Flotilla: Even state officials say Netanyahu, IDF spread lies

[sister herb]

Noam Sheizaf


+ 972, June 29, 2011

According to government sources, the army doesn’t have any evidence that the flotilla activists are planning violent resistance, yet it publicly accuses them of conspiring to murder soldiers

Flotilla activists preparing weapons for their encounter with IDF soldiers (photo: Mya Guarnieri)

The top story in two of Israel’s leading daily papers yesterday was a bombshell: The IDF unveiled plans by flotilla passengers to kill soldiers trying to stop the ships from getting to Gaza.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most widely read paper, ran a headline declaring "Flotilla activists set to kill," which was attributed to military sources (but only in the fine print). The story declared, "Intelligence information revealed violent plans." In the inside pages, the headline declared that this flotilla is considered to be "more violent than the previous one."

Maariv’s top story covered the same topic: "IDF intelligence reveals: Lethal acid on flotilla boats." The free paper Israel Hayom had a smaller headline in the front page. "Fear: Flotilla activists will try to kill soldiers." Haaretz is the only paper that didn’t give the story such prominence in its print edition, but it was the top headline on the paper’s website throughout the previous evening. The Jerusalem Post’s headline read "IDF: Some flotilla activists planning to kill soldiers."

You can view all front pages of the Hebrew papers in this pic, taken from the media blog Velvet Underground. Yedioth and Maariv are the bottom two.

Front Pages of Israeli papares, June 28 2011 (photo: velvet underground blog)

Chemical Weapons? Against the Israel Navy Seals, Air Force and war ships? Even as a suicide mission, it sounded too fantastic. And how could this flotilla be "more violent," when the notorious IHH, whose members were on the Mavi Marmara last year, cancelled its participation? Who exactly is going to execute the soldiers with the lethal acid, 64- year-old Alice Walker? It was the kind of propaganda no thinking person could believe, yet the entire Hebrew media – even Haaretz! – went for it.

Luckily, it didn’t take Max Blumenthal to debunk this one. The media’s tone today was entirely different. Government sources have told Maariv that the so-called "intelligence information" was a spin by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, reflecting "a Hasbara [propaganda] hysteria."

"It’s unthinkable that in cabinet meetings we receive information according to which there are no threats of violent actions from the flotilla activists or [indication of] the presence of terror elements on the ships, and that at the same time, senior political sources, including the army, feed the media with information that is the exact opposite of what we were given."

Information that the media was only to eager to swallow, one should add.

A day too late, Yedioth Ahronoth’s military correspondent was the voice of reason in his paper:

"There isn’t a shred of evidence that extreme elements will initiate resistance against IDF soldiers. There is no knowledge of the existence of firearms on the ships."

The damage, however, was done. The reports of the murderous intentions of the flotilla activists traveled around the country and across the world. Not for the first time, a group of unarmed European and American activists traveling on old yachts was presented as a threat to the security of the region’s superpower. The only question is: for how long will the world continue to buy these kind of stories?

Maariv’s story today offers a comment from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office, claiming the information that was passed to the media came from IDF spokesperson unit. In response to my question today, the IDF spokesperson’s office made it clear they stand behind the information that was released yesterday.

http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m79089&hd=&size=1&l=e

[Trumble]

The only question is: for how long will the world continue to buy these kind of stories?

I don't think anybody does 'buy' them except their intended populist right-wing Israeli audience, do they? Who did you have in mind by 'the world'?

[sister herb]

What about the New York Times? More "hasbara".

http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m79083&hd=&size=1&l=e

[aamirsaab]

They get what the Israeli government lets them get. If any negative news gets out, zionists phone them up and tell them to quit it or they no longer get any access what so ever. That's why you always get propaganda and oh the innocent Israeli army defending itself that by bull dozing houses down (because hamas is obviously hiding in them) and opening fire on children (because, well I don't think even the Israeli propaganda can defend against tha...oh wait they threw rocks at some tanks, fair enough(!))

Rolled your eyes yet? Yeah you're a part of the problem.

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[Ramadhan]

I don't think anybody does 'buy' them except their intended populist right-wing Israeli audience, do they? Who did you have in mind by 'the world'?

How about majority US residents?

[sister herb]

Israel We Are Coming

by Donna J. Volatile




We are coming Israel, boat by boat, ship by ship, country by country, human being by human being and we will not stop!




