Freedom Flotilla and the BBC’s Shame

The BBC proves its despicable subservience to the Israeli propaganda machine once again. Before it was shamed by Al Jazeera and others into covering the Freedom Flotilla massacre, it reported the story as a mere Hamas claim. Here is how it first appeared on the BBC’s website:

BBC News – Israel intercepts Gaza flotilla, says Hamas

The Palestinian movement Hamas says the Israeli navy has intercepted a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip.

The massacre soon became the top news story on Google News and Twitter. The BBC could no longer pretend that it couldn’t see. It finally reported it as a matter of fact, but appended this line: “Hamas, a militant palestinian group that controls the Gaza strip, has fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past decade.”

The victims weren’t innocent, you see. They were on their way to aid these terrible people who fire ‘thousands of rockets into Israel’. That’s all you need to know.

Read more @ Pulse Media

Speach by Lowkey Outside Downing Street Today.

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCCpdyGMTZ0]

Much Respect.

Footage realeased by the IDF showing Slingshots and marbles used by passengers onboard to defend themselves.
">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAMFnu8ZBwk&feature=youtu.be]

Just received this, may be it will encourage people to donate for gaza

PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL KITS FOR CHARITY

The Fifa World Cup 2010 is upon us. Which countries' colours will
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The Muslim and Arab countries have been shamefully impotent over this and similar massacres!

It's about time they were kicked out and replaced by people who represent Muslim concerns and interests rather than being lackeys of Western powers.

The arab countries have tried war before and it did not exactly go how they envisioned...

and I assume you are ignoring turkey when you are making your condemnation... it is moving in the right direction but I doubt that would be enough to placate the HT.

Norman Finklestein- "Isreal Is A Lunatic State"

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB_CKL5h2_8&feature=player_embedded]

Turkey at the UN:

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUXxLerFsY]

http://mobile.twitter.com/iseektruth

egypt to open rafah crossing for critical cases, humanitarian aid and medicines. Period not mentioned though.

Rachel Corrie to reach Gazan waters tomorow

Who/what is Rachel Corrie and why is it important/why should I care?

//The arab countries have tried war before and it did not exactly go how they envisioned...//

All the wars went according to how they were envisioned - it's just that what we were told and what the governments envisioned differed. It also helps to fight a war longer than a few hours or days when your enemy's economy grinds to a halt as all hands are needed for fighting. And not letting your enemy know about it in advance - read the details of the wars and you will find that most were little more than charades to placate the angry Muslim populations by pro-Western rulers.

Some examples:

In 1948 Egypt weakened the attack against Israel when Nakrashi Pasha, the Prime Minister, initially did not use existing military units but sent an army of volunteers that had only been organised in January of that year. Jordan also delayed the passage of Iraqi troops across its territory thus thwarting any attack on Israel. This is why a blind Imam brought to rouse the Jordanian army prior to the battle embarrassed Abdullah when he said: “O army I wish you were ours” (referring to the Arab Legion being British)

In 1967 the Syrian troops occupying the Golan Heights heard news of Israel’s capture of the heights through their own State radio despite the Syrian troops clearly occupying them. Indicative of collussion with the Israelis and the preplanned outcome.

In 1973 Anwar Sadat had no intention of having a protracted war of liberation with Israel. This is why he sought peace with Israel whilst commanding a winning position in the war. In the first 24 hours of the war Egypt smashed through Israel’s much heralded Bar-Lev fortifications east of the Suez Canal with only 68 casualties. Meanwhile 2 Syrian divisions and 500 tanks swept into the Golan Heights and retook some of the land captured in 1967. In two days of fighting Israel had lost 49 aircraft and 500 tanks. In the midst of this Sadat sent a message to US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in
which he said that the objective of the war was ‘the achievement of peace in the Middle East and not partial settlements.’ The message went on to state that if Israel withdrew from all occupied territories Egypt would be prepared to participate in a Peace conference under UN or neutral auspices.

