It's not unjustifiable to consider Israel as the absolute incarnation of fraudulence, relentlessness and brutality. Since its establishment, the Zionist regime has carried out actions which contravene the international regulations and cancel out the human rights in a way or another. Only a brief look into the account of Israel's bloody interaction with the Palestinian people over the past years shows us that this fabricated regime does not deserve "the right of existence", as the U.S. and European officials put it periodically.
The Monday assault of the Israel Defense Forces into the flotilla of humanitarian aids which was heading to the besieged Gaza Strip from Turkey left at least 10 dead and several other wounded. Never mind that Israel's criminal action violated the 4th Geneva 1949 Convention. Just imagine for a single moment that Iran had carried out the carnage instead of Israel. Simply replace the two names and then read the news as reported by CNN: "The Free Gaza Movement, one of the organizers of the aid, said that Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the deck of one of the ships early Monday and immediately opened fire on unarmed civilians."
Since September 2000, Israel killed more than 6,300 Palestinians, most of whom were children and defenseless civilians. Israel has also demolished more than 25,000 Palestinian homes since 1967. It possess up to 200 nuclear warheads in violation of the United Nations Security Council resolution 487. Interestingly, it receives something around $7 million of military aid from the U.S. per day. 7,383 Palestinians are being kept in the prisons of Israel. The racist regime of Israel has built 223 settlements on the Palestinians' confiscated lands. Over the six-year period between September 2000 and February 2006, 36589 Palestinians were injured by the Israeli forces of whom 3530 Palestinians were permanently disabled or maimed. Shockingly, this six-year period was witness to the confiscation of 249680 km2 of Palestinian lands. Israeli forces even refused to overlook the Palestinian trees as they uprooted 1,187,762 Palestinian trees from 2000 to 2006. This shows the nature of the brutal regime of Israel which is even at odds with the natural resources and trees, let alone the human beings.
Although it's practically unthinkable, try to replace Iran and Israel, imagining for a single moment that Iran is the occupying state that kills at least two foreign civilians a day, beleaguers some 1.5 million people who don't have any access to the barest rudiments of their daily life and live under the continual threats of military assault and are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Would the so-called international community tolerate it? Would the UN Secretary General suffice to a simple "expression of concern" with regards to such an incessant viciousness, if it had not been Israel? More
The Jewish Peril is real
The 'Survivors of the Holocaust' were Hitler's Soldiers
Monday, 31 May 2010
What If Iran Had Carried Out The Gaza Carnage?
How Benjamin Netanyahu Nuked the WTC Complex
Transcript of video below
Type of Israeli Nuke used on WTC
Al-Bana: This is a book written by Benjamin Netanyahu on the uprooting of terrorism. He talks about attacking the Twin Towers, He talks about attacking the US National Security Council, and about attacking the UN. Take, for example, the Twin Towers operation. Such an operation doesn't require placing a car bomb under the two towers but placing small nuclear bombs and detonating them. The scenarios were ready. This scenario was prepared by the Jews at the Jonathan Institute.
Interviewer: What scenario are you talking about?
Dr. Hasan Al-Bana: The scenario of bombing (the WTC). I'm talking now about the bombing scenario and how it was a planned operation, and not an act of revenge. He had to find an excuse; a reason for intervention.
Interviewer: Dr. Hasan, you talk of the perpetrator. Are you saying there was an Israeli plan ready for operation?
Dr Hasan Al-Bana: The scenario was prepared by Israel and the US. at The Jonathan Institute which is situated in Jerusalem and it has branches all over the world. When he talks about scenarios of destroying the US from within, to drag the US to fight what has been known worldwide as "terrorism" - this isn't a passing event. It is a practice that has accompanied the Jewish existence throughout the world. They became allies with the Romans against the Persians and when they were taken into captivity in the Babylonian exile, they became allies with any power that arose. They became allies with the Muslim nation, at a one point. Later on, in Europe, they became allies with Britain and came to the region, to the State of Israel. After all this they became allies with the US.
Henry Ford and George Bush attended the Jonathan Conference in 1984. They agreed with Netanyahu on the scenario for the bombing of the Twin Towers. When Netanyahu was asked how a force can be mobilized… He said:
"In America you have religious factions who oppose abortions in hospitals. This religious sentiment can be exploited and channeled into these kinds of operations."
This all exists (in writing). Anybody who read Uprooting Terrorism (sic.) and many other American books (would understand).
Moreover, there is no such thing as a conspiracy. What conspiracy? George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. are the only American presidents to control the CIA.
George Bush Jr. declared that the Twin Towers operation would remain completely secret. MEMRI | October 6 2004
How Benjamin Netanyahu and his co-conspirators Nuked the WTC Complex
Clip #278 Broadcast: September 11, 2004
9/11 Israeli soldiers guard Netanyahu's Jonathan Institute
Images: http://theinfounderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10273
Daddy Ben Zion Netanyahu had planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the 90s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his father had planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the 90s.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that these words were spoken at the anniversary ceremony, the father of Prime Minister, historian Ben Zion Netanyahu, March 7, 2010 at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, attended by numerous dignitaries, including the President Shimon Peres.
The Prime Minister added that those who do not know their past can not understand the present or anticipate the future.
Another Israeli newspaper, Maariv, had reported in its edition of April 17, 2008 that Benjamin Netanyahu, then Likud leader, said during a conference at Bar Ilan university that the September 11 attacks had been beneficial for Israel.
