through functioning open crossings so that reconstruction can take place," he said.

There was also no word on whether Israel would ease a border closure that has prevented nearly all Gazans from exiting the area.

Egypt had cooperated for years in the blockade by closing its land border with Gaza. But in another sign that Israel will no longer be able to maintain its stranglehold over Gaza after the flotilla raid, Egypt loosened border controls in the days after the clash.

However, Egypt is only letting in people with special travel permits, such as students and Gazans with foreign passports. In the past two weeks, 10,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt though many more want to leave. A senior Egyptian security official has said the loosened restrictions will remain in place indefinitely.

In any case, the blockade failed to achieve its aim of stanching the flow of weapons to Gaza. A network of smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border became a conduit for both weapons and commercial goods sold at black market prices. Gazans sank deeper into poverty, turning their anger against Israel and not their Hamas rulers.

Blair, who represents the so-called Quartet of international Mideast mediators, said efforts were under way to find a way to reopen Gaza's border crossings with European and Palestinian participation. The EU helped monitor Gaza's southern border with Egypt until Hamas took power in 2007.

In the West Bank, the pro-Western Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas which rivals Hamas' Gaza government, also criticized Israel's decision. Negotiator Saeb Erekat said the closure should be ended altogether.

"The siege is collective punishment and it must be lifted."

Privately, however, Abbas' aides have expressed concern that an opening of Gaza's borders would strengthen Hamas at his expense.

Turkey on Thursday threatened not to send its ambassador back to Israel unless it receives an apology for the flotilla raid. Ankara, which withdrew its ambassador immediately after the raid, also wants Israel to agree to an international investigation into the raid and compensate victims, a government official said. The nine people who died in the Israeli raid were Turks.

Israel opposes an international investigation, and has appointed its own panel of legal experts to conduct an inquiry.

And there were other signs that the tensions over the blockade would persist.

Organizers of two blockade-busting ships setting sail from Lebanon said their vessels would leave for Gaza early next week. They said the ships would carry cancer medication, and that 50 women from various religious sects, Arab countries, Europe and the U.S. would be on board.

A senior military official said Israel would stop the vessels. He spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Helen Thomas: an Appreciation (Excerpt)

By Paul Craig Roberts, Infowars.com
June 16, 2010

The propagandists for the Israel Lobby, who occupy the Wall Street Journal editorial page while pretending to be journalists, are determined to remove Helen Thomas from the annals of journalism. In case you have already forgotten, a few days ago the distinguished career of Helen Thomas, the 89-year-old doyen of the White House Press Corps, was ended by the Israel Lobby, which made an issue about her opinion that immigrant Jews should leave Palestine and go back to their home countries.

... Israel is an unnatural state. It was created by terror that was accommodated by craven British and US “diplomacy.” Israel exists for one reason only: the US government provides the money, weapons, and diplomatic protection. Any other government that murdered thousands of civilians in other countries, as Israel does routinely in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, would have its entire government and military on trial before the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. Israelis have no worst enemy than their own government.

Every time the rest of the world tries to hold the Israeli government accountable for its crimes, the US vetoes the UN resolution. America has become the enabler of the Zionist-hijacked Israeli government. And the Israeli government knows it. Israeli government leaders have publicly bragged for decades about their control over the US government. US Admiral Tom Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after whom the F-14 “Tomcat” jet fighter was named, declared publicly: “No American President can stand up to Israel.” Apparently no American journalist can either.

I am a critic of Israel’s heartless policy toward the Palestinians, but I do not want Israel destroyed. I want it moved or reformed. Bring the small number of Israelis to America before there is a nuclear war over the fact that they are where they should not be. To try to claim a land and dispossess its people on the basis of a spurious two-thousand-year-old deed is an audacious act of conquest and dispossession.

My proposal to relocate Israelis in the US is rhetorical, but why not insist that the Israelis, who are heavily dependent on US largess, reform? Why should Americans support an apartheid racist state that denies citizenship to the rightful inhabitants? What kind of morality, if any, does the Wall Street Journal editorial page represent when it defends Israelis who force Palestinians into ever-shrinking ghettos, deprived of water, food, medical care and schools? Why must Palestinians live in dread of Israeli bulldozers arriving to flatten their homes in order to create space for Zionist “settlers.”

Allegedly, the US is a superpower, but in fact it is a puppet state of the Israeli government. Witness, for example (the examples are numerous), the fate of the Goldstone Report on Israeli war crimes committed in Israel’s assault on Gaza during December 2008-January 2009. Goldstone is a Zionist Jew and a distinguished judge. He was given the task by the United Nations to investigate the Israeli attack on Gaza. Being an honest person, he provided evidence of Israeli war crimes.

What was the result? The bought-and-paid-for US Congress voted, on the instructions of their master, the Israel Lobby, to deep-six the Goldstone Report by a vote of 344 to 36.

Amazing, isn’t it, there were only 36 US Representatives who were not owned by the Israel Lobby ...

Israel, the U.S. and the Arab World

What Next If Israel Attacks the Iranian Flotilla?

By digital82711
June 14, 2010

After an extensive history of slaughtering American peace activists, a history that is hidden by the U.S. media, Israel now is playing poker, more specifically Blind-man’s Bluff, with a country that invented chess and is using logic.

If Israel attacks a flotilla due to the enforcement of an illegal blockade against the Palestinians, and the U.N. has no authority, will, or ability to stop it, it would seem the U.N. would have little credibility or authority to stop an Iranian nuclear program that has never violated any IAEA protocols.

The problem Israel faces with Iran’s nuclear program and its sending the Iranian navy into international waters towards Palestinian coastal waters is just one part of the equation. The situation becomes exponentially more complicated with the killing of Turkish peace activists. Since Turkey is a member of NATO and has the right to seek protection from the alliance, an alliance of which Israel is not a member, this begins to create a credibility problem for NATO and again proves that Israeli interests and U.S. interests have begun a sharp divergence as Israel becomes a strategic liability.

If NATO cannot control Israel, and the U.S. can not control Israel's behavior towards alliance members, what good is the alliance? What Israel is not considering is that the Jewish lobby does not have a stranglehold on European politicians and the AIPAC does not carry much weight in Paris or Berlin. There are too many European capitals for all of them to be the “Israeli Occupied Territory” that Washington D.C. has become. Furthermore, Europeans countries and NATO members like Turkey will not allow their citizens to be slaughtered the way American politicians allowed their sailors on the U.S.S Liberty to be slaughtered by the Israelis.

Many wonder if the slaughter of Turks was payback for the three-way nuclear swap deal for low-enriched uranium (LEU) between Turkey, Brazil, and Iran. This deal was floated by the U.S. until the Iranians took it. When the plan was accepted by Iran, Turkey, and Brazil, the U.S. went berserk. Now the U.S. is intent of savaging Turkey and Brazil while sabotaging the agreement. It also seems Israel is telling Turkey, in no uncertain terms, that there are costs for meddling in international affairs that affect Israeli interests. But Turkey will soon be sending a message to Israel that Ankara is not Washington D.C. and its politicians are not beholden to Jewish interests, or "The Lobby" and its AIPAC affiliates.

Imagine the irony if Israel is able to do single-handedly what the entire Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact could not do – destroy NATO. The alliance had to travel all the way to Afghanistan to find a meaning for its existence. Europe has military/industrial complex issues, although not to the extent that they dominate all aspects of political, economic, and domestic life as the U.S. spends more than the rest of the world combined. In Europe there is no Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Cheney axis of evil to hold a bizarro world together as Europeans are too politically savvy to fall for that type of fear mongering after the history they have lived through.

