Comments

1
I took a poll in my classes. Half the kids said the raid was an act of piracy on the high seas, the other half said the hippies got what was coming to them. Me, I can see both sides of the issue.
2
What is there to believe? That they illegally boarded a ship and got their asses handed to them? That the Israeli's maybe shouldn't expect those they assault to just lie down and take it?

The Israeli's are lucky that the passengers on the convoy weren't armed with anything more than sticks.
3
I'm pretty cleanly in the "hippies got what was coming to them" camp. I know, big surprise.
4
These videos still may not show the whole picture but it is obvious that the protesters intended to start some shit and succeeded. When the protesters were beaten and killed what have they done? They are bringing in more boats. This is a brilliant tactic on their part because they were able to create an anti-isreal reaction across the world. They paid in blood for their PR.

FWIW I think they are mostly a bunch of anti-semites who are using the gaza blockade as an excuse to provoke Israel.
5
Those radical muslims got what was coming to them. Kudos to Israel for responding swifty and effectively.

And I don't believe the regime of Barack Hussein Obama supports this defensive action in any way shape or form.

I think this regime deep down wants the Muslims to win, and since there is ample evidence that Barry Soetoro himself is Muslim, he probably does too.
6
They should have just torpedoed the ships to prevent unnecessary loss of life. Meanwhile, the Iranians and North Koreans are headed over here in a flotilla to "aid" the Native Americans, I'm sure we'll welcome them with open arms.
7
Israel is increasingly stupid every few years and are quickly wearing out even the patience of it's most patient supporters over here. There's a second humanitarian flotilla on it's way now from Turkey, and there are sources from the IDF saying they will use even more force this time. They're setting themselves up for a full-on war now and to try to indoctrinate the younger generations into the bullshit of the old timers left over from the 60s conflicts (such as Netanyahu).
8
Wow, some of these comments. I'm glad Slog doesn't delve into this often, because this is already missing the boat (no pun intended) that the Jews have no more claim to that land than the Palestinians or the Christians. That shit is communal property.
9
@3, thank god for you and your willingness and availability to share your reliably cunty opinions on literally every single thing posted on this blog
10
Those folks need to learn about civil disobedience. Resist, but do not use violence.

Israel probably broke no international law by boarding the vessel. Of course, that is for a tribunal to determine, NOT the passengers.

But even assuming Israel boarded illegally, that does not give the passengers a right to attack the soldiers, unless the soldiers physically attacked them. Since the passengers were the first to use physical violence, the soldiers had the right to self-defense.

11
beating the shit out of IDF kinda seems to defuse the protestors own argument against the IDF using violence.
but i think the IDF was pretty stupid too. set themselves up for a fail.
12
I believe them. I just detest them and their policies. But hey, you can do whatever you want when U.S. politics are as they are.
13
Whoever you believe, and whatever the actual outcome, it's clear the protestors won a PR victory with this. "Restraint" has never really been in the IDF's vocabulary, and these folks exploited that.
14
Boarding a ship in international waters IS an act of violence. The fact that the IDF has referred to passengers on the ship, who defended themselves and their vessel as "rioters" is outrageously Orwellian and shows the moral bankruptcy of Israel's actions.
15
@10 Seriously? Unwanted fuckers with guns get on your boat in international waters and you are just supposed to hand them the fucking wheel? When Nigerian pirates board a ship, you might do more than beat the shit out of them and nobody's gonna ask questions. Seriously, fuck Israel and fuck the IDF.
16
And how exactly, #10, do you know that the passengers were the first to use violence, when Israel won't let any journalists talk with the people involved?

Are we going to listen only to Israel's side of the story?
17
@15,

Nigerian?
18
In International waters - if someone boards your ship without permission - that is pirate behaviour.
19
Condemning Israel is a bold move for a US politician. How many in congress will risk it?
20
The best thing we could do for the Middle East is stop caring and ignore both sides.

