Flotilla Update: Israel Attacks Convoy, Deaths Reported

[sunny]

Un-fucking-believable.

Not really. Par for the murderous Israeli criminal course, but I do hope they have finally, FINALLY, well and truly screwed their own pooch.

[barracuda]

What do they gain?

Wrong question. What do they lose? The peace process? A Turkish ally? What do they really gain with either of these?

LA Times:

Video released by television crews onboard and a live Internet signal transmitted from the boat show armed and masked Israeli soldiers rappelling from helicopters onto the boat and being attacked by passengers with iron clubs.

Did this really happen? Were these people foolish enough to attack heavily armed commandos?

[82_28]

What do they gain?

Wrong question. What do they lose? The peace process? A Turkish ally? What do they really gain with either of these?

LA Times:

Video released by television crews onboard and a live Internet signal transmitted from the boat show armed and masked Israeli soldiers rappelling from helicopters onto the boat and being attacked by passengers with iron clubs.

Did this really happen? Were these people foolish enough to attack heavily armed commandos?

Of course not. They knew what they were up against. We are in even stranger times than we were a couple of months ago peeps. Check out Goro's latest just for kicks:

http://www.goroadachi.com/etemenanki/up ... htm#053010

[stefano]

Turkey's requested a meeting of NATO ambassadors tomorrow.

[JackRiddler]

What do they gain?

Wrong question. What do they lose? The peace process? A Turkish ally? What do they really gain with either of these?

LA Times:

Video released by television crews onboard and a live Internet signal transmitted from the boat show armed and masked Israeli soldiers rappelling from helicopters onto the boat and being attacked by passengers with iron clubs.

Did this really happen? Were these people foolish enough to attack heavily armed commandos?

Does it matter?

Are they not allowed to defend themselves against what at best is a surprise attack by high-seas pirates, but more like an act of war?

Israel is working on an interesting extension of castle doctrine, from mine to to the world's.

[Jeff]

"I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her." - Simone Weil

[DoYouEverWonder]

UN Security Council to hold emergency session over Gaza flotilla deaths

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-security-council-to-hold-emergency-session-over-gaza-flotilla-deaths-1.293299

[semper occultus]

the BBC radio head-line this afternoon said "the Israeli attack has caused outrage across the Arab world...."

so....nothing for us non-Arab types to get upset about then !

[Simulist]

How anyone can respect the Israeli regime — let alone defend it — is beyond my capacity as a human being to understand.

[Nordic]

I stole this:

[JackRiddler]

"I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her." - Simone Weil

Serena Williams reached the quarterfinals! Yes!






for the irony immune: yes

[stefano]

Craig Murray. I think he's right about Hague, Blair has already come out and equivocated. My bold. If it's the first of the two options, it becomes a NATO issue.

The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack

I think that anybody with any fairness is bound to admit that the statement William Hague came out with is much better than anything on Israel which New Labour ever came out with, especially this bit:

"This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UNSCR 1860. The closure is unacceptable and counter-productive. There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis.

I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians

But as I told this afternoon's tremendous spontaneous demonstration on Whitehall, fine words are not enough and we must now see the kind of sanctions regime we saw against apartheid South Africa.

A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare.

Because the incident took place on the high seas does not mean however that international law is the only applicable law. The Law of the Sea is quite plain that, when an incident takes place on a ship on the high seas (outside anybody's territorial waters) the applicable law is that of the flag state of the ship on which the incident occurred. In legal terms, the Turkish ship was Turkish territory.

There are therefore two clear legal possibilities.

Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime.

Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law.

In brief, if Israel and Turkey are not at war, then it is Turkish law which is applicable to what happened on the ship. It is for Turkey, not Israel, to carry out any inquiry or investigation into events and to initiate any prosecutions. Israel is obliged to hand over indicted personnel for prosecution.

[Fresno_Layshaft]

Nothing will come of this. Just business as usual.

[MacCruiskeen]

Nothing will come of this. Just business as usual.

I fear you're right. The Axis of Evil (USA-Great Britain-Israel) will not be shifted, not by the deaths of a few obscure insignificant "peaceniks", some of whom may even have been as unfetching as Cindy Sheehan or Dennis Kucinich. There's simply too much at stake here.

A war between Turkey and Israel is not likely at all, but it's still a more easily-imaginable event than a significant reduction of US government support for Israel. (The Great British State does whatever it's told, especially when the orders serve its own perceived interests.)

9/11 was such a disaster for the world. It ushered in the 21st century, in which no serious explanations are ever required from any government on the Axis. Demanding accountability - demanding rationality - from your Leaders now counts as lunacy at worst and lèse-majesté at best. It may even count as anti-Semitism.

[JackRiddler]

Nothing will come of this. Just business as usual.

...

A war between Turkey and Israel is not likely at all, but it's still a more easily-imaginable event than a significant reduction of US government support for Israel. (The Great British State does whatever it's told, especially when the orders serve its own perceived interests.)

Turkey has announced they will send an aid convoy accompanied by military ships.

I don't think there will be a war. But that's pretty big - is the US going to move in the Sixth Fleet to keep its allies apart?

Tomorrow the Erdogan government may demand that NATO impose sanctions against Israel. They may have no choice in this, stuck between their own Welfare Party voters who will be on the street, and a military that's still hostile to them. This may develop into do or die for the government.

Under present circumstances, Greece would be very, very wise and forward-looking to back Turkey in a demand for sanctions. I don't know they'll do anything of the sort. But they can't afford political instability in Turkey and as bad as Greece's financial situation is, the ECB can't invade Greek territory, and as you know the only German invaders are the ones going to their holiday homes.

Again, the choice may be between sanctioning Israel or watching NATO break up.