Israelis cleverly wreck their rapport with the Turks.

[sirs]

Riiiiiight.....because they had a plethora of prior boats to perfect that technique.  Oh wait. 

So, possible?, yea.  Probable?, extremely unlikely.  Will our Sun go Supernova sometime this week?  Possible, yea.  Probable?, extremely unlikely

[BSB]

MT, I'm with you on the destruction of Gaza but on this I think Israel has a good case. I don't believe this was a humanitarian effort for one second. This was a lets put Israel in a bad spot effort.   

[Michael Tee]

In the sense that Gandhi's March to the Sea and his attempt to get salt out of sea water wasn't really an attempt to put salt on anyone's table, but an effort to dramatize the injustice of the British salt tax and the larger injustice of British rule, you are correct to state that the real purpose of the flotilla was to make Israel look bad.

I am opposed to the blockade of Gaza, and I applaud all protests and all attempts to dramatize the injustice of it all.  Why shouldn't the opponents of the blockade do what they can to bring international pressure on Israel to end it, especially if that pressure takes the form of humanitarian relief?  It's like killing two birds with one stone - - relief is sent, Israel looks bad whatever they do (because the underlying cause of the flotilla, the blockade, is inherently bad) and the international pressure to end the blockade ratchets up.  How is any of this bad?

The Israeli reaction was worse than anyone could have expected.  The deaths of the aid workers was a tragedy but one that underscored in a way that ten thousand arguments couldn't the basic lack of humanity and lack of respect for international public opinion that has come to characterize the right-wing Likud Party presently in power in Israel.  You could not pay a publicist enough money to make that point as graphically and as unmistakably as the Netanyahu government and Netanyahu himself have done.  For every impassioned pro-Israel post that this generates in the blogosphere, there are thousands and maybe tens of thousands of ordinary human beings all over the globe just stunned and shocked by the brutality of it all, seeing for maybe the first time the true face of the Israeli fanatics determined to cash in on the promise of land that they claim their God made to them thousands of years ago from a burning bush.

Were they (the aid workers) right?  Were they wrong?  Was the naval blockade legal?  Was it illegal?  These questions are of distinctly  secondary importance now.  The reaction to the slaughter of the aid workers is visceral - - it tells people something about the Israeli cause that is more important than, is it lawful?  It's a crime so stark in its implications ("these people KILLED those who brought food to the starving!!!") that all the legalities and legal wrangling just fade into the background.  Because in reality, when all the motivations and legalities of the aid workers have been analyzed and dissected a million different ways, that is EXACTLY what happened:  people bringing food to the starving were assaulted and murdered for their "crime."  Ain't gonna sit well on the world stage.

[sirs]

Gotta love this constant mutation of the facts.  Especially with how it's been speculated to have gone down, per Tee's deductive analysis.  Yea, they're gonna let all the rest of the boats thru, then "spray" the last boat with gunfire, and jump down on it, because.....well, just because they're that evil.  They quickly swap from their automatic weapons, to paintballs as they descend on the last boat, so as not to .....well, they're just that nefarious.  They then execute more people with their paintguns, after they start getting beaten, from all the folks, who were everywhere on the boat, yet not hit with any of the gunfire spray prior to boarding because.....well, because they're just that bad a shot.

Yea, that makes so much more sense, then what was reported, of all the prior ships being let thru with their aid and humanitarian materials, and only had issues with the last boat, as when the 1st Israeli came down, he was attacked, and his weapons taken, and used against futher Israelis, necessistating a more lethal defense, than only took 9 of the attackers' lives, on a boat of upwards of a hundred.  Yea, that doesn't make any sense at all

[Amianthus]

("these people KILLED those who brought food to the starving!!!")

Is anyone allowed to beat or shoot at police while they are being arrested? Or only if the police stop you while you are on your way to volunteer your time to a charity?

[Michael Tee]

<<Is anyone allowed to beat or shoot at police while they are being arrested? Or only if the police stop you while you are on your way to volunteer your time to a charity?>>

No, nobody is allowed to beat or shoot at police for any reason.  (Let's forget for the moment to ask who appointed the Israel Defence Force as the police of the high seas or even as the police of Gaza.  They're "the police," fine.) 

So the real villains of the story are the aid workers, just as Netanyahu says.  They're the bad guys.  They wanted to bring food to the starving and medical supplies to the sick, and then they compounded their "crime" by beating up the very guys (the "police") who were blockading the Gazans and preventing them from getting the food and the medical supplies in the first place.  Bad, bad, bad aid workers.  The Israelis, who killed them while storming their ship, are the good guys.

BTW, does anyone know any "police" who stand at the shipping gates of hospitals and turn away shipments of medical equipment and supplies?  Does anyone know any "police" who block the doors of sick people's houses so they can't get out to see their doctors and keep 'em locked in till they die?  Does anyone know any cops who block supermarket doors and turn away people who desperately want to buy food?  Just askin, because this "beating the police" analogy does seem kind of outrageous on its face, but who knows?

This is the problem with conservatives.  No common sense.  None whatsoever.  Heads stuck so far up their own ass that they can really believe a lying shit like Netanyahu.   If the aid workers were the bad guys and the Israelis were the good guys, what is all the fuss about?  Why are the Egyptians opening up the Gaza border?  Why are the Israelis now rushing to show that they too are opening up the Gaza border?  What is it exactly that they are now trying to make amends for?

