Gaza.

Eden Aberjil: full technicolour glory.

sachim:

באדיבות הקורא ר.ס

Breaking The Silence published other photos on facebook to show that this is not an isolated incident.

IDF Propoganda 101

Apparently, the IDF and Israeli Navy will “act with judgement and accomplish the mission”.

According to the decision made by the Israeli government, the IDF and the Israeli Navy are getting prepared to prevent the flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza. The flotilla’s passengers will be given the opportunity to turn back at any stage of their trip or to give up the control of their ships.

From the moment of their departure, the ships will receive formal warnings at various stages of their journey, requesting them to stop their trip to Gaza’s shores.

 Should the passengers decide to continue the journey and not take the Israeli Navy’s warning into consideration, they will be arrested, brought to Israel’s shores and transferred to the Ministry of Interior and the immigration authorities so they can be sent back to their country of origin.

The security forces will grab hold of the aid expected to be brought to Gaza by the flotilla, and after a security check of the goods, they will be transferred into the Gaza Strip.

Read more directly from the IDF.  Of course, the IDF fail to mention that boarding unarmed civilian ships in international waters and arresting peaceful activists amounts to piracy and false imprisonment. As usual, the mass media is quiet on this issue.

UPDATE (28 May 2010):

IDF admitting it will commit illegal piracy during briefing?

“The King’s Torah”

“It is permissible to kill the Righteous among non-Jews even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” — “The King’s Torah” by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro

AJE’s Inside Story discusses a new book that, “.. offers a theological backing to Jews killing those perceived to be violating Jewish commandments or threatening the Jewish nation.” — one of the guests is from Rabbi’s for Human Rights.

I wonder if you get a free t-shirt with the book?

And the award for ‘Best Terrorist Action in the Struggle for the Establishment of Israel’ goes to…

Since the Marc Garlesco conspiracy theory gripped the blogosphere, I have to admit to having developed a passing interest in military paraphernalia.  These days a fixation with military history could lead to trouble, but in order to carefully avoid being called an anti-Jewish hater of Israel, I thought I’d study Israeli military awards. This is surely the least harmless of hobbies for those taking a position against Israeli human rights abuse?

Military awards, normally, are given to those who show valour and honour in the service of their country, right?  And if, as we are constantly told, the IDF is the “most most moral army in the world” (do people actually say that with a straight face any longer?), then surely the awards given to the most courageous, valiant and honourable veterans of the ‘most moral army in the world’ must signify that those receiving the awards are truly the best of the best.

You would think so.

The State of Israel itself honours the terrorist acts of organisations which were engaged in terrorist atrocities before the State of Israel even declared independence. The Israeli military knowingly and specifically bestows decorations upon members of at least 3 terrorist groups:

1. The Etzel Ribbon is awarded to members of the Irgun organisation which resisted British rule in Palestine using terrorist means.
2. The Haganah Ribbon is awarded to members of Haganah, an organisation which opportunistically veered between both supporting and then undermining British rule in Palestine.  Haganah eventually evolved into the IDF.  Which may explain a great many things.
3. The Lehi Ribbon is awarded to members of Lehi, also know as the Stern Gang.  Lehi attempted contact with Nazi Germany, bargaining that in return for assisting Germany, that Germany would, in turn, support “the establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich”

These awards signify to the global community that the contemporary State of Israel retrospectively rewards active participation in terrorism, and also that even though the different Jewish nationalist groups (Irgun, Haganah, Lehi) often clashed with each other, the most important commonality these organisations had was a dedication to “struggle for the establishment of Israel”, literally, as history attests,  by any means necessary.

Is it not contradictory and cynically hypocritical to boot that Israel rewards and honours groups and individuals who fought either with or against the British?  In particular is it not unconscionable for Israel to actually honour an organisation that offered support to Nazi Germany, whilst at the same time having a specific award (the ‘Fighters against Nazis’ ribbon) for those who fought against the Nazi regime?  Does it not display that the State of Israel has an altogether fuzzy approach to the morality of resistance?

That the different awards are available to the various individual terrorist organisations are an offence to logic and humanity. They are explainable only by the fact that, over time, the leading members of each group pursued political careers which propelled some of them into leading government roles.  These are positions from which they could legitimise their own involvement in past terrorist actions in an attempt to bend interpretation of history for their own means.

It is a most sickeningly sublime irony that the State of Israel continues to recognise and reward Israeli citizens for fighting for independence from British rule, viewing them as principled freedom fighters, and yet will at the same time pathologically label any Palestinian committing not altogether dissimilar offences - and committed for exactly the same reasons as Israel rewards it’s military heroes - as a terrorist.

We can only hope that perhaps one day Israel will recognise and jettison these open and obvious double standards.