Oren: An assault cloaked in peace
Israel's ambassador to the US Michael Oren takes to the pages of the New York Times to defend Israel's assault on the flotilla fools. In the process, he raises some interesting questions.What the videos don’t show, however, are several curious aspects Israeli authorities are now investigating. First, about 100 of those detained from the boats were carrying immense sums in their pockets — nearly a million euros in total. Second, Israel discovered spent bullet cartridges on the Mavi Marmara that are of a caliber not used by the Israeli commandos, some of whom suffered gunshot wounds. Also found on the boat were propaganda clips showing passengers “injured” by Israeli forces; these videos, however, were filmed during daylight, hours before the nighttime operation occurred.Read it all.
...
There is little doubt as to the real purpose of the Mavi Marmara’s voyage — not to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, but to create a provocation that would put international pressure on Israel to drop the Gaza embargo, and thus allow the flow of seaborne military supplies to Hamas. Just as Hamas gunmen hide behind civilians in Gaza, so, too, do their sponsors cower behind shipments of seemingly innocent aid.
This is why the organizers of the flotilla repeatedly rejected Israeli offers to transfer its cargo to Gaza once it was inspected for military contraband. They also rebuffed an Israeli request to earmark some aid packages for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas for four years.
In the recent past, Israeli forces have diverted nine such flotillas, all without incident, and peacefully boarded five of the ships in this week’s convoy. Their cargoes, after proper inspection, were delivered to non-Hamas institutions in Gaza. Only the Marmara, a vessel too large to be neutralized by technical means such as fouling the propeller, violently resisted. It is no coincidence that the ship was dispatched by Insani Yardim Vakfi (also called the I.H.H.), a supposed charity that Israeli and other intelligence services have linked to Islamic extremists.
The real intent of breaking the embargo is to allow rockets to be transported to Gaza from Hamas’s suppliers in Syria and Iran.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:45 PM
3 Comments:
John Esposito says: Three German parliamentarians were aboard the Turkish boat that was stormed.
We need the names.
Mr. Oren, I think the real contraband was the 40 undocumented folks, not what was in crates. Please take every biometric measurement you can think of so face recognition, etc. can be done to find out who each one is, what their training has been, and what projected role they would have played in the Hamas organization. The main two I can think of are rocket staff or thug staff to ensure compliance in Gaza.
I've found an online petition (in German) urging the German parliamentarians to be ejected from Bundestag for their participation in the flotilla:
http://www.petitiononline.com/gaza10/petition.html
Two names are listed there:
Ms Annette Groth and Mrs. Inge Hoeger
Post a Comment
<< Home