Many good comments and links in this thread. For me there are many unanswered questions regarding the attack on the flotilla. The question I do not see being addressed by Israel or the media is why the assault was made in international waters. Israeli security forces may have questionable strategic goals but their tactical execution is usually among the most precise in the world. Israel only makes (and admits) mistakes as a cover up for their actual intention.
If they were unafraid to fire on the USS Liberty 40 plus years ago, and thereby risk the woeful wrath of the United States, why would they hesitate to attack a rag tag bunch of politically motivated people on boats and risk what…? The woeful wrath of Turkey? The U.N. NATO?
The boarding from above as seen on the you tubes is ridiculous. What commander would give the order to board in a mass of an angry top deck mob? The staging area must have minimal diameter clearance or there is no drop without critical mission failure, unless of course the mission is not what it would seem.
We have no context of the released footage. Why were the people on the boat so angry? Not a duh question....they were BEYOND pissed. Did they not fear reprisal from the “Israeli Seals” (notice the sympathetic, heroic Americanization of one side)? Who were the people on top of the boat?
Now I might be inclined to think that among them it would actually be unlikely that Israel did not have some intelligence assets aboard. Such asset(s) could have served as provocateur. Just like the ATF had a man inside at Waco. Which in itself can only tangentially be described as an accident but universally accepted as a "tragic loss of life."
I have a hard time thinking this was some kind of botched operation. Tactically they do not make these kinds of mistakes. There is sufficient evidence to suggest the firing on the USS Liberty was indeed no accident. They were sending a clear and unmistakable message. What was that message?
The fact this happened in international waters seems to me to be a message that Israel will not be fettered by international law or any sense of international community. Just in case anyone has forgotten. Who would that be? Hillary Clinton? Nah, she already knows that. Who is there audience? They will make this message known in spite of whatever damage it does to her image. Remember, too, what happened the same day Joe Biden arrived in Israel to partake in the “jumpstarting” of the “peace process.”
Israel is a bold and wild poker player. They are fearless, and part of that fearlessness is justified by their sponsor in the security council and the fact that there is an entire gang of Israeli apologists in the American media (Krauthammer, Goldberg, Derschowitz, Kristol etc) but there is not a like gang of opposing view with a view to fair and balanced from say Laila Alhussini, Ray Hanania or Louise A. Cainkar. It is like Palestinians are not allowed existence in the Corporatist Media other than as human shields and breeding hives for terrorists.
Message control on the incident so far is proceding according to standard plan. #1 Delay, suppress and/or contort direct witness accounts. #2 Demonize the victim. #3 Victimize the Agressor #4 Lament the “tragedy” (who’s tragedy is it?…it is like a lamentable event with no protagonist who makes impossible choices based on certain character strengths and flaws). #5 In the face of “global outrage” peak out from behind the veil of sovereignty a dignified face and hand action that leaves no doubt that you’d do it again, but probably with torpedoes to sink the whole lot of the sorry bastards in a tragic loss of life.
What is the sanity of this approach? Israel considers herself in a state of war. From her perspective (and I don’t mean all people in Israel, just the wargods in the govt) any and all actions in defense of its sovereignty is justifiable. Sanity is not a factor.
Sound familiar? We are no better than Israel. We are arguably much much worse.
Oh pray dear friends to end the "tragic loss of life." Chose your god, and then your weapon....
Ablert Einstein said in his latter years that the United States had picked up where Nazi Germany had left off. He wasn’t just talking about weapons programs.
