Okay... So I'm reading the CBC website today, specifically the article: "Israel halts offensive to allow aid into Gaza". Predictably, there were many comments posted on this one article. They were the expected responses of pro-Palestinians and those who felt they had to defend Israel's actions. To be blunt about this, nobody has to defend Israel. What we think here in North America doesn't matter or count for squat. And thank God for that. Israel is fully capable of defending itself and needs no direction from the likes of us. If Canada were Israel, we would have been quoting from the Koran decades ago.
So in skimming through some of the posted comments, (most not rating even an acknowledgement...) I came upon this doozie, presumably from Cyprus:
"Moderator, I have the group's permission to post this here.
We Are Coming Back, And We Are Putting Israel On Notice.
[Larnaca, Cyprus] Today the Free Gaza Movement put Israel on notice that we are sending another emergency boat to Gaza. We will announce our exact departure date, time and route in the next few days. We will travel from Cypriot waters, into international waters, then directly into Gaza territorial waters, never nearing Israeli waters.
The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed over 640 Palestinians, including many children and women, and injured thousands. These acts by Israel are severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions, both in regards to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war. The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel's massive violations of international humanitarian law.
Therefore, we concerned citizens from Belgium, Columbia, France, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, Scotland, Spain, and the United States, feel that it is our moral duty to try to do just that. The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza.
In the early hours of Tuesday, December 30, the Israeli Navy rammed our boat, the DIGNITY, in international waters. Neither the DIGNITY, nor its passengers and crew constituted any kind of threat to Israel, and the Israeli government had been alerted to the boat's mission, the previous day. Yet we were violently rammed three times on the side without any warning from the Israeli Navy, in an obvious attempt to disable the vessel, jeopardizing the lives of the 16 passengers on board. We are not deterred by the violence of the Israeli military and intend to sail to Gaza again and again.
We are physicians, journalists, members of parliament, and human rights observers who intend to reach the people of Gaza to deliver much needed medical aid and witness the atrocities being committed against the Palestinians there. We are willing to put our bodies on the line to stop Israel's unlawful massacres of the Palestinian people (we have received death threats warning us not to repeat our attempt) and bring the attention of the world to the war crimes happening in Gaza against 1.5 million Palestinians."
**********************************************************
I guess many civilians would read that and say: "So...? What's wrong with that? They're allowed to...".
Are you kidding me?? There are so many things wrong with this statement of theirs, that it's hard to know where to start in ripping it apart. Does anyone out there really think that you can just up and go, armed only with some form of misguided sense of self-righteousness, decide to gather other ill-informed people around you and enter an active theatre of war??? Seriously??? You have no idea how detached from reality you have to be, in order to concoct such a hair-brained idea.
If these people are who they claim to be, they would never have posted this Darwinian post card. One would have to guess that they would have the education to know better. Throwing around terms like "the Geneva Convention", "occupying power" and "requirements of the laws of war". The author of this post knows nothing about either one of these topics, and even less about the dynamics that make up the present situation in Gaza.
For one, Israel in not an "occupying power". This is in fact a full-scale attack, not an occupation. Israeli forces are in Gaza to seek, identify and destroy Hamas militants and their infrastructure, who ceaselessly attack Israeli territory. Israel has no intention, nor does it want to occupy Gaza. They're there to take care of business, then go home.
Hamas routinely operates with no regard whatsoever for the Geneva Convention. They wouldn't even know what it is. Their combatants wear no identifying uniform, they assimilate their fighters and their weapons emplacements alongside civilians and inside civilian structures, in the mistaken belief that the Israelis will not dare attack them there, for fear of turning world opinion against them. All these actions go against every article of the Geneva Convention. You can only drag out the Geneva Convention, if all parties involved recognize them and are signatories. So much for that... Much to their credit, by the way... Israel doesn't give a shit about world opinion. And rightfully so... That's why they are still Israel, and not just another Arab enclave.
Just for the record, the United Nations are not responsible for the protection of the Palestinian people. That responsibility falls to their "democratically-elected representatives" (as they like to refer to themselves as...), Hamas. Their 'democratic representatives' are the very ones who led them into this shitstorm, by their relentless attacks on Israeli soil. If the Palestinian people elected them, clearly they share a large responsibility for their own current plight. It should be noted in passing that the German National Socialist Party (the Nazis...) were democratically elected to power in 1933. Just because a political entity is 'democratically elected' by the people, does not imply that it is right, just or even sane. It does however mean that the majority of the voting population shares and endorses that party's views and beliefs. That would go a long way towards explaining the estimated 1.7 million German civilian casualties during WW2. In times of war, a population faces the same fate as their 'democratically elected' political leaders.
