Evidence belies Israeli claim

save us the rhetoric of such proof! Just bring them to the court!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Polk

June 1, 2010

Dear Friends,

To understand the Israeli attack on the Gaza convoy yesterday, I think we need to remember three events that, I believe, have conditioned Israel’s view of what Thomas Jefferson called “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” Not only on issues where Israeli actions have been criticized, but also in response to direct attacks on the United States, successive American governments have literally turned the other cheek. Remember just three instances to see how they may have conditioned what Israel expected from the United States in response to its action yesterday.

The first test of American resolve to protect its own personnel and its own installations came in the 1954 Lavon Affair (code named by Israel “Operation Susannah”). Then members of the Israeli intelligence force, MOSSAD, burned down an American government building in Alexandria to attempt to sour American-Egyptian relations. (The Israeli government decorated the attackers in 2005.) This event was quickly hushed up.

The second, and far more serious, test came in the 1967 Israeli armed forces (Naval, Air and Commando) attempt to sink the United States Naval ship, Liberty, then sailing in international waters off Gaza and to kill all its crew.

Briefly, what happened was this: The American government had been concerned with the build-up of Soviet armaments in Egypt and sent the electronics surveillance ship, Liberty, and several Air Force C-130 and Navy EC-121M aircraft to monitor radio traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean. Based primarily on U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) records, supplemented by CIA, DOD and other American papers and Israeli government papers – most of which were withheld for over 35 years -- James Bamford recounts in his excellent and solidly researched book, Body of Secrets (New York: Doubleday, 2001, 185 ff), what then happened.

Shortly after Israel attacked Egyptian forces in the Sinai, it cut off and took prisoner a large number of Egyptian troops. At El Arish, just 13 miles from the Liberty, the Israeli army began killing their prisoners, whose hands were bound behind their backs, and discussed doing so on the radio. As Bamford wrote, “the Liberty had suddenly trespassed into a private horror.”

Egyptian soldiers were not the only casualties: a convoy of Indian UN peacekeeping soldiers was attacked and a number of the soldiers were killed while UN headquarters in Gaza, flying the UN flag, was “blasted” by Israeli tanks. Bamford quotes confirming evidence from the Israeli military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki. A number of other instances of such killings were later confirmed. Bamford believes that the Israelis were afraid that the Liberty had intercepted evidence of these acts and determined to destroy the evidence by sinking it.

Then the serious slaughter began with napalm and thousand-pound bombs. The captain managed to hoist the largest American flag, a so-called “holiday ensign,” just before three torpedo boats attacked firing cannon and launching five torpedoes. (Fortunately, only one hit.) The boats and aircraft then systematically destroyed the life rafts and life boats still aboard and those that had been launched in the sea. As one sailor later said, “It was obvious that no one was meant to survive this assault.” Another said, “If you jumped overboard, the way these people were attacking us, we knew they would shoot us in the water.”

Meanwhile the US naval attaché in Tel Aviv was summoned to Israeli Defense Force Headquarter and there was told that Israel had attacked the Liberty “in error.” “Shortly thereafter,” wrote Bamford, “a total news ban was ordered by the Pentagon.”

By then 32 crewmen were already dead and two more would shortly die; 171 others were wounded; with his navigational equipment shot out and having little power, Commander William McGonagle, USN, worked his ship out to sea.

Unless it has been withdrawn, there is graphic proof of these events in a six-part series on U Tube’s “The Loss of the Liberty."

Two years after the attack, when crew members had obtained legal counsel, Israel paid $20,000 each to the wounded and $100,000 each to the families of the dead. The ship commander was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, but President Johnson would not personally present it or allow it to be given at the customary White House ceremony; it was given to McGonagle more or less secretly at the Washington Navy Yard.

A third episode occurred later: Jonathan Pollard is an American of Jewish faith who was employed by Israeli intelligence, as the Government of Israel acknowledge on May 11, 1998, to steal and pass documents to it. When he learned that he was about to be arrested by the FBI, he fled to the Israeli embassy. He was never tried but entered a plea bargain under which he was imprisoned.

