Max Blumenthal’s Excellent Analysis of Israeli Attack

Gee, I can’t understand why the Washington Post missed all the key details that Max Blumenthal rounded up from Israeli published sources (in Hebrew and English).

The Flotilla Raid Was Not “Bungled.” The IDF Detailed Its Violent Strategy In Advance.

The Israeli military broadcast its plan for violence, inciting the Israeli public and the soldiers of Unit 13 with fevered visions of a kill-or-be-killed encounter with a group of Arab “terrorists.” The stated conditions for using live fire were arbitrary and poorly defined, giving the commandos little direction and lots of leeway to kill — at the very least the plan demanded force in some form….

Were they that stupid, or just crazy? From the details of the plan it appears that Netanyahu and his cohorts had envisioned Entebbe Part Deux, a daring anti-terror raid that would lift the sinking morale of the Israeli public while intimidating Iran and the Arab world. Though Israel may be more isolated than ever as a result of the massacre, the Netanyahu administration is reaping considerable political benefits at home.

The day after the massacre, spontaneous celebrations broke out in Ashdod, Tel Aviv, and throughout the country, bringing together right-wing elements with everyday Israelis. Over a thousand Israelis gathered tonight outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv to rally against the Turkish government and express their support for the raid. Multiple demonstrators including one man who has lived in Israel for 60 years told me, “What Turkey [the sponsor of the Mavi Marmara boat] has done is great. I have never seen this country more united in my entire life. We are all standing together now.” (Video coming soon).

Israeli newscasters are routinely using the term “mechabel,” or terrorist, to refer to the flotilla activists, while the violence that broke out on the deck of the Mavi Marmara is called “the lynch.” (Nevermind that zero commandos were hung and nine activists were killed, including an American citizen who was shot in the head four times.) No evidence is required to support claims in the Israeli media. The public desperately wants to believe that its government is right, so much so that Israel’s media is not even making a token effort to challenge the increasingly hysterical press releases disseminated by the IDF press office every few hours.

Hanin Zoabi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of the Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, was physically accosted in the Knesset by fellow legislators for attempting to relate her experience aboard the flotilla. MK Miri Regev of Likud called her a “traitor,” while Yoel Hasson of Kadima, a supposedly centrist party, denounced Zoabi as a “terrorist.” An Israeli Facebook group devoted to inciting Zoabi’s assassination has gathered 600 members in just a day and a half. In the meantime, Israel’s Interior Minster Eli Yishai is “looking into” means of stripping Zoabi of her citizenship.

One thought on “Max Blumenthal’s Excellent Analysis of Israeli Attack”

  1. It's simple:

    (1) Turkish ship

    (2) International waters

    (3) Turkey a member of NATO

    All rest is ink in the water.

    1. 1. The ship is actually registered in the Comoros Islands.

      2. Maybe Israel should have waited till the ship got closer. Is this really what this is about?

      3. See 1. Above

      1. It is interesting that the Turkish charity IHH changed the flag of registration from Turkey to Comoros. Why did they do that?

        1. Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said today: "Contrary to what many are claiming, including the New York Times in a front-page article on the Gaza flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, the vessel on which deaths occurred, is not Turkish-flagged. Although formerly Turkish-flagged, the Mavi Marmara was Comoros-flagged by the time of last week's incident. The point may be of some significance, because Comoros, unlike Turkey, is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Court has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on vessels registered in a state that is party to the Rome Statute."

          IPA

  2. Simple answer from a simple mind. And if the ship were purchsed by an islamic terrorist organization? Would that little fact change your equation? My guess is no. I guess it all depend on what your definition of is…is. I'm wondering if all those liberal post-modernist rationalists on J Street are going through some contortions when asking themselves how it is that the left has has found solidarity with a 6th century religion that is repugnantly repressive to women, openly preaches hate, and are committed to the destruction of not just Israel…but all Jews. And just think, they voted in a comrade who may just allow their one true toehold in the world to be put in jeopardy. Don't worry, I truly believe that the US military, when faced with firing on the Israelis, will make choices that will save your quisling abcksides.

    1. If everything else fails ,try the old and tried defense of Israel's actions.The simplistic ,stereotypical worn out name calling." 6th century religion that is repugnantly repressive to women, openly preaches hate, and are committed to the destruction of not just Israel…but all Jews."Some how It is now totally forgotten that it was people of that "6th century religion" who allowed Jews fleeing prescuetions and killing in Europe during the inquestions to come to their countries and Turkey was the biggest one.To many facts such that would not bother simplistic minds who have no grasp of history.

      1. Jews are more valuable than Arabs? Jews have the money, and Arabs – oil. So both are equally valuable.

    2. Better 6th century than the 2500 year old hate document of the so called chosen (racist) people. All he hasbara spinning on behalf of MURDER of human rights workers on the high seas an act of vile piracy, is doing is pissing people off. Keep digging your hole deeper land thieving serial murderer Zionist entity, you are fist fighting in your parliament, you are weak and divided and your days are numbered. Time to "vanish from the pages of time," and thus let the Palestinians get on with their lives on their reclaimed land.