If the Israeli Navy had indeed "violently attacked" this group's craft as they state, there would be nobody left to write this insipid post of theirs. The IDF does not believe in going by half-measures. They'd be feeding the fish by now. By ramming them, they were not attempting to 'disable' their boat. That's what raking the upper decks with automatic fire is designed to do. They were merely sending them a 'gentle' message: "If you value your life, get the fuck out of here!!" And here's another news flash for this budding rocket scientist: anyone who declares to a nation which is on a war footing (to say nothing of "serving notice to"...), that they will be swinging by with a bunch of non-combatants in some nondescript craft, is basically asking to be sunk. A sense of moral duty or outrage does not protect you from bullets, bombs, missiles or rockets and you never simply announce to someone that you'll be entering the waters under their control. (Go look up the meaning of 'blockade'...). You're entering a war zone. This is not day camp.
Anyone entering such an area is deemed to be with either one camp or the other and does so at their own peril. If you are not IDF, you're one of the other guys. On land? Reporters? At a distance, if you're dressed civvies and toting anything on your shoulder as you scurry through the rubble, guess what? You're a frikkin' target my friend. Camera? RPG? Who's to know. There's a reason why the Israelis don't want yet more civilians in a war zone, confusing an already murky situation. In the heat of battle, you shoot first, check later. There is no 'political correctness' in battle. There is only self preservation...
Asking or worse yet, expecting a soldier to take a couple of extra seconds to verify a target in the midst of a firefight, is not only unthinkably pompous and arrogant, it's boneheadedly stupid. It's simply not going to happen. In this case, when your enemy is so cravenly coward that he actually hides amongst civilians, using them as human shields, you have no choice. There are going to be non-combatant casualties. It is simply unavoidable. A soldier simply cannot "not shoot", nor should he/she be expected to. If he does not, the enemy wins. That is not an option...
It is bad enough that Palestinians themselves have no choice and are being held up to slaughter by their Hamas masters. The last thing this situation needs is some mindless collection of foreign civilians, bent on grandstanding and wilfully endangering their own lives, bimbling around over there like a fart in a cauldron.
Idiots are truly universal in their range, aren't they? Personally, my belief is that these individuals (if there is indeed more than one of them...) have no intention whatsoever of doing any of this. It is simply another bullshit propaganda campaign aimed at the medias of the world, so that they can attempt to discredit the IDF and slander Israel itself for taking on these gutless individuals that make up Hamas. Their nonsensical drivel gives me ample reasons to doubt the authenticity of any of their claims.
But on the off chance that any of this is in fact legit, remember... if you're going to go through life being stupid, you had better be tough.
So in skimming through some of the posted comments, (most not rating even an acknowledgement...) I came upon this doozie, presumably from Cyprus:
"Moderator, I have the group's permission to post this here.
We Are Coming Back, And We Are Putting Israel On Notice.
[Larnaca, Cyprus] Today the Free Gaza Movement put Israel on notice that we are sending another emergency boat to Gaza. We will announce our exact departure date, time and route in the next few days. We will travel from Cypriot waters, into international waters, then directly into Gaza territorial waters, never nearing Israeli waters.
The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed over 640 Palestinians, including many children and women, and injured thousands. These acts by Israel are severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions, both in regards to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war. The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel's massive violations of international humanitarian law.
Therefore, we concerned citizens from Belgium, Columbia, France, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, Scotland, Spain, and the United States, feel that it is our moral duty to try to do just that. The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza.
In the early hours of Tuesday, December 30, the Israeli Navy rammed our boat, the DIGNITY, in international waters. Neither the DIGNITY, nor its passengers and crew constituted any kind of threat to Israel, and the Israeli government had been alerted to the boat's mission, the previous day. Yet we were violently rammed three times on the side without any warning from the Israeli Navy, in an obvious attempt to disable the vessel, jeopardizing the lives of the 16 passengers on board. We are not deterred by the violence of the Israeli military and intend to sail to Gaza again and again.
We are physicians, journalists, members of parliament, and human rights observers who intend to reach the people of Gaza to deliver much needed medical aid and witness the atrocities being committed against the Palestinians there. We are willing to put our bodies on the line to stop Israel's unlawful massacres of the Palestinian people (we have received death threats warning us not to repeat our attempt) and bring the attention of the world to the war crimes happening in Gaza against 1.5 million Palestinians."
**********************************************************
I guess many civilians would read that and say: "So...? What's wrong with that? They're allowed to...".
Are you kidding me?? There are so many things wrong with this statement of theirs, that it's hard to know where to start in ripping it apart. Does anyone out there really think that you can just up and go, armed only with some form of misguided sense of self-righteousness, decide to gather other ill-informed people around you and enter an active theatre of war??? Seriously??? You have no idea how detached from reality you have to be, in order to concoct such a hair-brained idea.
