Jesus facepalming Christ. Let’s say you were a cartoonish, Ahmadinejadesque lunatic fixated on destroying Israel.
How would you go about achieving your goal?
Well, priority number one would be to isolate the Israelis from their allies, so they have no diplomatic or military cover.
A good start would be to take actions that infuriate military partners like the Turks by killing a load of Turkish civvies, then telling them to fuck off by pretending that the civvies you killed deserved it.
You’d definitely want to sabotage relations with allies like Greece, so that they’d withdraw from joint military operations and bar your military leaders from the country.
You’d want to blacken the Israelis’ image by finding as much video footage as possible of exploded children and Merkava tanks doing donuts in the rubble of civilian housing, preferably from insane, murderous, indefensible and counterproductive wars.
You’d want to rile up Israel’s enemies by marching the Israeli military into conflicts in Lebanon that they can’t win so that they look much weaker than they are, and you’d want to destroy the reputation of Israel’s special forces. At least since the raid on Entebbe, Israeli special forces have looked courageous and invincible – getting some good footage of them blowing away a load of civvies in a clusterfuck operation would be propaganda gold.
Plus, you’d want to isolate the country from the United States by blowing up a load of pointless political pissfights that gain Israel nothing and damage its supporters as badly as possible.
The Israelis don’t need the US to give them every item of military hardware excepting nukes and aircraft carriers, but trying to fund that stuff out of general taxation rather getting them for free would be much more difficult.
In short, you’d want to make Israel look like a paranoid, bloodthirsty and extremely belligerent nation of racist freaks, determined to murder fuck out of civilians with total impunity year-in, year-out, so that the entire planet disowns them by, for example, withdrawing their ambassadors and issuing a barrage of denuncations.
This, I contend, is the actual policy of the Israeli political class, and I’m now certain that the Israeli government is packed to the hoop with Iranian sleeper agents.
Short of handing Syrian intelligence the launch codes to their nuclear arsenal, I really can’t think of any way in which the Israeli political class could do their country more harm.
It’s been clear for years that the Israeli right is utterly dependent on the looniest fringe of Palestinian society for their power and legitimacy, and that both sets of nutters use violence against the other as a means to cementing their rule.
The basic situation over there is that both Hamas and the Israeli government are committed to policies that harm their populations but ensure their own continued rule. It’s a godawful, mutual death spiral that’s heading in precisely the wrong direction.
Shorter – there really is an urgent and perilous threat to Israel. It’s called “the Israeli government”.
THE international community united in condemning Israel yesterday following an attack on an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip that left at least ten people dead.
A Pakistani demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest against Israel. Picture: Getty
Spontaneous protests erupted across Europe and the Middle East, as US president Barack Obama expressed “deep regret” over the massacre.
Israeli forces stormed the convoy of six ships carrying aid yesterday in a pre-dawn raid that saw commandos abseiling on to a boat and shooting dead pro-Palestinian aid volunteers.
Four Scots were believed to be among at least 27 Britons on board the flotilla. Their fate was unknown last night, although the Foreign Office said no Britons were among the dead. Israel said its forces were forced to respond to “unexpected resistance” as they boarded the vessels, but one Scottish witness said the Israelis had faced no resistance.
Mr Obama demanded emergency talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night, as planned peace talks were cancelled. Foreign Secretary William Hague led the worldwide chorus of condemnation, saying: “I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza flotilla. Our embassy is in urgent contact with the Israeli government.”
Calling for an urgent lifting of an Israeli blockade on Gaza, Mr Hague added: “The closure of Gaza 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.”
He revealed that at least one Briton was among the injured as he demanded access to 16 UK citizens being held by the Israelis.
International leaders condemned the raid, while Greece, Egypt, Sweden, Spain and Denmark summoned Israel’s ambassadors, demanding explanations for the violence.
Spain and France issued statements decrying the “disproportionate use of force”, while Greece suspended a military exercise with Israel and postponed a visit by Israel’s air force chief.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said: “It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place.
“I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation.”
Mr Netanyahu expressed “regret” for the loss of life. but said the soldiers had no choice.
“Our soldiers had to defend themselves, defend their lives, or they would have been killed,” he said. Israel said it opened fire after its commandos were attacked with knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they descended from a helicopter to board one of the vessels.
