Viewpoint - June 30, 2011

Israel's dark side comes to light
By: George S. Hishmeh
Special to Gulf News

Israel is now on the threshold of another serious confrontation with a second and larger flotilla, including an American boat named The Audacity of Hope, originally the title of President Barack Obama's memoir but here seen as "a wry criticism of his administration's support for Israel".

The American boat was delayed in Athens by a last-minute - seemingly futile - Israeli attempt to question its sea worthiness so as to cripple the international attempt to break Israel's illegal blockade of the Gaza seaport.

Among the boat's 50 passengers are several prominent Americans. They include American Jews like 85-year-old Hedy Epstein, who escaped Nazi Germany as a 14-year-old after her parents were murdered in the Holocaust, and Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-wining author of The Color Purple and the African-American wife of an American Jew.

Walker saw the "incredible damage and devastation" when she visited Gaza after the Israeli invasion in 2009. She told Foreign Policy magazine that she has "a good understanding of what's on the ground there" and how the water and sewerage systems have been destroyed.

She added: "I saw that the ministries had been bombed, and the hospitals had been bombed, and the schools. I sat for a for a good part of a morning in the rubble of the American School, and it just was so painful because we as Americans pay so much of our taxes for the kind of weaponry that was used."

She recalled that her experience with the Arab-Israeli conflict started with the Six-Day War in 1967. "That happened shortly after my wedding to a Jewish law student. And we were very happy because we thought Israel was right to defend itself by pre-emptively striking against Egypt.

"We did not realise any of the real history of that area. So that was my beginning of interest in what was going on and watching what was happening. Even at that time, I said to my young husband, 'well, they shouldn't take that land, because it is actually not their land'."

Two-state solution
This turnaround is being echoed widely within the American Jewish community, thus establishing another marker in the decades-long conflict. Last Tuesday, the New York Times carried a full-page advertisement from the S. Daniel Abraham Centre for Middle East Peace, arguing for "the imperative of the two-state solution".

Under the title, 'The Prize Is Worth the Price', Abraham argued for a two state solution - one Jewish, the other Palestinian - "or inevitably, Israel will become one state for two people, either non-Jewish or non-democratic". He added that "the price for peace is known, the prize of peace is within our reach".

Another Israeli writer, Carlo Strenger, recalling the outcry that followed a report published last year in the New York Review of Books that highlighted the "deep estrangement between the young generation of American Jews and Israel", went on to say that "unfortunately, the situation has only grown a lot worse".

Full Article: Israel's Dark Side Comes to Light

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No credence to Israel's claims
From: Morning Star

Israel's hysterical overreaction to the Freedom Flotilla 2 Stay Human initiative has not intimidated hundreds of brave people who are determined to challenge Tel Aviv's illegal siege of Gaza.

They are gathering on a number of boats in several European ports ready to take humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Palestinian people.

The amount of aid that they intend to deliver to Gaza will not affect the level of Palestinian deprivation significantly, but it will be of crucial importance.

The presence of campaigners from organisations in around 20 countries will remind the Palestinian people that they are neither alone nor forgotten.

And the international publicity generated by the flotilla and how Israel reacts to it will fuel ever-growing numbers of humanity to take up the Palestinian cause.

Israel relied on the iron fist in May 2010, sending in its elite commandos to assault the Turkish aid vessel Mavi Marmara, opening fire as they abseiled onto the ship from their helicopters.

Not content with killing nine supporters of the Turkish IHH aid organisation, the Israeli forces beat and robbed other peaceful campaigners.

They also enforced a news blackout before putting out their own doctored film coverage, complete with obligatory anti-semitic comments, including references to nazi death camps, said to have been uttered by the pro-Palestinian activists.

Israel's refusal to return film recordings and mobile phones is eloquent testament to the reality of what took place.

The Netanyahu government's dirty tricks department has been at it again, trying to misrepresent the mission and the motives of those taking part.

Freedom Flotilla 2 Stay Human has conducted non-violence resistance lessons for participants and insisted that there should be no violent responses to any assault on their vessels.

However, Israel has tried to ratchet up tension by claiming to have "intelligence assets" inside the flotilla who have identified individuals intent on using "chemicals" against Israeli troops.

However, not too much credence should be given to these claims in light of Israel's record last year and the bizarre claims this week by "US gay rights activist" Marc Pax, who said that he had been denied a place on the flotilla because of his sexuality and to have then discovered that Hamas is behind it.

Marc Pax is actually Guy Seeman, who works as an intern in Netanyahu's office, although, needless to say, his actions were "without authorisation and without approval."

The same goes for the Israeli government's threat to confiscate journalists' equipment and ban them from Israel for 10 years if they accompany the flotilla.

Only when the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem condemned this "chilling message" as raising questions about Israel's commitment to freedom of the press did Netanyahu surface to deny that this was government policy.

It probably isn't official government policy to sabotage the propeller shaft of a boat in Piraeus harbour taking Greek, Swedish and Norwegian passengers to Gaza, but it happened.

The US boat Audacity of Hope was also delayed after Israeli legal group Shurat HaDin told the Greek authorities that the boat wasn't seaworthy, necessitating a time-consuming inspection.

But ships are already sailing towards Gaza, including the Irish vessel Saoirse, and two French boats.

The only European Union member state officially backing the flotilla is Ireland, but every country has a responsibility to protect its own citizens and defend international law during this forthcoming challenge to Israel's lawlessness.

Original Article: No credence to Israel's claims

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