If these people are who they claim to be, they would never have posted this Darwinian post card. One would have to guess that they would have the education to know better. Throwing around terms like "the Geneva Convention", "occupying power" and "requirements of the laws of war". The author of this post knows nothing about either one of these topics, and even less about the dynamics that make up the present situation in Gaza.
For one, Israel in not an "occupying power". This is in fact a full-scale attack, not an occupation. Israeli forces are in Gaza to seek, identify and destroy Hamas militants and their infrastructure, who ceaselessly attack Israeli territory. Israel has no intention, nor does it want to occupy Gaza. They're there to take care of business, then go home.
Hamas routinely operates with no regard whatsoever for the Geneva Convention. They wouldn't even know what it is. Their combatants wear no identifying uniform, they assimilate their fighters and their weapons emplacements alongside civilians and inside civilian structures, in the mistaken belief that the Israelis will not dare attack them there, for fear of turning world opinion against them. All these actions go against every article of the Geneva Convention. You can only drag out the Geneva Convention, if all parties involved recognize them and are signatories. So much for that... Much to their credit, by the way... Israel doesn't give a shit about world opinion. And rightfully so... That's why they are still Israel, and not just another Arab enclave.
Just for the record, the United Nations are not responsible for the protection of the Palestinian people. That responsibility falls to their "democratically-elected representatives" (as they like to refer to themselves as...), Hamas. Their 'democratic representatives' are the very ones who led them into this shitstorm, by their relentless attacks on Israeli soil. If the Palestinian people elected them, clearly they share a large responsibility for their own current plight. It should be noted in passing that the German National Socialist Party (the Nazis...) were democratically elected to power in 1933. Just because a political entity is 'democratically elected' by the people, does not imply that it is right, just or even sane. It does however mean that the majority of the voting population shares and endorses that party's views and beliefs. That would go a long way towards explaining the estimated 1.7 million German civilian casualties during WW2. In times of war, a population faces the same fate as their 'democratically elected' political leaders.
If the Israeli Navy had indeed "violently attacked" this group's craft as they state, there would be nobody left to write this insipid post of theirs. The IDF does not believe in going by half-measures. They'd be feeding the fish by now. By ramming them, they were not attempting to 'disable' their boat. That's what raking the upper decks with automatic fire is designed to do. They were merely sending them a 'gentle' message: "If you value your life, get the fuck out of here!!" And here's another news flash for this budding rocket scientist: anyone who declares to a nation which is on a war footing (to say nothing of "serving notice to"...), that they will be swinging by with a bunch of non-combatants in some nondescript craft, is basically asking to be sunk. A sense of moral duty or outrage does not protect you from bullets, bombs, missiles or rockets and you never simply announce to someone that you'll be entering the waters under their control. (Go look up the meaning of 'blockade'...). You're entering a war zone. This is not day camp.
Anyone entering such an area is deemed to be with either one camp or the other and does so at their own peril. If you are not IDF, you're one of the other guys. On land? Reporters? At a distance, if you're dressed civvies and toting anything on your shoulder as you scurry through the rubble, guess what? You're a frikkin' target my friend. Camera? RPG? Who's to know. There's a reason why the Israelis don't want yet more civilians in a war zone, confusing an already murky situation. In the heat of battle, you shoot first, check later. There is no 'political correctness' in battle. There is only self preservation...
Asking or worse yet, expecting a soldier to take a couple of extra seconds to verify a target in the midst of a firefight, is not only unthinkably pompous and arrogant, it's boneheadedly stupid. It's simply not going to happen. In this case, when your enemy is so cravenly coward that he actually hides amongst civilians, using them as human shields, you have no choice. There are going to be non-combatant casualties. It is simply unavoidable. A soldier simply cannot "not shoot", nor should he/she be expected to. If he does not, the enemy wins. That is not an option...
It is bad enough that Palestinians themselves have no choice and are being held up to slaughter by their Hamas masters. The last thing this situation needs is some mindless collection of foreign civilians, bent on grandstanding and wilfully endangering their own lives, bimbling around over there like a fart in a cauldron.
Idiots are truly universal in their range, aren't they? Personally, my belief is that these individuals (if there is indeed more than one of them...) have no intention whatsoever of doing any of this. It is simply another bullshit propaganda campaign aimed at the medias of the world, so that they can attempt to discredit the IDF and slander Israel itself for taking on these gutless individuals that make up Hamas. Their nonsensical drivel gives me ample reasons to doubt the authenticity of any of their claims.
But on the off chance that any of this is in fact legit, remember... if you're going to go through life being stupid, you had better be tough.
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