We will come by land and by sea.




We will come in waves and we will keep coming until your unlawful siege against Gaza and the Palestinian people is lifted.




And when that siege is lifted we will come to tear down your illegal wall, piece by piece, until the wall exists no more.




And when we have taken down that wall, we will come for your illegal check points. We will tear them down and they will exist no more.




And we will keep coming Israel.




We will come to create a Palestinian State which will be Independent and Free.




(The world is watching you Israel.)




We are coming Israel.




We come in the name of Peace and Justice, we come in the name of Peaceful Global Resistance, we come in the name of Palestine and all oppressed people, in the name of tortured, imprisoned and murdered people: men, women and children, we come in the name of ending occupation and Apartheid, we come in the name of Rachel Corrie and Furkan Dogan and all those you massacred and wounded on board the Mavi Marmara and the Free Gaza Flotilla, we come armed with righteous indignation!




We come armed with Boycotts and Divestiture, War Crimes Charges and International Courts of Law!




We come to stop any attacks against Palestine, Iran, Lebanon and Syria…


(We do not wait on Presidents, Prime Ministers or politicians. This is a movement of the people, for the people and by the people.)


We come to right your heinous wrongs…


We come in the name of humanity!




And when we come, we will come in Peace… The only question which remains: Will you answer back in Peace?

[Ramadhan]

Unfortunately, Greece does the bidding for Israel and blocked the flotilla from setting sail to Gaza and Israel sabotaged two of the boats as well as making fake gay activist video to discredit the flotilla organizer.

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-flotilla.html Israel claims diplomatic victory as Greece stops Gaza flotilla

Israel on Sunday claimed a diplomatic victory in its attempts to stop a flotilla of ships manned by pro-Palestinian activists from sailing towards Gaza after it was banned from leaving port by the Greek authorities.

A Palestinian boy waves a Greek flag during a rally in Gaza City in support of the international Freedom Flotilla Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES






By Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv and Richard Spencer
6:57PM BST 03 Jul 2011

Comments


Eleven ships were due to set sail this weekend, including nine from Greece, but two discovered damage to their propellers which activists blamed on Israeli sabotage.

Another ship was arrested on the high seas by the Greek coastguard for leaving port without permission, and the remainder were told they could not set sail.

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, claimed credit for the delays to the flotilla. "I welcome all the efforts that have been made to stop the flotilla," he said in a radio interview. "The success of these efforts on the diplomatic side are the fruits of intensive contacts with states in the region and the international community."

Israel is keen to prevent a repeat of the violent outcome to a similar attempt to break the blockade of Gaza last year, when its navy stormed the lead ship, killing nine Turkish activists.

Under what law the Greek government has instituted its ban on the ships leaving is unclear. "Ministers just decided that's what should happen," one international maritime lawyer said. "Everyone in the maritime law community here is pretty nonplussed."

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Daniel Reisner, a lawyer at a leading Israeli firm said: "The decision taken by the Greek government is not founded in maritime law.
“If the Greek government has decided that letting these ships sail to Gaza would endanger the people on board, who the Greek government has a responsibility to protect, they are within their rights.
"But this is definitely new. I don’t know of any precedent.”
Dimitris Plionis, a spokesman for the flotilla, called the ban "preposterous". "Any ship can leave a Greek port legally without declaring their final destination," he said. "This is done daily by thousands of yachts and passenger and cruiser boats in Greece – they just given an immediate destination to the Port Authority and that's that."
A Greek foreign ministry statement said it acted out of concern for "the protection and safety of human life".
Activists criticised the arrest of John Klusmire, the captain of the Audacity of Hope, an American activists' boat, and the conditions under which he is being held in custody. The authorities said the boat had technical problems.
The coastguard said Mr Klusmire would be charged with trying to leave port without permission and endangering the lives of the boat's passengers.
Activists say they still intended to go ahead with the flotilla.
"The flotilla is still going on," said Mr Plionis, a spokesman. "We are sure there has been Israeli involvement in the Greek government's decision.
"The Israeli government has exerted pressure on the Greek government, as has the United States, and the Greek government has bowed. We consider that the siege of Gaza has been exported to the Greek shores."
Despite Mr Lieberman's comments, Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said the flotilla organisers were "missing the point" in claiming collusion.
"They have no international support except from the Hamas government in Gaza," he said. "What does that say? They lack any international credibility or legitimacy."