  3. ZIONISM IS A CANCER, FOR THOSE WHO LIKE CANCER THEN KEEP ZIONISM, FOR THOSE WHO HATE CANCER, THEN GET RID OF ZIONISM

    ZIONISM IS HATE, PREACHES HATE, IS HATE, IT LIVES ON HATE

    1. Israel is perfectly willing to live in peace with Palestine. Abbas understands this, but Hamas refuses to accept israel's right to exist. Do you accept israel's right to exist? The Muslim world's refusal to accept Israel is the only thing in the way of peace. That is the real cancer, and it's coming from Teheran.

      1. Cool, big George. You even got Iran into the picture. And indeed, why should we fuss over mere piracy on the high seas? 'Course, American soldiers killed some Somalis for doing essentially the same thing, but the motive was allegedly different so that was all right, no?

        What's important is that Israel continues to starve and deprive Gazans with its blockade. You don't want them to get too fat or comfortable. Such deprivation includes keeping food, medicine, building supplies, and toys from reaching Gaza. Oh, the horror of a Gazan child with a full belly, a roof overhead, and a toy! Since Israel now claims the right to interdict such shipments worldwide, be prepared for murder and mayhem anywhere. A nation has to be able to protect itself, right big George?

      2. "Abbas understands this, but Hamas refuses to accept israel's right to exist. Do you accept israel's right to exist?"

        Do Israelis recognize Palestines right to exist?

        More generally, do states _ever_ recognize one another's "right to exist"? Or do they simply recognize that they exist?

        1. The whole "right to exist" canard is not about having a Jewish "homeland" within the bounds of mandate Palestine, or the safety of individual Jews who choose to live there. A seldom stated but integral part of the phrase is, "as a Jewish state." That is, Israeli Jews claim the right to political control regardless of the demographics. There is also the issue of "within which borders." They are demanding recognition of a "right to exist" but without specifying the borders.

      3. Israel is armed to the teeth. According to the London Times, it has three nuclear-armed submarines in the Gulf aimed at Iran. It has the third largest military in the world with up to 200 nuclear weapons. It is not weak nor a victim.

        Israel flouts international law and diplomacy while pursuing racist policies and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, as well as ruthless killing of civilians in Gaza, Lebanon, Israel and now peace activititsts in international waters. Gaza does not belong to Isreal. The have no right to control it. And Israelis would be better served to give thought to how their own extreme actions have created Hamas.

        Us policy-makers in their own self-interest helped create this situation by arming and supporting extremist Israeli regimes to maintain a US base in the Middle East.

          1. yep anyone who disagrees with you is a paid zionist.

            and you wonder why you are a failure in life, Ha Ha

    2. NAZISM /ZIONISM…..a quasi anagram and similar despicable tactics.Except this rogue state has nuclear bombs and is becoming increasingly unstable.
      Let's hope the lemmings take themselves out !! As for me,I am wearing a Turkish flag t-shirt….
      I am not Muslim,nor Turkish but I abhor what israel has done and will flaunt my support for the Palestinian people…I live in New York City .
      To delve further into the complexities of the Zionist question would be insanity,so I strike back as simply as I can and within the law.

  4. Israel has the right stop ships from reaching gaza. 70 miles or 3 mikes offshore? Is this all this is about? The protection if intl waters? Israeli soldiers did not shoot until two of them were shot using their own guns. Even after several others were stabbed, they didn't shoot until they were shot. What kind if "peace activist" stabs or shoots people? Even if they're soldiers. Israel delivered the content of the ship to gaza. If you're really interested in helping Palestine, send aid thru Israel. This is about anti Israeli publicity by Turkish Islamist. Nothing else.

    1. Totally deluded, I'm a 28 year military veteran, and to think peace activist could take guns from elite military members or to stab them is totally fantasy. What a shame when the powerful attack the weak, and then pretend they are the victims

    2. The Israeli pirates were the aggressors. They attacked an unarmed civilian ship in international waters. Anything the crew members of that ship did to the Israeli pirates was legitimate self defense. Even if what you say is true, that the crew members shot and stabbed many of the Israeli pirates, it was all justifiable on the grounds of self defense. On the other hand, the Israeli pirates, being the aggressors in this situation, have no rights. Regardless of how violent the crew members reaction to being attacked was, it does not change the fact that the guilty party in this case was the Israeli pirates.

    3. You ignorant Zionist! Of course you would make this about religion, seeing as Israel is one of THE MOST racist and discriminatory regimes existing today! Israel gives nothing to the Gazans, hence the blockade! They are TERRORISTS!! And they need stopped! LONG LIVE GAZA!

    4. a) Vile Zionists would seize most of the supplies as you well know lying Hasbara shill.

      b) The correct idea is to break the illegal and immoral blockade that is making so many suffer in Gaza so a mass amount of supplies can get through without being seized by the Zionist entity. If this break s the spirit of the vile oppressor Zunist entity and it vanishes from the pages of time that is jstan extra gravy bonus. Israel will not stand for long internally divided and rightly hated by billions of people for land theft, racism, and serial murder.

    5. 'Israel has the right stop ships from reaching gaza.'

      It does. What right is that? Is that the right of a street thug to victimize his victim over some other street thug? Gaza is occupied land. The United Nations has demanded that Israel leave Gaza but they will not. It was Israel who started the 1967 war. It was Israel who invaded Gaza in 1955. It was Irsael who in the Lavon affair was going to murder US Citizen in Egypt and blame Egypt.

      Can you give me the law that you think gives Israel the right to blockade foreign land. BTW they are also blockading Lebanon a nation who has been a victim of the aggressive Israel for 60 years.
      Lebanon curse is it has the lavati river which Israel wants.

