New Gaza Flotilla! Update II

Israel has intercepted the two ships of the flotilla.  Some of the activists have already been deported.  According to the article

On Thursday, the Obama administration warned U.S.citizens on the boats that they may face legal action for violating Israeli and American law. The activists include Americans and citizens of eight other countries.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was renewing its warning to Americans "not to involve themselves in this activity."

The U.S., like Israel and the European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist organization. 

 Wow.  So if you're trying to right a wrong, but it's illegal, you can go to jail.  Reminds me of all the attacks that happened in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.  As for Hamas being a terrorist organization.  Yes, it's a terrorist organization.  It's also a political organization and an aid/charity organization.

I don't understand how the United States can condone all of its dealings with Yasser Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian National Authority, leader of the PLO (terrorist organization), founder of Fatah (political organization that carried out terror attacks), but then get upset when Hamas wins a democratic election and threaten Americans with legal action for helping Palestinians.  What hypocrisy!

And why haven't I heard anything about this Gaza Flotilla on American news?

New Gaza Flotilla! Update I

Another flotilla is now underway, heading towards Gaza.  The organizers kept it secret until they reached international waters, because they were worried about being stopped before they left Turkey.  Israel is tracking the ships and plans to stop them from reaching Gaza.


Democracy Now! (a US radio/TV program) has a correspondent on board one of the ships.  See photos here.

New Gaza Flotilla!

A flotilla has been preparing in Greece for a trip to Gaza.  Israel, of course, is trying to stop it.  The latest news is that some of the ships have been sabotaged.

Check out this quote:

Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said yesterday the flotilla was reinforcing the fiction that there was hunger in the Strip, while in fact this was not the case. "The flotilla we're supposed to meet is creating a story that doesn't exist to maintain an actual story," Gantz said. "Anyone reading the papers will see that, at the end of the day, the situation reflected in Gaza is that of water parks and the beach, and the distance between that and a humanitarian problem is so great there isn't any connection."

Apparently the UK disagrees with that, although they don't recommend a flotilla.

Flotilla Investigation Update V

Well, the Israeli panel investigating the flotilla has reached their decision:  the Israeli government and military did nothing wrong.  And the blockade of Gaza is legal.  Somehow that's exactly what I was expecting.

Corruption in Gaza Lines

Al-Jazeera has an interesting story about Gaza.  Apparently some American companies had to pay bribes to the Israelis to get their products past the border crossing.  All this was before Hamas took over and Israel started the blockade.  This information came to light from the latest WikiLeaks cable release.

Land Convoy Reaches Gaza

A convoy called Asia 1 has reached Gaza.  The convoy started in India, and reached Gaza through Egypt.  There's another part of the convoy that should be arriving by ship.  We'll have to wait and see if the ship gets through the blockade.  The convoy was supposed to reach Gaza on the anniversary of Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive against Gaza, but was a few days late.

Al-Qa'eda in Gaza?

Israel is claiming that Al-Qa'eda has operatives working in the Gaza Strip.  The Prime Minister for the Hamas government there is denying the allegations, and says Israel is making it up so that they have an excuse for attacking.

I'm not sure what to make of this.  The US considers Hamas a terrorist organization, but that does not necessarily mean they would get along well with Al-Qa'eda, which has its own agenda.  But on the other hand, if Al-Qa'eda offered to help them, perhaps they would agree to it.  And yes, it is entirely possible that Israel is looking for an excuse to invade Gaza (again).  We'll have to wait and see what happens next.

Israel Attacks Gaza?

According to the Qatar News Agency (and repeated via SabaNews of Yemen) Israel attacked southern Gaza.  They quote Palestinian sources.  So far I have found no outside news sources mentioning this.

Update:  So far, all I have found is an air strike against Khan Younis 2 weeks ago.

Jewish Boat Heading to Gaza: Update I

You are correct, the boat did not reach Gaza.  The Israeli navy stopped the boat and boarded it.  The Israelis claim that it was very peaceful, but the activists on the boat say that's not exactly true.  They claim some were tasered for no reason, and the elderly captain was knocked over.  Of course, since the Israelis confiscated all of the cameras, again, there is no proof of what really happened.

Jewish Boat Heading to Gaza

A boat filled with Jewish activists has left Cyprus, and is on its way to Gaza (Note: Bahrain Tribune requires free registration).  Some of the activists are from Israel, and organizers expect their boat to be stopped by the Israeli navy before it reaches Gaza.  Let's hope they get a better boarding than the last flotilla.

Women's News July 19, 2010

The Iranian Girl's Soccer Team is having uniform issues. They're supposed to compete in the 2010 Youth Olympics in August. Their old uniforms were banned by FIFA in 2007 for being too restrictive. So these new uniforms were supposed to work in their place. Apparently the current problem isn't FIFA. The "top female official of Iran's physical education department was apparently offended by the uniforms" and doesn't want the team to wear them. No word yet on whether a compromise will be reached.