Allegedly, for the whole story has never been completely revealed, the documents he passed to Israel contained information on American agents operating in the Soviet Union and the means by which America could track Soviet submarines carrying missiles aimed at the United States. Israel then allegedly traded that information to the Soviet Union in return for special consideration for Jews. As a result, the CIA “assets” disappeared, presumably being rounded up and shot, and the Russians were able to reorganize their submarine fleet.

Israelis obviously believe themselves justified in their acts. Those who support them act as though Israel should not be treated as a state and judged by the laws and customs by which independent states judge one another. Today, however, there is a significant and growing number, Israelis, Jews resident in other countries and non-Jews, who question at least the form of their actions. They should rightly – without charges of anti-semitism – ask what would have been the American reaction to any of the three events I have mentioned had the attackers been of some other nationality? Had Egyptian aircraft or ships attacked the Liberty, the American military aircraft on the way to it from the two carriers were under orders to attack them. And certainly, had Pollard been a Muslim, particularly one with a beard, would he have been treated so lightly?

I think we are hearing the answer today.

In conclusion, by treating Israel as a non-state, indeed above the laws and customs that govern international conduct -- a sort of inverse anti-Semitism -- American politicians are, I think it is fair to say, complicit in Israeli actions. Treating Israel as though it were not required to pay “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.,” American governments, with the active connivance of the Israeli government and the Zionist lobby, have perhaps set Israel up for a great fall.

William R. Polk

Israel turns to YouTube, Twitter after flotilla fiasco:

CNN (wired): The Israeli government is hoping YouTube and Twitter can help restore its reputation after a botched raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla killed nine people.

Every few hours, the Israeli Defense Forces is uploading to YouTube a new video meant to demonstrate that their troops acted responsibly -- and that the people in the "Free Gaza" flotilla were the hostile ones.

At around 10 p.m. local time Monday night, it was footage taken by IDF naval boat showing the passengers beating up Israeli troops. An hour later, it was a clip of the "knives, slingshots, rocks, smoke bombs, metal rods, improvised sharp metal objects, sticks and clubs" found on board the Mavi Marmara. About two hours ago, the IDF showed how it was unloading "humanitarian cargo" from the ships and into Gaza. In between, the IDF is providing a stream of Twitter updates and blog posts to reinforce its position.

But no one -- not even the Israeli military -- seems to think it'll make much of a difference in the international tide of ill will following the raid. "We know one thing for sure, in the media we are going to lose the war anyhow," Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israel's Defense Ministry, told the Christian Science Monitor. "It doesn't matter what we do."

The IDF has been practicing a willful indifference to global opinion for years. After the Hezbollah war of 2006, it decided that sensitivity to outside perception made its forces too hesitant, and put lives on both sides at risk. So in its 2009 Gaza campaign, the IDF decided to do the exact opposite: Shut out the international press, and fight without restraint and without a care about what anyone else thought.

Just look at the heavy-handed, tone-deaf response to the "Free Gaza" ships. "The IDF had hoped to obtain a complete media blackout and planned to jam the signals from the Mavi Marmara," the Jerusalem Post reports. "This did not work and the cameras on the boat successfully transmitted images throughout most of the takeover and enabled the activists to get their message out about the Israeli 'aggression.'"

Maybe there's an argument to be made that certain countries -- the United States, for example -- are strong enough to ignore the rest of the planet. "With roughly the population of Houston, Texas, Israel is just not large enough to withstand extended isolation, meaning this event has profound geopolitical implications," Stratfor observes. The U.N. Security Council has condemned the raid. Israel's strongest ally in the Muslim world, Turkey, is speaking out against its one-time friend:

"Public opinion matters where issues are not of fundamental interest to a nation. Israel is not a fundamental interest to other nations. The ability to generate public antipathy to Israel can therefore reshape Israeli relations with countries critical to Israel. For example, a redefinition of U.S.-Israeli relations will have much less effect on the United States than on Israel. The Obama administration, already irritated by the Israelis, might now see a shift in U.S. public opinion that will open the way to a new U.S.-Israeli relationship disadvantageous to Israel.

