International Solidarity and the Freedom Flotilla Massacre

Via: The Electronic Intifada.
Editorial

Israeli naval ships flanking the Mavi Marmara.

Israeli soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara.

A passenger aboard the Mavi Marmara carries a bloody stretcher.

Early this morning under the cover of darkness Israeli soldiers stormed the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla aid convoy in international waters and killed and injured dozens of civilians aboard. All the ships were violently seized by Israeli forces, but hours after the attack fate of the passengers aboard the other ships remained unknown.

The Mavi Marmara was carrying around 600 activists when Israeli warships flanked it from all sides as soldiers descended from helicopters onto the ship’s deck. Reports from people on board the ship backed up by live video feeds broadcast on Turkish TV show that Israeli forces used live ammunition against the civilian passengers, some of whom resisted the attack with sticks and other items.

The Freedom Flotilla was organized by a coalition of groups that sought to break the Israeli-led siege on the Gaza Strip that began in 2007. Together, the flotilla carried 700 civilian activists from around 50 countries and over 10,000 tons of aid including food, medicines, medical equipment, reconstruction materials and equipment, as well as various other necessities arbitrarily banned by Israel.

As of 6:00pm Jerusalem time most media were still reporting that up to 20 people had been killed, and many more injured. However, Israel was still withholding the exact numbers and names of the dead and injured. Passengers aboard the ships who had been posting Twitter updates on the Flotilla’s progress had not been heard from since before the attack and efforts to contact passengers by satellite phone were unsuccessful. The Arabic- and English-language networks of Al-Jazeera lost contact with their half dozen staff traveling with the flotilla.

Israeli Murder on the High Seas. By Murray Dobbin

Via: Murray Dobbin’s blog.

More people murdered by Israel. It is so commonplace now that hearing it takes you to the place you were the last time you heard of such an outrage. And you know that there will be no justice.  The impunity and the casual excuses for the action follow on like night follows day – with a terrible certainty.

No other nation on the planet, save for the US imperial regime, gets away with murder like the state of Israel. This is what happens when a heavily armed and sophisticated state like the Zionist regime is guaranteed its protection by that same empire. It is, like the US, described by the term exceptionalism: in other words, everybody else has to live by the normal rules and ethics of the community of nations – except Israel.

The US gets to have soldiers and bases in 140 countries and it is now so commonplace that it has become normal.  Only the US can arrogate to itself the role of being the world’s policeman – and ignore the fact that the cops are corrupt. Only Israel can ignore international law, murder opponents, ignore repeated UN resolutions (like the one last year demanding it end its brutal and illegal blockade of Gaza),  and continue an occupation that is actually worse by many accounts that the Apartheid regime of South Africa.

The tragic irony –  a tragedy born almost entirely by Palestinians – is that a people who experienced amongst the worst mass murders in history is utterly contemptuous of human life that is not Jewish or Israeli. It does not matter if it is a young American, Rachel Corey, defending Palestinian rights, or a ten year old boy assassinated by a shot through the forehead by a teenaged Israeli soldier, or peace activists on a ship in international waters.

It seems intuitive that a people who experienced the Holocaust would become hyper-sensitive to the sacredness of life. But when a nation based on religion is given the power to act with impunity it rapidly descends into a kind of special hell for itself and its victims. It is a vicious circle: the first slaughter of innocents in Deir Yassin in the 1948 war which established the Israeli state also went unpunished. And each time a slaughter or killing was similarly justified and then ignored by the state and the world, it was also integrated into the culture of Israel. Inevitably the “enemy” is totally dehumanized.

They cannot be human – otherwise we would be punished for killing them. This is how the Israeli European elite – quintessential colonialists – established Palestinians as less than human, just as the Catholic Church in the 1600s declared the indigenous people of South America less than human, just as the Boers did with indigenous Africans.

The murder of the activists on the humanitarian aid flotilla is just the latest chapter. And if you want a lesson is Israeli arrogance you simply have to watch Benjamin Netanyahu justify the murder: when the troops landed on the ship they were attacked. They had no choice but to kill.

There is no mention and indeed probably no thought about the fact that the operation took place in international waters and was thus an act of piracy. They did have a choice – they could have obeyed international law and fundamental justice and allowed the ships to dock and unload their cargo.

But that would require on the part of Israelis – its government and its citizens – the acknowledgement that Palestinians are human. That the universally condemned blockade has made Gaza into what observers have called an “open air prison.”  That every time Israel violates the human rights of its fellow-Semitic people, the Palestinians, it generates hatred and contempt for itself everywhere in the world.