Life in Gaza just got more restrictive for women. Hamas has decided that women should not smoke water pipes (hookahs) in public. They're even sending agents out around town to make sure women obey. Women are upset because of the restriction, which one woman said doesn't make sense anyway, because you only smoke in restaurants, not in big public areas. The article has some interesting tidbits on other actions Hamas has tried to take, some of them unsuccessfully.

Syria has banned female students and teachers at universities from wearing the niqab (face covering). Syria is a secular country, like Turkey, and is worried because more women are wearing the niqab. The article goes into the social and political aspects of wearing the niqab and why the ruling party is concerned about it.

Bombing Iran? Again

I don't know how I missed this (h/t CrooksAndLiars). According to Haaretz (from June 19th), the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that US Navy warships and an Israeli ship went through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, en route to Iran. Does this mean that the Israelis are ready to attack Iran? Apparently most of the G-8 believe so. They also think something needs to be done about the blockade at Gaza.

Middle East Mess

Well, things continue to get interestinger and interestinger. Lots of news from Turkey:

• The EU wants more than just the blockade lifted.
  

• Istanbul has decided to become the sister-city of Gaza.
  

• A coalition of groups is still planning a new flotilla.

• It's becoming harder to defend human rights in Israel. (This reminds me of life under George W. Bush. "You don't like torture - you're un-American, you traitor.")
  

• The President of Syria things Israel is raising the risk of another Middle East war. (Remember, you heard it here first.)
  

Blockade? Update I

Remember Israel said it will loosen the Gaza blockade? Well, apparently they only said that in English. The Hebrew version of the document makes no mention of easing the blockade. Is this a mistake or intentional? (I'd bet on intentional.) (H/t to Juan Cole who has more on the story.)

In good news though, Obama has gone further than other US presidents in regards to Israel. In the new National Security Strategy (as quoted by Haaretz) there should be 2 states and one of them is "a Jewish state of Israel, with true security, acceptance, and rights for all Israelis." So a state of Israeli for all Israelis, not just for Jews.

Blockade?

Israel says it will loosen up the Gaza blockade.

Juan Cole has a huge roundup of what's going on between Turkey and Israel.

Schumer Redux

I realize I'm not always the best analyst or writer, but I am still a young blogger. And I am always in awe when I read posts like this, from Juan Cole. He really gives it to Schumer.

It's the Economy, Stupid

Senator Chuck Schumer thinks it is okay "to strangle them [Gazans] economically until they see that’s not the way to go." He does make some allowances for humanitarian aid, but still... What the hell is wrong with people? The people in Gaza democratically elect Hamas, then everything hits the fan when the US and Israel don't like the outcome of the election. So Gaza ends up blockaded, and starving, for daring to oust the corrupt ruling party that was in charge?

The current blockade is not working. Instead of spending the last three years talking to Hamas, and trying to work with them, and moderate them, Israel has only succeeded in making them stronger and in turning the world against itself.

This was a completely wasted opportunity. If Israel had not stopped turning over tax money to the government of Gaza, once Hamas took over, they would have had the upper hand in saying "See, we're dealing fairly with you. Why won't you acknowledge our existence?"

Edit: In other news, President Obama has promised $400 million to the Palestinian Territories; hopefully that includes Gaza.

Gaza & Flotilla updates

Haaretz is saying that the US has agreed to the composition of the Israeli committee that will investigate the flotilla attack.

An Italian journalist who was on the flotilla says that his rechargeable credit card was used, after the Israelis confiscated it.

Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and mediators are discussing ways to change or end the blockade of Gaza.

More Flotillas on the way!

Well, things are getting interesting again:

Juan Cole links to an article about a German Jewish group that is sending its own aid flotilla to Gaza. I wonder how they'll be treated.

According to Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), Iran is sending 3 Red Crescent ships to Gaza as well. The Red Crescent is the Islamic version of the Red Cross, so that's fine. But the first 2 ships are orchestrating their moves with Turkey, and should arrive by the end of this week. This scares me. Iran and Israel have no love for each other, and are always verbally sniping. I simply cannot see Israel allowing 2 Iranian ships through their blockade. And I can't see these Iranian ships peaceably allowing Israel on board to search for contraband. This looks like a big disaster just waiting to happen. I know that in the past, an Iranian Red Crescent ship was turned away without repercussions. But the ante has been upped by the deaths of at least 9 peace activists on the Mavi Marmara. Iran isn't just randomly deciding that now is a good time to send some aid ships. They are sending a message, to Israel and to the world.

This could be the straw that starts a war between Iran and Israel. And throw Turkey into the mix too. Turkey has a huge military, and could probably march down to Israel. Iran has a large military and missiles. Israel has nukes. Syria is always hanging around the edges, too. Egypt depends upon US and Israeli good will, but a matter of honor could push it into the mix. Could this be the start of another war: Arab-Israeli War 2010? Is that what it will take before anything changes?

Flotilla update II

I'm losing track of all my updates, but I felt this was worth mentioning:

A blog post by Elise Hendricks that goes through almost the entire incident and aftermath, pointing out the fallacies and lies: The Tacitus Principle: How Israel and its Apologists Defend the Indefensible.