Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

I see Hamas are getting smarter. First there was the call for Gaza residents to stop buying Israeli goods and to stop Gaza residents to work on illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories.

The attempted running of the Israeli blickade of Gaza was another clever move. Israeli has severly messed up the operation to stop the flotilla of boats. They are now receiving condemnation from every quarter.

Israeli government press officers have been briefing journalists that the aid flotilla is not necessary. Israel says it allows 15,000 tons of aid into Gaza every week.

But the United Nations, which calls the blockade a "medieval siege", says this is only a fraction of what is needed and less than a quarter of what was coming into Gaza before the blockade was enforced.

To make matters worse Israel performed the action in international waters. The boats would be entitled to use force to repel the Israeli commandos. The Israeli action is one of piracy on the high seas.

The blockade has been going for more than 3 years. I started when Israel decided it didn't like Hamas being the democratically elected government of Gaza.

Information now leaking out that the flotilla was organised by IHH, a Turkish radical islamic group linked with Al-Qaeda and islamic jihad, with form for weapons trafficking and arming and sponsoring suicide bombings and terror attacks in Europe and the middle east.

Independant Danish report on IHH

An extract from the Danish study:

Turkish authorities began their own domestic criminal investigation of IHH as early as December 1997, when sources revealed that leaders of IHH were purchasing automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups. IHHs bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched, and its local officers were arrested. Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items, including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a jihad flag. After analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.

According to a French intelligence report, the terrorist infiltration of IHH extended to its most senior ranks. The report, written by famed counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, revealed that IHH President Bulent Yildrim had directly conspired in the mid-1990s to recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war [jihad]. In particular, some men were sent into war zones in Muslim countries in order to acquire combat experience. Furthermore, in the hopes of obtaining political support from these countries, financial aid was transferred [on behalf of IHH], as well as caches of firearms, knives, and pre-fabricated explosives. An examination of IHHs phone records in Istanbul showed repeated telephone calls in 1996 to an Al-Qaida guesthouse in Milan and various Algerian terrorist operatives active elsewhere in Europe including the notorious Abu el-Ma`ali, who has been subsequently termed by U.S. officials as a junior Osama Bin Laden.

During the later Seattle trial of would-be Al-Qaida Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressam, federal prosecutors called French magistrate Bruguiere to the stand as an expert witness. Bruguiere testified that IHH had played [a]n important role in the Al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting LAX. Under repeated questioning, Bruguiere insisted that [t]heres a rather close relation:


If this is as true as it appears to be, the I'll join the public indignation at Israel having flouted international law by boarding the flotilla in international waters, but privately will sleep better at night knowing that yet another bunch of crazies has been stopped in its tracks before it gets a chance to bomb Israel, London, or wherever the fancy takes them. Sometimes the law trips itself up when circumstances are different to those envisaged when the law was penned. In the case of crazed islamic jihadists, sod international law - give me increased security in my own home any day of the week.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he "deplored" the loss of life on the flotilla and was seeking more information and urgent access to any UK nationals.

In a statement, he said: "There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis.

"I call on the government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy accuses Israel of a "disproportionate use of force".

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to cut short an official trip to Latin America to deal with the political fallout of the Israeli action.

Turkey says it is recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

Turkish foreign ministry warns Israel of irreparable damage to bilateral ties.

"This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas and constitutes a fragrant breach of international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations," a statement read.

Greece has withdrawn from joint military exercises with Israel in protest at the attack on the Gaza flotilla.

Athens has also barred the head of the Israeli airforce from flying to Greece.

The Greeks have long had warm relations with the Palestinians and are furious with the Israelis for carrying out this raid in international waters.

Mr Yahya was told in no uncertain terms that Greece held Israel responsible for their safety. One of the vessels currently being escorted by the Israelis towards the port of Ashdod is sailing under a Greek flag.

The Arab League calls an emergency meeting on 1 June to discuss Israel's "terrorist act" against the flotilla.

Sweden summons the Israeli ambassador to Stockholm over the "unacceptable" action.

High Representative Catherine Ashton expresses her deep regret at the news of loss of life and violence and extends her sympathies to families of the dead and wounded. On behalf of the European Union, she demands a full enquiry about the circumstances in which this happened.

She reiterates the European Union's position regarding Gaza - the continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counterproductive... She calls for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza.

SENIOR UN OFFICIALS ROBERT SERRY AND FILIPPO GRANDI

We are shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on board boats carrying supplies for Gaza, apparently in international waters. We condemn the violence and call for it to stop. The situation is still ongoing and we are awaiting confirmation of what has happened.

We wish to make clear that such tragedies are entirely avoidable if Israel heeds the repeated calls of the international community to end its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza.

Gausie [Send an email to Gausie] [View Gausie's profile] - 24 May 2010 20:01 - 2184 of 2285
Will you hell.

