PIRATES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN: Part II
By Guest Post • Jul 1st, 2009 at 10:27 • Category: Counter-terrorism, No thanks!, Grassroots Activism, Ideas and Projects, Israel, Newswire, Opinions and Letters, Palestine, Resistance, War, Zionism
WRITTEN BY YVONNE RIDLEY
THE arrogance of Israel is nothing short of breath-taking. On the eve of one of the most damning reports ever to be published on human rights abuses and suspected war crimes, Israel committed an act of piracy. While western naval fleets are patrolling the waters off the coast of Africa, acts of piracy are being carried out routinely in the Mediterranean.
But the international community leaders couldN't care less because most of those who are kidnapped, shot at and hijacked at sea are Palestinian fishermen from Gaza.
However yesterday Israel crossed a line after firing on and boarding a boat carrying aid and peace activists to Gaza.
The 21 on board included former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, who were taken prisoner by the Israeli navy after gunboats surrounded and seized the Free Gaza Movement relief boat 'Spirit of Humanity' on Monday.
The aid was seized, their mobile phones confiscated and no doubt cameras capturing the illegal actions of the Israelis were also removed.
"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission
to the Gaza Strip," said Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's 2008 candidate for President of the United States.
"President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."
In the past the Israeli Navy has claimed that boats have entered their territorial waters and breached their part of the sea in the eastern Med.
However, thousands across the world who followed the progress of the Free Gaza Movement boat Spirit of Humanity by internet, GPS, Twitter and various other means of communications over the last 30 hours know for sure that the boat was illegally stopped in international waters.
This is piracy. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It's anyone's guess what will happen to the Humanity's cargo of medical supplies, cement, olive trees, and children's toys.
But what we need from Barak Obama and Gordon Brown (there are at least half a dozen Brits on that boat) is strong leadership in which Israel apologises and allows the boat and its passengers to continue the journey into Gaza.
The G8 leaders all know what the Israeli Army did in Gaza and the war crimes that were carried out making it impossible for the Zionist military to travel into most European countries for fear of being arrested.
And in the next 24 hours Amnesty International will spell out exactly what was done on the ground during that 22-day war.
We know that the fourth largest military in the world, a military given weapons by Britain and the US, destroyed 50,000 homes, 800 industrial properties and 200 schools.
During a recent trip to Gaza with the Viva Palestina convoy, I saw the scores of mosques bombed – even orphanages had been targeted. The net result was the slaughter of more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children.
How long is Israel going to be allowed to behave as it wants … and even likes?
I saw, with disbelief, some of the taunting, sadistic messages scrawled on lounge walls in bombed out homes by departing Israeli soldiers – one even left his email for "any complaints".
I remember when Tony Blair, called the Taliban the most evil, brutal regime in the world and he justified this statement because he said they didn't even allow children to fly kites.
He wondered at the mentality of a regime which could be so cruel to children.
That was way back in November 2001. Well I wonder what he would think of a regime which blocks cherries, kiwi fruit and chocolate from reaching the hands of the children in Gaza? Yes, that's how evil this Zionist regime is … it can't even bear the thought of these poor kids receiving a few tasty treats.
Every week, about 10 officers from the Israel Defence Force's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit meet to decide what sort of food the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip can eat.
Let' name and shame the men this gruesome threesome – Colonel Moshe Levi, Colonel Alex Rosenzweig, and Colonel Doron Segal. All three decided a few days back that apricots, plums, grapes, avocados, cherries, kiwi fruit, green almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were "delicacies" and therefore expressly prohibited.
I will return to these three shameful soldiers at a later date, but let's return to today's events which has, in my view, reconfirmed Israel as a rogue state by launching into international piracy yet again.
You will notice the top of this story is called Pirates of the Mediterranean II – that's because I wrote an article in December revealing how another free Gaza Movement boat, the SS Dignity, was rammed by an Israeli naval gunboat.
The act of aggression on a peace mission was launched in international waters 90 miles off Gaza, without any warning to the captain of the Dignity or the crew. Israel claimed the incident was an accident and that its naval officers had made numerous attempts to communicate with the Dignity. The Israelis "accidentally" rammed the boat no less than three times.
The Israelis accused the international activists then of "seeking provocation more than ever." Isn't it amazing how the Zionist State suddenly goes belly up and adopts a victim mentality?
Exactly what the hell is Israel up to by banning or trying to prevent boats from entering waters not in its territory? This is the Mediterranean. Just when did Israel assume complete authority of the Med?
Israel's deplorable attack yesterday, and its previous one on the unarmed Dignity is a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states, "the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."
Delivering aid to the needy is just such a "peaceful purpose." Deliberately ramming or hijacking mercy ships and endangering its passengers is an act of terrorism and piracy.
I say Western fleets should now head to the Mediterranean to crack down on this breed of pirates who make the Somali gangs look like Captain Pugwash and co.
The Somali pirates are motivated by money – that makes them criminals. The Israelis commit these acts out of sadistic pleasure … what does that make them?
And if they are allowed to continue, what will that make the likes of Obama, Brown and the other cabal of foreign leaders who look the other way?
Enough is enough. The time has come to acknowledge that Israel is a failed project, a rogue state – and a danger to ordinary, decent, law-abiding members of the public.
Until it comes to heel the international community needs to impose sanctions, freeze its assets, stop selling arms and installing a UN peacekeeping Force to bring it under control because it is a menace to its neighbours and the wider world.
