Posted by
Maudie in Mandeville on Monday, May 31, 2010 12:47:17 PM
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing nine passengers in a botched raid that provoked (predictable) international outrage and a diplomatic crisis.
The violent takeover dealt yet another blow to Israel's international image (from Democrats, leftist groups, and Arab terror nations), already tarnished by war crimes accusations in Gaza and its 3-year-old blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
Reaction was swift and harsh, with a massive protest in Turkey, Israel's longtime Muslim ally, which unofficially supported the mission. (Equivalent to a Pro-life Democrat voting for ObamaHealth bill.)
Netanyahu, who expressed his "full backing" for the military raid, had hoped to receive a high-profile expression of support from Obama...
(Netanyahu isn't that ignorant; Obama despises Israel second only to white Christian America.)
The activists were headed to Gaza to draw attention to the blockade, which Israel and Egypt.... (That would be Muslim Egypt.)
A commando who spoke to reporters on a naval vessel off the coast, identified only as "A," said he and his comrades were taken off guard by a group of Arabic-speaking men when they rappelled onto the deck. (Were these gallant commandos of Entebbe fame maybe expecting flowers from peace activists?)
He said some of the soldiers were stripped of their helmets and equipment and thrown from the top deck to the lower deck, and that some had even jumped overboard to save themselves. At one point one of the activists seized one of the soldiers' weapons and opened fire, the commando said. (We'll leave 'gallant' off at this point.)
A high-ranking naval official displayed a box confiscated from the boat containing switchblades, slingshots, metal balls and metal bats. "We prepared (the soldiers) to deal with peace activists, not to fight," he said. (Who planned this, President Carter?)
The (effeminated) European Union deplored what it called excessive use of force and demanded an investigation by Israel. It called the Gaza blockade "politically unacceptable," and called for it to be lifted immediately....(then went back to fisting and teaballing each other).