Obama is now at the crux of a problem with legitimacy and international law on one side, and on the other an illegitimate Zionist regime that seeks U.S. sponsored U.N. Security Council Veto protection while carrying out genocide and piracy.

Israel’s act of international lawlessness manifested through mass starvation is a crime against humanity. It is also a war crime punishable under the Geneva Convention. Many of its politicians are already wary of, or simply refuse, trips to countries that are part of the World Court or signatories of the Geneva and Hague Conventions. Kissenger was known to have skipped out of European countries who were ready to detain him due to his support of Pinochet in Chile where he supported a criminal regime that was guilty of crimes against humanity.

Israel is playing with fire. The perception of Jewish realpolitik and rationality is being exploded and its insanity is becoming an embarrassment and liability to its biggest benefactor, the U.S. The “special relationship” between Israel and the U.S. has been of very little benefit to the U.S., unless you consider it an asset when Israel fans the flames of hatred in Muslim nations the U.S. is attempting to pacify.

American and Israeli hypocrisy makes nations mad. The actions of Israel are not created by Turkey as a method to drive Israel into international isolationism, and Turkey is not turning its back on NATO. It is that Israel is driving a wedge between Turkey and the U.S. This makes the U.S. less influential as deals between nations who are not Security Council members begin to branch and sequence. Meanwhile, U.S. influence wanes as it is no longer considered an honest or even credible broker. Maybe Hugo Chavez was right when he told Obama, “The age of empires is over.”

The Jewish media has become so propaganda-oriented that Israelis quit listening to Jewish state radio and actually started to listen to Al Jazeera to get the truth with respect to the Israeli-Hezbollah war and its operational status and body counts. It seems the only people stupid enough to believe Jewish propaganda these days are Washington politicians.

So, now we will see if the terrorists are the Jews or the Palestinians. International opinion will back international law. Israel was founded on terrorism when the Jews bombed the King David Hotel killing dozens of international peacekeepers and driving the Brits out of Palestine. The creation of Israel through the terrorism of Menachen Begin, the godfather of modern terror who helped found Israel through the Stern Gang, the Irgun, and the Haganah, has his terrorist acts forgotten in the ADHD American populace. Meanwhile, Israel complains about Palestinian rockets that have only killed about three people per year.

The kill ratio with the Palestinian conflict is completely disproportionate. The Jews enjoy a 100-1 kill ratio in their extermination of the Palestinians. My guess is this will continue until the U.S. runs out of money to prop up the Zionist regime and realizes it is being suckered into Muslim wars for the benefit of Israeli expansionism that uses genocide and mass starvation as negotiating tools by creating desolation and calling it peace. But, this realization will only take place after enough Americans have lost their houses to Jewish bankers and the economy crumbles as we continue to fund intractable problems for the benefit of Israel.

We all know American politicians will pander to Jewish interests, but there will come a time when the difference between Israeli and Americans interests will become irreconcilable and eventually there will be a reckoning between Israel and international law.

How interesting it would be to see Germans and Brazilians kidnapping Zionists leaders living in Israel for Nurnberg style trials.

Israel, the U.S. and the Arab World

Saudi Arabia Gives Israel Clear Skies to Attack Iranian Nuclear Sites

The London Times
June 12, 2010

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one.

The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.

The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers’ range, even with aerial refuelling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest.

Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit agreement to the raid from Washington. So far, the Obama Administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Military analysts say Israel has held back only because of this failure to secure consensus from America and Arab states. Military analysts doubt that an airstrike alone would be sufficient to knock out the key nuclear facilities, which are heavily fortified and deep underground or within mountains. However, if the latest sanctions prove ineffective the pressure from the Israelis on Washington to approve military action will intensify. Iran vowed to continue enriching uranium after the UN Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions yet in an effort to halt the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, which Tehran claims is intended for civil energy purposes only. President Ahmadinejad has described the UN resolution as “a used handkerchief, which should be thrown in the dustbin”.

Israeli officials refused to comment yesterday on details for a raid on Iran, which the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has refused to rule out. Questioned on the option of a Saudi flight path for Israeli bombers, Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until 2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran, said:

“I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity.”

In 2007 Israel was reported to have used Turkish air space to attack a suspected nuclear reactor being built by Iran’s main regional ally, Syria. Although Turkey publicly protested against the “violation” of its air space, it is thought to have turned a blind eye in what many saw as a dry run for a strike on Iran’s far more substantial — and better-defended — nuclear sites.

Israeli intelligence experts say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are at least as worried as themselves and the West about an Iranian nuclear arsenal.Israel has sent missile-class warships and at least one submarine capable of launching a nuclear warhead through the Suez Canal for deployment in the Red Sea within the past year, as both a warning to Iran and in anticipation of a possible strike. Israeli newspapers reported last year that high-ranking officials, including the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have met their Saudi Arabian counterparts to discuss the Iranian issue. It was also reported that Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, met Saudi intelligence officials last year to gain assurances that Riyadh would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets violating Saudi airspace during the bombing run. Both governments have denied the reports.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Israeli-Eygptian Alliance

Israeli Document: Gaza Blockade Isn't About Security

McClatchy Newspapers
June 9, 2010

As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.

Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.

Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.

However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.

"A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using 'economic warfare,'" the government said.

McClatchy obtained the government's written statement from Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which sued the government for information about the blockade. The Israeli high court upheld the suit, and the government delivered its statement earlier this year.

Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, said the documents prove that Israel isn't imposing its blockade for its stated reasons, but rather as collective punishment for the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gisha focuses on Palestinian rights.

(A State Department spokesman, who wasn't authorized to speak for the record, said he hadn't seen the documents in question.)

The Israeli government took an additional step Wednesday and said the economic warfare is intended to achieve a political goal. A government spokesman, who couldn't be named as a matter of policy, told McClatchy that authorities will continue to ease the blockade but "could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control" of Gaza.

President Barack Obama, after receiving Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, said the situation in Gaza is "unsustainable." He pledged an additional $400 million in aid for housing, school construction and roads to improve daily life for Palestinians — of which at least $30 million is earmarked for Gaza.

Israel's blockade of Gaza includes a complex and ever-changing list of goods that are allowed in. Items such as cement or metal are barred because they can be used for military purposes, Israeli officials say.

According to figures published by Gisha in coordination with the United Nations, Israel allows in 25 percent of the goods it had permitted into Gaza before the Hamas takeover. In the years prior to the closure, Israel allowed an average of 10,400 trucks to enter Gaza with goods each month. Israel now allows approximately 2,500 trucks a month.

The figures show that Israel also has limited the goods allowed to enter Gaza to 40 types of items, while before June 2007 approximately 4,000 types of goods were listed as entering Gaza.

Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.

"I think Israel wants to defuse international pressure," said Fattouh. "They want to show people that they are allowing things into Gaza."

It was the first tangible step taken by Israel in the wake of the unprecedented international criticism it's faced over the blockade following last week's Israeli raid on the high seas.

While there have been mounting calls for an investigation into the manner in which Israel intercepted the flotilla, world leaders have also called for Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza.

At his meeting with Abbas, Obama said the Security Council had called for a "credible, transparent investigation that met international standards."

He added: "And we meant what we said. That's what we expect."

He also called for an easing of Israel's blockade.

"It seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza," he told reporters.

Egypt, which controls much of Gaza's southern border, reopened the Rafah crossing this week in response to international pressure to lift the blockade.

Egypt has long been considered Israel's partner in enforcing the blockade, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Hossam Zaki said the Rafah crossing will remain open indefinitely for Gazans with special permits. In the past, the border has been opened sporadically.

Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, said the international community is seeking an "urgent and fundamental change" in Israel's policy regarding Gaza rather than a piecemeal approach.

"A modest expansion of the restrictive list of goods allowed into Gaza falls well short of what is needed. We need a fundamental change and an opening of crossings for commercial goods," he said.

Hamas officials said that they were "disappointed" by Israel's announcement, and that the goods fell far short of what was actually needed.

"They will send the first course. We are waiting for the main course," Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said in Ramallah, specifying that construction materials were the item that Gazans need most.

Many Palestinians have been unable to build their homes in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, Israel's punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. Israel said the cement and other construction goods could be used to build bunkers and other military installations.

Some of those goods already come into Gaza via the smuggling tunnels that connect it to Egypt.

German-French Alliance

The World from Berlin: 'Does Angela Merkel Still Trust Nicolas Sarkozy?'

By Daryl Lindsey, Spiegel Online
June 9, 2010

Angela Merkel's last-minute decision to cancel a dinner with Nicolas Sarkozy this week has left many questioning the state of relations between the two countries. But German papers warn that the common currency can only be saved through their leadership.

By the time Angela Merkel unexpectedly cancelled her planned dinner meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday, the French press corps had already landed at Berlin's Tegel Airport. In Paris and Berlin, the surprise move triggered endless speculation over why the chancellor had cancelled -- was she doing it to protect Sarkozy from a prickly domestic political debate over budget cuts or out of irritation over their differences on how to address the euro crisis?

The surprise decision came the same day the chancellor announced a contentious package of savings measures that would slash her government's budget by around €80 billion ($95 billion) by 2014 to meet the requirements of the European Unions's stability pact as well as the so-called "debt brake" amendment to the German constitution requiring a balanced budget by 2016.

In Germany and France, the cancellation is being perceived in the media as reflective of the growing divide between Paris and Berlin over how best to deal with the sovereign debt and euro crisis. Merkel has said she would like to adopt a savings package that would serve as a model for other European countries and show the way out of a crisis that has pressured the euro.

But in Paris, French government officials have rejected adopting the kind of heavy austerity measures being championed in Berlin. France's government minister in charge of stimulus efforts, Patrick Devedjian, on Tuesday warned against similar measures for his country, saying it "would be dangerous because it risks killing growth."

The two countries are also split on how to save the euro. Sarkozy is pushing for a euro zone economic governance which would include only the 16 euro zone member states in tighter coordination of economic policies. Merkel, however, would like to see greater economic policy coordination between all 27 EU member states and has called for the European Council to establish an economic policy forum. So far, neither side has shown a willingness to budge.

Nothing Is Possible without Merkel and Sarkozy

The French media were highly critical of Monday's cancellation. Liberation wrote,

"Does Angela Merkel still trust Nicolas Sarkozy? It is extremely rare that a bilateral meeting is cancelled only a few hours before it is to take place."

And French paper of record Le Monde wrote that Merkel was "not willing" to discuss the issues with Sarkozy on Monday night.

"That's too bad," the paper wrote, "Nothing is possible without agreement between the two."

Liberation has also reported that Sarkozy has stated "privately" that he is frustrated with Merkel's hesitance and delays in moving to prop up the euro. Speaking on French radio, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, said the cancellation was a sign that Germany "has lost its faith in France."

In Berlin, the government has downplayed the kerfuffle, saying the French press speculation about a rift between Merkel and Sarkozy is "untrue." The German daily Frankfurter Rundschau claims that officials speaking off the record said Merkel was seeking to spare Sarkozy from Germany's "domestic showdown" over the savings package as well as possible uncomfortable questions from reporters on why France has no plans for major austerity measures.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, most German newspaper editorials don't buy that logic, arguing that Franco-German relations are ailing and Merkel's decision is a sign of the malaise.

After admonishing Merkel not to put "valuable" German-French relations at risk, the conservative Die Welt writes:

"Sarkozy and Merkel were supposed to meet to prepare for an EU meeting on June 17, but the views on how to address the crisis and the future of European economic policies have diverged in Paris and Berlin to a point not seen in years. Unfriendliness and misunderstandings are also increasing. France wants a European economic government and an institutionalization of the euro group, of which Sarkozy would very much like to be president. Germany is not enthused by the idea. And why should it be? Berlin doesn't want to reduce the Europe of 27 to one of 16 euro-zone countries. Berlin is also increasingly eyeing Sarkozy's knee-jerk style with irritation: German politicians believe he is more concerned about French interests than Europe's common good. In contrast to Paris, the Germans are insisting on stricter stability requirements. France rejects these. But what is weighing just as heavily as the political differences of opinion is the growing distrust between the partners. All of Europe is suffering as a result."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"How else can one interpret this than as being a sign of irritation that has risen out of deep-seated differences of opinion, that the chancellor cancelled her meeting … at the last minute? … But a dispute like that is the last thing the EU and the German-French relationship needs right now. A rescue and lasting stabilization of the currency union will only happen if Paris and Berlin can negotiate as one on fundamental questions. Without credible German-French coordination, there will be no credibility in the euro zone."

On Tuesday, the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote:

"The EU is taking a hit with the economic crisis, the euro's decline, weak leadership in Brussels and introverted member states. It is threatened with creeping decline. Thus, it is again looking to France and Germany for leadership. ... And there is much more at stake here than the current crisis. Europe is not a nation. It is too heterogenous to live without a vision. It needs goals -- which the internal market and the euro once provided."

"Sarkozy and Merkel must point the way to the furture in order to pull the EU out of its apathy. Both are too smart to risk the German-French friendship. That's why, at some point, they will reach an agreement on the issues that divide them: the European economic government that Sarkozy desires, and the budget discipline that Merkel is calling for. But that will not be enough. The citizens of the EU don't know how they are supposed to push Europe forward after the crisis, and Sarkozy and Merkel don't either."

"The petty quibbling on both sides should be forgotten. In the past, the president has often appealed to Berlin and said that he was prepared to do great things together. The chancellor was always skeptical. But this time she should take Sarkozy at his word."

Zionism: Antithesis of World Peace

Israel Apologizes for Sending Link to Flotilla Parody

Yahoo News
June 9, 2010

The Israeli government has apologized for sending the press a link to an online video parodying last week's deadly commando raid on a flotilla of pro-Gaza activists.

The video, which promptly went viral, has stirred up further outrage about the fallout from the raid, with some calling for the video's apparent creator, a Jerusalem Post columnist, to be fired for spoofing the circumstances of an attack claiming nine fatalities.

The video shows people dressed up as Gaza activists, some in Arab-looking attire, singing "We Con the World" to the tune of the Michael Jackson hit "We Are the World" — with the "we" being the activists seeking to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Waving knives and batons, the faux-activists sing: "We'll make the world abandon reason / We'll make them believe that the Hamas is Momma Teresa," and, "As Allah has shown us / For facts there's no demand."

You can watch the video here:

The link had been "sent for our perusal" and "was not intended for general release," Israel's Government Press Office announced in its apology statement. "The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel."

Israel maintains that the activists initiated the violence, and its footage from the attack shows Gaza activists waving knives and using batons.

[Chilling photos of the flotilla raid]

The music video may have been released inadvertently, but it has since become a viral hit online, clocking nearly 2 million hits on YouTube. CNN reports that the parody was the work of Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Passengers on Gaza-Bound Flotilla Grabbed Israeli Weapons to Stop the Killing

After seeing passengers shot at close range, they tried to grab the weapons to stop the killing. Kenneth Nichols O’Keefe was later beaten by the Israelis.



Infowars.com
June 7, 2010

A U.S. war veteran said yesterday he confronted Israeli commandos when they raided a Gaza-bound aid ship which he had boarded as a peace activist, Anatolia news agency reported.