"The Israelis will argue that this is all unfair, as they were provoked. Like the British [in the 1940s], they seem to think that the issue is whose logic is correct. But the issue actually is, whose logic will be heard?

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As with a tank battle or an airstrike, this sort of warfare has nothing to do with fairness. It has to do with controlling public perception and using that public perception to shape foreign policy around the world."

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The next battle in that information war will come soon. Two more ships are headed towards Gaza. "Next time we'll use more force," one officer said.

More Palestinians were killed by the Jordanian forces in 1970, during the Black September when King Hussein declared war against the Palestinians refugees in Jordan to counter the fedayeen coup-d-etat.

The other (Gulf) Arab countries are well aware of the track record of the Palestinians. And at that time King Hussein took Pakistani Airforce help to kill his brothers from Palestine.

So this is the unity between Arab nations. They only want to show sympathy in Television and media.

Palestinians have no where to go. Atleast I am not showing them fake sympathy to fight my own religious war. Palestinians need actual help not a media war against Israel.

Telk me why GCC countries are so scared of the palenstians? Why can they not get visas? Not a way to help your brothers.

ntasa which side are you on?

Ask the Arabs to stop selling oil to Israel, Israel might be on Arab's payroll.

New aid ship heads to Gaza, Israel vows to stop it

ISTANBUL – An aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza could reach Israel's 20-mile (32-kilometer) exclusion zone by Friday afternoon, an activist said, but Israel's prime minister has vowed the ship will not reach land.

The dueling comments suggest a potential new clash over Israel's three-year-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — and come only four days after an Israeli commando raid on a larger aid flotilla left nine activists dead.

Greta Berlin, a spokesman for the Free Gaza group, says the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie is heading directly to Gaza and will not stop in any port on the way. It is trying to deliver hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and concrete.

Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead McGuire and the former head of the U.N. Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, Denis Halliday, are among the 11 passengers on board, she said.

The Irish vessel is named after an American college student crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting house demolitions in Gaza.

== for ignorant biased hatred filled morons here; its a usefull effort again.. right .. its a PR compaign .. right .. people from around the world, regarless of race, color, religion, country are ready to sacrifice there lives .. but for you .. doesn't both you much right ..

well isreal has vowed to stop it again ..

(iow - murder innocent voluteers again)

you cowards, ruthless murderers !!!

P.S

I wonder how come I can google (google earth) every inch of GCC, indian, china, russia and USA, but not even a high level zoom in israel. may be security reasons, to avoid showing their illegal occuptions to the world.

while the world leaders are on Israel payroll, the worlds nations are united against such 21st centry unjust blood shed and isreali human jail (siege of gaza)

whatever morality left inside you, ask it .. which side you are ?

hmmm I wonder if its safe to be surrounded by 22 nations which are considered enemies ? I bet I better hide then.

When a "democratic" country ban a scholar like Chomsky from lecturing and attack aid ships, I think its because someone is haunted by fear.

btw..... I would support the same kind of PR war against Egypt's blockage as well.

WK..... We all know that it was a PR war.....Just to highlight the issue & internationalize it. And, I dont see anything wrong in it.

LP yes Israel is safe.

Khattak do you think it would have made more sense to send the aid via Egypt if aid is all they wanted to send to Gaza. No aid was another card played in this battle.

Of course, Khawaga.

LP: I think history shows that, even with a foreigner, Arabs (and not all of them) can be united for a short period of time and then they fall apart again.

The 'Arab Nation' is one of the greatest jokes I heard in the last 700 years. Haha.

There still will be some Arabs trying to get a 'special' deal for themselves, exiledsaint. It's hopeless. Israel is safe.

WK...Egypt's blockade is as condemnable as Israel's. I remember "DotCom" started a thread on that...and it had over 100 replies but can't search it right now.

The Arabs are not united because they do not share a common culture. Only because the arabs of the gulf conquered palenstine, syria, lebabnon, north africa do these people speak arabic and had to convert to islam for an easy life. You can unite something that was not one to start with

Maybe they need a pirate.....

