The Rachel Corrie has now been illegally boarded by the Israeli military in international waters.
As usual the BBC’s immediate reaction is simply to retail Israeli propaganda. The Rachel Corrie has been boarded “with the full compliance of the crew”, BBC News tells us. That is almost certainly not true, unless you count without violent resistance as “full compliance”.
If that were true, you might wonder why Israel had jammed – again contrary to maritime law – all the Rachel Corrie’s communications with the outside world, and why they are still jammed. The BBC did not mention that.
The organisers have just posted this:
“For the second time in less then a week, Israeli naval commandos stormed an unarmed aid ship, brutally taking its passengers hostage and towing the ship toward Ashdod port in Southern Israel.”
But the BBC is much more concerned to help ensure that the Israeli version has unquestioned domination of the initial news.
I think Israel must be really intimidated by Craig’s blog
I live and work in a developing country, although I wouldn’t call it 3rd world. My top internet speed is 20k/sec and that’s when the power hasn’t gone out. I haven’t had a chance to read Craig’s latest book either, but I don’t make post after post begging for a free copy. I can wait until I have a chance to obtain my own copy or else arrange with some family or friends to send me a copy. The only English language books I have access to are The Da Vinci Code, The Beach and crap like that. It’s the price I pay for living where I do. Although I did recently hit the jackpot when I found Graham Greene’s ‘Heart Of The Matter’.
Your comparison of food aid to poor children and you getting a free copy of a book is in really poor taste and shows a lack of empathy towards those with real problems.
I think Israel must be really intimidated by Craig’s blog
Clearly, given the amount of transaparant trolls it’s called into action.
Cheeba–well, it looks as though at least Turkey and Ireland aren’t afraid to cross the Israelis.
The US is in decline, and though we might end up spending our last dollars on Israel, I’m not sure the world will need to be so worried about what we do in the future.
And if I were a European or Asian country, I’d be getting a bit worried about this rogue nuclear power called Israel.
Dealing with the Israeli problem would surely bring a lot of stability to that part of the world.
I read quote from a French government official stating they would feel obliged to recognize Gaza/Palestine, if it declared itself a country.
Neill Barker (or should I say, “Carnival Barker?” Look it up):
You have no computer and no Internet access, yet you are able to read and post to the Internet? Wow. You must be one of those magical trolls.
Please do write more, with your magical powers. Posterity will want to know what other important and vital things you have to say. Begging for a book won’t be quite enough.
“Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to visit the Gaza Strip to break the blockade imposed by Israel, Lebanese Al Mustaqbal newspaper writes, citing well-informed sources”.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n221845
Also reported on Sky News apparently.
I think a entire fleet of boats needs to sail, non-stop, day-and-night, to Gaza. Let them board every one. It’s become a symbol of resistance.
“…the number of people killed in the entire Gaza war, overwhelmingly combatants, is less than the number of civilians…”
Neil Craig, that’s simply not true. I agree about the Kosovo Mafia, but that’s another subject. It’s not related to Palestine.
Neil Barker, just out of interest, what country or part of the world are you in?
There are several questions here for me to answer.
I found Craig Murray’s website having been referred to it by a friend. I’m not one of those ‘Zionist trolls’ people keep referring to.
The reason why Israel declared Gaza to be a hostile entity on 19 September 2007 is that the government’s legal experts advised that it had to in order lawfully to be able to impose a blockade. In itself it is not unlawful, nor immoral, as long as starvation of civilians is not the direct object of the blockade, and as long as the effect on civilians is not out of proportion to the anticipated military advantage.
Clark at 12:37 asks me to expound on the morality of the situation.
The state of belligerency between Gaza and Israel is not subject to evaluation according to international law, because they are not both states. Save that, in so far as Hamas is in common plan or conspiracy with one or more states to wage war aimed at the political destruction of the State of Israel, its members are indictable as conspirators in a species of aggression – the supreme international crime – so extreme that not even the Security Council could authorise it.
As for enforced starvation, according to UN figures the crude death rate for Gaza is between 3 and 4 per thousand. In the UK it is 10 per thousand. Not exactly the siege of Leningrad.
Acts of belligerency committed in Gaza against Israel are subject to Israeli jurisdiction according to the protective principle, just as they would be subject to Egyptian jurisdiction if aimed at Egypt. As such, they are in violation of Israeli law.
Now for the moral question. I can answer it only in terms of Christian morality, though I would get the same answer if put in humanist terms.
A war aim of Hamas is to destroy the State of Israel and to replace it with an Islamic state ruled according to Islamic law. This is morally repugnant because Mohammed is not a true prophet, and because Islam is a false religion. Therefore it is supremely immoral to wage war for the purpose of imposing the law of that religion on any part of the Earth’s surface.
If Israel are at war with Gaza/Hamas, why aren’t they treating all their prisoners as PoWs.
Because Hamas generally do not deploy and fight in uniform sufficient to distinguish them from civilians. If they did, they would have to be treated as PoWs, but could still be tried and punished for war crimes if they committed any.