It raises the question: do Israelis ever imagine a future where their criminal behaviour will not go unpunished? Do they imagine a time when the US will not be there to bankroll their exceptionalism? Do they even know that their racist oppression of Palestinians has all but destroyed their soul?

The same question could be asked of Canadian Jews who have eagerly embraced the total support for Israel expressed by Stephen Harper. It is precisely this kind of uncritical support that creates the monstrously deformed society that pro-Israeli groups in Canada defend.

Maybe they should repeat a simple slogan: Friends don’t let friends murder people.

Israeli Butchery at Sea. By Gilad Atzmon

Via: Gilad Atzmon.

As I write this piece the scale of the Israeli lethal slaughter at sea is yet to be clear. However we already know that at around 4am Gaza time, hundreds of IDF commandos stormed the Free Gaza international humanitarian fleet. We learn from the Arab press that at least 16 peace activists have been murdered and more than 50 were injured.  Once again it is devastatingly obvious that Israel is not trying to hide its true nature: an inhuman murderous collective  fuelled by a psychosis and driven by paranoia.

For days the Israeli government  prepared the Israeli society for the massacre at sea. It said that the Flotilla carried weapons, it had ‘terrorists’ on board. Only yesterday evening it occurred to me that this Israeli malicious media spin was there to prepare the Israeli public for a full scale Israeli deadly military operation in international waters.  Make no mistake. If I knew exactly where Israel was heading and the possible

consequences, the Israeli cabinet and military elite were fully aware of it all the way along.  What happened yesterday wasn’t just a pirate terrorist  attack. It was actually murder in broad day light even though it happened in the dark.

Netanyahu in Canada – the New Republican Stronghold. By Jim Miles

Via: The Palestine Chronicle.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected to a minority government in 2006. Since then he has done his best to set up what could be considered a Republican government for the state of Canada. Except that Canada is not a state of the United States (just a weak willed wimpy ally) nor are there any Republican parties in Canada. Stephen Harper however is as close as it gets.

One of the signs is the economy. The current conservative government has applauded itself many times for the stability of the Canadian banking system in face of the world economic decline. Fortunately for Canada, Harper has only had a minority government, otherwise deregulation as per the U.S. style of handling its finances could have been introduced well before the bubble burst. Canada only looks good because the conservatives did not have the power to implement its U.S. model of finance liberalization.

Harper followed the U.S. lead in giving out large sums of money for infrastructure projects, many of which had already been announced ahead of the budget, many of which had already been finished (if the many road signs bragging about moving Canada forward by building infrastructure are any indication), and most of the money made its way into corporate pockets rather than the pockets of the average consumer. I would hazard to surmise that the deficit thus created serves the same purpose as that in the U.S. and Greece: to help limit or eliminate government pension funds and funding of health and welfare structures. We will be told that with the current huge deficit that we should all tighten our belts and the government must do the same, yet the poor corporations receive nothing but government largesse following the same track as our U.S. neighbours.

Harper has two degrees in economics, a sign in my mind for certain that he does not know what he is talking about, as economists generally are versed only in idealistic theories within falsely created models and falsely contrived mathematics of market perfection.

Another sign is the environment. Harper and his colleagues have been extremely weak on environmental issues, preferring not to use the principle of scientific uncertainty, but the deniers principle of no action without absolute proof. Even with the current BP disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, the Harper government has recently put forward a law that allows corporations drilling in the Arctic to not have to drill a secondary ‘rescue’ well in case of an accident as was in the books up until now. Imagine an oil spill as deep as the Gulf of Mexico but under winter pack ice and howling blizzards….

Israel Kidnaps 700, including former high Reagan official, decorated Navy Veteran

Via: The Missing Headlines.

According to reports, Israeli forces attacking a six-ship aid convoy to Gaza, killing approximately 16-20, are forcing all six ships to Israel in an act of international piracy, abducting over 700 civilians from around the world.

Among those abducted in the attack on the humanitarian flotilla is Ambassador Edward Peck, who was Deputy Director of the Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism at the Reagan White House and State Department Liaison Officer to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

After retirement Ambassador Peck was Executive Secretary of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Ambassador Peck also served as a paratrooper during two tours of wartime active duty and spent 32 years in the Foreign Service, including Chief of Mission in Iraq.

Also abducted by Israeli forces is former Navy signalman Joe Meadors. Meadors, a resident of Texas, is a decorated veteran and a survivor of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 Americans and injured 174.  Meadors is a former president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association, which seeks an investigation into the attack.