The 'Arabs' need a "Lawrence of Arabia' again. Only a foreigner can unite them, shows history.

Then why don't people like ntasa call for death for all Egyptians??? They can be blamed as much as Israelis for the sufferings of people in Gaza

Israel's greatest source of strength comes not from the United States, but in the disunity of the opposition. Just my humble opinion...

Yeah, they are Africans.

WK: Technically, Egyptians don't consider themselves to be Arabs.

ntasa you are as biased as the israeli, israeli media and you are the same just on different sides.

Shame on you for acting like the israelis

So let me get this straight, Israel blocks Gaza so does Egypt. So Egypt and Israel are friends but Egyptians are Arabs and all Arabs are one family so all Arabs are friends of Israel???

Get your stance sorted first before blaming everyone else for not supporting Gaza. Israel don't have any great power, they get US aid sure but US can't come out and fight alongside Israel in today's political environment but if Arabs don't want to fight Israel and want someone else to come fight their war for them, well that's not going to happen.

YOU ARE FILELD WITH BIAS & GUILT in your EVERY BREATH

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will you support any action against GREEN PEACE for example .

I think you do not represent the sane community of the world. You will never understand, and never have human feelings. The Day of Judgement is Near .. and InshaALLAH ISRAEL AND ITS FRIENDS will be defeated, and will be punished for its War Crimes against humanity and Justifying it.

Today they have Power and They have Media .. and They have heartless, maniacs who sold their faith and soul to their devilish and evil will.

Very soon, when you see FROM YOUR OWN EYES what is truth, it will be too late .. TOO LATE ..

Well not yet, but why not. I can fool some people as long as am controlling the media. Few weeks back Chomsky was banned from lecturing at the west bank (Birzeit), I bet he was trying to smuggle some weapons as well. I have seen some personal belongings of the activists on Ebay already :)

I am just trying to think rationally and not emotionally.

Nobody is clean there, neither Israel nor Hamas not even the people who made sure that the whole world was watching when the ships set sail towards Gaza so that Israel had to react.

ntasa by the way I was waiting your response on another thread, why you didn't react like this when Egypt violently stopped aid to Gaza in December last year?

If someone wants to send aid to Gaza, they can do it via Egypt.. Oops sorry forgot, Egypt has also blocked any aid to Gaza.

you are justifying a crisis a disastor and ignorantly trying to BALANCE the voilance at both ends. Only TIME will tell, who's right.

we are not being judgemental, we are taking humanity side. We want PEACE ..

you, you are just being constructive? huh .. are you

this bloodshed will not gon in vain.

you and your likeminded people will learn a lesson

if not in this world, than Afterworld.

i am glad the majority of the world is not so mean and blackhearted as few members here.

the support for Isral and US is weakening up.

you and a your group of morons are just retards.

SHAME ON YOU .. what a human disgrace .. for you are supporting israel

you and supporting who sponsor terrorism in the world, blaming community, people, hostages in their own homelands and you justify it with an empty hearts but these dead souls will haunt you forever till the day you meet the CREATOR.

SHAME ON ISRAEL

SHAME ON ITS SUPPORTERS

Nobody says there were WMDs on the ships.

oh you have missed the chilli pepper, its a lethal WMD.

Weapons included many knives, slingshots, rocks, smoke bombs, metal rods, improvised sharp metal objects, sticks and clubs, 5KG hammers, firebombs and gas masks.. Not exactly stone age weapons by the way

.

ntasa and dot.com, why should I believe your video????

And disregard the video aired on international channels???

Another Apartheid regime , but for how long...

.

Some idiot

thanks edfis so it means all these countries are involved in terrorist activities against Israel.

Aftab

37 countries.

howy many countries are involved in sending this Gaza aid ship any body have idae

Israelis need to step it up several notches or clean up their act totally. Where they are right now is simply nowhere.

Both parties are right.

The Humanitarian activists in the flotilla did the right thing by trying to help the people trapped in Gaza by reaching some aid to them. The most important construction material cement is banned by Israel. So they carried a lot of cement. Nothing wrong in this. Some people wanted to be martyr. So they were granted their wish by the IDF. But, martyrdom cannot be achieved peacefully. I think the IDF needed some provocation to grant them with martyrdom. So all people definitely were not peaceful. But the cause was right.