      1. The US has been blockading Cuba for more than 50 years. As a result, thousands of Cubans have died or become malnourished etc due to this illegal blockade. The US lead the 10 year blockade of Iraq resulting in the death and malnouishment of over 1 million Iraqi women and children from lack of food and medical care and supplies. It is about time for the rest of the world to unite and put a stop to these crimes against humanity being carried out by only two countries in the entire world who think they have a right to starve other people into submission to their will.

    6. Yeah George and now israhell has lost its only Muslim ally ….GOTTA LOVE THE TURKS !!!!!

    7. First of all, the ship had already been inspected by turkish authorities(Israels closest ally in the region, at least prior to this incident) and given a security clearance.

      Second, they could just have said they wanted to inspect the cargo and let them continue should they find no guns. Instead they sized the ships w/ cargo and brought them ashore. Nothing is stopping them from delivering this aid to gaza if all they wanted to do was to inspect it, but they havnt done so.

      Third, you cant send aid to gaza through israel. Why? Because Israel doesnt allow things like medicine, goats, books, school supplies, building materials, water purifiers etc etc to enter gaza.

      Fourth, on what basis do you assume israels soldiers were shot? On what basis do you assume they only shot the activists in self defence? Israel sized all video from the boat, and they havn't released any of it, or any of the IDFs own fotage, with the exception of a few seconds of video showing some of the activists swarming around and hitting some of the IDF soldiers.
      What the fotage doesnt show is however: A) What happened before the activist attacked the IDF soldiers. B) What happened after they attacked the IDF soldiers. C) Any activist firing a gun at a IDF soldier. D) Any IDF soldier shooting in self defence against the activists.

      The Israeli military claim that they only acted in self defence, yet they have withheld the evidence that they claim would prove their innocence. It is reasonable to assume (at least until israel produce evidence that show otherwise) this is because the videos does not support the israeli version of events.

  5. It these activist folks (everyone from Turks to Brits to Americans to Danes) were all crazed violent Hamas supporters, as Israel claims, then it should simply release all the video footage and pictures taken by the people on the ships.
    Surely, this photographic evidence would immediately vindicate the Israelis.
    Or would it?

  6. For those who remember 1984's Two Minutes of Hate, it appears the Zionists have created 24/7/365 Hate to compliment their peculiar form of Fascism. Zionist fascism cannot be allowed to exist anymore than German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, or US fascism–the middle four no longer exist, so we must work on the bookends.

  7. Max Blumenthal and people like him give me hope for the country. I'm sort of tired of this constant black-and-white nonesense in the media. If you think Israel is out of line, you're a crazed Jew-hating, Hamas-supporting communist. Also, I will never understand why anyone claims that "the media" (in America) is against Israel. The NYT, WaPo, TIME, and every major newsstation were all very complimentary towards Israel regarding their illegal raid on the flotilla. Indeed, I had to SEARCH for one piece that even pointed out the fact that the ship was in international waters. Israel's blockade of Gaza is illegal. A) They are not in a declared war with Gaza's governing body and B) Gaza is not a sovereign state, rendering all San Remo Manual arguments useless. What they did was wrong. How anyone can defend this is beyond me. When I criticized America for the pointless and illegal Iraq War, I'm not called anti-Christian (America: 78% Christian), but when I criticize Israel for its pointless and illegal blockade and flotilla attack, I'm an anti-Semite (Israel: 75% Jewish). I give up.

    1. Why give up, Kav?

      Why listen to what sick and pathetic liars have to say?

      I don't…

  8. israelis are dogs for doing to little Gazan kids what the nazi did to them. Israelis love to contemplate their sadist behaviour and results on a daily basis (straving little kids, dying mothers, tortured sould all over)… israel is an horrible, fascist little state, a cancer on the face of all democracies in the world, some kind of kafkaïen and very ugly third world dump!
    Zum gotzen indeed!…

    NAZIS!

    1. Can't forget the t-shirts they wear in facist israel "one shot two kills" refering to shooting pregnant Palestinian Women….

      1. I will also never forget the sight of Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrating and honking their horns in praise of the massacre at sea. The Israelis are barbarians, every one of them. Remember the 5 dancing Israelis with explosives in their truck celebrating the murder of 3000 Americans? Israelis get away with it because of financial support of American Jews. Remember how American Jews, safely sitting on their big asses far away in 1933, declared economic war on Germany and provoked Hitler to murder the Jews in Europe far away from them?

    2. The only thing that stops the Israelis from doing what the Nazis did to the Jews is a sense of supreme irony. So they stop short of that.

      Think of Gaza as some where between an "Indian" reservation and a Nazi concentration camp. Think of the Palestinians as the American aborigines who are being encroached upon by European immigrants, whom they at first welcomed. They are being violently driven off their land and when they fight back, they are called savages and terrorists. If they don't fight back, they are pushed out anyway.

      There is nothing exceptional about the Israelis, the Germans, the Americans or any other nationality. They are all the same. There are white roses in every country (are you familiar with the White Rose Society that formed in Nazi Germany?), but they are always greatly outnumbered by the rapacious weeds.

  9. The collective punishment that Israel continues to meet out to the residence of Gaza because of their choice in leadership is criminal.