[Ramadhan]

From http://www.intifada-palestine.com/20...80%99s-orders/

A Greek Tragedy: Seizing the Gaza Flotilla on Israel’s Orders

A Greek Coast Guard patrol vessel intercepted the ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ a U.S. vessel carrying 36 American passengers and four crew members roughly 10 minutes after it had left Perama

Mohamed Khodr

July 4, 2011

The odyssey and fate of eight ships, part of the Gaza Flotilla, that carry peaceful human rights activists and journalists along with a limited cargo of food, medicine, and letters from well wishers from around the world horrified by the four year Israeli imposed siege of 1.5 million Palestinians in the world’s largest open air prison, has become more tragic than any Greek tragedy
The Greek government, not the honorable people of Greece, seized the eight ships bound for Gaza that that were docked in a Greek port preventing them from sailing to answer the cry and call of hungry Gazan children.
Why? Because Israel demands it and when Israel demands the U.S. is right behind it carrying its big stick to whip any nation into a total submission to Israel; after all why should it be the lone nation to do so?
Greece, the founding state of democracy, succumbed to Israel and its wealthy powerful lobbies who demanded that Greece must stop this Flotilla if it wishes to see one dime of a bailout to save its economic hide.

Captain of “The Audacity of Hope” John Klusmire

In addition Greece illegally arrested Captain John Klusmire, an American citizen, of the ship “The Audacity of Hope” for daring to guide the vessel with American citizens, including the famed American author, Alice Walker, journalists and crew to deliver more hope than food to besieged and forgotten Gaza.
As expected when any issue deals with Israel, the U.S. Government abandons its Constitution, Bill of Rights, International Law, Human Rights, and even the security of its citizens if they are arrested, killed, or deported by Israel or for Israel’s sake.
Like its silence and shirk of responsibility to investigate Israel’s deliberate murder of another American citizen, Eurkan Dorgan, 19, aboard the Turkish vessel
the Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010 when Israeli commandos boarded the ship in international waters killing nine innocent civilians who simply sought to deliver aid to Gaza. The IDF riddled their bodies with over 30 bullets.
Obama was content to let Israel investigate itself on this massacre and even blocked the U.N. from carrying out its own investigation. Surprisingly, the Israeli commission found Israel acted properly.
More shocking was that the U.S. rather than condemning and demanding the release of Captain John Klusmire, as it does routinely when other nations detain American citizens, especially Iran, the State Department issued a warning that American citizens taking part in the flotilla may “violate U.S. civil and criminal statues” against “conspiring to deliver material support” to terrorist organizations like Hamas. Additionally two Jewish members of Congress demanded that such citizens be prosecuted because Israel’s blockade of a terrorist territory is absolutely legal.
Thus as America celebrates its July 4th Independence Day, an American citizen languishes in a Greek jail and all U.S. citizens who dare speak and challenge Israel’s hegemony over the United States maybe subject to the ire and wrath of Israel’s lobby, AIPAC, and by extension the U.S. Congress and the White House.
For decades the Greek people and governments have understood, sympathized, and supported the Palestinian’s right to self determination often condemning Israel’s brutal occupation, siege, and numerous military attacks.
Greece’s relationship with Israel suddenly improved after Israel’s murderous attack on the Turkish ship a year ago which led to a souring of the long good relations between Israel and Turkey. As a result, Israel, the bulimic opportunist that eats, chews, and spits nations at will; looked to take advantage of Greece, Turkey’s historical enemy.
Greece is in such desperate financial and social meltdown that it sought Israel’s strategic influence and relationship with the west that it willingly submitted to Israel’s demand to halt the Gaza Flotilla. Netanyahu became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit Athens and most likely offered the usual carrot and stick approach to persuade Greece to stop the flotilla to Gaza.
Most likely Netanyahu told the Greek Prime Minister:
Stop the Flotilla at any cost and rest assured that we will provide you with western loans to save your country, a military partnership to train and strengthen your army, and a gas pipeline to meet your energy needs. He most surely brought up the half billion dollars of trade with Israel thereby implying another threat to the collapsing Greek economy.

