Oy, the Humanity! Israel Attacks Blockade Runners
by Jim Washburn
When is piracy on the high seas not considered piracy? When is murder not considered to be murder? When you've got money, power and technology on your side, evidently.
Suppose you're a Somali fisherman who has seen his waters over-fished and despoiled (including dumped nuclear waste) by foreign vessels, and out of desperation you finally turn to attacking those ships from your small boats with hand-held weapons. You, my friend, are a pirate.
Now suppose you're the Israeli military, attacking ships in international waters with helicopters and gun ships, killing up to 20 of the boats' civilian occupants, who were trying to bring building supplies and other necessities into Gaza, which Israel has blockaded ever since it blew the hell out of the place two years ago.
Hey, that's not piracy, that's just our tax dollars at work. (Israel is by far the largest recipient of US aid, receiving something like $7 billion annually.) Want to see where your money's going?:
It's the same story elsewhere: When Muslim extremists kill innocents, it's a massacre. When the US kills 24 innocents in Afghanistan, it's at worst, a mistake (though one we keep repeating), because we do our murdering from afar, via predator drones, directed by people sitting in a room in Nevada. For all the connection they have to the suffering they're causing they might as well be at a Vegas video arcade.
Here we are, two of the world's most civilized nations, with some of the planets more creative and compassionate people as its citizens, yet we persist in doing utterly barbarous things, as if somehow the technology we use shields us from the reality of our actions.
A correction: The initial accounts of those killed on the raid on the flotilla ranged from the Israelis claiming there were 10 dead and the blockade runners saying there were 20, and I went with the runners, they being the ones who are dead. The new death toll ranges from 9 to 16. Another uncertain figure: there were between 5 and 9 Americans on the ships as well.
2010-06-1 by jim washburnSee if this tells you anything about the influence of Israel in American politics: American citizens are attacked with deadly force in international waters, are essentially kidnapped and are presently being held prisoner by a foreign power, and even though the UN and most of the civilized world is condemning that attack, the initial signs are that our government is going to side with Israel.