    Just as the attack on the USS Liberty has been misrepresented by Israel and its supporters and stooges in the US Government, this attack too is being misrepresented as some type of justifiable act of self-defense. The corporate media cannot spin Israel out of responsibility for the deaths of innocents.

    An apartheid regime, whether it be historical South Africa or present day Israel, will not survive the test of time. It will collapse under the weight of injustice necessary to perpetuate itself.

    If the entire holy land were to somehow slip into the Mediterranean, like some new age Atlantis, I would not shed a tear. I would view it as pay back for the decades of Israeli crimes against humanity.

    1. "USS LIBERTY" JUNE 8, 1967 . Israel delibertly ATTACKED THE U.S… NEVER,EVER FORGET!!!!..

      1. I would also like all my fellow New Yorkers to remember at election time that our Senator Schumer defined his primary job as to be that of "guardian for Israel".

  10. Given the Israeli penchant for organ farming I would have thought that they would have allowed the ship closer to shore before beginning the killings.

  11. israhel a trail of murder rooted in a as Thomas Jefferson said a "depraved religion"
    1. Israhell founded with assasination of Un Commissioner, blowing up King David (turned hospital) killing over 80 british patients, ethnic cleansing of villagers
    2. lavon affair-false flag terrorist attacks to blame egyptians, israeli rats caught and confession
    3. USS LIberty – false flag no. 2 murdering 34 US sailors, wounding 130+ tried blame egypt again-all crew members, Joint chief of staff sec navy said deliberate attack
    4. 9-11…
    Add to that all lies of holocaust from fake human soap, lamp shades, 4 million died at auschwitz-now revised to 1 million-(but 6 M number stays same) etc etc a picture should emerge of a depraved evil people

    1. Fake books on holocaust… oprah winfrey knows about that… she also knows about ritual killings ..goggle her and ritual killing. Show!!… the list is huge what this TERRORIST,SHITY,ROUGE STATE DOES.. good book to read. "BURNING ISSUES, by AMEU…

  12. ""Hanin Zoabi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of the Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, was physically accosted in the Knesset by fellow legislators for attempting to relate her experience aboard the flotilla.<<—(I don't have the time to find it and post it , but yesterday's LA Times Babyton and Beyond Section) has the youtube link
    It has to said that Israel gave what looks to be two bodyguards for her, so Israel is still shown to be a democracy. Ha'aretz commentators compared likened it was a show, a performance (and an embarrassment to Israel). It reminds me of a one sided Professional wrestler huffing and puffing, a performance, and what I have read about southern segregationists reactions when Federal troops where used by the Johnson administration to protect blacks.
    We know the middle East is messed up (some of it FUBAR), and Americans $$$ means we are all inactive participants , yet, this part of the world is real (meaning dangerous), and HAMAS suicide bombers where for real. I would just remind everyone. Nobody is right if everybody is wrong.

  13. "Nobody is right if everybody is wrong."

    That limns out nicely the morality and ethics of most of the western world, doesn't it, and its conscious/unconscious dualities.

    The whole American duopoly is sustained by the same stupidity, and most of the rest of the "system", including the scientists and mathematicians.

    It as if Kurt Goedel visited from another planet, left a few mimeographed pages, and then starved himself to death when his wife fell ill.

    It is close to a short story out of Kafka.

  14. jdh asserted: “Israel is armed to the teeth. According to the London Times, it has three nuclear-armed submarines in the Gulf aimed at Iran.”

    The consequences of these weapons being used are severe. First, American and NATO troops are downwind of the likely radition plumes, and secondly, so is part of the Gulf. So, lots of dead or irradiated troops and oil tanker insurance rates through the roof. Goodbye any hint of economic recovery.

  15. Everyone submits ideas and whatever about the conflict as if he/she knows. He/she really doesn't know. I suggest, we let Israel manage its own defense. They are quite adept in doing it. It's up to us not to second guess. I have full confidence Israel knows best what is good for it. So send in a contribution of money to Israel to fight that crime. Don't second guess and keep your suggestions to yourself. To hell with the Arabs!

    1. "I suggest, we let Israel manage its own defense".

      FINE! Let's start by stopping the 3 billion dollar annual shakedown we give this vile country.

      1. let us hope this is a weak joke, but the indigenous people displaced or murdered by Zionists do not find it funny; Self defense for a nuclear armed entity but none allowed for Gaza or any other Palestinians, or for people attacked on a ship in international waters.

  16. To all you hateful, Anti-Israel lunatics I have something to say:
    1. First of all don't fu-k with Israel. Second, interdiction did take place in International waters. would it have loved us anymore if it had taken place in Gaza's waters?
    2. Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza becasue Hamas, the democratically elected Hamas is a terrorist state within the Palestinian authority bent on reducing Israel and its citizens to rubble. Their years of lobbing rockets into our settlements and hunderds of suicide attacks on our civilians prove their hostile intents.
    3. If the blockade is broken, uninspected ships going into Gaza will carry Iranian missiles for Hamas. No thanks.
    4 Zionism is our national liberation philosophy. We are peaceful people who want to get along with the Arabs, those who want peace.

    1. C'mon now, Ziontroll: if you're going to try to stir things up, at least be ORIGINAL and CREATIVE about it. There's nothing in your flatulent rant that I couldn't have cut out of a pile of random newspaper clippings. I thought that "laziness" was a trait you people attributed to the Arabs.

    2. Why the childish need to be at the same time "schoolyard tough guy" and be "loved"?

      Why the immature collective "we"?