"We enjoy one thing, what are the attacks against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and a U.S. attack against Iraq," he said according to Maariv. These events "have pushed American public opinion in our favor"
Professor Ben-Tzion Netanyahu was the personal secretary of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the father of Revisionist Zionism. In the years 80-90, he led with his son Benjamin and George H. Bush (the father), the Jonathan Institute (named after his eldest son Jonathan Netanyahu, who died in battle), and developed the media concept of "international terrorism" [1]
In January 2001, the treasurer of the Jonathan Institute and the election campaigns of Netanyahu, the developer Larry Silverstein purchased the World Trade Center in New York. He purchased an insurance policy that he wrote himself providing compensation for each attack that could damage the WTC. After Sept. 11, he claimed, beyond a franchise-double compensation on the grounds that there had been two separate attacks committed two different aircraft. After several trials, he touched 4, 5 billion, realizing a net gain of 1 billion.
Original in French
Israel's Attack on Us All
The final act of mythology’s ‘Samson’
For many years, the rhetorical tool in efforts to probe the self-destructive side of Israel’s political reflexes has been the refrain: “Israel has a ‘Samson Complex.’”
We can find no other explanation for a dawn assault on a flotilla challenging Israel’s blockade of traumatized Gaza. The killing of as many as 19 activists with reports that the count could climb is inexcusable, unnecessary and of such political folly that it boggles the mind as it shocks the world.
These few moments of violence will bury far into the future whatever fragile hopes remained for a Turkish-Israeli reconciliation over the two countries’ differences of late. More profoundly, it completes the transformation in recent decades in the basic narrative of the Jewish state.
Once the struggling story of a devastated people seeking to build a home from the ashes of the Holocaust, Monday’s actions complete and seal the new narrative in the international mind: an arrogant and vindictive nation that blindly tramples on any innocent who questions its power.
So let’s return to the story of Samson. A mythical figure in the first century AD, his story appears in the “Book of Judges” of the Jewish Bible as well as the Christian Old Testament. A Herculean figure, Samson can wrestle with lions or single-handedly slay an entire army of “Philistines.” His end comes when, captured by his pursuers and chained between two pillars of a temple, Samson pulls the two pillars from their foundations. He perishes along with his enemies.
Samson played a role in early Zionism and in the reconstruction of a collective Jewish memory.
The image of the invincible fighter leading a people from the helplessness of exile was part of the national myth-building that resulted in the founding of Israel in 1948.
More recently the imagery has drawn from a different side of Samson’s character; elite commando units have been dubbed in the Israeli media as “Samson units” and Israel’s nuclear weapons capacity is often labeled the “Samson option.” More
Raid on flotilla puts final nail in coffin of Turkish ties with Israel
Israel’s deadly attack on a Palestinian aid convoy is likely to be the last straw in already fraught Turkish-Israeli relations, according to senior officials in Turkey’s ruling party.
Though the identities of the killed civilians were still unknown late Monday when the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to print, it is believed that many of the dead are Turkish citizens.
“Our relations with Israel will never be the same,” Hüseyin Çelik, spokesman of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, told reporters Monday.
The Israeli attack dealt a devastating blow to relations already strained by tensions over Israeli actions in Gaza in late 2008.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s escalating rhetoric that targeted the Israeli government and his remarks that Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons capacity was comparable to Iran’s quest to develop such weapons was responsible for putting a strain on bilateral ties over the past year.
On Monday, Turkey appeared to be taking the lead in gathering international support against the Israeli attack, with the government already pressing international organizations such as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, the European Union and the Arab League to take action.
“The worst possible scenario has happened,” said the head of the Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Analysis, or TÜRKSAM, Sinan Oğan.
“Israel has made a suicide commando move, and has committed suicide internationally, he said. “The Turkish-Israeli relationship is now open to every different scenario.”
He said, “The relationship between Turkey and Israel will face its biggest test in history, with the possibility of Turkey taking this issue to the European Union.”
Hasan Köni, an international relations professor, said the incident would further strain Turkish-Israeli ties in comments to the private Habertürk channel on Monday.
“Israel lost a lot. It’s a major mistake in the eyes of the West. This will strengthen Turkey’s hands,” Köni said, adding that it will be hard to repair Turkish-Israeli ties in the near future following Turkey’s decision to recall its ambassador for a second time in only a few months.
In addition to the diplomatic recall, Turkey also canceled three joint military drills and sporting activities on Monday.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an urgent meeting on the attack, which was declared “piracy” by Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. Erdoğan, meanwhile, cut short his Latin America tour and was expected to return home Tuesday.
Three pillars of the strategy
Turkey’s strategy against Israel will likely be based on three main dimensions, including political, legal and humanitarian aspects.
Politically, Turkey plans to mobilize all international organizations to exert pressure on Tel Aviv to change its aggressive policies toward the Palestinians and remove the blockade on West Bank. Turkey is also likely to push for a global front to force Israel to punish those responsible for Monday’s attacks.
On the legal front, Turkish diplomats have begun to explore avenues to determine whether it is possible to bring the attack before international courts.
Lastly, Turkey will also use the attack to draw attention to the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people. The visit of Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestine, is seen within this context.
Attack not to remain unanswered
Crisis desks were established at the Turkish Prime Ministry and the Foreign Ministry on Monday morning. Speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting, Arınç said 400 of the Mavi Marmara’s 581 passengers were Turks.
“I strongly condemn the use of force by Israeli military forces on an aid convoy composed of 32 countries, including Turkey,” he said. “This attack must not remain unanswered.”
Arınç said the government was not involved in the organization of the flotilla, saying it was a pure civil society initiative.
Early in the day, Israel’s ambassador to Ankara, Gabby Levy, was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Deputy Undersecretary Ünal Çeviköz demanded Levy provide a detailed report about the outcome of the passengers of the boats, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.
Çeviköz said it was against international law to forcibly interfere with ships carrying humanitarian aid in international waters.
