Hitchens is an interesting man indeed, and his views of Israel and Judaism, which I often disagree with, are provocative and original without being anti-Israeli or anti-semitic. For example, he (quite rightly) has nothing but contempt for the likes of Kahane and warns of what will happen if he gains ground, without falling into the "evil Israeli colonialist" spiel or the idealization of the poor, innocent Palestinian victims.
But the problem with Hitchens is that he is one of those people who, as insightful as he is sometimes, is "often wrong, never in doubt": e.g., in his latest book "God is not great", he made the well-known blunders of saying Rabbis perform circumcisions and that Orthodox Jews have sex through a hole in a sheet.
I'm really late to the thread, so I apologize if anyone's posted these links (a focused Google search didn't turn anything up) or otherwise brought up the information contained within...
"When they first came down on the top deck the passengers formed a human shield. Without any warning, the soldiers were shooting as they came down on the ropes.
The passengers weren’t warned at all. I was on the bridge and I saw them very clearly firing gunshots. They came down also throwing gas bombs.
Only after the soldiers started attacking the passengers did they take away the soldiers guns. The passengers on the boat in no way attacked the soldiers."
The IDF has named five passengers on the Mavi Marmara who are affiliated with terror organizations.
Fatimah Mahmadi (born 1979), is a United States resident of Iranian origin, and an active member of the organization “Viva Palestine”, she attempted to smuggle forbidden electronic components into the Gaza Strip.
Ken O’Keefe (Born 1969), an American and British citizen, is a radical anti-Israel activist and operative of the Hamas Terror organization. He attempted to enter the Gaza Strip in order to form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization.
Hassan Iynasi (born 1982), a Turkish citizen and activist in a Turkish charity organization, is known of providing financial support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Terror organization.
Hussein Urosh, a Turkish citizen and activist in the IHH organization, was on his way to the Gaza Strip in order to assist in smuggling Al-Qaeda operatives via Turkey into the Strip.
Ahmad Umimon (born 1959), is a French citizen of Moroccan origin, and an operative of the Hamas Terrorist organization.
The integrity of the IDF is very important to Israel (unlike your sources who don't care about integrity since they faiil to mention a word about the violent mob on the ship and make up massacre scenarios on 'peace' activists who were so 'civil') so you can be sure that publishing this
has been determined after checking the facts.
Your sources are funny. You quote people on the Marmara who tell lies that are so easy to refute. It's rediculous. Try a little bit harder from now on.
In this conflict, we have almost Orwellian headlines such as soldier stabbed by peace activists.
Remember this gem of a headline back in 2008:
"Rocket Attacks Threaten Mideast Truce" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370701,00.html
Even a conservative news outlet sees Israel as the only possible party in the conflict that could break a truce.
Northern Cyprus, under the illegal occupation of Turkey, may be getting some aid from Israeli activists. It could be known as the flotilla war. Of course, this is just a stunt may not get enough resources for follow through but it is amusing.
The IDF has named five passengers on the Mavi Marmara who are affiliated with terror organizations.
Fatimah Mahmadi (born 1979), is a United States resident of Iranian origin, and an active member of the organization “Viva Palestine”, she attempted to smuggle forbidden electronic components into the Gaza Strip.
Mohammadi said people aboard her ship saw Israeli military ships about 11 p.m. While they were prepared for some interruption, no one expected soldiers to violently board their flotilla, she said.
"They did not try to tell us anything. They didn't try to negotiate with us. There was no standoff," she said of the moment when soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara.
Northern Cyprus, under the illegal occupation of Turkey, may be getting some aid from Israeli activists. It could be known as the flotilla war. Of course, this is just a stunt may not get enough resources for follow through but it is amusing.
"What we went through was a microcosm, a few days worth. But I would have happily stayed in detention for weeks and weeks and weeks if it would wake up just a few more people in the world community."
I would gladly put her there for "weeks and weeks and weeks".
Better yet, I would put her in Gaza for a long time. Let her see how they treat women there.
