The New York Times lately published a story on the flotilla raid, by Ethan Bronner and Sabrina Tavernise. Finkelstein's interpolations are in shaded segments:
In Israel, ideas on how to halt the boats — sabotage of propellers or engines, the use of ropes or chains — were examined, military officials say, but all were rejected as dangerous or impractical. Disabling a huge boat like the Mavi Marmara could lead to its sinking or to days of towing it to shore.
How could disabling the vessel’s propeller have caused it to sink?
The best option, they asserted, was a takeover of the command of the boats, something Israel had done a year ago during an attempt by a smaller vessel. This time, though, because the lead boat was so large, the Israelis would have to descend by helicopter rather than approaching only by sea, costing them the element of surprise.
The Israeli navy contains no “large” boats that could have pulled up alongside the Turkish vessel?
Some American naval experts interviewed agreed that as long as Israel insisted on stopping the Mavi Marmara, its best option was a takeover.
The formidable Israeli navy, which patrols Israel’s Mediterranean coast and now has three nuclear submarines in the Gulf, couldn’t have physically impeded the vessel’s passage?
But Israel, committed to enforcing a blockade, did not consider alternatives like searching the cargo before unloading it in Gaza — a decision that has prompted criticism that Israel was too quick to choose confrontation and fell into a trap set by the activists.
Israel’s inner cabinet of seven ministers approved the plan and the Israeli Navy Seal units began training for what they expected to be passive resistance. “We had in mind a sit-down, a linking of arms,” a military spokesman said.
If the Israeli navy expected only “passive resistance…‘a sit-down, a linking of arms,’” why didn’t it just board the vessel in broad daylight and pilot it to Ashdod?
On the morning of the raid, confusion ruled. The first soldiers who rappelled down the ropes appeared disoriented and frightened, Dr. Coskun, the Turkish witness, said, slipping a bit on the dewy deck and calling out in English, which Dr. Coskun said few Turks understood.
Is it credible that before they faced any resistance the “first soldiers who rappelled down the ropes” were “disoriented and frightened,” when “The Naval Commando is today the best fighting unit in the IDF” (Ben Caspit, Maariv), and “The Naval Commando drilled taking over the ships for weeks” (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth Ahronoth)?
Next time, the Israeli should hire some Somali fishermen to do the job. They manage to board and capture oil tankers, among the largest vessels afloat.
And without killing a single soul, as I recall.
Often.
Yeah, but I doubt those Somalis harbour grudges against the Turkish guv. ;D
It’s painful to see the discredited softball-tossing Bronner prove everyone right in front of the entire world at a time when we need clarity and accountability more than anything.
they were assasinated, and if you do not attack something in the dark which is shooting something at you, you are a liar. aparthied has never failed to miss a chance to be even more hated, ……how do they do it??
amazing!! Their goal must be to be hated enough that people will lash out at them everywhere. Seriously keep a FreePalestine hat handy when the time comes phil and companyand all those alike whom dislike aparthied israel….this way you can be safe when needed. and obviously stay away from those crowds, like in New York they were nuts without a cause!
Based on the autopsy results published by the Guardian, the shooting of passengers on board the Mavi Marmara seems to had been done as a result of sheer anger and hatred.
There is no need to shoot a 19 year old boy – who weighs about 160lbs – in the head 4 times in ‘self-defense’, as the Israelis allege. A shot to the center mass (i.e. the chest) are what law enforcement personnel in the US are trained to do. Four shots to the head speak of intent, a desire to kill and execute, motivated by passion, hatred and anger.
The same goes for the shooting of elderly men in their 60s. One, for example, was shot in the temple, back, leg and chest.
It begs the question, whose wet dream and strong desire for vengeance did the Israeli attackers fulfill, theirs or the Israeli leadership’s?
Unfortunately, I have to correct Finkelstein on a few points:
1.) “Pulling up alongside” another ship is a fairly risky maneuver which can easily result in considerable material damage. A helicopter is, indeed, by far the preferable option.
2.) Israel has no “nuclear submarines”. A nuclear submarine is one which is powered by a nuclear reactor. Israel has only conventional, diesel-electric submarines (with the possible addition of fuell cell AIP), which may or may not be armed with some nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
3.) Physically stopping a vessel like the Marvi Marmara is not at all easy, especially not for the generally small vessels the Israelis have.
Other points are right on the money:
1.) Carrying out this raid in the night was essentially asking for a disaster.
2.) Disabling the ship’s propellers would in all likelyhood not resulted in its sinking – which in any case any competent damage control team brought along by the Israelis should have been able to prevent.
