By Steve Hynd
Reuters reports that between 14 and 16 are dead after Israeli commandos used live ammunition against a humanitarian flotilla which was trying to reach Gaza with supplies yesterday evening. Reuters reports at least 30 injured too, while KUNA puts the injured at 60.
One Israeli serviceman was "moderately injured" by a knife wound during the assault, which took place just after dark and after Israel had attacked vessels flagged in America, Europe and Turkey, while they were still in international waters. The passengers included a holocaust survivor, USS Liberty survivors, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, EU MEPs & hundreds of humanitarian workers.
I'll have more in the morning, especially on reactions from around the world, but this is a shocking crime against humanity showing no conscience whatsoever. President Obama has to realise at this point that supporting Israel is akin to Reagan's support for the Botha regime in South Africa in the 80's.
Update: Here's some Sky News footage of the assault, via The Guardian, which is constantly updating it's report here.
Update 2: AFP reports that condemnation from the region and from Europe has been well-nigh universal - as it should be.
The Islamist Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip urged fellow Muslims to "rise up" in protest in front of Israeli embassies the world over, as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas declared three days of mourning over the "massacre."
Kuwait's parliament speaker condemned the raid on the flotilla, which was carrying 16 Kuwaitis including an MP, as a "heinous Israeli crime," as the cabinet prepared for an emergency meeting.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa slammed the raid as a "crime" against a humanitarian mission, saying the 22-country body was consulting to decide on its next step.
In Europe, condemnation was equally swift.
France said that "nothing can justify" the violence of Israel's Gaza ship raid, while German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was "deeply concerned" about the deaths.
The European Union demanded Israel mount a "full inquiry" into the killing of at least 10 people in a raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton warned that Israel's "continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counterproductive," demanding "an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening" of crossings to Gaza.
Greece withdrew from joint military exercises with Israel in protest at the raid, as it summoned Israel's ambassador to demand an "immediate" report on the safety of about 30 Greeks on board the flotilla.
Britain's new coalition government is reportedly asking Israel for a fuller account of their version before it makes comment - but with UK citizen and Belfast-born Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan aboard one of the aid vessels Cameron will have to do some fancy stepping to placate his LibDem colleagues if he wants to give Israel an easy time of it.
Meanwhile, the usual wingnut suspects are backing Israel's assault on a "Jew Hating" aid convoy. None are even attempting to explain why the Israeli commandos weren't at least using baton rounds instead of live ammunition. None are attempting to square the one or two "moderately wounded" Israeli soldiers and the 16 dead and 30 to 60 injured aboard the aid ships with Israel's feeble alibi of being attacked when they boarded foreign flagged vessels on a humanitarian mission. Even Israel's Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military, admits the assault was carried out in international waters.
Oh, and Netanyahu is reportedly considering cancelling his visit to the US.
Update 3: I wonder if Turkey, a NATO member, is considering the NATO Charter and deliberating on whether to put the US between a rock and a hard place:
Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.Article 6 (1)
For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack:
...on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over...the Mediterranean Sea
The threat of invoking Article Five would certainly pressure the US and UK, the two NATO members most likely to want to quibble and parse Israel's atrocity.
Update 4: My pal Alex Lobov has a damn good roundup over at Zeitgeist Politics of what's been said so far by Israel, the aid ships' passengers and internationally.
Update 5: The death toll among the flotilla's passengers is now 19.
The history of America's Israeli policy being what it is, Obama and Clinton are just as likely to take this as an opportunity to double down on Likudism.
ReplyDeleteIf USS Liberty wasn't enough to make the Americans reconsider their Israel policy, this won't make much difference either.
A boil is being lanced. And Curmudgeon may be correct.
ReplyDeleteBut the long view of US policies is no longer what it was for decades.
Peter Beinart's essay and the BDS movement reflect a fundamental shift in public opinion. Not enough to effect policy changes but sufficient to trigger an over-reaction.
The iceberg beneath this event is the Muslim Brotherhood. A piece in The Economist looked at the MB in January.
...the Brotherhood�s brand of conservative pan-Islamism, which nowadays generally eschews violence and agrees to play by the rules of the secular state even if it thinks them unfair, may be losing ground. A growing number of young people, frustrated by paternalism and impatient for change, seem attracted to more radical trends, such as arch-fundamentalist, Saudi-influenced Salafism that harks back to a pure form of Islam said to have prevailed in the religion�s earliest days, not to mention violent jihadism....