      Why the confused conflation of the Fascist State Of Israel and the people living in the area designated as israel?

      Why the obviously unreal consideration of "we are peacful people" while any ethics has long gone by the wayside?

      Why the bunker mentality psychopathology?

      Over to you, Mr. Freud.

    3. '1. First of all don't fu-k with Israel. Second, interdiction did take place in International waters. would it have loved us anymore if it had taken place in Gaza's waters?

      No it would not since Gaza water is not part of your homeland. It is part of Egypt stolen in the 1967 war. It was first stolen in 1955 when they were invaded by the IDF.

      I do not want to "fu-k' with Israel. I just want to stop the massive bleeding of our tax dollars to a nation that does not need it. We have sick, hungry children. We should take care of our own instead of giving another 100 million dollar aircraft to a nation already with too many weapons.

  17. Enjoy your little apartheid state, danny. I can see that you enthusiastically endorse the 'mad dog' strategy of dealing with problems. Your wife is a lucky woman.

    No matter how vicious your military is, arab reproductive rates will take care of your little zionist paradise. Arabs have long memories.

  18. Dear Danny,

    Israel is an apartheid state, there is no excuse for that. Hitler thought the same about the jews, terrorists. I am very disappointed at Israelis and their government for what they did in the last few years. Israel has become a big burden on Americans because of its actions what it has done to the American credibility around the world. Israel's actions reflect American national character because we have to always dig Israel out of hole that they put themselves in. Israel must take responsibility for their gross crimes and not blame everything on terrorists or anti-semitism.

    Israel has no choice on the Palestinian issue, Israel must make peace with them and let them have their own country. It hurts people all around the world that Israeli extremists are stealing and evicting Palestinians every day from their lands. Make peace with your neighbor.

    Israel has a lot more in common with the middle east than it has with europe or the United States. The middle east is rich in so many things, its the cradle of civilizations. Israel must make peace with all the arab countries, Saudi arabia made a declaration or arab peace initiative, but Israel refused to sign it. Why ?

    The World is becoming smaller, every country or culture has something to offer. Israel will not survive on this track, it must understand that the world will not continue doing nothing, it will create more enemies for itself, now its Turkey. Israel must change course before it destroys itself.

  19. MOSES WAS THE FIRST ZIONIST.

    Jews have never occupied another peoples' lands in all their 4000 year history – despite being dispersed throughout the nations – the reverse applies with Islam.

    The so-called Islamic sacred soil is 90% stolen lands and the natives genocided: all the states created by Britain are 120 year historical fictions for 30 barrels of oil – 70 Million hindues were massacred when Islam invaded India, then stole a third of her land and is now conducting heinous terrorism while screaming allah akbar of it.

    The establishing of Nazi Regimes is the cause of all of today's global terror. These land robbing Regimes are accusing Israel of pccupying 12% of the land allocated her in the Bafour – which has to be the biggest farce in the world today.

    Those who refer to Israel as a cancer should stand up and present their qualifications.Most of all – shame on all who call a 3-state as a 2-state. Its very poor math.

    "TO COVER ONE LIE – A 1000 TRUTHS MUST BE COVERED'

    1. Land of Canaan.. "Canaanite culture apparently developed in situ from the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of Harifian hunter gatherers with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the 6,200 BC climatic crisis"
      ….Canaan predates the ancient Israelite territories described in the Bible, and describes a land with different, but overlapping bounds.[6] The classical Jewish view, as explained by Schweid, is that "Canaan" is the geographical name, but this is not a view that is universally subscribed to; the renaming as "Israel" after its occupation by the Israelites is derived only from the Bible.

    2. BudSeriously,

      "Jews have never occupied another peoples' lands in all their 4000 year history"

      How many years they actually had any land or armed forces? 200 years? Most of those years looking for fights with all other contenders. Not much has changed. And lets call it 2500 years, not 4000, if one follows evidence so far. Not to mention the fluid, quite broad etho-religious definition of "Jew'.

      "The so-called Islamic sacred soil is 90% stolen lands"

      All lands have been stolen and occupied at some point in time. The USA is not exception. But lets focus on post WW2 for a while, the realities of a supposed international law all civilized countries agreed on to achieve "never again". Before we know it, the *cavemen* will be used to illustrate justifications of a rule by force. Zionist Israel of course is stuck in the 19th, early 20th century, stilled in any moral, modern development.

      "accusing Israel of occupying 12% of the land"

      And disabling, stunning 99% of the development of all the land not allocated to them. And then complain about all the violence directed at them!

      "present their qualifications"

      And you just presented yours: drunk on fascist ideology, parroting Zionist pamphlets.

    3. Moses is a fictional, mythical character.

      I don't make an equation between Jews and Zionists since there a many good people who are Jews, but Zionists have been occupying Palestinian land since 1967 and occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years.

      1. "Moses is a fictional, mythical character."

        Probably not.

        For one thing, "Moses" doesn't seem to be a "Hebrew", whatever the "Hebrews"may have been, which, as inventions go is quite inconvenient.

        The name is Egyptian and the bulrush story is a doublet of what was said about the earlier Sargon–that is, it is a typos told about one, later powerful or important, whose birth and provenance are not known.

        Note also–Moses is literate (in Egyptian hieroglyphics or demotic or such) while "Hebrew" is written in a variation of the earlier Phoenician alphabet which the"Hebrews" would have had no contact with until after invading "Canaan".