Other Americans believed to have been kidnapped in the Israeli assault are:

• Paul Larudee of El Cerrito, CA, a former Fullbright Scholar in Lebanon and currently a piano tuner and co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement, who also co-founded The Free Gaza Movement, the movement that first broke the siege of Gaza in 2008.
• Gene St. Onge, an Oakland, CA-based civil/structural engineer and former Peace Corp Volunteer, who is working with Palestinian engineers to rebuild housing destroyed in Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza.
• Janet Kobren, a retired math teacher, San Francisco Bay Area resident, and co-founder of the FPM.
• Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old St. Louis resident whose parents were killed in the Nazi holocaust.

Others on board the flotilla include Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Northern Ireland and a number of European legislators.

In addition to the deaths, Israeli forces are reported to have injured over 60 of the aid participants. It is unknown how many are in critical condition or permanently disabled.

Call from Gaza for Global Response to Killings on the Freedom Flotilla

Via: The One Democratic State Group.

PRESS RELEASE
GAZA, PALESTINE
31.MAY.2010

We Gaza based Palestinian Civil Society Organizations and International activists call on the international community and civilsociety to pressure their governments and Israel to cease the abductions and killings in Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla sailing for Gaza, and begin a global response to hold Israel accountable for the murder of foreign civilians at sea and illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.

We salute the courage of all those who have organized this aid intervention and demand a safe passage through to Gaza for the 750 people of conscience from 40 different countries including 35 international politicians intent on breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. We offer our sincerest condolences to family and friends who have lost loved ones in the attack.

By sailing directly to Gaza, outside of Israeli waters, with cargo banned illegally by Israel, such as the 10,000 tonnes of badly needed concrete, toys, workbooks, chocolate, pasta and substantial medical supplies, the flotilla is exercising international law and upholding article 33 of the Geneva Convention which clearly  states that collective punishment is a crime against humanity.

The hardships of Israel’s closure of Gaza have been well documented by all human rights groups operating, most recently by Amnesty International in their Annual Human Rights Report concluding that the siege has “deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of international law.”

Israel Refuses to Allow International Monitoring of its Nuclear Installations

Via: The Palestinian Information Center.

NAZARETH, (PIC)– The Israeli government has affirmed it won’t allow international monitoring of its nuclear facilities as recommended by the international conference on limiting spread of nuclear weapons.

The Hebrew radio on Sunday quoted sources in the Israeli premier’s office as saying that the decision was “hypocritical and ignored the prevailing situation in the Middle East”.

It added that the decision only sheds light on Israel while ignoring Iran despite its “violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty”, and its declared desire to wipe out Israel off the map of the world.

The radio said that Israel’s admission into the nuclear non-proliferation treaty might be discussed during Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with American president Barack Obama in the White House on Tuesday.

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Failure of BP’s “top kill” means oil will continue to flow for months. By Joe Kishore

Via: WSWS.

New evidence of criminal negligence in run-up to rig explosion

Forty days after the explosion at the BP-leased offshore drilling rig, oil continues to flow unabated from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. After weeks of downplaying and covering up the extent of the disaster, government officials are now acknowledging that it is already the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of the United States … with no end in sight.

Over the weekend, BP reported its latest attempt to stop the flow—the so-called “top kill” method—had failed. It announced plans for a new tactic, involving cutting off the leaking pipe and attempting to cap the oil. The proposal is unlikely to succeed, and could result in a significant increase in the rate of the flow after the pipe is cut. Even if it works, it will only contain a portion of the oil gusher.

“The failure of the top kill magnifies the disaster by an order of magnitude,” Rick Steiner, an oil spill expert and marine conservationist, told the World Socialist Web Site. “The blowout will continue unquestionably over the next two months.”

BP is currently drilling separate wells designed to intersect with the existing well and plug the leak. These wells will not be ready until at least August, BP officials said on Sunday.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has estimated that the flow is between 500,000 and 1 million gallons per day. At the higher range—which is still far smaller than the rate estimated by independent scientists—an additional 90 million gallons of oil will have been released by the end of August. In comparison, the Exxon Valdez released 11 million gallons.

If these reserve wells fail, the spill will continue until the entire reservoir is depleted. A BP spokesman said on Sunday that the company has no idea how much oil is in the reservoir.

With the collaboration of the Obama administration and the US Coast Guard, BP has sought to restrict media access to the worst affected regions, as oil has begun to wash ashore on the coast. A CBS news team reported it was threatened with arrest by the Coast Guard as it attempted to reach an oiled beach. The team was told the restrictions were according to “BP’s rules.” Other media have confirmed that access is being increasingly chocked off.