Policies regarding all matters Palestinian stand firmly on the divide and conquer principle. As long as Palestinians remain fragmented Israel can maintain the upper hand, supported by a coalition of Orthodox Jews, Christian Zionists, traditional antisemitism and a defense industry profiting from all sides of any conflict. (Antisemitism is in this column as one of the founding principles of Israel. Displaced Jews were not welcome anywhere in Europe and Palestinians were the weakest link in the Arab chain. Ergo, a Jewish analogue to Liberia.)
The more I read about this the more I see it as a set up by Hammas to create a PR nightmare for the Israelis - and it worked. The Israelis are just like their chest pounding neocon allies in the US who have done everything al-Qaeda wanted them to do since 911.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. And what other options are possible for them under the circumstances?
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled by the senseless Israeli restrictions on Gaza imports via sea or Israeli-controlled access points when there are some fifteen hundred tunnels connecting Egypt and Gaza at the Rafah end. Coriander and jam can't get past the Israelis but prescription medicines, appliances and even livestock flow in through the tunnels. The tunnels are taxed by Hamas which is how they support whatever passes for infrastructure and security in Gaza.
I'm reminded of a bizarre report I heard five years ago explaining how stolen cars in Gaza were issued separate tags to identify them from legitimate cars. Really crazy.
As Israel withdraws from Gaza she leaves behind a curious trace of the past, special car tags that indicate "stolen cars"!
Apparently car thieves in Israel were able to fence their stolen cars in Gaza during the 1990's when the Palastinian Authority took control. The owners had been reimbursed by insurance, so the cars were in service, but identified by special plates.
Now with matters being shifted, the companies are bringing lawsuits to recover their money. The decision has been made by the authorities to charge higher fees for the stolen cars in order to recover the loss.
There will be no war. This is an act of war, but the US will give Turkey 10 billion of our money or the US will tell the Turks behind closed doors of course if they attack Israel we will attack them. The Jews will call Obama and tell him what to do. Even if Turkey wouldn't listen they would call a country to persuade Turkey. This is mruder, so why not have the people tried for this? But if the Turks go in with warships and Israel fires on the boats and they don't act in kind I will be pissed.
ReplyDeleteTurkey should call Egypt and say remember when they executed your airmen and shot the planes on the runway. The Jews could handle the Arabs, but not the Truks and the Arabs. Maybe Russia will say fuck it and send nukes. So much wishful thinking. I would say every country in the world is cursing this bastard country. EVen many of our politicians are probably hoping someone nukes them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree it might increase pressure on the US to "do something," it rather clearly wouldn't be an Article 5 situation. Aside from the murkiness of naval blockades and international law, I'm pretty sure that the waters near Gaza aren't "in Europe or North America."
ReplyDeleteAh: I see you have a snippet from Article 6 in there. But the full text of that seems to clearly indicate that it's talking about operation in and around colonial territories held by the power in question. That wouldn't seem operative here.
ReplyDeleteFull Article 6:
ReplyDelete"For the purpose of Article 5, an armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack:
A) 1), on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, on the Algerian Departments of France (2), on the territory of or on the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer;
B) on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories or any other area in Europe in which occupation forces of any of the Parties were stationed on the date when the Treaty entered into force or the Mediterranean Sea or the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer."
"or" not "and", James.
Regards, Steve
If they push Israel into a corner, they will unleash everything they have at the Arab world, as one of their Ministers said recently, "If we go down we will take the world with us," and they will. They also said that they could hit European cities with their nukes. Are you aware of "Cobalt 60" and its potential? Plus other options that the Israeli's have that we are unaware of. The sum total of it all is if Israel goes down that road, we are all going down with them. Is it worth it for Gaza? Then again man has went to war for far less.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI'm still reading Article 6 is simply extending Article 5 to colonial territories of the signatories and the coastal waters thereof. I agree that it's politically problematic regardless if Turkey invokes.
Dear Mr Putin:
ReplyDeletePlease nuke the bastards. Pullease!!! Every single Israeli should be strung up by his or her fingernails and hung and the survivors nuked to a grey dust that resembles the dust of the buildings and people they pulverized in America.
Thanks.