Members of the UN Security Council have condemned Israel ahead of an emergency session over Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of ships carrying aid to Gaza.

At least nine pro-Palestinian activists, some Turkish, were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ships in international waters.

Turkey's foreign minister called Israel's actions "murder by a state".

Israel's UN envoy said troops acted in self defence when activists attacked them, charges the campaigners deny.

"This flotilla was anything but a humanitarian mission," Israel's deputy UN ambassador Daniel Carmon said.

He said the activists had used "knives, clubs and other weapons" to attack the soldiers who boarded the lead boat, the Mavi Marmara.

The campaigners insist the soldiers opened fire without any provocation.

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Like the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, and other such misdemeanour, such as the Gaza incursion and the Lebanon war, this event is part of an indefensible belief that Israel can do what it likes and get away with it under the banner that criticism of what it does is anti-Semitism. Israel has no right to enforce a blockade of Gaza, nor does Egypt, nor does the US who also sponsor the blockade...

The Obama administration officially supports the Gaza blockade, as the Bush administration did before it. But Mr. Obama, some aides say, has expressed strong frustration privately with the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

At a time when the United States is increasingly linking its own national security interests in the region to the inability of Israelis and Palestinians to make peace, heightened tensions over Monday’s killings could deepen the divide between the Israeli government and the Obama administration just as Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu were trying to overcome recent differences.

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Hamas was elected to run Gaza and the West Bank

Raffe Gold (Letters, May 31) castigates Paul McGeough for his omissions, but omits important details of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and seriously distorts history. Hamas was not involved in a bloody takeover of the Gaza strip. It was democratically elected, in the most independently scrutinised election in the Middle East, to govern both in Gaza and in the West Bank.

The immediate Israeli reaction, enthusiastically supported and enforced by the Bush administration, was to freeze Palestinian funds, impose sanctions, introduce a blockade of Gaza and refuse any contact with the Hamas government. They have since imprisoned elected West Bank members of Hamas.

The Israeli government, again in concert with the US, armed and financed the opposition Fatah party to try to seize power in Gaza and the West Bank, and it was in the course of this that the bloody conflict between Hamas and Fatah took place in Gaza.

The Israelis and the US backed the wrong side, and Fatah was hammered by the Hamas militia. This left the only leader from Fatah, the President, Mahmoud Abbas, discredited in the eyes of the Palestinians everywhere and of no further use to Israel. His position has since declined even further because of his failure to achieve any change in the Israeli expansion into Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

Independent voices have been raised against the illegal blockade of Gaza, and the sabotage by Israel of the peace process and the two-state solution. This was exacerbated by the Israeli incursion last December, which cost the Gazans more than a thousand lives and untold destruction of homes and workplaces.

The Gazans did not have the luxury of infrastructure and military support to arrange a four-day dress rehearsal, like the Israeli's Turning Point 4, before this onslaught.

The flotilla does little more than show that the tide of global public opinion is turning against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

Don Brown Narrabeen

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Israeli commandos rappelled down to an aid flotilla sailing to thwart a Gaza blockade on Monday, clashing with pro-Palestinian activists on the lead ship in a botched raid that left at least nine passengers dead.

Bloodied passengers sprawled on the deck and troops dived into the sea to save themselves during several hours of hand-to-hand fighting that injured dozens of activists and six soldiers. Hundreds of activists - many of whom were apparently Turkish - were towed from the international waters to Israeli detention centers and hospitals.

International condemnation was swift and harsh as Israel scrambled to explain how what was meant to be a simple takeover of a civilian vessel went so badly awry.

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Gus: Israel action was a sheer act of piracy.

The US has no choice but to enforce Israel bend the knees and start negociations in earnest. But Israel does not want to loose "its" territory. As far as Israel is concerned Palestine is its own to own, to develop and to annex the palestinians until they vanish or assimilate in the "greater" Israel... I propose another solution: the three states division. The West Bank, Israel and Gaza with treaties and sovereignties. A new era can then begin.