        If the "Hebrews" are indeed marauding APIRU, united into one supra-tribal group by a "Moses", it all begins to make some sense–including a "law" imposed on a mixed band of raiders.

        But this is a very complex subject historically and philologically, and cannot be properly treated in a few sentences or formulae.

  20. Zionism is a secular movement who's leaders, as well as it's guardians in the press media, government, and financial banking system, have not only robbed humanity of all reason, but also has perpetrated a collective psychosis among Israeli Jews, Diaspora Jews, and Christian Zionists. I'm inclined to think that the majority of Jews are against these crimes that are done in the name of Zionism, but are to afraid to speak out. These good Jews cannot remain silent any longer…Max and others have borne a heavy burden by speaking out…others must do the same.

  21. I am appalled at that those who call themselves patriotic Americans would cheer and support Israel's killing of American citizens.

    1. It's only appalling if you forget that the new "patriotism", as defined by the neocon Establishment and echoed by brainless Amoricons everywhere, means putting Israel and its every interest first.

  22. nice of max to leave out the commandos who were indeed wounded….some severely

    according to one of the organizers of the flotilla, the founder of the ism (a terrorist front group), the flotilla was all about breaking the blockade

    israel remains in a state of war with hamas…breaking the blockade is an act of war…dont care if a nato member was a part of it…it was an act of war

    israel had ever right to stop and board those ships in order to search the cargo

    and max would want all israeli citizens to hang their heads in shame rather than stand up for their own country

  23. Could this be a diversion?
    It is very hard to believe that Israel did not plan this amount of violence and killings in advance. The decision to make a massacare was taken before the troops were sent to intercept. In 2007 the Iranians took over 15 British soldiers without a single shot off a ship in the Persian Gulf. So it is hard to believe that this number of killings on unarmed civilians by Israel was just an operation went wrong. It is also hard to believe that Israel did not predict the international outrage which followed. Based on this is, it is probable that the whole thing was a diversion. Back in mid April Israeli tourists were warned of imminent kidnap threat in Sinai peninsula and asked to return to Israel. Could the real reason for this latest Israeli show be to retrieve the Israeli tourists from Turkey quickly and stop others from going there? Could Israel have planned to start a horrific new atrocity in the Middle East in the coming weeks. An atrocity so big that there is a fear of widespread retaliation from Israelis in the region and wanted the ship staged event as a cover to recall them back without raising suspecions?

    1. That's an excellent example – using the Iran capture of 15 British SOLDIERS.

      Well done…

  24. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites (Hebrew: יְבוּסִי, Modern Yevusi Tiberian Yəḇûsî) were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited and built Jerusalem prior to its conquest by King David; the Books of Kings state that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event.

    1. If you absolutely insist on going the "pseudo-historical" route instead of going the route of "new country plonked on top of inhabitated land under control of Great Britain";
      http://www.juancole.com/2010/03/top-ten-reasons-e

      "Jerusalem not only was not being built by the likely then non-existent “Jewish people” in 1000 BCE, but Jerusalem probably was not even inhabited at that point in history. Jerusalem appears to have been abandoned between 1000 BCE and 900 BCE, the traditional dates for the united kingdom under David and Solomon. So Jerusalem was not ‘the city of David,’ since there was no city when he is said to have lived. No sign of magnificent palaces or great states has been found in the archeology of this period, and the Assyrian tablets, which recorded even minor events throughout the Middle East, such as the actions of Arab queens, don’t know about any great kingdom of David and Solomon in geographical Palestine."

  25. In reply to all this hand-wringing "Those hate-filled rock throwers precipitated our righteous and indignant mightiness because of their hate-filled religion, made us do it" spin…

    Sit down and open the Koran and Talmud and them side by side to see which is more "hateful"

    You may be surprised at your conclusion after just a few pages

  26. In reply to all this hand-wringing "Those hate-filled rock throwers precipitated our righteous and indignant mightiness because of their hate-filled religion, made us do it" spin…

    Sit down and open the Koran and Talmud and compare [!!] them side by side to see which is more "hateful"

    You may be surprised at your conclusion after just a few pages

  27. Well of course Israel sponsored and volunteer trolls will be crawling all over antiwar.com. They mean to kill both by bullets and by words, while creating their own fantasy reality in a self-righteous, tribalist, psychosis. But the more shrill and desperate they get, the more their propaganda flounders in a sea of absurdity and cruelty and the more their fundamental inhumanity is revealed to all.

  28. Turkey, unlike Israel, is our ally. High time Americans stand up and call a spade a spade.

  29. No true Christian can support zionism. Read the New Testament………………..

  30. A million and a half Gazans, 40% or so under the age of 14 years, live on a small strip of desert, with human movement and trade blockaded by Israeli and Egyptian governments. That blockade has been strenuously applied since Israel’s December 2008 Operation Cast Lead. The reasons? Collective punishment for electing Hamas in their last election, and holding an Israeli soldier, and in general, as a hedge for Israel’s security. I suspect the punitive and drawn-out pain being inflicted on Gazans since the destruction handed out in December 2008 (by heavily US-funded warplanes and missiles) also relates to the fox in the manger resentment within some Israeli sectors about the 2005 removal of illegal settlements there.
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowsk

  31. Turkey is a juridical ally with the United States – meaning we have mutual defense agreements with Turkey as signatories to the NATO treaty. This, my dear friends, is why we have Turkish, and all kinds of other NATO troops in Afghanistan nine years after 9/11. The Turks under the NATO banner responded in accordance with our request for their help in defeating an enemy who attacked us.
    I suspect that fewer than 1 in 10 million Americans knows that we have no such, or even similar, juridical or treaty relationships regarding mutual defense with Israel.
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowsk

  32. The time has come to take off our hats to the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu's predictions have proved accurate, and his prophecies are coming true right before our eyes. Now we can proudly declare that our government is led by a man of vision, a statesman who has foretold the future. Even his greatest critics can't deny it; the facts speak for themselves.

    Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn't he right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn't it beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at war with us too. Netanyahu said there's no chance of reaching an agreement with the Arabs. Wasn't that spot on? Our prime minister, who saw danger lurking in every alleyway and enemies waiting around every corner, who has always taught that there is no hope, who has drummed into us that we shall forever live by the sword (just as his father the historian taught him ), knew what he was talking about.
    http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/neta

  33. Their severely disabled son, Taysir, requires round-the-clock care. Neither Ramzi nor his wife can leave the five-year-old for longer than an hour. Part-asphyxiated during delivery, the boy suffers from an acute neurological disorder. He is unable to talk properly, suffers spasms and anti-convulsant medication has left him partially paralysed.

    If his parents could only get him to Germany, or even just across the border to Israel, he would be able to get the specialist medical care that doctors say could lead to a full recovery. Ramzi has repeatedly appealed to the Israeli authorities to allow his son out of the tiny coastal enclave, but has been refused each time. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-ea

  34. Every action Israel has taken since it was inserted in the heart of the Arab world was very well thought in advance to achieve certain agendas that might appear to the casual observer to be taken haphazardly.Israel has never cared about or bothered by the opinions of the world community because of the blind support of the US and many westren countries.

  35. There is a staggering statistic that

    “at any one time, more than 300,000 children are actively fighting as soldiers with government armed forces or armed opposition groups worldwide. Almost half of the states engaged in warfare in 2002 were reported to use combatants under the age of 15. Children under the age of 18 are actively participating in hostilities in more than 35 countries worldwide – most are between the ages of 14 and 17, but some are as young as seven” (The Inter-Agency Planning Consultation on Child Protection in Emergencies, 2006).

    Debate raged in late 1990s about how to address the growing issue of children being used in conflict. The NGO working group in February 1997 issued a working document commonly known as the Paris Principles but fully titled The Paris Commitments to Protect Children from Unlawful Recruitment or use by Armed Forces or Armed Groups. The Paris Principles began the discussion in harmonization and creation of standards for groups working with armed children in conflict, and reintegration. The document also sets out an agenda by which the ngo group could advocate for the rights of armed children in conflict.

    In April 1997, UNICEF and the Group of NGOs organized a conference in Cape Town, South Africa. The document that was produced from this meeting has become known as the “Cape Town Principles and Best Practices,” and was adopted at this symposium as the standard by which groups working with child soldiers or those groups working to prevent recruitment of child soldiers would focus their efforts. The main thrust of the Cape Town Principles was to encourage governments to:

    Adopt a minimum age of 18 years should be established for any person participating in hostilities and for recruitment in all forms into any armed force or armed group.

    Adopt and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, raising the minimum age from 15 to 18 years. (Cape Town Principles)

    84 countries have since signed off on the Paris Principles on but other countries have refused.

    It is important to understand why child soldiers are used and to explore ways in which child recruitment may be curtailed. The phenomenon is, however, very complicated. While some children are abducted and used by a fighting force, others join by choice. Given these realities the questions below may guide our discussion into the world of children in armed conflict.

  36. as an american i stan firmly with the palestinian people
    israel is a cancer to the american people
    we will get rid of the zionists very soon

  37. Pro-Israeli propaganda by the corporate media have reached the level of poisonous absurdity characteristic of communist dictatorships like North Korea, the Soviet Union, and Mao's China.

    The gap between reality and their lies is light years wide.

    The lies are repeated endlessly, and no one ever appears to refute them. History and the truth go down the memory hole.

    Murderers are victims, and victims are responsible for their own murder.

    The fact that the Israelis murdered an American citizen has no importance.

    We saw this before with the Israeli massacre of 34 American sailors on the USS Liberty during the Six-Day War. LBJ accepted their lie of mistaken identity the next day.

    Not a word of criticism.

    Read about it. Its almost beyond belief.

    Israelis are more important than Americans. You're not allowed to criticize them. If you condemn their behavior you're accused of being prejudiced against their ethnicity and religion.

    But suppose you're criticizing the behavior regardless of the ethnicity and religion?

    Supposing the behavior you're criticizing would be equally offensive whether you were Jewish, Christian, Muslim, pagan, or atheist?

    Isn't it about time that we disarm the psychological effectiveness of false charges of anti-semitism as a means of avoiding accountability for behavior?

    It's a form of McCarthyism. A smear technique where you're tarred by the accusation alone – as if you were accused of child abuse.

    All forms of racism are equally abhorrent, because they're inherently unjust.

    Behavior is the only valid standard by which to judge people, not ethnicity or race.

    Jewish racism against Arabs is the essence of the conflict in Israel. That's not to dismiss Arab racism against Jews.

