Israel has no right to stop Gaza aid flotillasIsrael cannot be hurt by any imaginary danger the ships pose. Here from Sweden comes a final appeal to those who would block the flotilla: Please, just once, act with prudence, and abide by international law and simple justice. ---------------- " It's late at night in Sodra, a fashionable suburb south of Stockholm, and it's drinks all around. There's cheese from Italy and Scandinavian fish on the table; and an extremely alert, diverse crowd is gathered around the table. There's a well-known Swedish academic whose field of expertise is the history of religion; a lecturer in economic history; and there's also a young Iraqi who was imprisoned in Saddam Hussein's era in Abu Ghraib prison and who now works in Sweden's supreme court. The house belongs to a former Israeli, Dror Feiler, and this gathering is the Swedish steering committee for the next Gaza flotilla. It is a historic dwelling: In the 18th century, the house served as a beer hall, and then later functioned as an institution for the mentally ill. Hermann Goering convalesced here, at the insistence of his Swedish wife, after becoming addicted to pain medication when wounded during World War I; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin also stayed here, en route to the Russian revolution (he is said to have purchased his famous cap at a nearby street corner ). Now the musician and artist Feiler lives here; after being deported from Israel last June as a result of the first Gaza flotilla controversy, he is no longer allowed to visit his aging mother on Kibbutz Yad Hanna. Feiler likes to reminisce about his days serving in the infantry's 50th Battalion, in the late 1960s. He shares his memories with members of the Gaza flotilla. Prof. Mattias Gardell, who also took part in the first flotilla, claims the first two casualties were killed before IDF soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara last May. They now wonder, in a mood of naive fear, how Israel will relate to them this time. Together with a Swedish-Jewish physician, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who is married to publisher Dan Israel, the group is meeting late at night to plan the next flotilla adventure. Whereas Israelis are wont to describe the flotillas as a Turkish enterprise and a threat, members of this group describe the flotilla as an international, peace-oriented, project. It's impossible not to be impressed by this determined group. They will convey 500 tons of cement, a mobile hospital and an ambulance on their boat, one of ten planned for the flotilla. They know there are other ways of bringing these items to Gaza, but they want to remind the world of Gaza's fate. That is their right, and perhaps even their duty. Had Israel not behaved with such wanton stupidity, and not attacked the previous flotilla and allowed it to reach the Gaza coast, it's possible that this new flotilla would not have mobilized - at any event, the eyes of the world would not be peeled as they are now, watching the flotilla closely. I told members of the group that Israel is determined to attack. One of them has already purchased a bulletproof vest. Israel well understands that these are people are not threats, and that no weapons will be smuggled on the boats. Nonetheless, Israel makes threats, and the IDF naval commandos train for the flotilla's arrival. The result: Requests to sail on the boats skyrocket, and the flotilla vessels will be jam-packed. When you meet such people, you understand the terrible international damage Israel inflicts upon itself as a result of its violent behavior. How simple (and just ) it would be to allow these well-intentioned people to reach their goal; in contrast, how idiotic, violent and unnecessary it would be to release the commandos once again, to go after them. "A toast to the darkness that swooped on the ships ... Godspeed to the small, wooden boats," the poet Nathan Alterman wrote in his "Response to an Italian Captain," in praise of the ship that broke through the British blockade and brought Jewish immigrants to Nahariya in 1945. And let's have a toast to the Swedish (or Turkish ) captain, and for the boats en route to Gaza, on a mission no less just; let's hope that Israel will change its course and, for a change, surprise the world be taking a wise step and allowing the ships' passengers to reach their destination. Israel cannot be hurt by any imaginary danger the ships pose. Here from Sweden, at a time when the sun does not set at night, comes a final appeal to those who would block the flotilla: Please, just once, act with prudence, and abide by international law and simple justice. These people have the right to reach Gaza; Israel lacks the right to stop them. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-has-no-right-to-stop-gaza-aid-flotillas-1.368463 cheers.
Egypt Uncovers Libyan Weapons Headed To Gaza... Egypt uncovers Libyan SA-24 anti-air missiles and sea mines bound for Gaza September 26, 2011, Helped by highly sophisticated contraband weapons smuggled out of Libya, Iran and Hizballah are getting the Palestinian Hamas equipped for another round of hostilities with Israel.
Our North African sources report that many of Qaddafi's weapons stores were seized by the rebels and their contents sold by some of the officers to the highest bidders. Tripoli today is under the sway of several rival militias belonging to the rebel National Transitional Council. An oversight committee of American, British, French and Italian delegates is trying to track down the advanced weaponry which the rebels seized during the NATO-led advance into the capital on Aug. 21. They have been questioning the Libyan rebel officers placed in charge of the arms stores and Libyan weapons dealers for information. Yes the NATO and US have done a great job of opening up weapons warehouses all over Libya haven't they. Did you see the footage of the BBC or CNN reporter walking around a warehouse full of boxes of mines and 'empty' boxes of missiles that were unaccounted for and with no one guarding what was left behind ? Anyone he said could just drive up and wander about and load up what was left of the mines as it was deserted. The lone Libyan rebel who was showing the reporter around explaining that thieves took them and they have no idea where to. Thousands of missiles and grenades that Gaddaffi kept tightly secure now all over the country in the hands of AQ and rebels and tuareg and bedouin and God knows who else. Makes you wonder doesn't it what this was really all about.
A blockade is an act of war and is illegal under international laws and the UN Charter to which Israel is a treaty member. All nations, and Gaza does constitute a nation as it is independently governed by the People of Gaza, have a right to defend themselves agianst acts of war. Israel is in an active state of war with Gaza and the People of Gaza have a right to secure arms to defend themselves from hostile Israeli actions.
Is a drone attack on another country considered by anyone outside of the USA as an act of war and illegal under international laws and the UN charter?
Well said. If you condemn the US for this, you have to also condemn "Israel" as well. Little Brother does the same thing in Gaza.
Absolutely as would be a paramilitary operation by a government entity like the CIA. The United States has repeatedly violated it's treaty obligations as a member of the United Nations. That is not the topic of this thread though but there is an analogy between Israel's violations of international law and the UN Charter with similar violations by the United States.
If i were Israel i will accept a state for Palestinians asap and make turkey mind its own business so it can solve its Kurdish 20 million minority who also seek self-rule. Erdogan urged support for the just struggle of the Palestinians for statehood, no-one seemed to notice the Turkish PM's blatant hypocrisy in continuing the Turkish tradition of denying the existence of the Kurdish people and their rights, or of the ongoing conflict in the Turkish and Iranian parts of Kurdistan. Erdogan and the ruling AKP party are playing a complex game in the region – reaching out to the Arabs but at the same time using such a world role as a "smokescreen" to launch fresh offensives against the Kurds. As the 'Arab Spring' receives wide coverage in the world media there is little mention of this dirty war, where the Iranian and Turkish armies have been pounding Kurdish guerrilla bases in S.kurdistan borders in recent months, killing dozens of "Kurdish civilians" in the process. Erdogan is using his leading role in the Arab Spring as a smokescreen to push the cause of Kurdish autonomy back decades.