Night-vision footage released by the Israeli military showed soldiers dropping from a helicopter one by one and being grabbed by men wielding sticks on the lead boat, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara.
The soldiers fell to the deck, where the men continued to beat them and dumped one of them from the top deck.
Five Israeli soldiers were wounded, two seriously, including at least one hit by live fire, the army said. Two of the dead activists had fired at soldiers with pistols, the Israeli army said.
“They planned this attack,” said Israeli military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovitch. “Our soldiers were injured from these knives and sharp metal objects … as well as from live fire.”
The ships were being towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and the wounded were evacuated by helicopter to Israeli hospitals, Israeli officials said last night. One of the ships had reached port by midday yesterday.
There were no details on the identities of the casualties, or on the conditions of some of the more prominent people on board, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Northern Ireland and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.
In Turkey, which unofficially sponsored the aid mission, 10,000 protesters converged on Taksim Square in central Istanbul last night to voice anger at Israel’s use of force against an aid convoy with many of their countrymen aboard. Most of the dead are believed to be Turkish.
Smaller protests erupted in capitals across the Middle East, Europe and South Asia.
Several hundred people protested outside Downing Street in London to denounce Israel after the deadly raid. Chanting “Free Palestine” and brandishing banners condemning Israeli “war crimes”, activists blocked Whitehall as they staged an angry but peaceful demonstration.
In Scotland, emergency protests were staged in Edinburgh’s Princes Street, outside the Caledonian Hotel, and Glasgow’s George Square. Smaller protests were staged in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.
A national demonstration will take place on Saturday at the Mound in Edinburgh.
Veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner George Galloway described the operation as “a murderous act of piracy”.
The family of one of the Scots on board, Dr Hasan Nowarah, 45, from Glasgow, were desperately trying to contact him last night.
His wife Seonaig said: “We are just absolutely shocked and the problem is not knowing anything is really, really difficult.
“I haven’t spoken to Hasan since he left Crete four days ago. I have been in touch with the Foreign Office, but no-one seems to know anything.”
Theresa McDermott, 43, a post office worker from Edinburgh, was also on board. Her friend Carl Abernethy said:
“It is very worrying.
“The last I heard was that they were 65km from land, safely in international waters and they were going to wait until daylight to see if they could get to Gaza.”
Mark Lazarowicz, Ms McDermott’s MP in Edinburgh North and Leith, said: “She is a very brave woman, an ordinary post office worker who just felt she had to do something about the injustice in Gaza.
“I have been in touch with the Foreign Office, asking that they demand her release immediately.”
Ali El Awaisi, 21, a history and politics student from Dundee, who is from a Palestinian family, was on his first aid mission abroad.
His brother Khaled said: “They didn’t have any guns or any arms, they were searched in Turkey. They were not allowed to have anything on board.
“I said to him: ‘What if the Israelis attack?’ He said they were planning to resist in as peaceful way as possible.”
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon condemned the attack and expressed her concern for the Scots involved last night.
She said: “My primary concern is for the safety of the Scots on board. The Israeli government must provide immediate reassurance of their well-being.
“This violence against a humanitarian convoy is rightly condemned across the world and demonstrates the need for Israel to lift the blockade.”
The Elders group of past and present world leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu today condemned as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza.
“The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people who were attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza Strip by sea,” the 12—member group said in a statement issued in Johannesburg, where it met over the weekend.
The group, which was launched by Mr. Mandela on his birthday in 2007 to try to solve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, called for a “full investigation” of the incident and urged the UN Security Council “to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip.”
“This tragic incident should draw the world’s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18,” the group said.
Israel’s three—year blockade of Gaza was not only “one of the world’s greatest human rights violations” and “illegal” under international law,it was also “counterproductive”because it empowered extremists in the Palestinian territory, they said.
The Elders includes six Nobel peace prize winners — former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former US president Jimmy Carter, detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Mr. Mandela and Tutu.
Norway’s first female Prime Minister Gro Brundtland; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former Irish president and ex—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson; Mozambican social activist Graca Machel; Indian women’s rights activist Ela Bhatt; and Algerian veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are the other members.
‘Israel is a Lunatic State’ – Finkelstein on Gaza Flotilla Attack
American political scientist Norman Finkelstein has given his reaction to the Israeli attack on the Free Gaza flotilla by warning the Israeli regime has become a serious threat to its neighbors.