“We want the return of the injured, and the cooperation needed to have them treated in Turkey. We expect the other passengers to be returned to their countries immediately,” he said. “We demand an end to this unlawful situation, and the release of the detained ships in international waters.”
Meanwhile, while en route to the United States, Davutoğlu said, “Under all conditions, even if no one had been injured, this is still an act of piracy.”
Opposition slams Israel
Turkey’s two main opposition parties strongly criticized Israel over a deadly attack on ships carrying aid to Gaza, announcing their support for a government decision to take the issue to international organizations.
“Nothing can justify this inhumane attack,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, told reporters at a press conference Monday.
Criticizing the Israeli government for not sufficiently warning members of civilian organizations before their departure that soldiers could use deadly force, Kılıçdaroğlu said recalling the Turkish ambassador was the correct decision.
Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, called Israel’s attacks barbaric and said attacking a ship flying a Turkish flag was a hostile move. “These attacks should not be left unreciprocated. The reaction of the government should not be temporary and left on paper.”
He also asked the government to cut all economic and defense relations with Israel, adding that the country must pay compensation for the attacks.
“It should also apologize to Turkey,” Bahçeli said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turk-israeli-ties-beyond-the-point-of-no-return-2010-05-31
“Those Responsible Must Be Held Criminally Accountable”
By Richard Falk (UN Rapporteur for Palestine)
This incident should serve as a wakeup call for a complicit international community. There are three political imperatives that need to emerge with a sense of urgency: condemnation of the Israeli attack and an accompanying demand for the immediate end of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, appropriately by a decision in the UN Security Council; an authoritative launching of an investigation of war crimes allegations against Israel by the International Criminal Court; the widest possible endorsement and strengthening of the already growing worldwide boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign directed at Israel’s occupation policies in Palestinian Territories.
GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, urged Monday the international community to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of some 16 unarmed peace activist, when Israeli armed commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to Gaza.
“Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas,” Mr. Falk said. “It is essential that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior, including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally accountable for their wrongful acts.”
There are confirmed reports of lethal interference by Israeli military units on the high seas with the Freedom Flotilla of six ships carrying some 10,000 tons of medicine, food, and building materials to the civilian population of Gaza. Preliminary reports suggest as many as 16 unarmed activists were killed, and dozens more wounded.
“This peaceful humanitarian initiative by citizens from 50 countries is an urgent response to the continuation of an unlawful blockade that has been maintained for almost three years causing great physical and mental harm to the whole of the 1.5 million people entrapped within Gaza,” the UN independent expert said. “Such a massive form of collective punishment is a crime against humanity, as well as a gross violation of the prohibition on collective punishment in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
“As Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, familiar with the suffering of the people of Gaza, I find this latest instance of Israeli military lawlessness to create a situation of regional and global emergency. Unless prompt and decisive action is taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza all of us will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging the survival of an entire beleaguered community.”
Mr. Falk urged the world community “to take urgent action in response to this flagrant flouting of international law. It is time to insist on the end of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”
Richard Falk , Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and author of “Crimes of War: Iraq” and “The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order after Iraq” Also, current UN Rapporteur for Palestine.
The Gaza Flotilla – Your Move, Mr. President
President-elect Obama stayed silent when, back in December of 2008 and January of 2009, Israel declared war on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip prison camp. (In my view that was a demonstration of naked Israeli state terrorism). As I write from America, with the drama and implications of Israel’s murderous attack on the Gaza Flotilla still being played out, I find myself wondering if President Obama will have the balls to say to Israel, “Enough is enough”.
He would not dare to say that in those words, but he could break with precedence by refusing to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israel.
Will he do so?
We shall see.
If he does authorize a veto, it will be time for even those of us who invested some good faith in him to conclude that he is the prisoner of the Zionist lobby and its stooges in Congress and, more to the point, a prisoner with no hope
Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent. He is author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews.
Psychopaths United For Israel
DR. ALAN SABROSKY: THE MADNESS OF ARROGANCE: ISRAEL’S ATTACK ON THE GAZA AID FLOTILLA
Israel’s attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on America’s Memorial Day was all too predictable, although the form it took surprised even me. And it confirms the old proverb that “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,” for the attack was the kind of madness only unbridled arrogance can assume.
It wasn’t just that foreigners as well as Palestinians, flying flags other than that of Palestine, were attacked. Israel has a long history of doing such things, especially to the UN. But except for the USS Liberty incident in 1967, it has generally done that on inland sites — Gaza, the West Bank, the Lebanon — where it can largely block news and visual evidence, and control the spin it puts on events, counting on its friends in the US and other mainstream media to say little or nothing to contradict them.
The Attack Reprised
Not this time. An attack on the open seas, in acknowledged international waters, against unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid with passengers and crews from many countries — especially a direct attack against a Turkish ship — is a different matter, and potentially an explosive one. The number of shipboard casualties indicates that once fighting started, the Israeli commandos simply sprayed automatic weapons fire into the people around them — another of their long-standing habits.
And technology is their enemy here, just as it became in an earlier day the enemy of communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. Too many images and videos were taken, and some sent, and too many witnesses reported what was happening, before the Israelis were able to suppress communications from their victims.
Bad for their victims, but also potentially very bad for Israel, and the initial Israeli public-relations damage control efforts show that they are at least dimly aware of that fact. Trying to cast the attack in international waters as an exercise in self-defense would be ludicrous in the best or worst of circumstances — has anyone ever seen wheelchairs used as offensive weaponry?
And for the Israeli spokeswoman to try to spin an assault by warships and armed commandos as defense against a “lynch” (I guess she was trying to push an American “hot button” for Obama — someone should tell her it is “lynching” or “lynch mob”) would have embarrassed even her public relations soulmate, Dr. Josef Goebbels. But desperate do what desperation dictates, I suppose, although this time they may well have gone way too far.