Israel accused of state terrorism after assault on flotilla carrying Gaza aid

At least nine activists killed and dozens more wounded by Israeli naval commandos

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Israel was engulfed by a wave of global condemnation last night after a botched assault on a flotilla carrying aid and supplies to the Gaza Strip ended in carnage and a diplomatic crisis involving the UN security council.

At least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers. Dozens more were wounded and evacuated by helicopter to Israeli hospitals.

Israel said more than 10 of its troops were injured, two seriously, in the battle that began early yesterday morning in international waters, about 40 miles from the coast of Gaza.

The flotilla was trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been enforced for the past three years.

The UN security council met last night in emergency session and Turkey, whose relations with Israel have been severely strained since the war in Gaza in 2008-9, called for Nato to convene over the military assault. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who ordered the recall of the country's ambassador to Israel, described the operation as "state terrorism" and said Israel had violated international law. "We are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism," he said.

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Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives
It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events

Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday's killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel's rule?

Don't hold your breath.

You only have to read the gutless White House statement – that the Obama administration was "working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy". Not a single word of condemnation. And that's it. Nine dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East's toll.
But it's not.

In 1948, our politicians – the Americans and the British – staged an airlift into Berlin. A starving population (our enemies only three years before) were surrounded by a brutal army, the Russians, who had erected a fence around the city. The Berlin airlift was one of the great moments in the Cold War. Our soldiers and our airmen risked and gave their lives for these starving Germans.

Incredible, isn't it? In those days, our politicians took decisions; our leaders took decisions to save lives. Messrs Attlee and Truman knew that Berlin was important in moral and human as well as political terms.

And today? It was people – ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors – yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis – who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them.

Where were our politicians yesterday? Well, we had the ridiculous Ban Ki-moon, the White House's pathetic statement, and dear Mr Blair's expression of "deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life". Where was Mr Cameron? Where was Mr Clegg?

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and at Crikey on TV ratings (extract)...:

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The Losers: People who didn't watch Australian Story [The blue Beret] last night or the previous Monday.
...
Glenn Dyer's comments: The second part of the Australian Story on Martina Jewell, the Australian Army officer abandoned by her country (the Rudd Government should hang its head in shame, so too its predecessor) and especially the public servants in Defence and Veterans Affairs.
Until Australian Story got involved, nothing was done. The story reminded viewers why Israel has no heart whatsoever and will do anything to further its aims, as we learned overnight with the act of piracy on the Gaza relief flotilla. But more power to Australian Story for telling a difficult story very, very well. It, along with the ABC's Foreign Correspondent (tonight, 8pm), are by far the best current affairs programs on Australian TV.

"Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat" By Dennis Malone Carter.

Gus: OR GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY...

From the life of Oliver Hazard Perry...

...

He [Decatur] then sailed in Com. Dale's squadron up (he Mediterranean, as first lieutenant of the Essex. Returning with that squadron, he was ordered to the New- York, in the second Mediterranean expedition, in the squadron commanded by Com. Morris. Returning to the United States, he again sailed in command of the Argus, joined Com. Preble's squadron in the Mediterranean,and agreeably to orders, resigned command to lieutenant Hull, and took the schooLer Enterprize. He then proceeded to Syracuse, the rendezvous of the squadron, and there learnt that the frigate Philadelphia had run aground on the Barba ry coast, and was in the possession of the Tripolitans.

On Com. Preble's arrival a few days after, Decatur suggested to him a plan for recapturing or destroying the frigate. The enterprize was fraught with peril, and of such a desperate and daring nature that the commodore's consent was obtained with the greatest reluctance.

Decatur selected for the expedition the ketch Intrepid, which he had captured but a short time previous from the enemy, manning her with seventy volunteers, and sailed Feb. 3d, 1804. The brig Syren, Lieut. Stewart, accompanied him to aid in the enterprize, should it be found necessary.

After fifteen days tempestuous weather, he arrived at the mouth of the harbour at about sunset. It had been agreed that the ketch, with the Syren's boats, should enter the harbour at about 10 o'clock that nigut; but as the Syren had been driven several miles from her course by change of wind, Decatur apprehended it might be too late for the attack that night should he wait for the boats : he therefore determined to enter the harbour alone ; which he did at about 8 o'clock. The boldness of the undertaking may be conceived of from the following description.