Kenneth Nichols O’Keefe, his face bruised and still stained with blood, flew to Istanbul from Tel Aviv, on his way to Ireland, the report said.

“We overpowered three Israeli commandos. They looked at us… They thought we would kill them, but we let them go,” O’Keefe said, adding he took the weapon of one of the soldiers and emptied it, according to Anatolia.

The ex-marine said he saw five people being killed on board the Mavi Marmara.

Israeli Attack on Aid Flotilla in Gaza Strip

Clarification/Correction Regarding Audio Transmission Between Israeli Soldiers and Gaza-Bound Flotilla on May 31, 2010

Israeli Military Boards Gaza Aid Ship; Meets No Resistance

The New York Times
June 5, 2010

Israel prevented a new attempt to break its blockade of Gaza on Saturday when its naval commandos boarded an Irish-owned vessel carrying humanitarian supplies and prominent activists and steered it to this Israeli port.

There were no attempts at resistance or reports of violence, the Israeli military said.

The interception, 23 miles off the coast, took place less than a week after an Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship turned violent, leaving nine Turkish activists dead and creating an international crisis that severely damaged Israeli-Turkish relations.

On Friday, the Israeli and Irish governments reached an agreement to unload the vessel’s cargo in Ashdod, in southern Israel, and transport it to Gaza, but the group sponsoring both this ship and the Turkish flotilla, the Free Gaza Movement, rejected the deal.

The 11 activists and 8 crew members on board the 1,200-ton cargo ship had made clear at the outset that they would not resist and that they had no weapons. The passengers included Mairead Maguire, an Irish Nobel Peace laureate; Denis Halliday, a former United Nations assistant secretary general from Ireland; and Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria, a member of the Malaysia’s Parliament.

It was not possible to reach the boat because communications were jammed, but an Israeli journalist embedded with the navy filed an account of the takeover that confirmed the military’s report of the events.

The journalist, Ron Ben-Yishai of Ynet News, said the takeover, shortly before 12:30 p.m., took five minutes and involved two missile boats carrying about 20 combat soldiers.

A spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement, Greta Berlin, said by telephone from Cyprus that boarding the boat was “just another violent act,” and that “Israel needs to understand that we are not going to stop until they stop the blockade.” She said four boats were already lined up for trips to Gaza.

Her group aims to end the three-year blockade of Gaza, which Israel says is intended to prevent the infiltration of weapons and militants into the Hamas-run territory.

The Israeli military said that the ship, the Rachel Corrie, had been asked three times to dock in Ashdod, change course or face a naval takeover and that the requests had been ignored. The operation did not involve an airdrop as in the raid on Monday.

A military spokeswoman here, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, said the passengers would be questioned by the police, processed through customs and deported. Those who refused deportation could face jail, she said.

A senior naval commander said that the cargo would be inspected here and that anything that would not serve Hamas for weapons or defense would be sent over land to Gaza.

The commander, who spoke by telephone to journalists under military rules of anonymity, was asked why Israel did not agree to inspect the cargo at sea and then permit the boat to reach Gaza.

“It is not possible to inspect thousands of bags inside a vessel,” he said. “You have to unload it in port and examine it there.”

He said the entire cargo would be delivered to Gaza, including cement, which is usually banned. Israel says cement can be used to build bunkers, tunnels and rockets. However, some shipments have recently been allowed for specific civilian building projects.

Israel has been widely condemned for its blockade, which some experts in international law say is illegal. After Monday’s raid, when Israeli commandos met fierce resistance and opened fire on the anti-blockade activists, Israel said it was open to new ways to ensure that civilian goods could enter Gaza while meeting Israeli security needs. It is unclear what the new ways would include.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was cobbling together a proposal for an international panel to investigate the deadly raid.

The panel would include representatives from Turkey and Israel, or at least one member each to represent their interests, and two or three others selected from a list assembled by Mr. Ban, diplomats said.

Mr. Ban plans to pitch the plan to Israel and Turkey over the weekend, the diplomats said, and the United States has said it will sign off on it once Israel accepts it.

There was no immediate reaction from the missions of Israel or Turkey.

Turkey, with Arab support, has been adamant that the Security Council statement on the raid approved by all 15 members on Tuesday meant that an investigation by Israel alone would be insufficient. The Council’s statement said the investigation should be impartial, transparent and credible, but did not explicitly say international.

While Israel has resisted the idea of an international investigation, insisting it is perfectly capable of carrying out an investigation on its own, Israeli cabinet members have indicated it might accept some foreign participation.

The United States has suggested that some international representation on the panel would make the results more credible, as it did on the panel recently convened by South Korea to investigate the sinking of its warship.

The Rachel Corrie, named after an American activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home, had been due to join the other boats in the flotilla last week but was delayed by technical problems.

Hamas, which rejects Israel’s existence, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in early 2006. Israel then began to reduce trade and relations with Gaza. When Hamas militants seized an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in a raid that June, Israel further reduced what was permitted in and out of the coastal territory.

A year later, after Hamas fighters drove the more moderate Fatah movement from Gaza, Israel imposed a full closing on Gaza, permitting in only basic humanitarian goods.

Although international aid agencies say there is no starvation or acute medical crisis there, malnutrition is creeping up, water treatment and sewage are problematic and the economy has been almost entirely shut down by the blockade, which is also enforced by Egypt. The United States and other world powers say that the situation is untenable and that a new approach must be found.

In Gaza: What is Not Allowed

By Richard Tillinghast, The Irish Times
June 6, 2010

No tinned meat is allowed, no tomato paste,
no clothing, no shoes, no notebooks.
These will be stored in our warehouses at Kerem Shalom
until further notice.
Bananas, apples, and persimmons are allowed into Gaza,
peaches and dates, and now macaroni
(after the American Senator’s visit).
These are vital for daily sustenance.

But no apricots, no plums, no grapes, no avocados, no jam.
These are luxuries and are not allowed.
Paper for textbooks is not allowed.
The terrorists could use it to print seditious material.
And why do you need textbooks
now that your schools are rubble?
No steel is allowed, no building supplies, no plastic pipe.
These the terrorists could use to launch rockets
against us.

Pumpkins and carrots you may have, but no delicacies,
no cherries, no pomegranates, no watermelon, no onions,
no chocolate.

We have a list of three dozen items that are allowed,
but we are not obliged to disclose its contents.
This is the decision arrived at
by Colonel Levi, Colonel Rosenzweig, and Colonel Segal.

Our motto:
‘No prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.’
You may fish in the Mediterranean,
but only as far as three km from shore.
Beyond that and we open fire.
It is a great pity the waters are polluted
twenty million gallons of raw sewage dumped into the sea every day
is the figure given.

Our rockets struck the sewage treatments plants,
and at this point spare parts to repair them are not allowed.
As long as Hamas threatens us,
no cement is allowed, no glass, no medical equipment.
We are watching you from our pilotless drones
as you cook your sparse meals over open fires
and bed down
in the ruins of houses destroyed by tank shells.

And if your children can’t sleep,
missing the ones who were killed in our incursion,
or cry out in the night, or wet their beds
in your makeshift refugee tents,
or scream, feeling pain in their amputated limbs –
that’s the price you pay for harbouring terrorists.

God gave us this land.
A land without a people for a people without a land.

Israeli Attack on Aid Flotilla in Gaza Strip

Portland, Maine Video Producer Recounts Gaza Flotilla Ordeal

The Associated Press
June 5, 2010

A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists.

In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Hamann said troops that landed on the boat he was on fired high-powered paintball guns and threw a "stun grenade" that hit him on the foot before exploding behind him.