A Judging, Long Overdue
And that is what the initial responses appear to affirm. All of the major US and many other media outlets are carrying this story, and even with the slant from many Jewish correspondents based in Jerusalem or Ashdod, the bloody particulars are slowly coming through to at least a general American audience for the first time:
1. The unarmed ships with unarmed passengers were trying to ferry humanitarian and reconstruction aid to ravaged and embattled Gaza.
2. Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, probably if not certainly in violation of international law, supported largely by US vetoes in the UN Security Council.
3. Israeli warships and commandos intercepted and attacked the aid flotilla in international waters –which is an act of war, piracy or state terrorism, depending on one’s view of the details.
4. Under attack, some of the passengers tried to defend themselves, scores were killed or wounded, and some Israeli commandos were also wounded — doubtless a surprise to them, but then their usual run of victims may have made them a bit too cocky.
5. Many governments and publics around the world — not only in Arab capitals — are openly outraged, and the discussion forums on US news websites carrying the story suggest that much the same is happening at a public level in this country.
6. But for Israel, this is just another “we are the misunderstood victim” incident in a long, sordid and utterly unbelievable litany of such things — except that this time, they may not get away with it.
Seizing the Moment
This is a time for those interested in justice for Palestine to seize the moment and act, building on the promise engendered but not fulfilled after the submission of the Goldstone Report to the HRC.
I would like to think that President Obama would take a stand, and perhaps he will, but if he does it will be with words and not with deeds. Neither the Congress nor Rahm Emanuel would let him do much more, whatever his predisposition — and who knows, he may believe the “lynch” metaphor, or pretend to do so.
Americans shouldn’t bother with letters or emails to US Senators or Representatives, or Obama; AIPAC will be there ahead of you with more letters and money than you can generate. Go instead directly to the local offices of US Senators and Representatives, stay until you speak personally to the senior person there, and make your case as forcefully as you can. Make sure as many people hear you as possible — but be polite, and leave your signs at home.
For the world community, now is the time and this is the incident to drive home the UN “Uniting for Peace” Resolution, in both the Security Council and the General Assembly as needed. The nationalities of the victims will at least neutralize many European countries that might have opposed it before. Sanctions, embargoes, even the suspension or expulsion of Israel from the UN itself, do as much as quickly and as forcefully as possible. Press the BDS campaign everywhere hard.
And for the US armed forces, on this Memorial Day, it would be well to reflect on the meaning of duty and service to country and people. Oaths of allegiance, obedience and loyalty are important to professionals in the armed forces, in or out of uniform. They were to me when I was in the Marines, and later as a civilian at West Point and the Army War College. I’m sure serving professionals today are no different.
But the elected and appointed civilians overseeing the armed services have also taken their own oaths, and many have violated them by serving the interests of Israel rather than the US itself, and especially by spending American lives and treasure furthering Israeli interests rather than safeguarding American ones. This, to me, is clearly treason, and utterly negates any loyalty anyone else owes to them.
Remember that the cornerstone of our oaths is not to obedience, but to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Think about it on this Memorial Day.
______________________________________________________________________
*Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) is a ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at docbrosk@comcast.net
Treating Cancer with Radiation
Radiation therapy is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to cure cancer or to relieve a cancer patient's pain.
Radiation therapy works because the radiation destroys the cancer cells' ability to reproduce and the body naturally gets rid of these cells.
A cancer patient may be treated with radiation alone. Prostate cancer and larynx cancer are often treated in this manner.
Sometimes radiation therapy is part of a patient's treatment. For example, a woman may have radiation therapy after breast conserving surgery. She can be cured of her cancer and still keep her breast. When radiation therapy is only part of a patient's treatment it is called adjuvant treatment. More
Israeli Butchery at Sea
by 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.
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.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
"Freedom Flotillas": Dunkirk 1940 and Gaza 2010
by Rufus
As I write, a flotilla of small ships is sailing the Mediterranean to bring aid to a people devastated by Zionist persecution.
Seventy years ago another flotilla was sailing on the other side of Europe in the English Channel.
The two flotillas would appear at first glance to have little in common, however they inextricably are bound together. In 1918, the mighty European nation of Russia had been taken over by the forces of international materialism. In order to complete the destruction of Europe, a controlled opponent had to be created - this was to be Germany.
Germany had been economically crippled and physically dismembered by the Zionist war machine in London and Washington. Funded by the Zionist banking cartel, Germany had reversed its alien-created decline and become the strongest economy in Europe. The territorial losses had also been overturned, and the Hitler regime in Berlin was enjoying support hitherto unknown in a modern nation.
The Blitzkrieg was achieving results beyond the expectations of the internationalists who had funded the regime, and a quick victory for Germany seemed assured. That did not fit the internationalist agenda.
In 1940, Germany had subdued the opposition to the west. The objective of the war was to destroy the independent nations of Europe so that the shattered lands could be welded together into a single European superstate.
For this to be achieved, Germany had to be utterly crushed. To the horror of the Rothschilds, the Blitzkrieg was so successful that every combatant nation had capitulated, with the exception of Great Britain, and her military were trapped in the vicinity of Dunkirk.
All that was required to end the war in the west was for the German army to advance to the coast and cut off any possibility of retreat across the sea. This was precisely what the German High Command set out to do, and would have done had it not been for the direct intervention of Zionist asset, Adolf Hitler.
Hitler had repeatedly, and accurately, proclaimed the British Establishment to be completely controlled by international Jewry, aka Talmudic/Sabattean Jews and Zionists. Had he been sincere in his oft stated desire to liberate Europe from the evils of usury, he would have allowed the army to capture the British and French soldiers, and ended the war.
