Volume #234323223232454 of the fucked up things Israel does As you may have known, there was an aid convoy filled with humanitarian relief for Gaza trying to make its way to Gaza. Israel of course vowed not to let it through. Well about 30 miles from Gaza Israel Israili commandos stormed the ships. As of now at least 10 dead and 30 wounded are being reported by the BBC and Al Jazeera both. However this being a big symbolic humanitarian mission with some important people on it, and those people being aware of what Israel might do, there were live footage feeds on board ship. I don't know if Israel managed to jam the transmission but I do know at least some of the boarding and shooting was filmed. I'm going to sleep for now but ideally more people will add to this as this unfolds.
20 killed, an unknown number of wounded persons but yes, of course the israeli say they were shot first. oh yea, one of the most powerful armies in the world cannot just step away and tell them «stop the nonsense, throw away grandpa's scattergun and raise hands or else, you dumbfucks». no, they've got to shed blood to prove they're machos. did I ever write here that i hate israel and israeli people to death ? they are the assholes who managed to gift us with towelhead terrorism and hope some day the Arabian peoples around them manage to throw them in the sea. with a rock tied to their necks, i mean. israeli are peacetime criminals and should be wiped off the face of earth. one cannot just buy the land, kick out of the territories a population living there since the remotest ages of history (because of the lies written 5000 years ago on a crappy book by an ignorant shepherd because of a real bum trip) and call it a nation. and all this because the USA need an outpost there. and this leads to my final conclusion, that those guilty for terrorism, 9/11 , bin laden and stuff are in the first place the USA and fucking damned zionists . p.s. don't even think to play foul game and call me antisemitic. i couldn't possibly hate on. Levi Montalcini or Moni Ovadia and a rather long list of wonderful Jewish people who have no blame for mass murders, continuous human rights violations, ethnical cleansing , indiscriminate revenge against civilians , and so on, all things that are inherent to that band of fascist assassins called state of Israel.
Israel has been and continues to be a terrorist state, and it is being financed by a ten year, $30 billion aid agreement passed by the United States Congress in 2005. French singer Nathalie Cardone is aboard the flotilla. I wonder if she is all right.
What pisses me off about this is, that because some Israeli kid got put in a situation that he had no business being in, and lost his cool and fired his weapon as he was trained to do, some US Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine, that did not know the Israeli kid, or whoever he shot, will get his ass blown off by an IED. When Israel gets a cold & sneezes, an American kid dies. That ain't right.
the common limit of internal waters is fixed for all the countries in the Mediterranean coasts at 12 (twelve) sea miles . military operations out of this limit are allowed for self defense , but against foreign gunships or drug smugglers, or to prevent illicit immigration not against private ships trnsporting food, and the fact that they want the Palestinian to starve and die is not an excuse. they boarded foreign civilian vessels and murdered people that could not possibly make a stand against special troops geared for war. if that wasn't a bloody crime that would sound pretty ridiculous. it is Goliath complaining against David's sling , only this time the evil giant is jewish.
Countries have been declaring naval blockades of other countries that they don't like for hundreds of years. If you try to run the blockade, you risk death. This isn't anything new. I'm not sure why anyone is acting like this is some kind of unique situation.
Sooo - really, since there have been blockades before - there is a legitimate reason to board an aide ship, in international waters, using heavily armed solders with helicopters and warships as backup. When the passengers tried to defend themselves with knifes they were cut down by how powered rifles. The blockade is against a people who have effectively no army, with few weapons and live in poverty conditions. Gosh - now I understand!!
Israel is not at war with Gaza, it considers Gaza part of its own territory, you can't launch a naval blockade of your territory in international waters.
I can't remember how many boats where there but all but one was boarded and restrained with out incident. The one with a bunch of nutters on board provoked violence upon the boat they were on. I think there is a lot of truth here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1283021/Israel-Did-activists-wanted--confrontation.html ...did so many people need to die? I'm not sure.
Everyone expected a confrontation of some level, that's why the ships had live feed, but what Israel did was in international waters, its soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians.
The videos are patchy...but I saw the incoming soldiers (from the helicopters) being beaten with poles (metal/wood...not sure)...they were deffinitly armed. From what I can gather, the soldiers used paint guns to quell the violence...then the shit hit the fan and live rounds began to be used. It isn't true that the soldiers were determined to kill people (murder)...that's unfair.
I think the violence on the side of the people on the boat is being very mucch under-played. That being said, It is a shame both sides are holding back on a fair assesment on what occured.
In Israel's case when it comes to Palestine the benefit of the doubt is not on Israel. Israel says it went in with paintball guns, but then why also not just use rubber bullets, tasers, tear gas, against a bunch of people with poles. I mean heck police in the US face riots with more deadly weapons and still only use tear gas. And these are commandos, they're trained to deal with a bunch of people with no real weapons.
You can actually see they used paintball guns, as the distinctive container for the balls can be seen in some videos...so I believe that. It's hard to use tasers when you are dangling from a rope, I imagine. They did use tear gas. The use of real bullets is being rationalised because they say they were under fire from real bullets themselves. It isn't clear in the videos on the IDF youtube page. But, as I said, the videos are patchy...the only thing I have heard is one of the commandos screaming his head off that they were being shot and could live rounds be used. The answer in the heat of the moment was: Yes. The same decisions must have been made on other boats being boarded, and the answer was no, because the situation was radically different.
The other boats were substantially smaller though and were boarded by sea. The real question is Israel has a well equipped Navy, Gaza is small, and the flotilla was due to arrive during daylight. If Israel didn't expect a shit storm to happen, why send an armed commando raid to international waters vs just waiting for 6 small, unarmed ships to enter your territorial waters, send a few patrol craft and destroyers to meet them, escort them to Israeli port, and arrest the people on board. Israel was trying to make as much a point as the activists were and it backfired miserably.