Rachel corrie is a covoy ship makng it's secOnd trip to gaza. Carrying aid,. It's an Irish shipp

@anonymous1 - even while Egypt was in a "winning position" as you say, it was still fighting in the sinai peninsula which is currently a part of Egypt. Yes egypt smashed through the first defenses, but its onslaught had been contained by the time of the ceasefire - it was no longer advancing and had there been n o ceasefire or eventual peace, Israel would currently still be occupying large parts of the sinai peninsula.

As for the Golan, if you think there would have been collusion, you seriously are nutty!

Besides, the only way of beating someone in war is not to push them back. You can encircle, cut off supply lines etc and create situations where the opponents would be routed if they fight. In such situations continuing to fight ould be harmful and the story about Khalid Ibn Walid shows how there are times when you must withdraw. That would have left the forces on the Golan unsupported where continuing to fight would result in decimation and a bloodbath. If that is what happened - I do question your grasp on history and your understanding of war.

More it is only a couple of years ago tht the Isreli airforce showed their superiority over syria when they were able to go in and destroy the secret military installation without issue.

PS create n account if you want. It could be more convenient to reply that way.

PPS I do like people with different views amd think it would be better if there were even more. It is not just you I disagree with. I disagree with everyone. (That should be my signature)

You wrote:

As for the Golan, if you think there would have been collusion, you seriously are nutty!

A number of scholars think there were more things going on than met the eye, for example:

The Six-Day War was a conspiracy designed to precipitate an armed conflict in the Middle East and to improve the domestic position of both Brezhnev and Grechko. (Ref: Avraham Ben-Zur, Gormim Sovietim ve Milkhemet Sheshet Hayamim [trans. from Hebrew: Soviet Elements and the Six-Day War] (Tel-Aviv, 1975), pp. 174-215; Pedro Ramet, The Soviet-Syrian Relationship since 1955: a Troubled Alliance (Boulder, 1990), pp. 43-44; Richard Parker (ed.), The Six-Day War, pp. 46-48.)

Soviet leaders sought a limited Arab-Israeli war and had no desire to bring about the destruction of Israel. They saw no major risk in a limited armed conflict between Israel and Arab countries, and thought that “…it would be useful to shake up their Arab clients a bit….” (Ref: Alexei Vassiliev, Russian Policy in the Middle East: form Messianism to Pragmatism (Reading, 1993), pp. 65-66)

what you are assuming there is that people would willingly and freely be pawns for others.

Its a conspiracy that I do not buy into. People act of their own needs and desires.

It does not matter if foriegn powers wanted a conflict or not or how long they wanted it to be - the people on the ground had to want it too and want to play their part.

More, you presume that the world can be controlled to an extent that well... you remove the element of chaos.

Sounds good on paper, but it does not work in the real world.

Israel should lead investigation into attack on Gaza flotilla, says US

Turkey's demands for international inquiry blocked at meeting of United Nations security council

The United States has blocked demands at the UN security council for an international inquiry into Israel's assault on the Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza that left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.

A compromise statement instead calls for an impartial investigation which Washington indicated could be carried out by Israel.

Read more @ The Guardian

You seem to have dropped the "nutty" rhetoric one I cited a few scholars... again it indicates you don't really read around the topics you comment on...

Rather than passing it off as sounding good on paper, you need to refute their opinions - you've not even bothered to engage with their works or opinions before rejecting them off hand. You have preset views that you will not change even if angels were sent to you - as your reasoning process is not open to evaluate evidence - it's a case of, I'm right and I don't really care what you bring or show me!

I still tbink the idea is nutty.

And being a scholar does not mean they know about military matters.

I really think the idea that the Arabs willingly lost is pure craziness.

You have to remember that this was a time where there were strong calls for unity and the side that got a breakthrough would have a strong claim to be made the caliph of the entire arab world...

You can believe what you choose - that is your prerogative.