The frigate lay directly under the Bashaw's castle, and within half gun shot of his principal batteries. Two of their cruisers were stationed on the starboard quarter, their gun boats on the larboard bow, and -all the guns of the frigate mounted and loaded.

They had but three miles to sail from the entrance of the harbour, but from the lightness of wind did not get within hail until 11 o'clock. They were then hailed and ordered to anchor, or they would be fired upon. A Maltese pilot on board was ordered to answer that they had lost their anchors, and could not. When within 50 yards of the frigate, the wind subsided entirely, and Decatur ordered his boat to make fast to the frigate's fore-chains. This being done, without any suspicion on the part of the enemy, the ketch was warped alongside, and Decatur, with midshipman Morris, (now captain,) mounted her deck. It was nearly two minutes before any of the ketch's crew appeared on deck to their assistance, the Turks standing astonished and aghast, without resistance. So soon as a sufficient number gained the deck to form a front, they commenced the assault, killing twenty on the spot, others jumped overboard, and the remainder were driven into the hold.

The enemy soon began firing from the batteries, and from the castle and two corsairs; and perceiving a number of launches rowing about the harbour, Decatur ordered the ship to be set on fire in different places, and so effectually and with such prompt- ' ness was the order executed, that it was with great difficulty the ketch could be saved. Providentially at this critical moment, a breeze took them, blowing directly out of the harbour, carrying them from the enemy's reach in few minutes, with the loss of but one killed and four wounded.

For this achievement, Decutur was promoted to the rank of post captain.

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In the ensuing spring, Com. Preble made an attack upon Tripoli, with his squadron, consisting of the Constitution, Syren, Nautilus, Vixen, six gun boats, and two bombards. The attack commenced at 9 o'clock, August 3d. The gun boats advanced in a line ahead, led on by Capt. Decatur, covered by the frigate Constitution, and the brigs and schooners. The enemy's gun boats were moored within musket shot of the batteries. Their sails had been taken from them, and they were ordered to sink rather than alter their position. They were likewise covered by a brig of 16 and a schooner of 10 guns. The enemy's boats, as also the American, had 40 men each. Decatur drew up with all possible dispatch, boarded a gun boat, and in 10 minutes cleared the di ck; three Americans only were wounded. Coming out with his prize, the boat which his brother, Lieut. James Decatur commanded, came under his stern, and informed that.he had been treacherously shot by the commander of the boat he had taken. He immediately tacked, came alongside of the Turkish boat, and with but eleven men, instantly boarded her. For 20 minutes the fate of the contest was doubtful-—seven of the Americans were wounded. Decatur singled out the commander, and broke his sword by the hilt in attempting to cut offhis espontoon. The Turk at this moment wounded him in the arm and head. They closed ; Decatur fell uppermost—the Turk drew his dagger —Decatur seized his arm, drew a pistol from his pocket and shot him. Decatur could then with difliculty extricate himself from the dead and wounded which had fallen on him during the struggle. A noble hearted tar seeing a deadly blow aimed at Decatur's head, and having lost the use of his arms by wounds, rushed between, and received the blow on his own head. His scull was fractured, but happily he survived to receive a pension from government. Decatur succeeded in reaching the squadron

with both prizes. At the conclusion of peace, he came home in the Congress—afterwards was superintendent of gun boats, and at the affair of the Chesapeake, superceded Com. Barron, and was put in command of the southern squadron. When the United States was again put in commission, he was removed to that frigate.

In the late war with Great Britain, and on the 25th Oct. 1812, he fell in with and captured the British frigate Mecedonian, Capt. J. S. Garden, mounting 49 guns—36 killed, and 68 wounded. The United States had 4 killed, and 7 wounded. The Macedonian was a prime ship, manned and equipped in the best manner, and but two years old.
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see Master and Commander ficticious novel for more barney between the Yanks and the Poms — I believe transcribed as a barney between the Yanks and the French for the movie...

 

The United States has declined to condemn Israel for its raid on a humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza, but said the incident showed Middle East peace talks were needed "more than ever."