Northern Cyprus, under the illegal occupation of Turkey, may be getting some aid from Israeli activists. It could be known as the flotilla war. Of course, this is just a stunt may not get enough resources for follow through but it is amusing.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters believe pro-Palestinian activists on the Gaza-bound aid ships raided by Israeli forces are to blame for the deaths that resulted in the high-profile incident.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% of voters think the Israelis are to blame. Thirty-two percent (32%) more are not sure.
In the video I posted earlier, which I will link to you again, you can clearly see S'13 Commandos rappelling down onto the deck of the MM. They are not firing any kind of weapons, nor are they throwing any kind of projectiles.
I assume he means the that passengers didn't attack the commandos as portrayed by Israeli selective documentation i.e. without initial, violent provocation.
Were is the shooting in this video? OR any other video. You have Commandos rappelling down into a hostile mob, yet, despite the claims of the ship's captain, they are not firing their weapons, nor are the activists acting in a way that would denote live ammunition being used, unless they are completely unfazed by gunfire.
Where is the video evidence that the Israelis shot anybody at all during this attack?
Where is the rest of the mountain of video evidence?
Why do you refer to the passengers with the derogatory word “mob”?
Where's the sound track? What happened before and after this carefully selected segment of action?
Personally, I think the whole "self-defence" yarn is an Israeli red herring as it is very obvious who the aggressors were: Those attacking a boatload of unarmed protestors, in international waters, under cover of darkness, with trained assassins.
That is what almost the entire world is so outraged about but this outrage doesn't seem to have registered with many of the "skeptics" posting on this thread.
Do you ever ask yourself why the Israelis have withheld virtually all footage of the attacks? Israel has already admitted selectively editing and manipulating its released "evidence". Doesn't that make you even a little cautious about accepting their accounts at face value? Why not follow your own advice and “wait for more information to come out” though, admittedly, that may be a very long wait?
Why is Israel so keen to prevent an independent, international inquiry if it has nothing to hide? This incident occurred, after all, in International Waters, in territory outside Israeli jurisdiction.
Jihad Jane has just made up his or her own version of what happened so evidence is meaningless. If they are Jews, then they brutally murdered people for sport.
The integrity of the IDF is very important to Israel (unlike your sources who don't care about integrity since they faiil to mention a word about the violent mob on the ship and make up massacre scenarios on 'peace' activists who were so 'civil') so you can be sure that publishing this
has been determined after checking the facts.
Your sources are funny. You quote people on the Marmara who tell lies that are so easy to refute. It's rediculous. Try a little bit harder from now on.
Your need to assert "integrity of the IDF" (ha ha!) suggests that you are aware that your "evidence" is simply an unsubstantiated list of assertions, courtesy of the IDF. Even this flimsy list contains only two alleged “terrorists”, i.e. members of the democratically elected government of Gaza.
As to your complaint about some sources failing "to mention a word about the violent mob on the ship", there are those who aren't distracted by Israel's "self-defense" smokescreen but are focussing on the great crime that Israel has committed.
Are you complaining that there is no documentation of the violent “mob” of Israelis beating up and brutalizing passengers on the Mavi Marmara and on other boats or of shooting people in the head and elsewhere?
Here we've got an ally, it's called Turkey, we sell them their most sophisticated weapons, we allied with them on a lot of things - including not demanding an international Armenian Holocaust Day
In 2007, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"
Released Irish activist hails the integrity of the IDF:
"We had been taken, at gun point, in a metal box to Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv. I was insisting on staying so I refused to sign any documentation that would be used to deport me. The Isreali Defence Forces baton charged us. They brutalised us in full view of CCTV cameras.
"I saw Ken through a curtain of his blood just before he was taken away from us. I was then asked to sign more papers and when I refused I was set on by 15/20 members of Israeli security forces. They tried to break my fingers, knelt on my back and punched me to the head. I never once consented to be deported.”
An article by Ken O’Keefe, a former US Marine and Gulf War veteran and “a huge supporter of non-violence”, who was “directly involved in the disarming of two Israeli Commandos”.
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