Israel is just a poor wee mite trying to protect itself from all the bad people out there.
If we appear paranoid, psychotic and psycho it’s just because everyone hates us.
And we didn’t do anything to deserve such hatred.
We’re the most oppressed people ever.
We’re good and everyone else is bad.
And if you don’t agree with us we’ll kill you.
I really can’t see what the point of the law issue is?
International law doesn’t really mean anything.
We all know that Israel is above international law.
And we also know that Muslims in particuler and brown people in general are below the protection of international law.
I see Netanyahu has now released a statement about the MV Rachel Corrie:
“We saw today the difference between a ship of peace activists, with whom we don’t agree but respect their right to a different opinion from ours, and a ship of hate organised by violent Turkish terror extremists.”
For someone who doesn’t hesitate to humiliate the American vice-president, this sounds very strangely mellow. Is he *afraid* of Mairead Corrigan and Denis Halliday?
Well, I tell ya, if Israel is at war with the hostile entity, Gaza, that has to be the weirdest frakkin war I ever did see. Historically speaking, whenever did any antagonist have its enemy penned in and unable to escape yet did not press home the advantage? Okay, Mistah Petek, why doesn’t Israel just start shelling and gassing the Gaza strip? Didn’t Israel’s great protector, Bush the Lesser, say that if you harbour or protect a terrorist then you are a terrorist? And we know that Israel believes Hamas to be terrorists, so if the populace supports them then the people of Gaza are also terrorists, yeah?
Instead, Israel allows trucks of aid to pass through checkpoints into this place which is so hostile that all its borders are closed and watched night and day.
Well, of course the Gazans are hostile towards Israel. Its as if you, Mr Petek, had a pet dog which you kept in a cage, poked it with knives and sticks day after day, disturbed its sleep week after week, starved it of food and water month after month, whipped it and beat it year after long tormenting year. If you did that, you would hardly expect it to react towards you like a friendly puppy, would you?
The short answer is that anyone who would do these things to the weak and the powerless, whether its a animal or a human being, is a psychopath. Hostile? What else did anyone expect as a result of the depraved policies inflicted on the Palestinians for decades? Israel is at war – my arse. Like Bill Hicks said, a war is where you’ve got two armies fighting…so we can all agree…there is no war.
There are, however, voices and unarmed aid boats which will keep on speaking out, and keep on sailing through the Med. You can’t stop the signal. Peace and justice will prevail in the end (and before you blurt out that I MUST crave the destruction of Israel, no I dont. Get a grip).
The new Foreign Office already nicely into newspeak vocabulary: the “peaceful interception” was “resolved peacefully”:
http://ht.ly/1UtFn
So how do the Zionists pull off being able to control a state broadcaster of a major nation?
Mr petek
“So the San Remo Manual applies.
Go study.”
Your Jew nonsense is revealed. It’s already been shown that this is a desperate water-muddying diversion, but you’ll keep repeating it ad nauseam. Not because you value the truth, but because if you can foist your lies on to somebody else as truth, or simply cause confusion, well, you’ve done your job.
Crawl away.
“We aren’t the world”
Video: Warning, have sick bag at the ready.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg
kingfelix – what the f**k is ‘Jew nonsense’? Y’know, I do believe that your racism is showing. Careful now.
“Historically speaking, whenever did any antagonist have its enemy penned in and unable to escape yet did not press home the advantage?”
Paddy Ashdown, formerly our man in the Balkans, met General Ratko Mladic during the siege of Sarajevo.
“I can take Sarajevo any time I like” said the General. “But I was trained by the Russians. They say if you shoot a man in the head it takes two people half an hour to bury him. If you shoot him in the balls, it takes several thousand to keep him alive for months.”
On the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day, Ehud Barak said: We live in a tough environment. “This isn’t western Europe or North America. There is no mercy for the weak here, and no second chance for those who can’t defend themselves.”
He’s absolutely right. Nearly a century ago, the Ottoman Armenians tried to break away from Muslim rule and they turned out to be too weak to succeed. They were given no second chance and were shown no mercy. That’s why they don’t exist any more. If they had been strong enough and ruthless enough to their enemies, they might have prevailed.
Israel’s neighbourhood is infested with fanatics who are convinced that Jews are the offspring of apes and pigs, but who will respect anyone who can show that he’s the strong horse. According to local custom, the way to do that is to shoot the man who disrespects you, and then the man next to him.
It’s nothing to do with being a psychopath. In the eastern Mediterranean, it’s the only way to stay alive.
“Whatever one says about the Israelis one cannot dispute that when it comes to respect for human rights & international law they are thousands of times ahead of the Nazi scum who attacked Yugoslavia. It is a matter of record that the number of people killed in the entire Gaza war, overwhelmingly combatants, is less than the number of civilians, in nominal peacetime, dissected while alive, by NATO “police” (formerly the KLA) under NATO authority to steal their body organs.