People aboard the flotilla expected a confrontation, but not a deadly one, he said.

"As soon as we heard the real guns going off, that's when we knew things were different than what we thought they'd be," he said. "We knew they'd use excessive force, but it was a game changer when we heard they were shooting people."

The six-ship flotilla was attempting to deliver supplies to Gaza in defiance of a 3-year-old Israeli blockade that has aimed to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza that could be used to attack Israel. At the same time, it has deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the strip and heightened Mideast tensions.

The flotilla's journey ended when Israeli commandos boarded the vessels early Monday morning and clashed with passengers on one ship in a confrontation that left nine people dead.

Israel says troops used force only after they were attacked with weapons. Activists say Israel fired first.

Hamann, 29, owns Harbor Light Films video production company in South Portland. He was documenting the event as a job but also felt strongly about the cause.

David Rubinson, a former music producer in the U.S. who now lives in Eze, France, said he hired Hamann to ride aboard one of the six vessels in the flotilla, shoot video and photographs and post them on the website.

Hamann said the flotilla was in international waters when it was intercepted by Israeli troops. When they boarded his vessel, Challenger I, they destroyed all video footage and camera memory cards, he said.

He and hundreds of others on the flotilla were then brought to an Israeli prison and detained before they were deported.

There, Israeli troops and intelligence officers intimidated and threatened the prisoners, he said. After being brought to an airport to be put on a plane, two deportees were attacked by soldiers when they refused to sign deportation orders, he said.

One of them, he said, was an American citizen who was beaten and bloodied. When soldiers gave him water to wash his face, he refused to do so, saying he wanted people to see what they did to him, Hamann said.

"Then they beat him up really bad and we haven't seen him since. The status, the last I heard, isn't good," he said.

Speaking from France earlier this week, Rubinson said little media attention was paid to another aid flotilla last year that was disrupted by Israel as it made its way to Gaza. This time, he wanted to make sure people worldwide could witness the journey through video and photographs posted on the website.

Rubinson is Jewish, but no longer practices his faith because of his disapproval of Israel's actions against Gaza.

"I'm doing this because it's my people who are perpetrating this tragedy," he said. "I feel it is imperative we do something to stop it."

Israel, the U.S. and the Arab World

America’s Complicity in Evil

By Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch
June 1, 2010

As I write at 5pm on Monday, May 31, all day has passed since the early morning reports of the Israeli commando attack on the unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, and there has been no response from President Obama except to say that he needed to learn “all the facts about this morning’s tragic events” and that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu had canceled his plans to meet with him at the White House. Thus has Obama made America complicit once again in Israel’s barbaric war crimes. Just as the US Congress voted to deep-six Judge Goldstone’s report on Israel’s war crimes committed in Israel’s January 2009 invasion of Gaza, Obama has deep-sixed Israel’s latest act of barbarism by pretending that he doesn’t know what has happened.

No one in the world will believe that Israel attacked ships in international waters carrying Israeli citizens, a Nobel Laureate, elected politicians, and noted humanitarians bringing medicines and building materials to Palestinians in Gaza, who have been living in the rubble of their homes without repairs or medicines since January 2009, without first clearing the crime with its American protector.

What Goods Does Israel Bar from the Gaza Strip?

Attention is again focused on Gaza after Israeli troops stormed ships that were carrying aid to the strip on May 31st, killing at least nine people. Since 2006 Israel has limited the import of various goods to the Hamas-controlled territory to a "humanitarian minimum," though there is no official list for traders to observe. Instead, Israel makes decisions on a case-by-case basis, which has resulted in an odd assortment of prohibited items, as detailed by Gisha, an Israeli human-rights organisation. Newspapers, tea, A4 paper and chocolate are among the items that have at one point been barred. But though certain goods cannot be brought in by boat or through Israel, they do still come—often faster and cheaper, too—through the tunnels. The main impact of the blockade is on people, who have been barred from leaving, and on exports.

Without America’s protection, Israel, a totally artificial state, could not exist. No one in the world will believe that America’s spy apparatus did not detect the movement of the Israeli attack force toward the aid ships in international waters in an act of piracy, killing 20, wounding 50, and kidnapping the rest. Obama’s pretense at ignorance confirms his complicity.

Once again the US government has permitted the Israeli state to murder good people known for their moral conscience. The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel, and every American president except Eisenhower and Carter has agreed.

Obama’s 12-hour silence in the face of extreme barbarity is his signal to the controlled corporate media to remain on the sidelines until Israeli propaganda sets the story.

The Israeli story, preposterous as always, is that the humanitarians on one of the ships took two pistols from Israeli commandos, highly trained troops armed with automatic weapons, and fired on the attack force. The Israeli government claims that the commandos’ response (70 casualties at last reporting) was justified self-defense. Israel was innocent. Israel did not do anything except drop commandos aboard from helicopters in order to intercept an arms shipment to Gazans being brought in by ships manned by terrorists.

Many Christian evangelicals, brainwashed by their pastors that it is God’s will for Americans to protect Israel, will believe the Israeli story, especially when it is unlikely they will ever hear any other. Conservative Americans, especially on Memorial Day when they are celebrating feats of American arms, will admire Israel for its toughness. Here in north Georgia where I am at the moment, I have heard several say, admiringly, “Them, Israelis, they don’t put up with nuthin.”

Conservative Americans want the US to be like Israel. They do not understand why the US doesn’t stop pissing around after nine years and just go ahead and defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. They don’t understand why the US didn’t defeat whoever was opposing American forces in Iraq. Conservatives are incensed that America had to “win” the war by buying off the Iraqis and putting them on the US payroll. Israel murders people and then blames its victims. This appeals to American conservatives, who want the US to do the same.

It is likely that Americans will accept Israeli propagandist Mark Regev’s story that Israelis were met by deadly fire when they tried to intercept an arms shipment to Palestinian terrorists from IHH, a radical Turkish Islamist organization hiding under the cover of humanitarian aid.

Americans will never hear from the US media that Turkey’s prime minister Erdogan declared that the aid ships were carefully inspected before departure from Turkey and that there were no terrorists or arms aboard:

“I want to say to the world, to the heads of state and the governments, that these boats that left from Turkey and other countries were checked in a strict way under the framework of the rules of international navigation and were only loaded with humanitarian aid.”

Turkey is a US ally, a member of NATO. Turkey’s cooperation is important to American’s plan for world hegemony. Erdogan must wonder about the morality of Israel’s American protector. According to a report in antiwar.com, the Turkish government declared that “future aid ships will be dispatched with a military escort so as to prevent future Israeli attacks.” Will the CIA assassinate Erdogan or pay the Turkish military to overthrow him? Murat Mercan, head of Turkey’s foreign relations committee, said that Israel’s claim that there were terrorists aboard the aid ships was Israel’s way of covering up its crime.

Mercan declared:

“Any allegation that the members of this ship is attached to al-Qaeda is a big lie because there are Israeli civilians, Israeli authorities, Israeli parliamentarians on board the ship.”

The criminal Israeli state does not deny its act of piracy. Israeli military spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich, confirmed that the attack took place in international waters:

“This happened in waters outside of Israeli territory, but we have the right to defend ourselves.”

Americans, and their Western European puppet states and the puppet state in Canada, will be persuaded by the servile media to buy the story fabricated by Israeli propaganda that the humanitarian aid ships were manned by terrorists bringing weapons to the Palestinians in Gaza, and that the terrorists posing as humanitarians attacked the force of Israeli commandos with two pistols, clubs, and knives. Many Americans will swallow this story without a hiccup.