[sirs]

This is the problem with conservatives.  No common sense.  None whatsoever.  

    Ahhhhh, I needed a good laugh, coming from that pot

[Amianthus]

BTW, does anyone know any "police" who stand at the shipping gates of hospitals and turn away shipments of medical equipment and supplies?

I know of police that will search for weapons before allowing medical equipment and supplies to pass through.

Pull up to a hospital in a very high crime neighborhood with a big ol' truck, and see if you don't get inspected by the security guards before you're let through...

[Michael Tee]

We are not talking inspection, we are talking BLOCKADE. 

Did you read even one of the accounts of the blockade that I linked to?  Food is not getting in, medical supplies and equipment are not getting in, material to rebuild the bombed-out hospital is not getting in.

[Amianthus]

Did you read even one of the accounts of the blockade that I linked to?  Food is not getting in, medical supplies and equipment are not getting in, material to rebuild the bombed-out hospital is not getting in.

Henny disagrees with you. Facts seem to disagree with you as well. What happened to the relief supplies on the first 4 ships that were allowed through in this convoy?

[sirs]

We are not talking inspection, we are talking BLOCKADE. 

And the blockade is largely blockading weapon grade stuff.  The rest ususally passes inspection, and allowed in, much like the 1st set of ships in this flotilla.  It's not some wall, where nothing is allowed thru.  15,000 tons of humanitarian aid flows into Gaza each week, and that the blockade is designed to stop Hamas from building or acquiring arms

I realize Tee, your perverse aversion to responding to my substantive points, but your ignorance of the facts, doesn't lessen them, in any way.

 

[Christians4LessGvt]

More proof this is all nothing but an IslamoNazi PR Stunt!




Hamas refusing to allow flotilla aid into Gaza: Israel

Wed Jun 2, 1:20 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas ruling Gaza is not allowing Israel to deliver the aid brought by activists in a flotilla seized earlier this week, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.

Israel has filled 20 trucks with cargo from the captured ships, mostly medical supplies, clothes, blankets and toys, but has not been able to take them into the territory, military spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz told reporters.

"Unfortunately at this point the Palestinians are not willing to accept the cargo so the trucks that are loaded are not entering the Gaza Strip," she said.

"Our understanding is that Hamas is actually stopping the entrance of this humanitarian aid," she added.

Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu declined to comment on the allegations but confirmed the Palestinian authorities in Gaza had not received any supplies.

"The priority now is to release those who were kidnapped and return them, the martyrs and the wounded to their own countries," Nunu said, referring to the nearly 700 activists on board the ships, nine of whom were killed in an Israeli raid on Monday.

He added that the delivery of the aid should be coordinated with Turkey, which supplied much of the 10,000 tonnes of building and other supplies organisers said were on the ships.

Israel had earlier said all of the more than 600 activists who had been detained were being deported, including the majority of those wounded.

Hamas social affairs minister Ahmad al-Kurd, meanwhile, told reporters that if the aid were to enter it would have to be brought in "without anything being stolen from the activists, and without any exceptions.

"This includes the prefabricated homes, the cement, the iron and the electric generators," he said.

But the Israeli military said it could not refill the trucks with more cargo until it delivered the first shipment of supplies.

The military said no weapons were found aboard the ships aside from knives, wooden batons and metal rods it says the activists used to ambush the naval commandos that stormed one of the ships, wounding six of them.

"There was nothing illegal and nothing that does not enter on a regular basis," Leibovitz said, adding that inspectors had not yet come across any cement.

Egypt and Israel largely sealed their borders with Gaza after the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in 2006 and have only allowed in limited amounts of basic goods since Hamas seized power in June 2007.

Israel has recently started allowing in limited amounts of building materials for UN projects, but the closures have severely hindered reconstruction efforts following a devastating 2008-2009 Gaza war.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100602/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazahamasaid

[Michael Tee]

<<Henny disagrees with you. Facts seem to disagree with you as well.>>

Maybe you and Henny should read Juan Cole's summary of reports from various international health organizations, including both UNICEF and WHO, which clearly indicates the existence of rampant child malnutrition in Gaza due to the blockade.  Here's the link:  http://www.juancole.com/2010/01/world-health-agencies-condemn-israeli.html

Those are  FACTS, and they do NOT disagree with me.

<<What happened to the relief supplies on the first 4 ships . . . ?>>

You can bet your ass that with great fanfare and publicity, the Zio-Nazis will distribute them to the people of Gaza as proof of their "humanitarianism," especially in the wake of this latest massacre.  But what does that really prove?

[Michael Tee]

The aid came from Turkey and the Turks are the ones who should be distributing it.  If the Israelis load it onto their trucks, it will be distributed as they see fit - - i.e., the lion's share to their collaborators (Fatah,) the least possible amount they can get away with to Hamas and Hamas supporters, who are the majority of the population.  Fuck dat.  The Turks didn't load those ships to reward traitors and collaborators and punish the true Palestinian Resistance.  Why let the Jews use the humanitarian relief supplies to reward their friends and punish their enemies?

[sirs]

Facts or proof of how they're distributing it, would be helpful to your allegation.  Without it, it's likely going to go to the Palestinians, period, and they'll distribute it as THEY see fit