Simulist wrote:Not only does this board have a significant number of intelligent people who post regularly, it has many intelligent readers also, people who read
Rigorous Intuition almost daily, but who either normally do not post or are people who do not post at all.
Someone emailed me this afternoon, asking me to respond to some of the remarks that were made earlier in the day, remarks that "demand a response" the letter said. I consider this person to be not only extraordinarily intelligent, but someone who also has a depth of understanding in these matters that I can only hope someday to acquire. Rather than to feign this depth of knowledge (I don't "feign" well, and wouldn't be inclined to try...), I've decided to post portions of this letter verbatim, but without attribution as was requested.
I found the responses to the following quotes to be informative and deeply thought provoking. My hope is that others here will benefit from reading them also.
In 1962 John F Kennedy did the same thing Israel is doing today against Cuba: imposing a blockade tp prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.
A hostile state, you say? Yes, Hamas is a SELF PROCLAIMED enemy of Israel and their official mission statement even vows that there will NEVER be peace until every Jew is removed from the region, killed or run into the Med Sea. They made this vow and have made no secret of it and they have backed up that declaration by firing over 6000 rockets in to Israel since 2007 when they took control of the Gaza. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas and the rest of the world claim they are victims when Israel tris to protect itself from yet more rockets.
The Response:The two situations are not remotely comparable. First, Gaza is not a "state" -- it is a territory ILLEGALLY occupied by Israel, and its population of this severely overcrowded strip of land is over 90% refugees who were stripped of all their property and human rights so that foreign colonists could set up a racist "Jewish state" on Palestinian land. The people of Gaza are the destitute victims of Israeli ethnic cleansing, theft and terrorism from 1948 onward. Given the statistics about toxic dumping in Gaza and deliberately induced malnutrition, not to mention the denial of clean water and adequate medical equipment and services to this imprisoned population of refugees, they are the victims of de facto genocide, as well. Under international law and ALL relevant UN resolutions, Israel is the aggressor and the Palestinians are the victims of its belligerency, racism and greed.
But, you say, these ships meant no harm, they were carrying humanitarian relief for the people of the Gaza.
No.
The organizer of the flotilla itself, Greta Berlin, admitted that it was NOT about humanitarian relief or the people of the Gaza, it was about getting international attention for an attempt to BREAK THE BLOCKADE, in other words they manufactured and staged and provoked this confrontation to get more attention to their cause de jour, break the blockade and end Israel's inspection regime which would mean unlimited shipping in to the Gaza resulting in unlimited arms supplies to Hamas militants.
If this flotilla was really about humanitarian relief, and we NOW KNOW it was not from the comments of the organizer herself, Greta Berlin, all they had to do is do what HUNDREDS of other ships WEEKLY do, offload at the nearest Israeli port for inspection and then be on their merry way.
The Response:It is not the cause "du jour" for individuals of conscience to heroically attempt to do what many governments are too cowardly to do: break a siege that is being imposed in violation of the law and all norms of human decency by a rogue, racist, terrorist state, in violation of more international laws and UN resolutions than any other state on the planet. Israel receives billions of dollars' worth of advanced weaponry annually from the world's biggest military superpower and uses it primarily and overwhelmingly against a captive population of civilian victims of its own ethnic cleansing. If there were any justice at all, it would be the massive shipments of weapons to Israel that would be stopped, not shipments of food and medicines and construction materials and schoolbooks for children to the Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza.
In fact EVERY WEEK Israel ITSELF delivers 10,000 TONS of food and water and other supplies to the people of the Gaza and this even after those very people continue to support a self proclaimed and sworn enemy of Israel and its people (Yes JEWS).
The Response:Who you gonna believe, Israel or independent organizations on the ground? Malnutrition is skyrocketing and children, who make up more than 50% of Gaza's population, are suffering from stunted growth, anemia and PTSD, according to all independent observers on the ground. Why does Israel prevent lentils, tea, macaroni, shoes, clothing, school-books, paper and cement for reconstruction? Children need homes to live in, and schools to study in, but instead they get to live in cloth tents or the bombed rubble of their homes, eating food that is often spoiled due to lack of refrigeration, or cooked on fires made with salvaged wood, courtesy of Israel's "humanitarianism". By destroying Gaza's only power plant and water purification plant, Israel prevents access to clean drinking water or even toys for the children of Palestinians in Gaza, while ILLEGAL Jewish colonies on the Palestinians' stolen land are equipped with swimming pools and playgrounds, subsidized by American "aid". Your self-pitying whines are obscene.
As has been recently said, the aim, the whole point of this relentless international campaign against Israel and its LEGAL blockade is to ultimately deprive Israel of any legit means of defending itself against this self proclaimed enemy and internationally designated terrorist organization, the Hamas. The Israelis, my own people, are constantly demonized and ghettoized and villified even as states such as Iran and others, including Hamas, are preparing yet another FINAL SOLUTION.
The Response:It is not a LEGAL blockade, it is a war crime, just as the Apartheid Wall that surrounds Palestinians in the West Bank was declared illegal by the International Criminal Court at the Hague. It is the Palestinian people who need defending from their Israeli tormentors and killers and jailers. As prisoners of a brutal military occupation, they need the rest of the world to grow some balls and enforce the Palestinians' legitimate HUMAN rights, including the right of return and reparations for the horrors they have been subjected to for over 60 years, for the sole reason that they are NOT Jewish.
