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?

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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if you run a blockade you must take the consequences
of course there was contraband on board

thank heavens russia had the good sense not to


Israel will release any humanitarian aid that was on board and send it to Gaza

camelot - have i/we missed something, for i/we have heard/seen nothing to support the allegation of arms being carried? .... ditto the info that the humanitarian aid would indeed be released into ghaza

Cynic - Keep up, mate:-

The provocateurs were organized by an Islamist organization that has links to fundamentalist jihadi groups.

The extremists brought small children on board knowing that they intended to run a military blockade.

Israel offered to transfer the aid to Gaza again and again - they refused - and chose confrontation.

Israeli Minister Danny Ayalon: "Weapons found on board; the organizers intent was violent, their method was violent and the result was, unfortunately violent"

Israeli Minister Danny Ayalon: "We repeatedly called on the organizers to stop this provocation"

Israeli Minister Danny Ayalon: Allowing the illegal flotilla to reach Hamas would have opened a corridor of smuggling of weapons to Gaza and resulting in civilian deaths.

Israel transfers about 15,000 tons of supplies and humanitarian aid every week to the people of Gaza.

"We fully intend to go to Gaza regardless of any intimidation or threats of violence against us, they are going to have to forcefully stop us," said one of the flotillas organizers

Using the Arabic term intifada, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said "We call on all Arabs and Muslims to rise up in front of Zionist embassies across the whole world.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said this week: "If the ships reach Gaza it is a victory; if they are intercepted, it will be a victory too"; Hamas is responsible for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Israel left Gaza in hopes of peace in 2005 and in return received more than 10,000 rockets and terrorist attacks.

Israel has said that it will deliver any humanitarian aid to Gaza, as it does daily.

No country would allow illegal entry of any vessel into their waters without a security check.

Any police force in the world would respond to aggression; the provocation is the reason for this regrettable outcome.

Wounded, including violent activists, are receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Al-Jazeera TV Report from "Freedom Flotilla" Before Its Departure for Gaza: Activists on Board Chant Intifada Songs and Praise Martyrdom.

Israeli Navy addresses a ship in the flotilla and offers it a dock in the port of Ashdod

BBC report shows violent, masked activists on ship

Israel offered to transfer to aid to Gaza, except they only currently let through about 1/4 of the goods that went into Gaza before the blockade.

The ships were in international waters and had not run the blockade.

The bloakade was illegal.

It doesn't matter who the ships had links to, they were in international waters.

The blockade was because Israel did not like Hmas as a government for Gaza, as though it is any of their business. They were elected.

Why shouldn't they have weapons aboard. The Israeli commandos had weapons on their boats in international waters as well.

Who is to say that there cannot be masked activists on board the ships.

Haystack, your analogy with the Somali pirates is somewhat inept and factually incorrect

'The Somalis don't tend to kill people on the ships they stop.'

Seafarers have been killed during piracy attacks, although admittedley few in number, however, the pirates show no hesitation in using indiscriminate RPG and small arms fire during the attacks. It is something of a surprise to me that there have not been more deaths. The pirates have also on many occassions opened fire on coalition warships, sea boats and helicopters, mostly to their disadvantage!

The intention is not to kill, but they do. Israeli commandos don't intend to kill, but they do. Both groups are acting illegally in international waters. They are as bad as each other. One is open about its motives and the other pretends that they have right on their side. One group are hypocrits.