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Official: U.S. Will Stand with Israel

By Jake Tapper, ABC News
June 1, 2010

I’m told there won’t be any daylight between the US and Israel in the aftermath of the incident on the flotilla yesterday, which resulted in the deaths of 10 activists.

Regardless of the details of the flotilla incident, sources say President Obama is focused on what he sees as the longer term issue here: a successful Mideast peace process.

“The president has always said that it will be much easier for Israel to make peace if it feels secure,” a senior administration official tells ABC News.

The suggestion is that US condemnation of Israel would further isolate that country, and make further peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians even more difficult.

The senior administration official says that President Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three times on Monday. Mr. Obama pushed the notion that last night – as the United Nations Security Council met to issue a statement about the incident – was the moment when the US had maximum leverage, that the longer the statement was being debated the worse it would ultimately be for Israel.

Ultimately, as the statement was negotiated over night, the US succeeded in making it more neutral where other nations wanted it to criticize and condemn Israel.

The statement expresses that the "Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting form the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza,” but more generally condemns "those acts which resulted in the loss” of lives – leaving matters of blame vague.

The US also pushed for language conveying that it’s acceptable for the Israelis to conduct their own investigation into the matter as long as the investigation is “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent.” Other countries were pushing for an independent investigation, perhaps by the UN itself.

Here's the draft "Security Council Presidential Statement on the recent incident in the Eastern Mediterranean":

The Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza. The Council, in this context, condemns those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded, and expresses its condolences to their families.

The Security Council requests the immediate release of the ships as well as the civilians held by Israel. The Council urges Israel to permit full consular access, to allow the countries concerned to retrieve their deceased and wounded immediately, and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance from the convoy to its destination.

The Security Council takes note of the statement of the UN Secretary-General on the need to have a full investigation into the matter and it calls for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards.

The Security Council stresses that the situation in Gaza is not sustainable. The Council re-emphasizes the importance of the full implementation of Resolutions 1850 and 1860. In that context, it reiterates its grave concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and stresses the need for sustained and regular flow of goods and people to Gaza as well as unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza.

The Security Council underscores that the only viable solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an agreement negotiated between the parties and re-emphasizes that only a two-State solution, with an independent and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbours, could bring peace to the region.

The Security Council expresses support for the proximity talks and voices concern that this incident took place while the proximity talks are underway and urges the parties to act with restraint, avoiding any unilateral and provocative actions, and all international partners to promote an atmosphere of cooperation between the parties and throughout the region.

Israeli Attack on Aid Flotilla in Gaza Strip

Israel: The Pariah of the International Community

Pravda.Ru
May 31, 2010

The most striking feature about Israel’s most recent act of terrorism, an act of piracy and murder on the high seas, is that it surprises nobody. A robber steals. Israel commits war crimes. What is even more remarkable is its attempts at self-justification, claiming that its soldiers were attacked.

Well of course they were attacked. They were illegally boarding a ship carrying peace activists trying to feed the starving people of Gaza in international waters. This was an act of piracy, this was an act of terrorism. Someone invades your space. You fight back.

A Synopsis of Zionism and the Israel/Palestine Conflict

For thousands of years there was no conflict in Palestine. In the 19th century, the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population of Palestinian Arabs — approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish. For centuries these groups lived in harmony.

In the late 1800s, a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as "Zionists," this group consisted of an extremist minority of the Jewish population who wanted to create a Jewish homeland. They considered locations in Africa and the Americas before settling on Palestine, where the Jewish State of Israel was established in 1948.

Largely due to one-sided special-interest lobbying by AIPAC, the U.S. has given more funds to Israel than to any other nation: $85 billion in grants, loans and commodities since 1949, with an additional $50 billion in interest costs for advance payments, for a total cost of $135 billion or $23,240 per Israeli. During fiscal year 2007, the U.S. gave an average of $7 million per day to the State of Israel.

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2005


Jews Against Zionism

"Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of our rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews. From its inception, many rabbis warned of the potential dangers of Zionism and openly declared that all Jews loyal to G-d should stay away from it like one would from fire. They made their opinions clear to their congregants and to the general public. Their message was that Zionism is a chauvinistic racist phenomenon which has absolutely naught to do with Judaism. They publicly expressed that Zionism would definitely be detrimental to the well being of Jews and Gentiles and that its effects on the Jewish religion would be nothing other than destructive. Further, it would taint the reputation of Jewry as a whole and would cause utter confusion in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Judaism is a religion. Judaism is not a race or a nationality. That was and still remains the consensus amongst the rabbis."

"We were given the Holy Land by G-d in order to be able to study and practice the Torah without disturbance and to attain levels of holiness difficult to attain outside of the Holy Land. We abused the privilege and we were expelled. That is exactly what all Jews say in their prayers on every Jewish festival, 'Umipnay chatoenu golinu mayartsaynu'-'Because of our sins, we were expelled from our land.'"

"We have been forsworn by G-d 'not to enter the Holy Land as a body before the predestined time;' 'not to rebel against the nations;' to be loyal citizens, not to do anything against the will of any nation or its honour; not to seek vengeance, discord, restitution or compensation; 'not to leave exile ahead of time.' On the contrary, we have to be humble and accept the yoke of exile. To violate the oaths would result in 'your flesh will be made prey as the deer and the antelope in the forest,' and the redemption will be delayed."

What Israel has to understand is that to be accepted as a member of the international community, it has to act like one and this involves abiding by UN Resolutions, it means not only halting the building of colonies on land which has been stolen from Palestinians, it involves dismantling each and every colony set up on land outside the original borders of Israel.

The theft of identities to carry out a mafia-style hit, violations of human rights, the bulldozing of civilian homes, the seizure of land, attacking ambulances and shooting rescue workers, the shooting of children in the eyes with rubber bullets, the wearing of T-shirts with pregnant women with the caption “Two for the price of one” or “Two with one bullet” may be funny to Israeli people, it may even be hilarious and no doubt has many of them curled up giggling themselves helplessly to a doubled laundry bill.

True, there are many Israelis who are not Zionists. True, there are many Israelis who support Palestinian causes and inspect the actions of the Israeli Defense Force. True, not all Jews support the murderous horrific and illegal practices of the State of Israel. Yet the State of Israel goes on and on and on…and on, perpetrating them.

And what precisely does Israel hope to gain from these outrages against international law? Friendship? Sympathy? Respect? If so, then the notion that Israelis are intelligent, if one may hazard a collective description, is blasted into outer space. Such actions drive a wedge further between the hearts and minds of those of us who wish to live together like brothers and sisters around a common lake – our seas – and those who seem to like to live and die by the sword.

The notion that Israel can get off scot-free after this latest act of terrorism is as unacceptable as it is true. Ladies and gentlemen, it is going to happen. Watch this space. Israel’s main colony, the United States of America (ruled in fact by AIPAC) will veto any attempt at sanctions through the United Nations. Turkey will not pull off a punitive raid. After all, Israelis are not defenceless Armenians.

Israel will not shift an inch. It will go on bulldozing homes, it will go on stealing land, it will go on shooting kids in the eye with rubber bullets, it will go on letting pregnant mothers die in the streets, it will go on carrying out acts of terrorism and it will go on committing slaughters. International diplomacy will do nothing because the United States of America is held in a vice-like grip around its throat (or wherever) by Tel Aviv.

The way forward is not diplomacy as it stands today because diplomacy and international law do not exist where Israel is concerned. Let’s be honest about it. The way forward is also not violence and terrorism because it is fundamentally wrong, goes against every grain of common human decency and anyway engenders only more violence in an escalating spiral. No, the way forward is through economic measures. This approach is totally legal, non-violent and effective.

