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Israel attacks Gaza aid flotilla
By Deepak Tripathi at May 31, 2010 |
It is inconceivable that the Israeli cabinet ordered the attack on the Gaza aid flotilla in international waters, killing and wounding scores of civilian passengers of dozens of nationalities, without considering its consequences. Among the more than 600 passengers were people of all ages, Members of the European Parliament, United States and Israeli citizens. Turkey, from where the flotilla sailed, had said that the ships were indeed carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians have been under Israeli siege for three year.
According to Al Jazeera, the Turkish government has summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest. The Foreign Ministry in Ankara has called it a gross violation of international law and warned of irrevocable consequences for bilateral relations. Angry demonstrations have taken place in several places in Turkey and they are spreading. Condemnations of Israel are bound to continue in the coming weeks and months.
In the light of information widely available in advance, Israeli claims that the activists bringing aid were armed with guns and knives, were Hamas affiliates, who made attempts to lynch Israeli soldiers, are grotesque. Equally bizarre is the Israeli military spokeswoman’s claim that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza – claim that the United Nations relief agency and other humanitarian organizations flatly deny. Many people outside Israel will not believe these claims. An Al Jazeera correspondent traveling with the flotilla told the network that the organizers had instructed all the passengers to go inside the ship under attack and had raised the white flag.
The aid flotilla was at least 40 miles from Gaza, in international waters. Some international lawyers are already describing the Israeli military operation as illegal, because the flotilla was in high seas. Moreover, as one of the ships was flying Turkey’s flag, it was under Turkish jurisdiction. An Israeli radio commentator has suggested that the military miscalculated the strength of resistance from those on board. It must be said here that the passengers, in international waters, would have the right to defend themselves in the circumstances.
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What does this episode tell us? It shows the Israeli government’s determination to ensure that there are no more international attempts by activists to break the Gaza blockade in future. Even if future attempts were deterred, the international fallout of these events would be serious. From Jordan and Turkey to Spain and Sweden, many governments are joining in the condemnations of Israel.
The latest episode is another severe blow against the Palestinian-Israeli peace process that was barely alive. It makes President Obama look powerless to influence events in the Middle East in any positive way. Many of Israel’s critics may feel the aim of the attack on the aid flotilla was to sabotage the latest American attempts to resurrect talks with the Palestinian Authority.
As international criticisms grow, the Israel lobby in the United States, and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, will intensify their efforts to counter them. Israel may continue to enjoy the protection of America’s veto in the United Nations Security Council. But Israel stands more isolated today than it has been for many years in the wider community of nations.
Deepak Tripathi's latest book Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan (Potomac Books, Inc., Washington, D.C.) is avaiable from Amazon.com and its counterparts in Canada (Amazon.ca) and Britain (Amazon.co.uk).
Resistance?
By Smith, Mark E. at May 31, 2010 12:46 PM
The passengers on the flotilla are all world-renowned nonviolent peace advocates. At most, one of them may have panicked at seeing other shot in cold blood as they slept and yelled, "Don't shoot!" but I can't imagine any more resistance than that.
More people were killed in this one morning's attack by Israel than have died from Palestinian rockets in the past ten years.
Coming on top of the recent revelation of documents by Sasha Polakow-Suransky in his new book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, proving that Israel provided the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa with billions of dollars worth of arms at a time when no other country would do business with them, the murderous maniacal Mossadniks are out in full spin control with their pathetic lies and distortions.
Among the flotilla passengers is a Holocaust survivor. It has come to this, that Israel is now willing to kill Jewish Holocaust survivors who criticize Israel.
Although I consider myself an atheist, I was born to Jewish parents and raised as a Jew, so qualify as Jewish by both Israeli and Nazi standards. Perhaps that's why it took me many years to come to grips with the fact that I'd rather die in a gas oven than to visit Israel, buy Israeli products, or support Israel in any way. I lived in Afghanistan for five years and I found the Afghan people to be no worse than Jews. At least the Afghans, in thousands of years of defending their country against invaders, have never felt it necessary to invade other countries or to build ghettos.
Since you have also lived in Afghanistan, perhaps you remember the common greeting in Pushto, "St'rai m'shee." It doesn't mean hello, goodbye, or peace, the way most common greetings in other countries do. It means, "May you not be tired." I can only say to the surviving passengers on the Gaza flotilla, may you not be tired.
And may the dead who sacrificed themselves for others, not have died in vain. If they did not live to see peace, at least may they rest in peace.
I'm an American and if the world is ever to see peace, I believe it will only come after the present day fascist regimes waging wars of aggression globally, Israel, the United States, and their allies, are wiped off the map. Because I haven't managed to escape, I too am benefitting from the deaths of millions of innocents and I don't deserve to live either.
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