Instead, he ordered the German military to allow the British and allied forces to cross the sea unhindered in a flotilla of little ships, supported by the Royal Navy. His stated reason was to allow the British to keep their dignity and show that the German regime was honorable! This is lunacy.
It made absolutely no sense to allow enemy forces to escape so they could fight on - at a time when he planned another front in the east and drastically reduced the chances of Germany winning.
As a direct result of allowing the flotilla of ships to leave from Dunkirk, the fate of Europe was sealed. The internationalists got their wish, and what should have been a quick war was dragged on for a further five years, leaving Europe financially in ruins, with many of her finest men and women dead or psychologically broken.
The aftermath was not only the destruction of free Europe and the enslavement of her people to international bureaucratic materialism (openly in the USSR, more subtly in the area which was to become the EU), the war was also used to justify the establishment of a materialist state in Palestine which would serve as the center of operations of the internationalist elite, behind the lie of it being a homeland for persecuted Jews.
The flotilla of ships in the Mediterranean attempting to bring much needed supplies to the people of terrorized occupied Gaza is a direct consequence of the flotilla of ships which left Dunkirk seventy years ago in order for the Zionist plan to destroy Europe and create Israel to succeed.
Hitler, acting in a way which the MOSSAD would envy, deceived the people of Europe with his claim to moral superiority to justify allowing the Franco-British Zionist army to escape. The only purpose of this was to prolong the war and ensure the establishment of a supremacist Rabbinical abomination which negates true Judaism and persecutes the Arab people whose land it occupies.
The two flotillas of the end of May 1940 and 2010 follow one another in logical sequence. It is a great irony that many in the Arab world look to Hitler as an enemy of Zionism.
He was the best asset Zionism ever had - without his loyalty to the cause and treachery to Europe, their goal for a single global authority would have not have advanced so rapidly.
Had Hitler been genuinely fighting for Europe, the Talmudic Defence Force, known as the British Expeditionary Force, would have been captured and the soldiers released from servitude to Zion and brought back into the European fold.
Without the flotilla from Dunkirk, the Sabatteans would have lost and Gaza would still be a safe and happy home for the indigenous Arab population, without the constant fear of Zionist brutality.
Hitler has a lot to answer for.
http://newsfromatlantis.blogspot.com/2010/05/gaza-and-dunkirk-flotillas-of-zionism.html
Violent protests in Turkey; Israeli envoy summoned
Turkish TV stations say police have blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm Israeli Consulate in Istanbul over IDF attack on aid ships to Gaza. Israeli ambassador ordered to arrive at Foreign Ministry
Turkish police blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul over reports of an Israeli attack on at least one aid ship in international waters on Monday, news channels reported.
CNN-Turk and NTV showed dozens of angry protesters scuffling with Turkish police guarding the consulate in downtown Istanbul.
"Damn Israel," the protesters shouted
News from other israelis occupied territories:
Obama provided Israel with historic guarantees
Netanyahu in Canada:: Israel-Canada ties stronger than ever
Latitude, Longitude and Descriptions of Israeli WMD's sites, including Nukes and BioChem sites
List of Israeli WMD facilities, including Nuclear Weapons and Biological and Chemical Weapons manufacturing sites.
14 Nuclear Weapons manufacturing sites, plus their Latitude and Longitude are listed. Also included are Israel's sites for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and Command and Control sites for the IDF.
NOTE: It wasn't difficult finding these sites online. Not only is the location specified, but the GPS coordinates, which would make it easy for HAMAS to send some of those mortar rounds into some of these sites, so why does HAMAS always target mostly empty spaces in Israel when launching some of those souped up bottle rockets? Or is another party launching those Qassams into Israel for ulterior motives?
Be'er Yaakov
31°56'N 34°39'E
Israel's main missile assembly facility is located near the town of Be'er Yaakov. the Jericho and Arrow missiles and the Shavit launch vehicle are assembled in a single long building. The Jericho and derivative Shavit are assembled in one area, the Arrow in another.
Dimona
31°00'N 35°08'E
Negev Nuclear Research Center Kirya le-Mechkar Garinii (KAMAG)
The Dimona heavy water reactor and an installation for processing irradiated fuel are used to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. Approximately 2,700 scientists, technicians, administrative staff, and other workers are employed at Dimona. Since the facility was constructed in the late 1950's the surrounding land has been altered to sustain groves of palms and gardens positioned to obscure the facility from the road and air.
Eilabun
32°50'N 35°23'E
Eilabun [Ilabun] is reportedly a tactical nuclear weapons storage facility in eastern Galilee. One of two Israeli nuclear weapons storage facilities, it is located near the town of the same name immediately west of the Sea of Gallilee off Route 65. It is speculated that that Tirosh is the strategic weapons storage site, while Eilabun is the tactical weapons storage site. Eilabun reportedly stores tactical nuclear artillery shells, nuclear landmines and other tactical nuclear weapons.
Haifa - RAFAEL
32°50'N 35°00'E
In addition to ongoing close cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces, RAFAEL Armament Development Authority provides technology tailored to the needs of a long list of customers including some of the world's leading armed forces. The Propulsion and Explosive Systems Directorate provides all propulsion, pyrotechnics and warhead requirements for RAFAEL armament systems purchased by Israeli and overseas Customers. Comprehensive facilities are available in RAFAEL to cover all aspects of research, design, development, manufacturing and testing of solid-propellant rocket motors with a wide size range.
Haifa - Kishon Port
32°50'N 35°00'E
Mishor Rotem
31°03'N 35°10'E
Uranium processing facility.