The only thing that the international community can do, is act with its feet. Or rather, with its wallet, boycotting Israeli goods. Anything with the serial number 729 (first three numbers on the left of a bar code) comes from Israel.

Israel, the U.S. and the Arab World

Israel From 10,000 Feet

By Joe Conason, New York Observer

June 1, 2010

The government of Israel is supposedly run by the Jewish state's toughest and most ardent defenders, but so far they have inflicted worse damage on its security and its future than its enemies ever could. By treating a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as a military threat, killing nine civilians and imprisoning hundreds more, that government achieved the only foreseeable outcome: another episode of international isolation and internal demoralization.

Whether Israel's commandos committed any criminal acts will be determined by investigation, but in the meantime it is safe to say that what happened was not only wrong but exceptionally stupid. Yet while shortsighted brutality has long been a hallmark of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, that tendency is now clearly undermining the strategic interests of both Israel and its traditional friends, including the United States.

The question that sane Israelis are now openly asking themselves: what is their government’s strategy?

Consider the events over the past two years that have led up to this moment. The war on Gaza, initially justified by Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, was grossly disproportional and resulted in war crimes against Palestinians that completely overshadowed the casus belli. Since then, the blockade of Gaza has stopped humanitarian assistance and prevented reconstruction—which has only provoked worldwide support for Hamas' human rights complaints against Israel.

Meanwhile, that war proceeded covertly as well, leading to the clumsiest intelligence operation in Israel's history—the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai by agents who left behind copious evidence of connections with Mossad. That evidence included passports issued by friendly nations, which of course strained diplomatic relationships with them. Worse, the choice of Dubai as an assassination location put severe pressure on Israel's unofficial but strong relationship with the United Arab Emirates—a powerful force for moderation and tolerance in the region and beyond.

Whatever Hamas lost when Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was throttled in a Dubai hotel room, the damage to Israel was considerably greater.

Certainly the same can be said of the latest fiasco, which has severely damaged if not ruined Israel's long-standing ties with Turkey, whose citizens were among those killed and apprehended in the flotilla attack. Until the evening of May 30, the Islamic government of Turkey was prepared to permit its army to participate in joint exercises with the Israel Defense Forces—a stunning development that shows just what Israel's government so casually risked.

Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government seem blithely unaware or uncaring in the wake of its ruinous actions. The question that Israel's friends must ask is the same question that sane Israelis are now openly asking themselves: What is their government's strategy? Indeed, what strategy could these tactics possibly serve to advance? How is their survival, let alone their future peace and prosperity, enhanced by behavior that alienates every friend and potential friend, while encouraging every foe and creating more of them?

If Israel and the United States believe that the most important security problem is Iran and that regime's possible acquisition of nuclear weapons, then the sane response is to build regional and global alliances in response. Iran's neighbors in the Gulf are almost as unhappy about that looming threat as Israel is. A wise policy would draw those states into regional security arrangements and enhance connections with them.

Of course, that kind of policy would mean refraining from such destructive acts as the Gaza blockade, the Dubai assassination and the flotilla attack. It would require the serious pursuit of renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians and the Syrians, so that Iran, not Israel, would face isolation. And that in turn would demand the end of settlement construction and the acknowledgment that Jerusalem is an international holy place that cannot be controlled by a single state.

As Bill Clinton bluntly reminded Israelis in Jerusalem last winter, none of the fundamental factors that imperil the Jewish state's democratic and peaceful future have changed since his own peacemaking efforts ended in frustration. How unfortunate—and dangerous—that the Netanyahu government is so determined to ignore his warning as its strategic position deteriorates.

Israel Naval Raid a Folly foretold

How confused and panicky a country must be to act as Israel did.

David Grossman, The Los Angeles Times
June 2, 2010

No explanation can justify or whitewash the crime that was committed off the coast here early Monday morning, and no excuse can explain away the stupid actions of the Israeli government and the army. Israel did not send its soldiers to kill civilians in cold blood; indeed, this is the last thing it wanted. And yet, a small Turkish organization, fanatical in its religious views and radically hostile to Israel, recruited to its cause several hundred seekers of peace and justice and managed to lure Israel into a trap, precisely because it knew how Israel would react — knew how Israel is destined and compelled, like a puppet on a string, to react the way it did.

How insecure, confused and panicky a country must be to act as Israel acted. With a combination of excessive military force and a fatal failure to anticipate the intensity of the reaction of those aboard the ship, it killed and wounded civilians, and did so — as if it were a band of pirates — outside Israel's territorial waters. Clearly, this assessment does not imply agreement with the motives — overt or hidden, and often malicious — of some participants in the Gaza flotilla. Not all are peace-loving humanitarians, and the declarations of some of them regarding the destruction of the state of Israel are criminal. But these facts are simply not relevant at the moment; such opinions, so far as we know, do not deserve the death penalty.

Israel's actions are but the natural continuation of the shameful, ongoing closure of Gaza, which in turn is the perpetuation of the heavy-handed and condescending approach of the Israeli government. It is prepared to embitter a million and a half innocent people in the Gaza Strip to obtain the release of one imprisoned soldier, precious and beloved though he may be. And this closure is the all-too-natural consequence of a clumsy and calcified policy, which again and again resorts by default to the use of massive and exaggerated force, at every decisive juncture, where wisdom and sensitivity and creative thinking are called for instead.

And somehow, all these calamities — including the latest deadly events — seem to be part of a larger corruptive process afflicting Israel. One has the sense that a sullied and bloated political system, fearfully aware of the mess produced over the years by its own actions and malfunctions, and despairing of the possibility of undoing the endless tangle it has wrought, becomes ever more inflexible in the face of pressing and complicated challenges, losing in the process the qualities that once typified Israel and its leadership — freshness, originality, creativity.

The closure of Gaza has failed. It has failed for years now. What this means is that it is not merely immoral but also impractical, and indeed worsens the entire situation and harms the vital interests of Israel. The crimes of the leaders of Hamas, who have held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captive for four years without once allowing the Red Cross to visit him, and who fired thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli towns and villages, are acts that must be firmly dealt with, using the legal means available to a sovereign state. The ongoing siege of a civilian population is not one of them.

I would like to believe that the shock of Monday's frantic actions will lead to a reevaluation of the whole idea of the closure, at last freeing the Palestinians from their suffering, and cleansing Israel of its moral stain. But our experience in this tragic region teaches that the opposite probably will occur. The mechanisms of violent response, the cycles of vengeance and hatred have begun a new round, whose magnitude cannot yet be foreseen.

Above all, this insane operation shows how far Israel has declined. There is no need to overstate this claim. Anyone with eyes to see understands and feels it. Already there are those here who seek to spin the natural and justified sense of Israeli guilt into a strident assertion that the whole world is to blame. Our shame, however, will be harder to live with.

Israeli Attack on Aid Flotilla in Gaza Strip

Activists Send New Boat to Challenge Gaza Blockade

Associated Press
June 1, 2010

Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists.

The raid provoked ferocious international condemnation of Israel, raised questions at home, and appeared likely to increase pressure to end its blockade that seeks to keep Iranian-backed Hamas from building its arsenal of weapons but has also deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the strip.

Turkey, which unofficially supported the flotilla, has led the criticism, calling the Israeli raid a "bloody massacre" and demanding that Washington condemn the raid. The White House has reacted cautiously, calling for disclosure of all the facts.

