YT: "It is a Crime to attack a ship on International Waters. Israel Doesn't own it. Due to this blockade, 60% of the Children in Gaza have anemia, the entire Palestine Economy has collapsed.

When the blockade was first imposed, the Israel Prime Minister's top aid - The purpose is to put the Palestine people on Diet.

Here's what Glenn had to say about his appearance..

I was just on MSNBC talking about Israel, the Gaza blockade and the flotilla attack with Eliot Spitzer, who was guest-hosting for Dylan Ratigan. It was a rather contentious discussion, though quite illustrative of how Israel is (and is not) typically discussed on American television, so I'm posting the whole 8-minute segment below. Two points: (1) before I was on, Spitzer had on an Israel-defending law professor, followed by Netanyahu's former Chief of Staff, and both of them (along with Spitzer) were spewing pure Israeli propaganda in uninterrupted and unchallenged fashion; at the end of Spitzer's discussions with them, he asked them to "stick around just in case," and once I was left, he brought at least one of them back on to respond to what I said without challenge; (2) literally 90 seconds before my segment was about to begin, the new cam and sound system I just acquired stopped working, forcing me to unplug everything and use only my laptop cam and mic, which caused the technical aspects to be less than ideal (though still perfectly workable)"

Military lawyers imminent.

The IDF is so good that they were able to travel backwards in time to seize bulletproof vests aboard the Mavi Marmara.

In your FACE, Einstein!

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by kronosposeidon.

why Egypt, which chose to close its borders to Gaza isn't even remotely mentioned in the media?
What's the difference between 40 years and 200?
US should return the occupied native American lands
India should return some of its land to Nepal
China should return its occupied land to Tibet
Russia is almost 1/3 the size of land on earth.

Hypocrites
Everybody loves the underdog, the poor and helpless,
live in gaza for 1 week and get real
Because you have no fucking idea what's going on here.

^They mentioned Egypt in this video, and Greenwald explained that Egypt (a dictatorship) has closed its border to Gaza because of the U.S., who gives Egypt billions of dollars in foreign aid every year, second only to Israel. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. Did you even watch the video?

As much as I love jumping on the "my country sucks" horse, the more I learn about this whole event the more I'm inclined to support the Israeli side. And whoever this moron is, way to address the issue:
"Why was Israel wrong in its actions?"
"Because they evil"

The only thing I don't get about this whole thing is why the fuck someone figured the best way to deal with the situation was to land commandos on board the ship and why do it in international waters and not wait till they cross over. Following that, keep in mind these guys are the Israeli equivalent of Navy Seals, the fact they were seriously injured before opening fire pretty much convinces me they felt it was their last resort. Whether or not the use of deadly force was excessive or not I've no clue, I guess we'll never know.

Again, I'm usually the last guy to defend Israel's action, but to present this as some ruthless military takeover of a humanitarian ship is propaganda at its worst.

They boarded ships, uninvited, in the dead of night, in international waters.

They were Israeli's. The ships were Turkish bound for Gaza.

They were commandos, armed to the teeth.

The people on the ships were old ladies and chubby college professors, armed with deck chairs and moral outrage.

The previous message contained zero percent propaganda.

Everybody weep for the poor, victimized Israeli commandos.

They mastered tachyons before the July war.>> ^kronosposeidon:

The IDF is so good that they were able to travel backwards in time to seize bulletproof vests aboard the Mavi Marmara.
In your FACE, Einstein!

rougy: ummm... you do realize the commandos were stabbed with knives and seriously beaten (they are seriously injured, there's no question about that) before they opened fire?
Imagine yourself in the shoes of these peace activists, can you really imagine yourself coming to the conclusion that stabbing the commandos is the only appropriate course of action? you can argue all you want about the legitimacy of taking over the boat in the first place, but grow up, what sort of gentle peace-loving mob would be able to seriously injure commandos?

Glenn is a fantastic commentator on political issues. He really handles these interview scenarios well too. Here is his latest Salon column on the flotilla issue.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/israel/index.html

And shame on Spitzer. Lecturing on "divergent" views on morality . . . like when investigators discovered his $80 000 prostitute binge and the press proceeded to crucify everything he stood for because of it, leading to his resignation. I and many others defended him because of his strong moral stance on key issues, like his willingness to tackle white collar crime. You would think he would have learned a deeply personal lesson on the harm of promoting bogus moral viewpoints, but I guess not.