Nes Ziyyona
31°55'N 34°48'E
Israel's primary chemical and biological warfare facility is at Nes Ziyyona [Noss Ziona], near Tel Aviv. The Israeli Institute for Bio-Technology is believed to be the home of both offensive and defensive research.
Nevatim
31°13'N 34°54'E
The Israeli Air Force reportedly has three squadrons [150, 199 and 248 squadrons] equipped with Jericho nuclear-tipped missiles at the Sedot Mikha [Sdot Micha] base, 45 km south of Tel-Aviv. The Sedot Mikha Jericho IRBM base is located near the town of Zekharyah, east of Ashkelon and south east of Tel Nof AB, and south of the Sorek River between Kiriat-Gat and Beit-Shemesh.
Palmachim
31°49'N 34°42'E
A missile test range and space launch facility is located near the Palmachim [Palmikim] Air Force Base on the coast of Israel south of Tel Aviv and north north-east of Ashdod. The facility is also sometimes referred to as Yavne [31.820N 34.713E], which is the urban area near the Soreq nuclear research center. The area is largely covered by sand dunes. Palmachim Air Force Base was built by the IDF/AF in the 1970s, originally as a test site for missiles conducted by 151 Squadron. Also used as a helicopter base, the single runway is 2,000 meters long
Sedot Mikha
31°47'N 34°52'E
The Israeli Air Force reportedly has three squadrons [150, 199 and 248 squadrons] equipped with Jericho nuclear-tipped missiles at the Sedot Mikha [Sdot Micha] base, 45 km south of Tel-Aviv. The Sedot Mikha Jericho IRBM base is located near the town of Zekharyah, east of Ashkelon and south east of Tel Nof AB, and south of the Sorek River between Kiriat-Gat and Beit-Shemesh.
Soreq
31°49'N 34°42'E
The Soreq Nuclear Research Center is located near Yavne, west of Beersheb, and shares a security zone with the Palmichim Air Base. The functional equivalent of the US Livermore or Los Alamos national weapons laboratories, it is responsible for nuclear weapons research, design and fabrication
Palmahim
31°55'59"N 34°42'26"E
Bene Ayish
31°47'00"N 34°45'00"E
Nahal Sorek 3
31°47'00"N 34°49'00"E
Bet Hilqiyya
31°47'00"N 34°49'00"E
The Soreq Nuclear Research Center is located near Yavne, west of Beersheb, and shares a security zone with the Palmichim Air Base. The functional equivalent of the US Livermore or Los Alamos national weapons laboratories, it is responsible for nuclear weapons research, design and fabrication.
Under an agreement with the United States the Soreq IRR-1 5-MW swimming pool-type research reactor was constructed at Nahal Soreq in 1955. This reactor was placed under US and subsequently International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection. The Center was formally established in 1958, and currently has a total of over 200 employees. Activities at Soreq include research and development of nuclear weapons.
Tel Aviv
32°04'N 34°46'E
The Israeli underground national military command center, "the Bor," is located beneath the Defense Ministry complex -- the Kirya, Israel's equivalent of the Pentagon -- in the Hakirya district. This facility is within a few hundred feet of the former Prime Minister's office in Tel Aviv.
Tel Nof
31°50'N 34°50'E
Tel Nof reportedly is the location of nuclear weapons storage bunkers. This large airbase is located only a few miles from Tirosh, where nuclear weapons for its missions are reportedly stored. Just to the south of the Zachariah Jericho 2 training pad are several bunkers for contain nuclear gravity bombs for attack aircraft at the Tel Nof air base a few kilometers to the northwest.
Tirosh
31°45'N 34°53'E
Tirosh, located off Route 38, is reportedly one of two Israeli nuclear weapons storage facilities. It is speculated that that Tirosh is the strategic weapons storage site, while Eilabun is the tactical weapons storage site. It is reported that the facility consists of a network of roads linking approximately 70 bunkers, each spaced about 25 yards apart. Other reports suggest that nuclear weapons are stored at the five large bunkers at this site. The facility is surrounded by a perimeter road and security fences. The facility is close to both the Tel Nof Air Base and the Sedot Mikha missile garrison.
Yodefat
32°50'00"N 35°16'35"E
Yodefat is reportedly an installation for assembling and dismantling nuclear weapons. The Haifa area is home to several Rafael facilities responsible for the assembly of Israeli nuclear weapons since the first two weapons were fabricated in late 1966. Currently weapons are assembled at a modern and more remote facility at Yodefat east of Haifa. It is reported that classified satellite imagery of the facility shows a highly secure underground facility with two large elevators. According to Mordechai Vanunu, convoys carry plutonium from Dimona to Yodefat.
Zachariah
31°47'N 34°52'E
U/I Facility Near Ramla
31°55'N 34°52'E
U/I Test Site
34°52'E 34°52'E
Israel has almost certainly conducted one or more zero-yield or sub-critical tests of the non-nuclear explosive components for an implosion design plutonium bomb.
In June 1998, a Member of the Knesset accused the government of an underground test near Eilat on 28 May 1998. A seismic event in the region was detected by Egyptian scientists, but subsequently the event was explained by the Israelis as the result of a car-bomb test. (Why is Israel conducting 'car bomb' tests, unless those results would be used to set off car bombs against her 'ally,' the USA in Iraq and Afghanistan?)
Rafah Military Garrison
34°52'E 34°52'E
Courtesy of Global Security.
Why are these sites mostly located in civilian areas?
Source: http://careandwashingofthebrain.blogspot.com/
Freedom Flotilla under attack in International waters
Civilians Under Attack by Israel
(Cypro us, June 1, 2010, 6:30 am) Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes boarded the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot. According to the live video from the ship, two have been killed, and 31 injured. Al Jazeera has just confirmed the numbers. Israel says they are taking over the boats.