    It's simply to state that a mass migration of Jews caused the loss of Arab sovereignty and land.
    The only way the Jewish state could be maintained in the face of fierce resistance from the local majority was by use of force against them, which caused an antagonism of equal force in return.

    Since Israel was desperate to keep money pouring automatically out of the US Treasury, all means necessary would be used against any domestic opponents of unlimited American aid to Israel. Smear campaigns, unsigned leaflets, media attacks – all the levers of power which can be pulled by a group deeply entrenched in the national power structure have been used against opponents of the special relationship with Israel.

    And hence the party line on US corporate media – Zionist Pravda.

    But it is so brazen a propaganda it can be clearly analyzed.

    We give them whatever they want, they do whatever they want. We always support and protect them. Even when they kill us.

    Their agents are in the White House, the Congress, the media, the defense establishment.

    Only those who spew these obvious, easily refutable lies may speak on the mass media.

    600 people are kidnapped on the high seas and the US President sees nothing wrong.

    The President, Vice President, and Secretary of State read the lines given to them by their Israeli handlers, such as Rahm Emanuel.

    What a truly macabre, degenerate spectacle this is.

    Only a Shakespeare, a Goya, or a Kafka could do justice to the human depravity this sorry spectacle expresses.

  38. very important info from blumenthal.
    on his blogroll, i notice a site 'steve sailer sucks'. i know that sailer is somewhere near the general antiwar.com political zone, and that site seems oddly specific, but i'm glad someone has called him out, that guy's a weed.

  39. you won’t learn that Furkan Dogan, the 19-year-old American citizen slain by Israeli commandos in the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla May 31, was shot in the back and in the back of the head, as well as multiple times in the face.

    This is the conclusion of the autopsy conducted by the Turkish Council of Forensic Medicine, which also did autopsies on the eight other Turkish citizens killed in the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara ferry and five other smaller boats in the so-called Freedom Flotilla. Of the other eight dead, the medical examiners found that five had been shot in the back, or in the back of the head.

  40. This critically important information has not appeared in US news reports. Some American news organizations have left out the autopsy information entirely from their reports as of Saturday. CNN, in its report on Friday, did note that five of the nine were shot in the head, and at close range, but the all-important fact that most of the victims were shot from behind was left out. ABC had the same information on Thursday, again without mentioning the shots from behind. In its article on Friday, the NY Times had yet to even name Dogan, the American victim, much less mention the bullets that hit him or how he was shot.
    http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06072010.html

  41. You can read about the autopsies in the U.K. Guardian newspaper, or in Switzerland (SwissInfo) or in Australia (the Melbourne Age), and you can even read it in a Reuters report (which is a news service that most American news organizations subscribe to, but which they actually show their readers only selectively), but you cannot read it or hear about it in the mainstream US media, where most Americans unfortunately still turn for their information.

  42. .Helen Thomas ends 5-decade career in controversy
    "After more than 50 years covering the White House, journalist Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring immediately from Hearst Newspapers, amid controversy over remarks she recently made about Israel.

  43. Hearst News Service broke the news Monday, noting that Thomas' "decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet."…
    Thomas' speakers agency dropped her as a client and a high school canceled her upcoming appearance at graduation. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that the comments were "offensive and reprehensible."

    The board of the White House Correspondents Association also weighed in on Monday, calling Thomas' comments "indefensible" and "especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trailblazer on the White House beat."

    Thomas has had one of the most distinguished journalism careers over the past half-century in Washington"
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2435

    She was forced out.Where are those defeneders of freedom of speach and the press?!
    They are all silent now,deaf, and blind.

  44. WASHINGTON – June 7 –

    JOHN QUIGLEY

    Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said today: “Contrary to what many are claiming, including the New York Times in a front-page article on the Gaza flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, the vessel on which deaths occurred, is not Turkish-flagged. Although formerly Turkish-flagged, the Mavi Marmara was Comoros-flagged by the time of last week’s incident. The point may be of some significance, because Comoros, unlike Turkey, is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Court has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on vessels registered in a state that is party to the Rome Statute.”

    FRANCIS BOYLE

    Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Boyle said today: “The highest level officials of the Israeli government who ordered the attack upon the Mavi Marmara can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court: Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, Foreign Minister Lieberman, General Ashkenazi and the rest of the Israeli council of seven ministers who ordered this criminal attack. Furthermore, under the ICC’s Rome Statute any state party has the power to demand that these Israeli governmental officials be prosecuted.”

    Boyle’s books include “Tackling America’s Toughest Questions.” See: “Is the Israeli Blockade of Gaza Against the Law?”

    [IPA]

  45. The Israeli defenders on this (and in general everywhere) make the mistake of thinking that verbal tactics and tricks are powerful weapons, that somehow they can divert the truth, by cleverness. And the Israel they are trying to protect from criticism doesn't want their protection. The Likudniks of Israel are proudly thumbing their noses at the whole world saying "F–k you, what are you going to do about it?" They seem not to care to preserve any legititimacy that their grandparents paid so dearly for.
    All that suffering of those in the camps negated by the desire to act the bully; to "dish it out" for awhile; to rub the Arab's noses in shit. How foolish to give up the patience that sustained their people thru the milenia. The reputation for fairness – spit on. Just for a few years of being a smartass punk. Yeah! Don't mess with Israel — same redneck attitude as Don't mess with Texas — same eventual dismal end.

Comments are closed.