Lieberman: "There is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip"

Yeah it's crazy, the Israelis shot and killed an American kid. What a horrible tragedy.

Israel will continue to use needlessly brutal tactics until nations that are Israel's allies take a stand.

Sometimes friends have to pull other friends aside and let them know when they are being out of line.

 

Yeah it but it was in self-defense.....just like when Rachel Corrie tried to blow up that bulldozer with the static electricity on her fingertips :grin:

 

Yes I remember that one too.

 

LOL at whoever edited the video.

Allah Akhbar = "Allah is the greater God"..LOL, wrong..."Holy war chant"..wrong again. I don't get it, its not that hard to find out what it means, I guess the guy had his own agenda. Too bad people actually educate themselves with this crap.

 

Revealing interview with one of the flotilla activists (starts around the 15 minute mark):

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.democracynow.org/embed_show_v2/300/2010/6/3/story/huwaida"></script>

 

^^^ So Israel did radio the ship to turn back since a blockade has been established, but the activist refused and challenged Israel stating that it was illegal for them to have a blockade on unarmed civilians providing aid. So the peaceful activist already made their mind up to prevent the Israel troops to board their ship. Seems to me that the activist plan backfired.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ists-killed-in-raid-wanted-to-be-martyrs.html

Gaza flotilla attack: Turkish activists killed in raid 'wanted to be martyrs'
Two of the Turkish men shot dead during the Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla heading for the Gaza strip were activists who wanted to be martyrs for their faith.

All the Turkish dead named so far were said to be religious activists linked to IHH, a humanitarian agency with an Islamist stance that Israel has accused of supporting militant groups including Hamas and al-Qaeda.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, last night rejected criticism of the raid, saying the flotilla was “directed by terrorists”.

In a statement broadcast from his office, Mr Netanyahu said the blockade was needed to prevent missile attacks against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. “If the blockade had been broken, it would have been followed by dozens, hundreds of boats. Each boat could carry dozens of missiles.”
He said the Israeli takeover of five of the boats went relatively calmly, but on the Mavi Marmara “we saw an action directed by terrorists affiliated with Hamas. This was not the Love Boat.”
“There was an attempt to lynch Israeli soldiers,” he said. “Are these peace lovers, pacifists? These are supporters of terrorism, extremists.”
World leaders continued to attack the handling of the raid. David Cameron issued an unusually strong condemnation of Israel for a British prime minister. He said the raid was “completely unacceptable” and reiterated calls to lift the Gaza blockade.
Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy for the Quartet group representing the US, UN, European Union and Russia, said last night: “My view is that the blockade of Gaza needs to be changed, to stop. We need a better policy on Gaza but that was apparent before this incident.”
Of the nine people believed to have died, four are known to be Turkish. Two have been identified, while authorities are trying to confirm the identity of the others. One was named locally as Muharrem Kocak, an IHH volunteer. The nationalities of the remaining dead have not been confirmed.
Yesterday the wife of one of the men, Ali Haydar Bengi, said he “constantly prayed to become a martyr”. Mr Bengi, 39, who had four children, had studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, a leading seat of Islamic learning.
“Before embarking on the journey, he said he desired to become a martyr,” his friend, Sabir Ceylan, said.
Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, a retired father of six, was said to be a charity worker.
Such descriptions would be regarded by many Muslims as evidence that they put religious duty before their lives, rather than an admission that they were heading to battle.
Yesterday videos were circulated of men on board the Turkish-flagged Marmara, which showed activists chanting radical Islamic slogans before the clash.
Israeli authorities dropped plans to charge those involved in the hand-to-hand fighting. Most of the 700 activists were flown to Greece and Turkey last night with the rest expected to follow shortly.

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Looks like some of them got what they wished for.

 

i dont see that happening anytime soon. our government will always put the interests of the israeli government over those of the american people.

remember the u.s.s. liberty - in 1967 israel attacked a u.s. ship in international waters, killing or wounding over 200 american servicemen. they machine gunned americans who had jumped ship and were floating in lifeboats. warplanes were sent out to come to the aid of the liberty and lbj ordered them to stand down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

i guess bringing up this fact makes me an anti-semite though.

 

I can't make sense of your post. Who's plan backfired?

 

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The activist who challenged Israel blockade.