>> ^NinjaInHeat:

rougy: ummm... you do realize the commandos were stabbed with knives and seriously beaten (they are seriously injured, there's no question about that) before they opened fire?
Imagine yourself in the shoes of these peace activists, can you really imagine yourself coming to the conclusion that stabbing the commandos is the only appropriate course of action? you can argue all you want about the legitimacy of taking over the boat in the first place, but grow up, what sort of gentle peace-loving mob would be able to seriously injure commandos?


You're missing the point there. They boarded at international waters, that is a crime. Whether or not the ships had intent to travel to Gaza is another story. Just because someone has intent does does not mean they have committed a crime, unless that intent is to harm another person.

If I told you I was going to cross the fence of your yard, and just stood at the fence you could not act on me for crossing the fence. Why? Well because I didn't cross the fence, I simply had intent to cross the fence. Does that give you the right to come onto the sidewalk and fuck my shit up? No. In short Israel doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, and neither would a person defending his property by going outside of that property.

Is it Israel's right to blockade a population? That I don't know and I would differ to much more informed people.

The argument is, Israel over stepped their fucking bounds. They're like North Korea only they are supposed to be the good guys.

That or the date is set wrong, like most digital cameras on the planet. The fact that the timezone was never set seems to indicate that.

I'm not saying their evidence is reliable, but just that that doesn't do much to disprove it. But I wouldn't think carrying body armor condemns them, any more than being found in possession of helmets.

NordlichReiter: I am missing the point? the ship was bound to Gaza, it gave word that it was heading to Gaza in advance, they were informed in advance that they would not be allowed passage, they were offered in advance to have their ship inspected for contraband... Of course the fact Israel did what it did before the ship actually crossed over is illegal, if you had read my first comment you'd see I acknowledged that, but that -isn't- the point. I'm trying to figure out whether those soldiers acted appropriately, whether this was some senseless slaughter brought on by "trigger happiness", but no, let's not talk about that, that's not what the controversy's about, I am missing the point...

>> ^NinjaInHeat:

NordlichReiter: I am missing the point? the ship was bound to Gaza, it gave word that it was heading to Gaza in advance, they were informed in advance that they would not be allowed passage, they were offered in advance to have their ship inspected for contraband... Of course the fact Israel did what it did before the ship actually crossed over is illegal, if you had read my first comment you'd see I acknowledged that, but that -isn't- the point. I'm trying to figure out whether those soldiers acted appropriately, whether this was some senseless slaughter brought on by "trigger happiness", but no, let's not talk about that, that's not what the controversy's about, I am missing the point...


If they acted illegally in boarding the ship before the crime was committed, then it is pretty clear that they acted inappropriately.

What kind of retards decide to attack armed military forces with sticks and knives? Those individuals deserved to die. Israel could chill a bit though...

You're missing the point there. They boarded at international waters, that is a crime

This statement is factually incorrect. The blockading of a group involved in an armed conflict is legal. Hamas (controlling Gaza) and Isreal are in a state of armed conflict. Maritime law allows the boarding, siezing, and ATTACKING of ships in international waters - even those flying neutral flags - when there is reasonable cause to believe their intent is to violate a blockade. Greta Berlin (flotilla spokesperson) openly stated the purpose was not to deliver relief, but to make a polical statement. The flotilla refused repeated offers to unload the goods in Ashdod. The vessel captains ignored repeated warnings and orders to divert courses - which were all full steam ahead to violate the blockade. There were videos previous to the ships leaving port of groups of known militant activists shouting death threats about Isreal. The passenger manifests were filled with persons with known histories of anti-Isreal activity, Hamas ties, and other terrorist affiliations.

The picture some people are trying to paint of the flotilla being an innocent bunch of peaceful college professers and celebrities on their was to deliver food is a blatant lie. There were probably some of that kind of useful idiot along for the ride, but the overt stated purpose of the entire flotilla by its sponsors and leaders was to illegally violate the blockade to Hamas and provoke a confrontation with the intent of obtaining sympathetic media coverage. End of story.