Nevertheless, the immense scale of the disaster is gradually coming out, with scientists discovering giant undersea plumes, in addition to the massive slick spreading across the surface of the Gulf.

Two plumes have already been discovered, but this is “just the tip of the iceberg,” said Steiner. “Some of the oil is probably down around the coast of Florida. There may soon be tar balls on the south east coast of the state.”

Making matters worse, the Atlantic hurricane season begins on Tuesday, and scientists anticipate that it will be a very active year.

Barack Obama: Liar, Warlord, and Corporate Shill. By Stephen Lendman

Via: SteveLendmanBlog.

It shouldn’t surprise because no one gets the top job or any government position of power unless they’re safe, yet, naively, most people thought Obama was different. Many still do.

As a candidate, he promised change, a new course, sweeping government reforms, addressing people needs, and “ensur(ing) that the hopes and concerns of average Americans speak louder in Washington than the hallway whispers of high-priced lobbyists” – the same ones who bought and now own him.

He promised peace and delivered war; real health and financial reform, not same old, same old; help for millions losing jobs, homes, hope and futures, not handouts to Wall Street and other industry favorites; regulatory oversight, not the usual incestuous government-industry ties, making disasters like in the Gulf possible, and when they happen conspiring with offenders in coverup, distortion, lies, and a total disregard for the environment, wildlife, and way of life for thousands – let alone permanent damage to a vital ecosystem.

At the same time, Big Oil gets billions in subsidies, special tax breaks and other financial benefits, besides operating in a regulatory-free environment.

The 1995 Outer Continental Shelf Deep Water Royalty Relief Act (DWRRA – courtesy of Bill Clinton) exempted royalties on defined amounts of deep water production. After its 2000 expiration, the law was redefined and extended to promote further deep water drilling.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) defines it as having a water depth of 200 meters (656 feet). To be eligible, leases must be in the Gulf of Mexico, west of 87 degrees and 30 minutes west longitude (the Florida-Alabama boundary), and MMS must determine that the site isn’t economically viable without relief.

Given longstanding MMS-industry coziness, it’s practically rubber-stamp. DWRRA also reduced royalties on pre-November 28, 1995 leases, decided by the Interior Department Secretary on a case-by-case basis – again, practically assured by officials with close industry ties.

The 2005 Energy Policy Act was one of the friendliest ever with over $10 billion in handouts. It lets oil giants pay federal royalties in barrels of oil and grants exemptions on some wells, subsidizes a new R & D program for ultra deep water drilling and unconventional oil and gas development, creates hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax breaks, increases what oil and gas companies can deduct on pipeline expenses, provides more liability protection besides the $75 million cap (established by the 1990 Oil Pollution Act after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, an amount too small to matter).

As an Illinois senator, six months into his term, Obama supported it, an early clue to where he stood, and how he hoped to gain – the usual “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” payoff.

It worked hugely with BP, the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) reporting that its employees and political action committees gave more to him than to any other federal candidate in the past 20 years.

Israel brutally attacks aid flotilla heading to Gaza. By Corey Ansel

Via: PSLweb.org.

Israeli warships attacked at least one of the six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for blockaded Gaza, killing at least two and wounding an unknown number of people on board, an Arabic satellite service and a Turkish TV network reported early May 31, according to the Associated Press.

Palestinians show their support for 'Freedom Flotilla' in Gaza waters May 30 as Israeli Navy ship patrols in background. AP photo

The Israeli government had previously announced that it would send ships to intercept the cargo and passenger ships attempting to bring humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Some 750 activists are on the boats, as well as Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, European legislators and a Holocaust survivor.

The convoy, which left for Gaza May 30, is carrying desperately needed medical equipment, construction materials and school supplies that have become increasingly scarce in the face of the Israeli blockade.

The inhumane blockade has been in place since 2007.

“Israel destroyed 165 schools and more than 100 factories and destroyed tens of thousands of houses without enabling the Palestinians to rebuild their homes and their lives,” said Hanin Zoabi, who is a member of the Israeli parliament and a participant in the humanitarian mission.

Israel has said that it will detain those on board the boats in the port of Ashdod.

Members of the Israeli government have rationalized impeding the humanitarian mission, stating that due to their ongoing conflict with Hamas, which is the democratically elected government in Gaza, the blockade and seizure of supplies is justified. Officials also stated that they have offered to reroute the aid through official Israeli channels. The flotilla organizers, however, described Israel’s suggestion as “both ridiculous and offensive.