The author of ‘The Holocaust Industry’ and ‘Beyond Chutzpah‘ made the comments today during an interview with the Russian English-language news channel RT (Russia Today).
Responding to a question regarding the American reaction to yesterday’s Israeli commando raid on the Free Gaza flotilla, Finkelstein replied “so far there has been a pretty mild statement by President Obama”, referring to the carefully worded statement made by the White House expressing “deep regret […] at the loss of life and injuries sustained […]”.
He went on to dismiss the notion that the Israeli reaction was an attempt to “protect Israeli citizens against those who would seek to discredit the state of Israel” by pointing to the illegality of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Finkelstein referred to recent condemnation by reputed human rights group Amnesty International, which called the Israeli blockade on Gaza “a flagrant violation of international law” and the United Nations’ Global Elders, a group comprising notable public figures including Nelson Mandela, Desmund Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter, which issued a statement calling the Israeli blockade on Gaza “one of the wost human rights violation in the world today” as important examples of this fact.
Finkelstein went on to point out that Israel had used armed commandos to assault a humanitarian aid mission in international waters which he said could not be justified:
I think everyone can agree that there’s no possibility, that there’s no way to justify using armed force against what were clearly unarmed humanitarians trying to relieve an illegal siege of Gaza.
Referring to comments he attributes to Israeli officials made in the aftermath of last year’s invasion of Gaza, Finkelstein says the Israeli military had wanted to reestablish its dominance over the Arab world by demonstrating that they were “capable of acting like a lunatic state and like mad dogs and […] [in order to] restore the Arab world’s fear of Israel”.
After yesterday’s events, you really have to ask the question: is Israel acting like a lunatic state or has it become a lunatic state?
Finkelstein responds by asserting that Israel has indeed become a “lunatic state”, one armed with nuclear weapons and one making regular threats against its neighbors:
Things are getting out of control, […] can a lunatic state like Israel be trusted with 200 to 300 nuclear devices when it is now threatening its neighbors Iran and Lebanon with an attack?
Finkelstein’s condemnation is part of a global chorus that has emerged in response to the Israeli attack which left dozens dead or injured among peace activists attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aide to the besieged Palestinian territory. The events have sparked outrage with ally Turkey, who helped sponsor the mission, and has called an emergency United Nations Security council session to discuss the attack.
Israeli officials have defended the attack, saying its commandos were attacked by passengers upon arrival, charges which the Free Gaza movement has denied, saying the commandos rappelled unto the boat with weapons in hand shooting indiscriminately.
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.
Yesterday at 10 pm I contacted Free Gaza and shared with them everything I knew. I obviously grasped that hundreds of peace activists most of them elders, had very little chance against the Israeli killing machine. I was praying all night for our brothers and sisters. At 5am GMT the news broke to the world. In international waters Israel raided an innocent international convoy of boats carrying cement, paper and medical aid to the besieged Gazans. The Israelis were using live ammunition murdering and injuring everything around them.
Today we will see demonstrations around the world, we will see many events mourning our dead. We may even see some of Israel’s friends ‘posturing’ against the slaughter. Clearly this is not enough.
The massacre that took place yesterday was a premeditated Israeli operation. Israel wanted blood because it believes that its ‘power of deterrence’ expands with the more dead it leaves behind. The Israeli decision to use hundreds of commando soldiers against civilians was taken by the Israeli cabinet together with the Israeli top military commanders. What we saw yesterday wasn’t just a failure on the ground. It was actually an institutional failure of a morbid society that a long time ago lost touch with humanity.
It is no secret that Palestinians are living in a siege for years. But it is now down to the nations to move on and mount the ultimate pressure on Israel and its citizens. Since the massacre yesterday was committed by a popular army that followed instructions given by a ‘democratically elected’ government, from now on, every Israeli should be considered as a suspicious war criminal unless proved different.
Considering the fact that Israel stormed naval vessels sailing under Irish, Turkish and Greek flags. Both NATO members and EU countries must immediately cease their relationships with Israel and close their airspace to Israeli airplanes.
Considering yesterday’s news about Israeli nuclear submarines being stationed in the Gulf, the world must react quickly and severely. Israel is now officially mad and deadly. The Jewish State is not just careless about human life, as we have been following the Israeli press campaign leading to the slaughter, Israel actually seeks pleasure in inflicting pain and devastation on others.