Streaming video shows the Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians, and our last SPOT beacon said, "HELP, we are being contacted by the Israelis."
The coalition of Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organisation , Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza appeal to the international community to demand that Israel stop their brutal attack on civilians delivering vitally needed aid to the imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza and permit the ships to continue on their way.
The attack has happened in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law.
The Free Gaza Movement List of passengers on the boats
Protesters try to storm Israeli consulate in Turkey
CNN-Turk and NTV televisions show dozens of angry protesters scuffling with Turkish police guarding consulate building in downtown Istanbul. Turkey calls attack 'unacceptable', summoning Israel ambassador.
Turkish police blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul over reports of an Israeli attack on at least one aid ship in international waters on Monday, news channels reported.
CNN-Turk and NTV showed dozens of angry protesters scuffling with Turkish police guarding the consulate in downtown Istanbul.
"Damn Israel," the protesters shouted.
Two TV networks reported earlier that Israeli warships attacked the six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for blockaded Gaza, killing at least 10 and wounding an unknown number of people on board.
"We were not expecting such an operation in international waters," Omer Faruk Korkmaz, an official of the pro-Islamic aid group, IHH, that led the aid shipment said in Turkey. "Israel has been caught redhanded and the international community will not forgive it."
Korkmaz said the ship was being escorted to Haifa.
Turkey's foreign ministry called the reported attack "unacceptable" and summoned the Israeli ambassador to to discuss the incident - bringing already tense relations between Turkey and Israel to new levels.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/protesters-try-to-storm-israeli-consulate-in-turkey-1.293172
Have a laugh:
Invitation to Camp David III
Children behind Israeli bars
With a timid smile, 16 year-old N twiddles his thumbs as he tells me his frightening story. Israeli soldiers came to his house a year ago at dawn. He was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken away without any explanation.
When the military jeep finally stopped, the soldiers took him to a room with chairs. They began cursing at him and using derogatory terms against his mother and female siblings. The soldiers then put sunglasses on N's eyes and a female headband on his head.
"They took pictures of me; they were laughing," he told me.
"Aren’t you going to confess?" the soldiers kept asking him… "To what?" he would reply. "To throwing stones," they would say.
Afraid of ending up in jail, N refused to confess to the alleged offence.
"I kept telling them: I didn't do it. I didn't do anything," he recalled.
Until this point, N's story sounded familiar to someone like me, who's been covering the conflict in Palestine for years. Beatings, humiliation, and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, including minors, are regularly documented by human rights organisations.
But N's story was just beginning.
"There was a dog barking outside the room… The soldier told me he would bring it in to f**k me if I didn't confess… I was so scared… The guy then took out a stick; he whipped it forward and it got longer. He told his friends, who were looking on and laughing at me: "This boy doesn't want to talk. Let's pull down his pants so I can shove this stick up his a**."
"I tried to hold on to the chair; he kept poking me, groping my privates with the stick, trying to get me off the chair," N said while avoiding eye contact with me.
The Palestine Chapter of Defence for Children International (DCI) has collected 100 sworn affidavits this year of Palestinian children, under the age of 18, who said they were mistreated by their Israeli interrogators. Fourteen of them say they were either sexually abused or threatened with sexual assault, including rape, if they didn't confess to what their interrogators accused them of.
N is one of these children… His confession landed him a three month sentence in an Israeli jail.
Because of the stigma attached, there are fears that many more children may have suffered similar abuse but have been afraid to come forward.
N kept telling me he felt awkward talking about his experience. "It feels bad to talk about this. I mean, what a thing to talk about… It's shameful," he told me.
So I asked this shy teenager why he mustered the courage to speak out. "I want justice," he said. "I wish these people could be tried in a court so that they don't do this to other guys."
N told me that at prison, he met many boys who had suffered similar abuse.
Israeli forces arrest approximately 700 Palestinian minors every year. During interrogation, these minors are not allowed to have contact with their lawyers or families. Human rights organisations say the alleged abuses happen during this period of isolation.
"These practices are meant to break the children. In a way, when you break the spirit of these children, you're breaking the spirit of the nation," Rifaat Kassis, the director general of DCI, told me.
And it's because of the powerful impact sexual abuse has on these children that DCI has sounded the alarm at the highest possible international levels. The organisation has communicated affidavits to the Special UN Rapporteur on Torture, hoping to galvanise enough international pressure to bring these abuses to an end.
This step is a reflection of the stonewalling human rights organisations usually face from Israeli authorities.
"Most of the time, the Israelis, they just dismiss our allegations and say this is not correct, this is not true; so if this is the case, we challenge them to record these interrogations and let the interrogations happen with the lawyer," Kassis told me.
This time was no different. We tried to request a response from the Israeli army but all our requests were turned down. The army told us they would only comment if they had more specific details about these cases, which is a demand the children's lawyers say could jeopardise their clients.
But after the report aired on Al Jazeera, the Israeli military issued a statement rejecting the allegations and the DCI report. The army also said its practices were consistent with international law; a claim hotly contested by all human rights organisations working in Israel and the Occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army's response to these allegations also proves what DCI admits: this is a long-term battle.
So is recovery - N still struggles with his experience
"I'll never forget his eyes; the way he looked at me," he said, referring to his interrogator.
N still has nightmares and struggles to curb the fear he feels when the army is on patrol nearby.
But he's relatively lucky, having a supportive family that has encouraged him to talk about his experience. And N has received counselling from the torture victims' centre of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association).
Still, this is a frustrating battle, requiring endless patience.