There were signs, however, that the long-term strategic partnership between Israel and its most important Muslim ally would endure: Turkey canceled three joint land and sea exercises, but appeared to be otherwise maintaining deep military ties that include the planned delivery of $183 million in Israeli drones this summer.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke to his Turkish counterpart as well as their chief of staff Monday, and they agreed that the raid wouldn't affect weapons deals, defense officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive military ties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, indicated Israel would consider ways to ease the blockade to allow more goods into Gaza — a policy that has been quietly under way in recent months.

"We have been expanding the assistance that has been going into the Gaza Strip — both the volume and the variety of goods — and we have ongoing dialogue with the international community.

But he stressed that Israel could not end the blockade, fearing that Hamas would ship rockets and other weapons into the area.

"We cannot have unfettered naval cargo going into the Gaza Strip," he said.

Amid the tensions, the Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike in Gaza on Tuesday, and an Islamic militant group said three of its members were killed after firing rockets into southern Israel. Israeli authorities say the rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries.

Two militants infiltrating into Israel from Gaza were killed in a separate incident Tuesday, the military said.

In other violence, Israeli hospital officials said an American woman lost her eye during a demonstration Monday in Jerusalem against the naval raid. Emily Henochowicz of Maryland was in intensive care after undergoing surgery, said hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy. Witnesses said Henochowicz, 21, was hit by a tear gas canister in the face while Palestinian youths were throwing rocks, although she was standing at a distance.

The pro-Palestinian flotilla had been headed to Gaza with tens of thousands of tons of aid that Israel bans from Gaza. After days of warnings, Israel intercepted the flotilla under the cover of darkness early Monday, setting off a violent melee that left nine activists dead and dozens of people, including seven soldiers, wounded. Most of the dead were believed to be Turks.

Israel said 679 people were arrested, and about 50 of those had left the country voluntarily. Hundreds who refused to cooperate remained jailed and subject to deportation.

Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to prevent Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into the Jewish state, from building up its arsenal. It also wants to pressure Hamas to free an Israeli soldier it has held for four years.

Critics say the blockade has failed to weaken Hamas but further strapped an already impoverished economy. It also has prevented Gaza from rebuilding after a devastating Israeli military offensive early last year.

Egypt, which has enforced the blockade with Israel since Hamas militants seized control of Gaza in 2007, said it was opening the border for several days to allow aid into the area as a humanitarian gesture. It was unclear, however, when Hamas guards at the frontier would let people out.

Several thousand Gazans — some in cars with suitcases piled on their roofs, others on foot — rushed to the Egyptian border, hoping to take advantage of a rare chance to escape the blockaded territory.

The Hamas Interior Ministry said authorities were not prepared to open the crossing and noted that government employees were on strike to mourn those killed in Monday's raid. Large crowds of people milled about the crossing, occasionally shouting at border guards, but there was no unrest.

Dozens of Hamas police with automatic weapons patrolled the area to maintain order.

"We are working to help residents take advantage of this opportunity," said Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussein. "We hope it will be open all the time, not just as a response to yesterday's events."

Greta Berlin said the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the flotilla, would not be deterred and that another cargo boat was off the coast of Italy en route to Gaza. A second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it, Berlin said. She said the two boats would arrive in the region late this week or early next week.

"This initiative is not going to stop," she said from the group's base in Cyprus. "We think eventually Israel will get some kind of common sense. They're going to have to stop the blockade of Gaza, and one of the ways to do this is for us to continue to send the boats."

The Israeli military refused to say how it would respond to the arrival of new Gaza-bound ships. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, "there is no change in policy" and urged activists to send the aid into Gaza through current, authorized means.

"We have no intention to use violence and there is no need for this to end violently," Palmor said. "If they want the aid to get to Gaza, they can send through the regular peaceful channels. I think they understand that seeking confrontation will not do them any good."

Protests erupted in a number of Muslim countries, including Turkey, which unofficially supported the flotilla, Indonesia and Malaysia, where a Palestinian man slashed himself outside the U.S. Embassy.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel, told lawmakers the Israeli raid was an attack "on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace."

"This bloody massacre by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse," he said, demanding that Israel immediately halt its "inhumane" blockade of Gaza.

Thousands of pro-Islamic and nationalist Turks have poured into the streets in Istanbul and Ankara since the report of the Israeli raid. Protesters with Palestinian and Turkish flags shouted "Down with Israel!" outside Israeli diplomatic missions.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said four Turkish citizens were confirmed slain by Israeli commandos and another five were also believed to be Turks. Israeli authorities were still trying to confirm their nationalities.

Within Israel, the raid sparked intense debate over why the military operation went awry.

Israel sent commandos onto the six ships carrying nearly 700 activists after mission organizers ignored the government's call to bring the cargo to an Israeli port, where it would be inspected and transferred to Gaza. In most cases, the passengers quickly surrendered. But on the largest ship, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the forces encountered resistance.

Israeli commandos rappelled on ropes from a helicopter and army videos showed them being attacked by angry activists with metal rods and one soldier being thrown off the ship. Others jumped overboard to escape the angry mob. Israeli authorities said they were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers. The soldiers then opened fire, killing nine.

Israeli military analysts said it was a mistake to send commandos to board the Marmara and the military could have used non-lethal weapons such as tear gas. They also said the intelligence-gathering was faulty.

Retired Gen. Shlomo Brom asked why the ships' engines weren't sabotaged instead.

"There were certain objectives to this operation. One was not to let the vessels get to Gaza, but the other objective was to do it without any damage to Israel's image," Brom told The Associated Press. "Certainly it failed."

The daily Maariv, in a front-page headline, called the raid a "debacle."

Sabine Haddad, spokeswoman for the Israeli Interior Ministry, said 679 people were arrested and handed deportation orders. By midafternoon Tuesday, some 50 people had left the country voluntarily. But hundreds refused to cooperate and were jailed.

"The rest said they wanted to go to jail and are at Beersheba jail going through a process of deportation," she said.

She said judges were hearing the cases and that almost everyone would be expelled within the next few days.

She said more than half of those arrested were from Turkey, with others coming from more than 30 other countries, including Britain, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Germany and the U.S. Israeli police said four Arab Israeli citizens would face criminal charges.

Israel did not allow access to the activists, but a handful who were deported arrived home Tuesday, including a Turkish woman and her 1-year-old son, six Greeks and three German lawmakers.

"There was a massacre on board," said the woman, Nilufer Cetin, whose husband, Ekrem, is the Marmara's engineer and was still in Israeli custody. "The ship turned into a lake of blood."

Norman Paech, a former member of Germany's Left Party who was aboard the Marmara, said he only saw three activists resisting.

"They had no knives, no axes, only sticks that they used to defend themselves," Paech said at a news conference in Berlin after he and four other Germans returned from Tel Aviv. He added, however, that he could "not rule out" that others used weapons somewhere else on the boat.

Turkey said it was sending three ambulance planes to Israel to return 20 Turkish activists injured in the operation and had other aircraft ready to get other activists. About 400 Turks took part in the flotilla.

The flotilla was the ninth attempt by sea to breach the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after Hamas violently seized the territory. Israel allowed five seaborne aid shipments through but snapped the blockade shut after its 2009 war in Gaza.

There was little call in Israel to end the blockade. Israelis have little sympathy for Gaza, which sent thousands of rockets and mortar rounds crashing into Israel for years before last year's war.

The Israeli-Gaza border was tense following the naval raid.

The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad said three of its fighters were killed Tuesday shortly after firing rockets into southern Israel. Israeli authorities say the rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries.

The Israeli military confirmed its airstrike, and Gaza's chief medical examiner also said there were three deaths.

On Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said Gaza militants infiltrated Israel and exchanged fire with troops. Israeli rescue services said two militants were killed, but the military would not immediately confirm that.