And nuke Saudi Arabia without warning as payback for al-Qaeda and all the other Wahhabi extremists.
21
@18, the law isn't that simple. There are several reasons that a state may board a ship for inspection in international waters during a blockade and it is not automatically considered a pirate behavior.

Point being that even legal scholars are debating whether this was illegal or not. I doubt anyone on this forum knows for sure, but there is at least a solid argument in favor of Israel here. From my observations, it looks like the IDF soldiers were defending themselves.

It is unwise to swing an iron bar at an armed soldier, no matter what the law may be interpreted to be.

22
Yeah, those uppity hippies in Selma, they had it coming to them as well.

Because, see, anyone who fights for social justice is a hippie. Cool people lay down submissively in the face of injustice.
24
Israel was founded by terrorists. Its leadership doesn't seem to understand that constant brinksmanship is not in their own best interest.
25
I suppose they could have tried to wait for them to get within three miles of land where the ships would have mostly likely made a run for Gaza, or Israel could have boarded them in open water first. They made it clear they were provoking Israel's blockade and Israel responded.

Hamas continually fires missiles into Israel and uses civilians as human shields. The UN once described Palestinian war crimes as so blatant in their attacks on unarmed civilians as to not warrant a war crimes tribunal.
26
"Israel was founded by terrorists." Oh, really? Perhaps you should have something to back it up before you say things like that.
27
Israeli soldiers consistently use excessive force against Palestinians and their supporters. The per capita death rate from terrorism in Israel is lower than the murder rate in New York City, which is one of the safest cities in the United States. Between 2001 and 2008, you know how many Israelis had been killed by Qassam rockets? Fifteen. In seven years. In the Gaza war so far, Israel has sustained 13 deaths, compared to 1,400 for the Palestinians.

Israel is colony of mostly-European immigrants that maintains its hold on territory and water resources they stole from the indigenous population through partition and retaliatory strikes. Any time any random idiot in a given region outside of Israel fires an unguided rocket that lands in Israel without hitting anyone, Israel will respond with a salvo from an attack helicopter that will kill innocent civilians. Then they'll come in with a bulldozer and flatten the entire neighborhood. And if activists on a blockade-runner fight off an armed invasion of their ship with improvised melee weapons and their bare hands, IDF soldiers will open fire with machineguns.

What Israel is doing can be characterized as self-defense only to the extent that, if someone moved into your living room and kitchen and set up house, it would be self defense if they shot you when you tried to throw them out.
28
@#26 - Maybe you could retort with some facts instead of your usual nothingness?
29
@26

King David Hotel bombing, the Deir Yassin massacre, all the other Irgun attacks, Avraham Stern's attempt to form an alliance with the Nazis... it's a long list dude. That's not even a softball question.
30
@26 ; @28 + @29 = you just ate shit.
31
I don't believe anybody. None of the governments in the fertile crescent/middle east have demonstrated much of an ability to play nice for the last 7,000 years, can we give it to some country who doesn't have a religious or cultural stakehold in some stupid chunks of dirt?
32
Fuck the entire middle east. I agree (shocking I know) with Ron Paul. None of our fucking business, stop giving them money, get the fuck out of there. Let them kill each other, it's in the name of religion anyway.
33
The protesters were throwing chairs! Can you imagine what will happen if they deliver those chairs to the terrorists? CAN YOU IMAGINE THE TORTURE OF THE JEWISH HEMORRHOIDS???
34
Why can Israel just kill people and then kidnap their colleagues in international water? Because the governments of the world have allowed them to occupy another people's land for 62 years, brutally occupying the original inhabitants with impunity. It is a sign of how we have all internalized Israel's long-time PR that we don't even really talk about the land Israel ripped out from under the Palestinians and how illegal that was. By the way, why didn't Israel land on Europe, the entity that prepetrated the holocaust?

Obama says he "regrets the loss of life" -- but he has acted to stop Israel from being held accountable in the UN. He says Israel needs to be "secure" so it can "make peace."