For more information and updates, see the Free Gaza Movement web site
(http://www.freegaza.org), including the latest release on the seizure
of the relief boat
For communications and updates from Cynthia McKinney, visit her Green
Party page (http://www.gp.org/cynthia/index.php) and blog
* Journalist Yvonne Ridley and film-maker Aki Nawaz sailed to Gaza with the FGM on the first mission to break the siege in August 2008. Ridley was given a media award at the annual Muslim News awards. Her website is www.yvonneridley.org
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By Alan Sabrosky* [Spirit of Humanity (photo http://www.freegaza.org)]
Source: http://www.intifada-palestine.com
Israel's boarding and capture in international waters of The Spirit
of Humanity, an unarmed boat carrying relief supplies to the suffering
people of Gaza, shows that state-sponsored piracy is a real peril today.
It is just one more breach of international law added to the global
"rap sheet" of a rogue state that, as Netanyahu remarked a few
weeks ago, is not like other countries. But Israel's capture of this
boat was also Netanyahu's test of Obama's resolve – a test
Obama failed, to his shame and discredit.
The Past as Prologue
It isn't the first time Israel has done something like this.
Virtually everyone who manages to get into Gaza is appalled by the
destruction and suffering there. Most of the destruction occurred during
Israel's savage onslaught against Gaza six months ago, accompanied
by applause from the US Congress and the Bush Administration, and
silence from President-elect Obama. Most of the suffering, before and
since that attack, occurred because of the blockade Israel has imposed
on Gaza, reducing the flow of basic necessities to a bare minimum and
post-attack recovery aid to a meaningless trickle.
A key part of this policy of strangulation has been Israel's naval
blockade of Gaza's coast and its interception, removal or capture of
several small boats attempting to bring humanitarian assistance to the
population of Gaza. Tuesday's totally illegal seizure of The Spirit
of Humanity was relatively restrained – they merely intercepted and
surrounded the boat in international waters at night, electronically
disrupted its onboard navigational devices, then boarded and captured
the ship and crew, including several Americans. In the past, they've
rammed and nearly sunk relief boats (December 2008) or beaten the crew
after boarding it (February 2009). Israel always denies wrongdoing and
claims it was intercepting war material – the olive trees carried on
The Spirit of Humanity doubtless being camouflaged missiles.
The Present as Portent
Israel's blockade of the Gaza coast is a violation of international
law, of course, as is boarding a peaceful ship in international waters
under threat of armed attack, and Israel's treatment of Gaza
overall. There is no ambiguity whatsoever in these matters, which is why
Israel never cooperates with any international effort to investigate
them – even when a UN commission is headed by a Jewish jurist (from
South Africa) with impeccable credentials. Israel, like all the truly
guilty throughout history, dares not let its actions be exposed
officially. But owning most of the US Congress and a major part of the
mainstream media apparently means, to them, never having to say
you're sorry.
This incident, however, had the potential to be different. It is not
just that piracy in any form is commonly viewed as a plague. It is that
few principles are so embedded in US tradition as that of the freedom of
the seas, and with it the inviolability of US citizens. Some of the
earliest victories two centuries ago by the fledgling American Republic
were over the Barbary pirates of North Africa, and the US has joined in
combating piracy recently off Somalia. Moreover, Obama himself has been
something of a cipher to Israel – not so much because of what he has
done (they haven't lost a penny or a bullet in US aid under him),
but because of uncertainty concerning his character and his intentions.
A test of the new president was clearly in order.
And this was that test. The US knew The Spirit of Humanity was en route
to Gaza and that Americans were aboard. The US also knew that Israeli
gunboats were en route to intercept the relief ship, and that the
interception would occur in international waters. The US understood that
the Israelis would not simply send their gunboats out and then recall
them, absent outside pressure. And once those gunboats surrounded and
began assailing the relief ship, the only question was whether they
would ram and perhaps sink it, or board and capture it and the people
aboard, unless the US intervened.
If Obama seriously meant to change the US role in the region and the
dynamics of the conflict, this was the time and place to take a stand. A
single call to Netanyahu might have caused the Israelis to abort the
attack. A single US destroyer or frigate from the 6th Fleet, with orders
to enforce international law and protect The Spirit of Humanity in
international waters, thereby safeguarding US citizens, absolutely would
have done it. An open encounter with a US warship would inevitably have
unpleasant consequences for the Israelis, costing them several gunboats
and opening a can of political worms they dare not allow the American
public to see — and it is a great pity that did not happen.
But it didn't. Obama kept quiet, as he did during the Gaza onslaught
– perhaps he is writing a book called Profiles in Silence? – the
US 6th Fleet did nothing, and the world has the joy of yet another
successful Israeli act of piracy and breach of international law.
Netanyahu and Lieberman must be laughing. Their prisoners, including
American citizens abandoned yet again by their government, are not. And
neither are the oppressed Palestinians.
A Future?
The suffering in Gaza needs to end, but the rest of the world needs to
realize that they can expect little or no tangible help from the US, at
least for the present. Obama may have good intentions, and his words are
good, but his policies increasingly give them the lie. Perhaps
Israel's crimes are too complex for him to grasp. More likely, he is
politically incapable of holding it to account. If any other country did
what Israel has done here and in Gaza, Obama would likely treat it as an
act of war, or at least do to it what NATO did to Yugoslavia in the
1990s. But not Israel, not now, and certainly not by Israel's
sitting president pro tempore in the White House.
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*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
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