Of course the israeli military are not terrorist. Israel, like any other western democracy, has it's loose canons and abu graib's. But these are the exceptions - and the bad apples are prosecuted and punished with the full weight of the law. I, like Israel, wholeheartedly condemn the actions of the individuals involved in the rubber bullet incident.

heh....no comments

This blockade action doesn't look like loose canons at all. This is what we have come to expect from Israel. Their responses are usually disproportionate. Even the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he is fully behind the military action over the flotilla. No difference between this action and the Somali pirates.

Haystack - No difference between this action and the Somali pirates You really think that? You're not that daft.

Of course. In strict legal terms it is piracy in international waters. In fact in some ways it is worse. The Somalis don't tend to kill people on the ships they stop. The Israelis don't seem to care. There have already been punblic demonstrations in Israel supporting the military action.

Israel says its soldiers were shot at and attacked with weapons. And why not? This was in international waters.

mnamreh ..... that is pure rationalisation, though in fact i disagree about the average joe's ability, let alone willingness to think ..... in any case, you do not remotely answer as to WHY FCO should consider allowing this rabble-rouser into our country, where it is clearly his intent to do exactly that ..... that iran and the like would not allow a right-wing jewish demagogue into the country with free rein to speak as he saw fit, is also not entirely relevant, even though it is patently true

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gaza aid flotilla
on the face of it, what the israeli sas perpetrated is beneath contempt, and assuredly israel will need to show beyond a shadow of doubt that the freight being carried was patently NOT 100% humanitarian supplies.

that said, it is almost, but not quite inconceivable that even the lunatic hot-heads in israel would allow such an attack without very good reason

for information Israel says its soldiers were shot and attacked by their own weapons.

I mean Israelis weapon

Cynic - and if it's not 100% humanitarian supplies?

without having facts, no valid opinion possible .... prob is that no one is likely to tell the truth

Israel is now in the process of committing further crimes as the boats are being taken unwillingly from international waters to the port of Ashdod. The people on the boats are to be transferrered to prison camps there and then deported.

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Israel has been behaving how it pleased for years now. hopefully this will show up Israel for the bully it is.

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as i posted above, if and it's a mighty big if, israel can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that these boats were carrying arms and similar amongst the general cargo, then i have no moral problem with the attack being made in international waters, though i dare say i should.

however, in the absence of any such unequivocal proof, and certainly israel is being singularly coy about producing any evidence at all which looks highly suspicious, then the action is truly disgusting - a gross understatement.

it is quite probable that several "respectable" countries will withdraw their ambassadors, but it is categoric condemnation from Obama that would add some clout to international protest ...... is that likely? ..... hahaha!

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mnamreh - let us just say that i fundamentally disagree with you, as i suspect do most even-minded people in this country

Even if there were arms on the ships, Israel has no legal right to attack them. As much as I abhor the deaths, a better outcome would have been for all the commandos to have been killed. The occupants of the ship had a perfect right to protect themselves against illegal force. This was an illegal act however you look at it and to make it worse it was in support of an illegal blockade.

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Israel is a serial human rights international law abuser. The UN Human Rights Commission affirms that it violates nearly all 149 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that governs the treatment of civilians in war and under occupation and is guilty of grievous war crimes. The Commission also determined that as an occupying power Israel has committed crimes against humanity as defined under the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.

According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe (an Israeli and a Jew), Israel has conducted state-sponsored genocide against the Palestinians for decades and intensively in Gaza. In a September 2006 Electronic Intifada article titled "Genocide in Gaza" he wrote:

"A genocide is taking place in Gaza....An average of eight Palestinians die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed. (It's become) a daily business, now reported (only) in the internal pages of the local press, quite often in microscopic fonts. The chief culprits are the Israeli pilots who have a field day," like shooting fish in a barrel. Why not, they're only Muslims, so who'll notice or care.

Pappis one of Israel's "New Historians" who, since the release of pertinent British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, have been rewriting the history of Israel's creation in 1948, and the corresponding expulsion or flight of 700,000 Palestinians in the same year. He has written that the expulsions were not decided on an ad hoc basis, as other historians have argued, but constituted the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, in accordance with Plan Dalet, drawn up in 1947 by Israel's future leaders.

He blames the creation of Israel for the lack of peace in the Middle East, arguing that Zionism is more dangerous than Islamic militancy, and has called for an international boycott of Israeli academics.

Pappwas born in Haifa to German-Jewish parents who fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s.[

district judges
you're absolutely right .... seemingly synonymous with what us traditionalists know as circuit judges - i think judge jeffreys was one of those; time for him to be reincarnated methinks

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i both wash and i think, or at least i think i do both which perhaps sets me apart from a frightening majority(?) of the populace

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