It seems clear that anybody who complains more about the Israelis, let alone who supports racist & pro-Nazi parties, such as the LibDems responsible for such atrocities, unmatched even by Mr Hitler, cannot, under any circumstances claim to be motivated by concern for human rights.
Perhaps if the author here disagrees he will be able to explain.”
What amazing nonsense.
Such a change of theme would suit you. You need to adjust your tactics. Your speaking English, but it just doesn’t jive here, you need to adapt your Zionist Attack Machine tactics for the UK market.
I meant to add the above video was in a link at lobelog.com
“Tax-Exempt US $$ Fund Tasteless Israeli Flotilla Satire”
http://www.lobelog.com/tax-exempt-us-fund-tasteless-israeli-flotilla-satire/
@mike cobley
The San Remo meme was seized on by the Israeli Commenting Machine.
Jews are not a racial group, but an ethnic group, I think you’ll find, though they managed to insinuate themselves into the Race Relations legislation in the UK as such, but definitions do seem to fluctuate when Israel comes into focus, you know, leaving them off the list of states with undeclared nuclear weapons, etc.
Of course, everybody, EVERYBODY who opposes Israel’s actions is a vile anti-Semite etc… mate, we’ve been hearing it in the West for generations, it’s just a way to smear opponents that no longer works too well. What I actually am is sick of the Jewish state and its fanatic adherents committing atrocities and then distorting reality with their PR surges through the world media. If you mistake it for racism, fine, fuck you.
And Craig should add a script to this site that shows the location of commenters via IP address.
Michael Petek–The original sin, of course, was that of the Zionists. They bullied and bribed the Western powers to give them a large part of Palestine, via what was really a criminal act of the UN. That land was not the UN’s to give.
Everything that has happened since then is simply the victims trying to get their land back. That they didn’t simply slink away has given Israel a false excuse to steal more and more.
It’s time to admit the UN made a huge mistake in 1948, and look at other options. Israel’s imposed apartheid has shown the world they are unable to resolve the present conflict in a peaceful way.
Michael Petek
You say – “the Ottoman Armenians tried to break away from Muslim rule and they turned out to be too weak to succeed.”
Why the sudden interest in the Armenian Holocaust?
quote: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3899265,00.html
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Saturday Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal and should be lifted, and reiterated calls for an investigation into Israel’s raid on aid supply ships this week.
“International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and … it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians,” Pillay said. (Reuters)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3899265,00.html
I’m not sure on this one.
I suspect Israel are at war with the Palestinians since the invasion in 1967 (correct me if the date wrong), i.e they are an occupying force.
Thus the blockade is valid, but the UN must see it as a war and enforce the outstanding 90+ UN resolutions against Israel.
Some clarification on this is needed, oh and by the way if its is a war, then why isn’t the UN and USA placing a blokade on Israel. Just gotta go look at the definition of ‘double standards’ on this one to see if i’ve missed a caveat?
There has been a massive Gaza protest in London today. The BBC online makes no mention of it. However, under the Scotland section, it does mention the Gaza protest…in Edinburgh.
To the new folks above (and I count only two):
You’ve probably picked up on the fact that people who express dissenting opinions around here are immediately accused of being Zionist spies.
Par for the course. 95% of the posters here are 911 truther nuts, who believe that Bush and Cheney and the JOOOOOS pre-wired the WTC.
In other words, they’re willing to exonerate ignorant hateful Muslim terrorists of their crimes based on the incompetent rantings of a few select insane religious figures.
This site is a cesspool of stupidity, failed logic and Jew hatred.
“the Ottoman Armenians tried to break away from Muslim rule and they turned out to be too weak to succeed.”
Ironic that an Apologist for the actions of the Pariah Gangster State of Israel should unknowingly regurgitate the official Turkish apologist’s justification for the Armenian Genocide.
Does this souring of Israel-Turkish relations, mean that Israel will now end it shameless refusal to officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide?
From Juan Cole:
“In what Irish Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described as a “raid,” the Israeli Navy again commandeered an unarmed, peaceful ship in international waters, the Rachel Corrie, in a bid to prevent wheel chairs from reaching the blockaded people of Gaza, an Occupied Territory of which Israel controls the borders, air and sea.
The Irish government (the ship took off from Ireland) is furious, with the deputy first minister condemning the raid as a “completely unacceptable and unjustified use of force”.
McGuinness insisted, “The Rachel Corrie should have been allowed to proceed to Gaza without Israeli aggression,” adding, “This is an attack on an Irish flagged vessel and it demands a strong response by the Irish government.”
Well at the least the Irish have the balls the US and UK clearly lack to say loudly what is obvious, and is also a refutation of the delusional, unctuous and hate-filled Netanyahu. Using the Rachel Corrie, particularly with the significance of its name, to exonerate Israeli thugs is about as sick and truly twisted as you can get. Except with Israel nothing is a surprise.