Greek PM George Papandreou

Thus the Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, in total economic desperation and with few friends in Europe jumped on the Israeli bandwagon and surrendered all the noble work of his famous father, Andreas Papandreou, Greece’s most beloved politician, on issues such as freedom, self determination, human rights, peace and justice.
Andreas Papandreou strongly supported the cause of Palestinian liberation, met repeatedly with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and condemned Israeli policies in the occupied territories.
What would the father think of a son who betrays his ideals and principles for a few shekels and an opportunity to temporarily lift a collapsing economy with western loans that come with very stringent and painful strings that will only further inflame the suffering Greek population.
Prime Minister George Papandreou has dishonored Greece’s noble history when in 1947 it courageously withstood American pressure and was among the 13 nations that voted against U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 that illegally partitioned Palestine into two states, a Jewish and a Palestinian State. With terrorism and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians Israel was established on foreign land, while the Palestinians are still imprisoned and occupied by Greece’s new found “friend”. The Palestinians since 1947 are still waiting for their State.
Like a Greek tragedy, Israel has been the sole author of the Israeli Palestinian narrative, a narrative that ranks among the greatest of Greek tragedies filled with mythology, lies, genocide, wars, divine infallible scribes and Rabbis, conquered lands, people crushed into submission, influential reach beyond its borders into many nations, pandering media propaganda, bribes, assassinations, corruption, sex scandals, and the self anointing of a divine people unanswerable to the gentile humanity. All peoples and nations must submit to their all encompassing power or suffer the wrath and consequences of disobedience, including the wrath of God himself.
Historically all politicians are short term thinkers and opportunists whether it’s President Obama throwing the Palestinians overboard to secure wealthy Jewish funding of his re-election campaign or the Greek Prime Minister who for the moment believes he needs Israel’s support and the Jewish dominance of world financial institutions to save his country. (All Jewish: DSK, former head of the IMF, Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, Ben Bernanke, head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, and Timothy Giethner, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, to name a few).
The massive Arab uprisings will ultimately succeed in establishing national, democratic and patriotic governments. Arabs will never forget who were their friends and enemies. An Arab region that controls 50% of the world’s oil and 60% of the world’s gas reserves along with the largest consumer market in the world, 1.6 billion Muslims, will impose its economic will and leverage upon a world that has long colonized, oppressed massacred, occupied, imprisoned and tortured them, raped their women and resources, voted against them in the United Nations, and long favored the truest enemy of peace In the world, Israel.
No bullet, rocket, bomb, missile, artillery shell, white phosphorous bombs, napalm, nerve gas, house demolitions, burning of farms and olive trees, no amount of killing of school children, no rape or defecation in houses of worship or excavating Muslim cemeteries, no amount of tunnels dug under the Rock of the Dome mosque to collapse it, no imprisonment, torture, no siege and starvation of Gaza, no amount of checkpoint humiliations, no number of illegal settlements and Jewish only roads, no amount of water theft and sewage disposal on Palestinian towns, no amount of American money, weapons, vetoes, and caving in to all things Jewish, no amount of lies, propaganda, standing ovations in Congress, no media ownership; nothing, but NOTHING will stop the Palestinians from reaching their human and historical destiny of Freedom and Independence from an Apartheid rogue terroristic state called: Israel.
On the contrary with every political, economic, and military brutality inflicted upon the Palestinians (and the U.S. and Europe), Israel is jeopardizing the very welfare and future of Jews around the world. More Jews live outside of Israel than in it, and with each passing year more Israelis are leaving Israel; more Jews are assimilating, intermarrying, and abandoning their attachment to Israel.
The time for Israel to reform itself and join the community of nations and cease to be a military brute and leave all Arab occupied territories is now, or forever accept the historical fate of all empires, including the empire once known as Greece.
Time, Truth and justice are on the side of the Palestinians and in due time a Palestinian flag will fly over East Jerusalem. The lives of the corrupt western politicians are limited but the Palestinian struggle will never die.