The IDF did their duty by demanding the cargo to be unloaded at Ashod to inspect it. They are wary of weapons being smuggled into gaza.

So the situation is a deadlock. Can only be solved by a full scale war.

thanks for sharing weapons of stone age.

I scare you, because you know what I say is right....

Well versi here you are..... Insults and nothing constructive to say as usual

you shouldn't take retards like exiledsaint seriously...

cut off all ties including military dealing etc, etc, etc.

Their PM and President are just grandstanding. Partial cut-off or threat of severing ties, all bs! That's why nothing good comes out of it! They are just good in words! Good in riding to the high emotions that is very prevalent nowadays! Let us all be dead serious about Israel, but please, no hidden agenda!

Flor I believe you are correct. I also believe some of the activists wanted a fight and came prepare. As usual violence on both sides except the Israelis have the better weapoans

is very tragic and unacceptable. But it could have been worse if there's even one fatality on the Israeli side. Remember, they (activists) outnumbered the first three commandos and had taken their guns so all hell break loose!

I strongly condemend the result but the action itself, I would like to be as objective as I could in my OPINION! Both sides made miscalculations in their judgment call!

deliver the goods thru their port, the aim become different. Somehow, it become provocative in nature.

that the ultimate aim of the movement was to exposed Israel's siege of Gaza and not as primarily humanitarian reason

God bless the activists on those boats. They are HEROES.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/03/meet-the-19-year-old-american-killed-in-the-flotilla-attack/

How do you explain the confiscation personal belongings of peace activists like cell phones and cash? Zionist soldiers were shooting targets out of fear. Such Apartheid regime won't last long, the birth rate among Arabs and neighbouring countries is greater.Israel has just won a new enemy called Turkey.

Another video of objects from the same ship.

&feature=popular

Your insults mean nothing to me. Say they found weapons on the ships, you would justify it saying they have to defend themselves.

For the flotilla it was a great PR coup (at the cost of peoples lives) and for the Israelis a PR disaster. I for one hope the pressure on Israel leads to something positive for the palenstinans.

i blame those wheelchairs, they can be considered as weapons, after all they are a step up from stones.

i blame Pokemon!

They have a right to be scared! Dont you know how dangerous those stuff toys are? Especially Pikachu :-0

ntasa i hope net time u will post it on this group

http://www.qatarliving.com/group/religious-teachings

you are really mean to be fair with Fairness:)

you have natural ability and real guts to be (ignorant/naive: naaah doesn't explain you well)

broadly obtuse, blind/blocked minded, seriously biased, selfish and cruel. How could you stand yourself in the mirror everyday. Oh, its blackened by your inner blackness already. nevermind.

You are perfectly fit for FOX news; because of your mean nature of defying facts and twisting the truth to your own vicious will. you deserve a PhD in deceptive arts and should lecture jew university of how to support genocide.

and Smile

these pics not selected by me, but shown worldwide by international media. yes, they are wrong (being selective).

but what abt those cold blood murderred dead bodies are ? you can justify that too .. really ?

you remind me of the famous story:

A wolf came upon a lamb straying from the flock, and felt some compunction about taking the life of so helpless a creature without some plausible excuse. So he cast about for a grievance and said at last, "Last year, sirrah, you grossly insulted me." "That is impossible, sir," bleated the lamb, "for I wasn't born then." "Well," retorted the wolf, "you feed in my pastures." "That cannot be," replied the lamb, "for I have never yet tasted grass." "You drink from my spring, then," continued the wolf. "Indeed, sir," said the poor lamb, "I have never yet drunk anything but my mother's milk." "Well, anyhow," said the wolf, "I'm not going without my dinner." And he sprang upon the lamb and devoured it without more ado.

=

I wonder if a single british/us civilian ship got killed by iran (for example) and what would be your reaction.

Well to be fair you could have been selective in the pictures you took? Why should we trust you more than the Israelis?