The 50s and 60s was the height of Arab nationalism and they had no intention of returning to the Caliphate. Socialist thought dominated as seen by the success of Baath parties etc

The problem with Israel is that none of the Muslim leaders have the political will to destroy it - they can only think in terms of current paradigms the dominant powers have set so during the cold war, would ally with either US or Soviets, and now can only think of working with the US.

Leadership is needed that creates its own vision for the world and works to establish it, undermining the political structures set up by others to establish their visions.

Few if any Muslim leaders think like this and few political parties think like this - but this is what is necessary to break the core/periphery dominance of our societies and let us be free from neocolonialism and alien entities amongst our midst!

I guess you have not heard of teh United Arab Republic and attempts at getting that off the ground? It even started with the merger of Egypt and Syria with Iraw planning to join but there was a coup in Syria before that was approved.

Yes there was a lot of arab nationalism then - as in arab nationalism. As in all the arabs in one nation.

this chap i snormally OTT but this one makes a bit mnore sense, well most of it:

Twelve Reasons for the International Community to Bomb Israel

"Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks" – (Robert Fisk)

Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction; Iran or any of the other peaceful countries in the region does not have any nuclear weapons, except Israel.
Israel refuses to become a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and denies international inspection of its nuclear weapons; the recent declassified documents shows Israel offered nuclear weapons to the old apartheid regime of South Africa. One can see Israel’s natural affinity towards another racist regime; it is a clear threat to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Iran has not attacked any of its neighbours, whereas Israel has constantly attacked its neighbour, and repeatedly in some cases, killing thousands of innocent civilians. It has now sent two of its submarine equipped with nuclear weapons to the coast of Iran. In the words of Norman Finkelstein, Israel is a lunatic state, armed with nuclear weapons, constitutes a real threat to the peace and security in the region.
Israel has been violating UN resolutions almost from its illegitimate birth in 1948, and it continues to steal lands by building illegal settlement in the West Bank. Israel is a bastard child that fails to see the legitimate fathers of the land; they are the Palestinians.
Israel operates like the criminal mafia organisation, resorts to cowardly assassination; recently it murdered the Hamas commander in Dubai, and earlier Sheikh Ahmed Yasin.
The Gaza slaughter in 2009 has been certified as a war crime by the UN Judge, Richard Goldstein, where Israel broke the norms of warfare and used chemical weapons on the civilian population, attacked ambulances carrying the dead and injured. They killed 1500 Palestinians, bulk of them innocent women and children.
Israel’s disregard for the UN goes beyond ignoring UN resolutions; it attacked the UN compound during the carnage in Gaza. It also attacked and killed Journalists.
Israel has an official policy of ethnic cleansing; accordingly, it systematically targets Palestinian women and children. This is partly because the Palestinian population is growing at a much faster rate, and the Israelis cannot compete on demographic front, perhaps the Zionist seeds are weak; this is compounded by a religion that emphasises on racial exclusivity.
Israel is not the democracy of the Middle East, but symbolises tyranny and oppression that has no place in the civilised world. It regularly demolishes Palestinian homes and continues to prevent the building of basic facilities; thus, deprive them of the most basic human rights. Far from being a democracy, Israel displays all the traits of a Fascist state that has no regard for anyone else.
Israel is a racist state that practices hate and intolerance of non-Jews. The policy of the right to return means, any Jew can come and occupy the Arab land, whereas the Palestinians displaced in 1948 cannot return, which is a clear violation of international law.
Israel is responsible for creating the largest concentration camp of Gaza by the illegal blockade placed over it for the last three years, which the Amnesty International has called a flagrant violation of international law. It defies belief that these were the people put in concentration camp by the Nazis only 60 years ago, yet they find it so easy to treat other human beings in a similar way.
Now, Israel has shamefully attacked a peace convoy in international water, killing innocent peace activists carrying aid for the desperate people of Gaza. Subsequently, Israeli authority imprisoned the activists, which is akin to holding them as hostages.
Why was there a need to conduct the raid in the middle of the night using live ammunition, instead of rubber bullets? Those boats would have come to the ports, and the Israelis could have easily inspected the boats for weapons. In any case, the boats had already passed through several European ports and cleared by customs. Maybe Israel has become accustomed to attacking the weak and defenceless, but it is the shame in seeing that many people around the world coming to break the criminal siege of Gaza that prompted the shameless Israelis to react in a shameful way.
If this were Iran or any other Muslim nation, condemnation would have been swift; the US would have been preparing to send bombing raids, the politicians and the media would have made the usual howling noise about terrorism and militancy, demonising the entire civilisation of Islam. The initial reaction from the US shows great caution, rather than a single word of condemnation for the murderous acts of Israel.
So, where is the will of the international community now? The arrogant US always talks as the ‘international community’ when it speaks to Iran. However, the real international community has spoken today in response to Israeli terrorism and piracy, as they did over the Gaza carnage. Will the UN Security Council reflect the voice of the real international community now? Unlikely, because the US will most likely use its veto power to protect the tiny pariah nation, and ignore the voice of the majority nations, in line with its democratic credential!
A military response of Israel needs to be met with a military response, and it would be within Turkey’s right to bomb Tel-Aviv. At the very least, Turkey should demand compensation, UN sanctions, and the extradition of the Israeli soldiers responsible for the crimes committed in the international waters.
Peace cannot take place without justice; Israel is an obvious obstacle to peace. It is time for the real international community to demand the current international trend of bombing a nation, to bring about a regime change. Israel has committed war crimes, state terrorism, piracy, theft of land, murder of innocent civilians, assassination, ethnic cleansing. Why should it be any different for Israel? Bringing Israel to account would be the first step to bring about real justice, which would allow real peace to prevail in the region.
Yamin Zakaria (
yamin@radicalviews.org)
London, UK
Published 1/06/2010