http://gazaflotilla101.com/
FOLLOW News on the Gaza Flotilla

PLEASE Take the Time and Email the following world and Greek leaders expressing your outrage at Greece’s violation of International Law by seizing eight peaceful ships bound to Gaza and the arrest of an American Citizen.
president@whitehouse.gov
Email for President Obama or use whitehouse.gov contact form
secretary@state.gov
Email to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
http://www.papandreou.gr/papandreou/...ntact.aspx?l=1
Contact Form for Greek Prime Minister
http://www.mfa.gr/www.mfa.gr/MailFor...ICulture=en-US
Contact form for Greek Foreign Minister
grgencon.cis@mfa.gr <grgencon.cis@mfa.gr>
Email: Greek Foreign Ministry
ecu@un.org
Email for Ban Ki Moon: Secretary General of the U.N.
pga65@un.org
Email for Joseph Deiss, President of U.N. General Assembly
pressanalysis2@un.org
Email: Press Office at UN.
c.gunness@unrwa.org
Email: Chris Guiness, Head of UNRWA in Palestine
president@europarl.europa.eu <president@europarl.europa.eu>
Email: President of European Parliament
pressoffice@parliament.gr <pressoffice@parliament.gr>
Email: Speaker of Greek Parliament
idea@europarl.europa.eu <idea@europarl.europa.eu>
Email: European Parliament
eo@ombudsman.europa.eu
Ombudsman for Complaints against the European Union
Important Emails to Greek Parliament Members
s.kotsoronis@parliament.gr <s.kotsoronis@parliament.gr>
interel@parliament.gr <interel@parliament.gr>
flouda@parliament.gr <flouda@parliament.gr>
k.kartsakli@parliament.gr <k.kartsakli@parliament.gr>
infopar@parliament.gr <infopar@parliament.gr >
diplof@parliament.gr <diplof@parliament.gr>
d.kolovos@parliament.gr <d.kolovos@parliament.gr>
pressoffice@parliament.gr <pressoffice@parliament.gr>
pressoffice@yptp.gr <pressoffice@yptp.gr>

Emails to Greek Consulates in the U.S. by City:
houston@greekembassy.org <houston@greekembassy.org>
consulate@greekembassy.org <consulate@greekembassy.org>
atlanta@greekembassy.org <atlanta@greekembassy.org>
grgencon.tam@mfa.gr <grgencon.tam@mfa.gr>
lagr@greekembassy.org <lagr@greekembassy.org>
sfgr@greekembassy.org <sfgr@greekembassy.org>
boston@greekembassy.org <boston@greekembassy.org>
grgencon.cis@mfa.gr <grgencon.cis@mfa.gr>
nycons@greekembassy.org <nycons@greekembassy.org>
Contact Greek Media:
editor@ekathimerini.com editor@ekathimerini.com
Greek Paper: part of the International Herald Tribune Greece
http://www.athensnews.gr/contact_us
Contact form for the Athens News
http://www.athens-times.com/contact/
Comment form for major paper: The Athens Times
http://www.balkanchronicle.com/index...d=1&Itemid=536
Contact form for the Balkan Chronicle in Greece
support@greekiptv.com
Email for Greek IPTV, a major television station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0U5wrvyQPY (Ray McGovern on Flotilla)

***************************

About the Author
Mohamed Khodr is an American Muslim born in the Middle East. He is political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.

[sister herb]

French ship bound for Gaza as first of flotilla
[ 05/07/2011 - 02:29 PM ]



BRUSSEL, (PIC)-- A French ship has set sail to Gaza as the first ship on Freedom Flotilla II, the European campaign to break the siege on Gaza has reported, while other flotilla ships remain detained at various Greek ports.

The French ship “Dignity” departed from the French port of Corsica with intent to break Israel’s siege on Gaza. The ship is currently floating in international waters, ECESG member Rami Abdo said in a press statement on Tuesday.

The ship, which has six activists on board, amounts to a “challenge to the Zionist lobby,” Abdo said.

Greek authorities have officially decided to bar nine of the flotilla’s ships from leaving its ports to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Greek coast guards intercepted a ship from the U.S. and another from Canada and dragged them back to Greek shores.

The ban has angered activists who say the decision was made after Israeli pressure.

Flotilla organizers have announced intent on trying to sail to Gaza despite Greece’s decision, which they say lacks legal and moral basis.

They said the ban would not stop their efforts so that the “pages would be finally turned on the siege and occupation”.

“The Greek authorities’ submitting to Israeli pressure and extortion and barring the Freedom Flotilla from sailing and intercepting some of its ships would not be a stumbling block in the way of the efforts made by the free world to end the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip for the fifth straight year,” the ECESG said in a statement, adding that ending the siege is a “strategic objective” which it would use all peaceful means to achieve.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/d...zzLcZHoxJdg%3d