The director general of DCI told me his organisation's petitions and campaigns within the Israeli military system have generally yielded very limited results, if at all. That's why these child rights advocates are hoping that outside pressure will eventually help prevent further instances of abuse and afford children like N the basic rights and protection they should be entitled to.
The tormenting part of this battle, however, is knowing that until success is achieved, there is nothing these activists can do for the children now detained by Israeli soldiers on a regular basis.
They can only hope that counselling, after the fact, can help them recover.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/05/30/children-behind-israeli-bars
Israel 'attacks' Gaza aid fleet
Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza, according to a Turkish aid agency being quoted by Turkish media.
At least two people were killed and more than 30 people injured, the report said early on Monday.
Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, appeared to show armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.
Earlier, the Israeli navy had contacted the captain of the Mavi Marmara, asking him to identify himself and say where the ship was headed.
Shortly after, two Israeli naval vessels had flanked the flotilla on either side, but at a distance.
Organisers of the attempted siege break, dubbed the Freedom Flotilla, then diverted their ships and slowed down to avoid a confrontation during the night.
They also issued all passengers life jackets and asked them to remain below deck.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including a Nobel laureate and several European legislators, are with the flotilla, aiming to reach Gaza in defiance of an Israeli embargo.
But Israel has said it will not allow the flotilla to reach the Gaza Strip and vowed to stop the six ships from reaching the coastal Palestinian territory.
The flotilla had set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday and aimed to reach Gaza by Monday morning.
Israel said the boats were embarking on "an act of provocation" against the Israeli military, rather than providing aid, and that it had issued warrants to prohibit their entrance to Gaza.
It asserted that the flotilla would be breaking international law by landing in Gaza, a claim the organisers rejected.
A flotilla of aid ships heading to the Gaza Strip has been delayed for another day. The ships are now in the Mediterranean Sea, near Cyprus, with hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on board. They are waiting for some European politicians to join them. There are also reports that the Cypriot authorities are preventing the politicians from leaving land to join the ships further out to sea. Mohamed Vall has been hearing why the campaigners are so determined (29 June, 2010).
Storm Troopers Attack Humanitarian Flotilla in International waters
Report: Several casualties in clash between Gaza aid flotilla, Israel Navy Pro-Palestinian activists aboard six-ship convoy sailing for Gaza Strip ignored orders by Nazis to turn back.
The Gaza aid flotilla changed course to avoid a confrontation with Israeli warships, Al Jazeera reported shortly after midnight Monday.
The Israeli naval vessels reportedly made contact earlier with the six-ship flotilla, which is carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza.
The Israeli navy was operating under the assumption that the activists manning the boats would not heed their calls to turn around, and Israeli troops were prepared to board the ships and steer them away from the Gaza shores and toward the Israeli port city of Ashdod.
Huwaida Arraf, one of the flotilla organizers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey from international waters off the coast of Cyprus Sunday afternoon after two days of delays. According to organizers, the flotilla was expected to reach Gaza, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) away, on Monday afternoon, and two more ships would follow in a second wave.
The flotilla was fully prepared for the different scenarios that might arise, and organizers were hopeful that Israeli authorities would do what's right and not stop the convoy, one of the organizers said.
"We fully intend to go to Gaza regardless of any intimidation or threats of violence against us," Arraf said. "They are going to have to forcefully stop us."
After nightfall, three Israeli navy missile boats left their base in Haifa, steaming out to sea to confront the activists' ships.
Two hours later, Israel Radio broadcast a recording of one of the missile boats warning the flotilla not to approach Gaza.
"If you ignore this order and enter the blockaded area, the Israeli navy will be forced to take all the necessary measures in order to enforce this blockade," the radio message continued.
The flotilla, which includes three cargo ships and three passenger ships, is trying to draw attention to Israel's three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. The boats are carrying items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials.
The activists said they also were carrying hundreds of electric-powered wheelchairs, prefabricated homes and water purifiers.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that after a security check, permitted humanitarian aid confiscated from the boats will be transferred to Gaza through authorized channels. However, Israel would not transfer items it has banned from Gaza under its blockade rules. Palmor said that for example, cement would be allowed only if it is tied to a specific project.
This is the ninth time that the Free Gaza movement has tried to ship in humanitarian aid to Gaza since August 2008.
Israel has let ships through five times, but has blocked them from entering Gaza waters since a three-week military offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers in January 2009. The flotilla bound for Gaza is the largest to date.
Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists are on the boats, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor.
The mission has experienced repeated delays, both due to mechanical problems and a decision by Cyprus to bar any boat from sailing from its shore to Gaza. The ban forced a group of European lawmakers to depart from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot northern part of the island late Saturday.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on Gaza after Hamas militants violently seized control of the seaside territory in June 2007.
Israel says the measures are needed to prevent Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israel, from building up its arsenal. But United Nations officials and international aid groups say the blockade has been counterproductive, failing to weaken the Islamic militant group while devastating the local economy.
Israel rejects claims of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it allows more than enough food and medicine into the territory. The Israelis also point to the bustling smuggling industry along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, which has managed to bring consumer goods, gasoline and livestock into the seaside strip.
Israel has condemned the flotilla as a provocation and vowed to block it from reaching Gaza.
Israeli military officials said they hope to resolve the situation peacefully but are prepared for all scenarios. Naval commandos have been training for days in anticipation of the standoff. Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under official guidelines, said the forces would likely take over the boats under the cover of darkness.
Palmor said foreigners on the ships would be sent back to their countries. Activists who did not willingly agree to be deported would be detained. A special detention facility has been set up in Ashdod.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-several-casualties-in-clash-between-gaza-aid-flotilla-israel-navy-1.293089
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