 

I wouldn't say I knew all that but, I had a general Idea. I also didn't there wasn't a humanitarian crisis, the director for the United Nations Development Program said it. Those facts paint a pretty bleak picture for the Palestinians, but I noticed that none of your facts or articles had the most important stat, the one that would probably bring the most pressure down on Israel, a body count. Surely, the bodies must be piling up from such a grave humanitarian crisis.

 

The Israelis had no authority to radio the ship and tell them to do anything while the civilian vessel is on international waters. Whether they radioed ahead or not doesn't matter. The civilian aid vessel was under no obligation to turn around no matter what the Israelis told them.

 

A few tidbits from those on the flotilla...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/10226151.stm

Turkish post-mortem examinations found all nine of the dead had been shot, some at close range.

The dead include a 19-year-old Turkish citizen with an American passport - hit by four bullets in the head and one in the chest - and a national taekwondo athlete, Turkish media say.

British activist Sarah Colbourne told the BBC: "I couldn't even count the amount of ships that were in the water. It was literally bristling with ships, helicopters and gunfire. It was horrific, absolutely horrific."
Swedish author Henning Mankell, who was aboard one of the ships in the flotilla, has dismissed the idea that weapons were being carried by the activists.

"On the ship I was on, they found one weapon: my razor. And they actually came up and showed it off, my razor, so you see what level this was at," the author of the popular Wallander detective novels told Swedish radio.

...Doctors in Ankara, where some of the severely injured were taken, say they have been treating people for bullet wounds. Three people are in intensive care. ...

New ship

Talk in Gaza is now turning to the next ship on its way across the Mediterranean to try to break the blockade, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports from the territory.
The Rachel Corrie - carrying 15 people including Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire - had been due to be part of the original flotilla but was delayed because of technical problems.

The ship could be in the region by Saturday, our correspondent reports. Israel has said it will not be allowed to dock in Gaza.

"Everybody was very upset at what happened [with the flotilla]," Irish crew member Derek Graham told Reuters news agency by telephone.

"Everybody has been more determined than ever to continue on to Gaza."

Meanwhile, some of the 10,000 tonnes of aid seized from the flotilla by Israel has been returned to the Israeli port of Ashdod after being left stranded at a Gaza-Israel crossing.

The Hamas government in control of Gaza refused to accept the aid until Israeli-Arab activists from the flotilla were released.

 

The same was true of the US blockade of Soviet ships to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we did it anyway.

 

Agreed. Neither was the blockade of Nicaragua but we did that anyway as well.

Not having authority to do something and doing it anyway doesn't make it ok, or place blame on those that suffered because someone got away with it.

Madmonkey was trying to make it seem like because the ISraelis radioed ahead that the Israelis are removed from responsibility.

 

Henning Mankell is a known anti-semite. Even the few youtube clips posted clearly show that at least on some ship, there were other things than just a razor. Again, not saying that what Israel did was right, but by now, it's a PR war more than anything...I just saw Erdogan on the news visiting injured people in hospital and making a really serious face - the guy is trying to exploit this as much as possible now as well.

 

If there had been a conflict in the US embargo of Cuba, and say a ship carrying missile parts had been sunk, of course the USA has the responsibility there. But I think it is disingenuous to act as if the Soviet ships were entirely innocent and helpless victims.

As far as I can tell, the man behind the flotilla got the Israelis to do exactly what he wanted them to do. Do you think the people on the boats believed that these were Somali pirates trying to board them or something other than the people they were expecting to enter into a conflict with?

My primary concern is exactly how stupid the Israelis have become to be provoked into a conflict that it wasn't in their interest to have.

But I don't think it is reasonable to pretend as though the people on the boats were just motoring around the Mediterranean on a pleasure cruse and were boarded by unknown forces and thought they were repelling pirates.

 

Of course they knew who the forces were, and the forces were probably almost as much as Somali Pirates.

The Israelis are hostile to this group and certainly hostile to those the group was bringing aid to. The fact that they knew it was the Israelis boarding them doesn't make it less understandable that they resisted but more so.

 

So you would have approved if the Soviet ships had fought back and maybe sunk a few US ships to get their nuclear missile parts to Cuba? Since the Americans are hostile to them?

If you try and pick a fight with someone, it seems to me to be stupid to act like you are innocent and had no idea what was coming when they punch you in the nose. But maybe that is just me.