The White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did describe the situation in Gaza as "untenable" and "unacceptable," but Washington's reaction on Tuesday to the raid did not match the explicit rebukes of Israel of some of its allies.

As diplomatic fallout multiplied, and threatened to derail a laborious bid to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, President Barack Obama also called key regional power broker, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-fails-to-condemn-israels-lethal-attack-on-aid-flotilla-20100602-wx0g.html?autostart=1

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She said on Tuesday that Washington would support an Israeli investigation of the raid but it must be "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent", as called for by the UN Security Council.

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It's up to us to lift the blockade

The people of Gaza don't need the West to send humanitarian aid. They need our leaders to take decisive action – after all, we have been complicit in this siege, writes Donald Macintyre

...

But Hamas is not just a terrorist organization. Hamas is an idea, a desperate and fanatical idea that grew out of the desolation and frustration of many Palestinians. No idea has ever been defeated by force — not by siege, not by bombardment, not by being flattened with tank treads and not by marine commandos. To defeat an idea, you have to offer a better idea, a more attractive and acceptable one.

Thus, the only way for Israel to edge out Hamas would be to quickly reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as defined by the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israel has to sign a peace agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah government in the West Bank — and by doing so, reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip. That latter conflict, in turn, can be resolved only by negotiating with Hamas or, more reasonably, by the integration of Fatah with Hamas.

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Perhaps too much of the argument about Gaza, on both sides, has used the word "humanitarian" as if the only question for the territory's 1.5m inhabitants is whether they do or not have the essentials for bare physical survival. For while there is deep and corrosive world-class poverty in many parts of Gaza, people are not dying in the streets from hunger. There are traffic jams in Gaza City; the grocery stores are relatively full, as much thanks to smuggled – and therefore expensive – goods from Egypt through the tunnels as to the hundreds of truckloads of supplies a week which are indeed admitted from Israel. Yet the real crisis developing in Gaza beneath this veneer of semi-normality is something much less visible than famine, and much more dangerous than the mystery of why Israel's opaque regime of permitted goods puts coriander but not cinnamon on its banned list. It is the gradual but systematic dismantling of a vital, historically well-educated, and in many respects self-reliant civilisation.

The Israeli Chamber Orchestra will break with tradition to play a work by Hitler's favourite composer, Richard Wagner, in Germany.

Roberto Paternostro will conduct classical piece Siegfried Idyll on Tuesday at Bayreuth's Wagner festival.

It is rare for Israeli musicians to play the anti-Semitic composer's work, which was appropriated by the Nazis.

Paternostro said that while Wagner's ideology was "terrible", the aim was "to divide the man from his art".

An unofficial ban on Wagner was introduced in 1938 by the Palestine Orchestra - now the Israel Philharmonic - after Jews were attacked by the Nazis in Germany.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14272620

 

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Israelis have been dealing with a seaborne invasion of sorts this summer.

Thousands of giant jellyfish, called warty comb jelly, have been washing up on their beaches, causing discomfort to beach-goers.

The jellyfish themselves pose no danger to humans. But all those eggs in the water can leave bathers feeling a mild sting.

As Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports from Netanya, Israel, they are causing even bigger problems for the country's biggest power station.

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/07/2011724192513693698.html

Report Finds Naval Blockade by Israel Legal but Faults Raid
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and ETHAN BRONNER

UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations review has found that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza is legal and appropriate but that the way its forces boarded a Turkish-based flotilla trying to break that blockade 15 months ago, killing nine passengers, was excessive and unreasonable.

The report, expected to be released  on Friday, also found that when Israeli commandos boarded the main ship they faced “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers” and were therefore required to use force for their own protection. But the report called the force “excessive and unreasonable,” saying the loss of life was unacceptable and the Israeli military’s later treatment of passengers was abusive.

The 105-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, was completed months ago. But its publication was delayed several times as Turkey and Israel sought to reconcile their deteriorating relationship and perhaps avoid making the report public. In reactions from both governments included in the report, as well as in interviews, each objected to conclusions. Both believe the report, which was intended to help mend relations, will instead make reconciliation harder.