Resistance forces in Gaza, such as Hamas, are struggling for Palestinian self-determination. Though they have fought for peaceful measures to be taken to gain liberation from Zionist oppression, the resistance groups are painted as “terrorists” for fighting back against Israeli rockets, tanks and targeted assassinations.

Along with members of the Israeli government, leaders of Israel’s military have even gone so far as to claim that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Despite these claims, a United Nations Development Program report published May 23 revealed that 75 percent of the damage caused by Israel’s military offensive in the winter of 2008-2009 has not yet been repaired. A report by the United Nations humanitarian coordinator said the blockade is “suffocating” the agricultural sector in Gaza and that more than 60 percent of households have insufficient food.

“I think the side that is breaking the law, international law, and breaking the human values is Israel and not anyone else,” Zoabi said.

The hypocrisy and criminality of Zionism grows larger every day, as even humanitarian aid sent to assist the people of Gaza is restricted by the government of Israel and boats carrying the aid are brutally attacked. The criminal blockade of Gaza must be lifted, and Israel’s pursuit of inhumane policies towards the Palestinian people must end

On Racism and Unity. By Kiilu Nyasha

Via: The Official Website of Kiilu Nyasha.

“The unification of our country, the unity of our people and the unity of our various nationalities are the basic guarantees of the sure triumph of our cause.” Mao Tse Tung

I am so tired of hearing the static figure propagated by the Zionists — and practically everyone else in the world – that six million Jews were the exclusive victims of Adolph Hitler’s Nazism. The racist white supremacist ideology of 1930s Germany was very particular. White people had to be Arian, so-called “pure bloods” and able-bodied. Therefore, the darker Jews, Italians, and Roma (Gypsies), among others, as well as homosexual and disabled people, were also targets for extermination. If Jews, Italians and Gypsies couldn’t make it, imagine how Africans were treated. Do you think that any Africans who happened to be in Germany at that time survived the holocaust for a minute?

We are currently witnessing the rise of a pernicious, white supremacist backlash (I believe is not only a reaction to Obama, but the reduction of the White population to a minority.) evidenced by some 30,000 skinhead and KKK white nationalists on the move, the far right, and the growing, right-wing tea party. They talk about taking their country back and honoring their leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (slavers); claiming they built this country and it belongs to white people, not all these niggers, gooks, and wetbacks.

The blatantly racist Arizona legislation, as well as the banning of ethnic studies in its public schools, is an attempt to once again legalize segregation and racist oppression. Combine that with the dramatic rise in the incarceration rate of Black and Brown prisoners throughout this country, especially in Arizona, Texas and California; the privatization of prisons, and the cradle-to- prison pipeline our children travel, not to mention the cold-blooded execution of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, and we see a picture of White racist repression and genocide.

Add to that a nearly all male, lily-White congress that, were you to photograph it, would find few dark faces among 535 politicians (supposedly representing the American people); and we see the re-emergence of an even more insidious era of racial and sexist oppression, repression, slavery-behind-the-walls (sanctioned by the Constitution), and deadly poverty on the outside.

Servile Journalism for Memorial Day. By John V. Walsh

Via: AntiWar.

Sunday’s New York Times, gearing up for Memorial Day, carries a leading front-page story direct from the Afghan front, complete with photos. Does it tell of the 1,000 Americans who have perished there in America’s longest war, or the unknown number of innocent Afghans to fall, or the many more on both sides gruesomely injured, or the devastation visited on the poor and backward regions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan by the firepower of the mightiest war machine the world has yet to produce? Absolutely not.

Instead, readers are treated to a feel-good story about female Marines “bonding” with their Afghan sisters, under the headline “In Camouflage or Veil, a Fragile Bond.” Did a Times writer dream up that sappy headline, or did it come from a basement office in the Pentagon or Langley where pro-war psyops against the U.S. citizenry are concocted? Or can such a distinction even be drawn, with journalistic ambition and careerism run wild? In my edition of the paper of record the story is adorned with a photo of a young Marine woman holding an Afghan toddler. How nice these warriors are. No killing for them. Just handing out ibuprofen, “giggling” (sic) with Afghan women, and playing with kids.

Moreover, the women have done this in the face of skepticism from some of the male commanding officers! Not only are the Marines’ fearless females helping the benighted Afghan women and providing fine examples of women imperial warriors, they are striking a blow against male chauvinism in the imperial forces. These humanitarian wars are almost too good to be true. No wonder Medea Benjamin disclosed a soft spot in her very Democratic heart for Obama’s wars.