What crap. Both the U.S. and Israel are trying to occupy the world. Watch out. We are all Palestinians.
35
It doesn't matter what we believe. Israel can do no wrong.
36
@27: Thank you.
@32: Read some actual history, it has little to do with religion. I agree that the U.S. should get out...Isreal's illegitimate existence would cease.
37
How ridiculous 34 - Israel is trying to occupy the world? Look at the size of Israel and look at the size and number of the Moslem world. Who is threatening the world with domination? Who is imposing Shariah law on England? Who is threatening death to anyone who comments about their religion or their god? It's not Israel - that's for sure. And as for illigitimate - who is? A people who are living in the country where their history has been for 3500 years (King David built Jerusalem 1000BCE) or a people who did not even exist 50 years ago.

And no matter how bad you make say the situation in Gaza is, no one is being killed or locked up or starved so please don't compare it to the slaughter of millions in Europe.

The truth is, Gaza is florishing with fancy restaurants, hotels, successful markets and new businesses but that doesn't serve the Hamas so they do not tell you of that side.

I would like to know if you would be willing for boats from Cuba, loaded with people who want to come to the US without permission, to land safely on our shores.
38
I strongly recommend you all head over to www.juancole.com , which is written by a scholar on Middle Eastern studies at the University of Michigan. He pointed out the great fact that because Israel isn't letting the victims tell anyone what happened, for all we know, there may have already been casualties before this video was made, meaning the people who are attacking may be fearing for their lives. There may no longer have been the idea that they were safe and it was either go down with a fight, especially since there was a woman with a baby on board, or be massacred, which is what happened. How many Israeli soldiers got hurt? How many civilians in international waters died? Israel was so far on the side of wrong they don't even know what right looks like anymore.
39
Wow. The amount of anti-semitism here is amazing.

how many here support women's right to vote, drive, be educated, to say no to being raped, to chose who they marry.

Anyone here support freedom of relegion? Do you think it's ok to stone people to death for practicing the "wrong" religion?

Israel is the ONLY nation in that region endorsing these ideals. Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the rest following some form of sharia law are opposed to all these freedoms. Endorsing the eradication of Israel is endorsing the eradication of the ideals of freedom. No matter how many wrongs you believe Israel has done, endorsing the death of all Jews is to side with the perpetrators of the Holocost.

Standing up for what's right is the right thing to do, even when it means reprimanding Israel. But that doesn't mean siding with those who would Kill every Jew on earth is justified. Those of you siding with those people should take a very long look in the mirror. Consider for just one moment how the people you are defending would treat YOU. The exreme Muslim would KILL ALL AMERICANS just as they would all Jews. They have said so. They have promised to do so.

How many times do Muslims have to promise the destruction of Israel before people in the rest of the world start to believe that is what they really want??
40
" a nineteen-year-old Turkish-American dual citizen named Furkan Dogan. Dogan, who is stated to have resided mostly in Turkey, was shot a total of five times, four in the head at close range."

This was found in globalvoicesonline.org.

Each death is unconscionable! But to realize that our American Government is funding the
Israelis who shot an unarmed 19 year old American Citizen four times in the head at close range is atrocious!

This latest flotilla incident must be acknowledged and condemned by the entire world, by every religion, every citizen. This was murder and must the perpetrators must be brought to justice

41
The true feelings of the American Left is revealed in Helen Thomas. The left, just like the Arab world, will not accept peace with Israel; they want eradication of Israel.

There will always be harsh decisions by individuals that a nation will regret, but when a nation is at risk you have to look at the macro issues.

Israel has a right to exist.

Anyone who doesn't believe this is part of the problem, just like Helen.

The darkest closed minds are always those who lay claim to enlightenment. True enlightenment is revealed in humility.
42
Yes, it's funny how the people who scream "bigot" the loudest when their own toes are stepped on are the first ones in line to show off their bigotry when it involves someone else.

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