What would that achieve?

"Yes, let's bomb them" is coming from anger but doing that would not be helping the palestinians - actions require a purpose.

what would u like to see happen to israel?

"What happens to Israel" is not the important part of the equation. The important part is what happens to the Gazans.

if any act does not help the Gazans, it is likely futile and calls for it are just manifestations of anger.

Firstly I would say that from an Islamic perspective, Palestine is Muslim land conquered by the Companions of the Prophet(Saw).

As such, the problem is not one of the Gazans as nationalists would like us to believe, but a Muslim problem as they are our brothers and sisters in Islam.

Islam a clear solution for when your land, wealth or property are forcibly taken from you through bloodshed and violence - you can forcibly take them back through jihad.

The problem is that like the time of Salahadin, Muslims thought they knew better, and instead of capitulating to one ruler, they set up multiple kingdoms which allowed the crusaders to occuppy Palestine. The solution was through Muslims achieving sufficient unity for the militaries to take on the crusaders and restore peace and tranquility to the region and for all living there. Over a millenium of Muslim rule in Palestine has not seen such violence, bloodshed and hatred that several decades of British and Zionist rule has seen. The solution in my opinion is for the Muslim world to unite and remove the tyrannical system and regime in Israel and replace it with Islamic rule.

Everything else being tried will lead to no solution but a worsening of the situation - how can peace be achieved when the US / Israel are playing demographic politics, with two state solutions designed to fragment Muslims and allow a majority in Israel to ensure they cling to power in elections?
Have we not seen such divide and rule tactics the British used in India, Nigeria and Sudan?
Or the Dutch in Indonesia?
Or the French in Syria/Lebanon?
Do they really believe we are so dense that we will fall for the same tactics again that our trusting forefathers fell for?

History repeats itself quite often...

If there was unity of the states, that can be a very good thing, but at the same time actual government would still need to be decentralised and local to be effective and not abuse one region for the benefit of another.

This does not require an empire to do the bidding of everyone, but can be done a'la a union of states to present a united face when needed, but be more local when that is needed.