Turkey is particularly upset by the conclusion that Israel’s naval blockade is in keeping with international law and that its forces have the right to stop Gaza-bound ships in international waters, which is what happened here. That conclusion oversteps the mandate of the four-member panel appointed by the United Nations secretary general and is at odds with other United Nations decisions, Turkey argued.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/world/middleeast/02flotilla.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Gus bold letters above... It appears that the UN is bending over backwards to please the zionists... Hopefully, this may be seen as a downward movement to jump better in favour of Palestinian statehood... Who knows... see toon at top.

According to international maritime law, what the Israeli did in international waters in regard to the Gaza bound flotilla was purely an act of piracy.

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During the 18th century, the British and the Dutch controlled opposite sides of the Straits of Malacca. The British and the Dutch drew a line separating the Straits into two halves. The agreement was that each party would be responsible for combating piracy in their respective half. Eventually this line became the border between Malaysia and Indonesia in the Straits.

[edit] Law of nations

Piracy is of note in international law as it is commonly held to represent the earliest invocation of the concept of universal jurisdiction. The crime of piracy is considered a breach of jus cogens, a conventional peremptory international norm that states must uphold. Those committing thefts on the high seas, inhibiting trade, and endangering maritime communication are considered by sovereign states to be hostis humani generis (enemies of humanity).[115]

For a different opinion on Pirates as Hostis Humani Generis see Caninas, Osvaldo Peçanha. Modern Maritime Piracy: History, Present Situation and Challenges to International Law. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA – ABRI JOINT INTERNATIONAL MEETING, Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro Campus (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jul 22, 2009

In the United States, criminal prosecution of piracy is authorized in the U.S. Constitution, Art. I Sec. 8 cl. 10:

The Congress shall have Power ... To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

Title 18 U.S.C. § 1651 states:

Whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and is afterwards brought into or found in the United States, shall be imprisoned for life.

Citing the United States Supreme Court decision in the year 1820 case of United States v. Smith,[116] a U.S. District Court ruled in 2010 in the case of United States v. Said that the definition of piracy under section 1651 is confined to "robbery at sea." The piracy charges (but not other serious federal charges) against the defendants in the Said case were dismissed by the Court.[117]

Since piracy often takes place outside the territorial waters of any state, the prosecution of pirates by sovereign states represents a complex legal situation. The prosecution of pirates on the high seas contravenes the conventional freedom of the high seas. However, because of universal jurisdiction, action can be taken against pirates without objection from the flag state of the pirate vessel. This represents an exception to the principle extra territorium jus dicenti impune non paretur[118] (the judgment of one who is exceeding his territorial jurisdiction may be disobeyed with impunity).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy#Law_of_nations

 

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The law is clear and simple enough for the United Nations to comprehend...

Erdogan: Turkish forces to escort aid to Gaza
Defying Israel's blockade, PM Erdogan says Turkey will send aid shipments to Gaza under the protection of naval forces.

Turkey's naval forces would escort Turkey's humanitarian aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following Israel's refusal to apologise for its deadly raid on an aid flotilla heading to the Palestinian Territories in May 2010.

"We have humanitarian aid to be sent there. And our humanitarian aid will not be attacked anymore like it happened to Mavi Marmara," he told the Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Israeli commandos boarded the ship Mavi Marmara, which aimed to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, and killed nine Turks in international waters, causing a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Erdogan also said that Turkey would closely monitor international waters and has taken steps to prevent Israel’s unilateral exploitation of natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Turkish-Israeli relations hit a low last week after a UN report on the deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship said that Israel's naval blockade of Gaza was legitimate but its raid on the flotilla trying to break the blockade was "excessive and unreasonable."

Turkey has since expelled top Israeli diplomats, cut military ties with the country, pledged to lobby other nations in support of the Palestinians' statehood bid at the UN in September and promised increased Turkish naval patrols in the Mediterranean.

Israel has expressed regret for the loss of lives aboard the flotilla, but has refused to apologise, saying its forces acted in self-defence.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/09/201198225646614806.html