Now all of this doesn’t affect the non-existing legality of the Israeli assault and the blatant disregard for human life with which it was carried out. And of course, if the issue was really to prevent arms smuggling, Israel could just search the vessels for arms and let them continue on their way (a procedure which, by the way, international law, even if it were applicable here, would dictate.)
Israel has no “nuclear submarines”
I think he’s referring to the nuclear tipped missiles that they reportedly equipped the subs with, not the propulsion systems. An ambiguous statement, admittedly.
If Israel believed what they were doing was legal, why jam communication systems, why confiscate all recording equipment? If they believed what they were doing was legal…document it all.
Since Israel released that segment of the tape showing the flotilla crew beating the Israeli soldiers. Keep wondering when Israel will release tapes of them blowing bullets into the back of these activist heads at close range? Wondering when Chris matthews will show that clip 9 times in seven minutes the way he repeated the Israeli released tape?
“The nine bodies of aid workers that the Israeli authorities returned to Turkey have now been subjected to an autopsy, and it turns out that the nine were shot 30 times altogether by nine millimeter bullets. Most of the gunshots were from very close range, and some wounded the activists in the back of the head or in the back, suggesting that they were shot as they tried to run away. Only one body had just one entry wound, apparently that of a photographer who was sitting down when shot between the eyes. Targeting photographers suggests suppression of evidence of a crime, not self-defense. Multiple shots from close range also sounds more like venting than like self-defense. If you were menaced by an advancing crowd, would you stand around shooting the same person 4 times? Would you bother to shoot anyone in the back? (Remember, the shots came from close range, so it wasn’t that people were killed accidentally at a distance when the commandos missed their close-up target).”
link to juancole.com
The 9 activists killed last Monday were shot 30 Times
Posted on June 5, 2010 by Juan
yes they have nuclear subs and it was already varified…this site has the most knowledgible people anywhere, trying to pass propaganda off is just well a waste of time. You sure you are not mark regev ??
Blockade is illegal, international attack and kidnapping and murder and touture ! I guess you are the one corrected. Unless somehow there is a new law which excludes apaprthied from following anyone laws…like blackwater
in the article “For the past three years, in an effort to squeeze Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, ”
Why do they keep getting away with repeating this horseshit.
link to npr.org
Former President Jimmy Carter says that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is prepared to accept Israel’s right to live in peace. Carter met with Hamas leaders over the weekend, a meeting opposed by Israel and the Bush administration. They both shun Hamas and view it as a terrorist organization.
“Why do they keep getting away with repeating this horseshit.”
Because it’s very effective and useful. As soon as you say the word “terrorism”, people’s ability to reason or be compassionate melts like ice cream in the sun – and they’ll accept almost anything. In the US, in any case, it works very well, and those working in the media have known it for a long time.
they own the people in the media…you spin enough lies for years and years…like that god gave it to them,…(there is no god)
The people and reports seem to be real…that is until you are right there in Palestine running from the nutty yahoo military, so you do not get killed.
Treason charges are needed for the past and present administrations here in the usa along with aparthied afterwards. CUDETA
I still don’t see why Israel didn’t just let the Mavi Marmara proceed undisturbed. Then when it docked at Gaza they could just send an IDF officer (or the local harbor master for that matter) to talk to the ship captain about Israel’s need to inspect the cargo.
In the meantime, if Israel really wanted to impress the world, it could have set up a big open sided tent and invited the passengers ashore for coffee and donuts. Maybe a band in the background softly playing Turkish music.
The problem, I think, is that Israel simply couldn’t really deal with the idea of a Muslim ship defying its blockade. Israel not only wanted the confrontation, it psychologically needed it. Basically Israel wanted to show the world that you don’t mess with the Zohan.
Israel never gives bit a dozen or so items from a list which do not include basics or even chocolate, sickos!
That is mainly part of why, otherwise it is just a try to break a blockade which is illegal in the eyes of the ineternational laws, but then again they have no laws there. Thank goodness for grapes
Additionally, as I suggest in , Bronner should have asked the IDF officers why, if the IDF expected the activists to have a sit-in with passive resistance, did they arrive shooting stun grenades and rubber bullets from the helicopters (as reported in his own article), thereby initiating hostilities and dramatically escalating the violence.
Stun grenades would have been an appropriate measure to take when faced with a hostile crowd. Assuming, of course, that an illegal assault on a vessel in international waters can be considered appropriate.
Great observational question, Yaniv–have yet to hear this inconsistentcy discussed in the US MSM TV News.
Oops, sorry about the formatting typo on that last one…
At this moment, the NYT Bronner piece heads: “Israeli Military Boards Gaza-Bound Aid Ship”. Boards.
As in “Your cruise is bound to leave, please board”
Mr Bronner, the word is entering.
Israeli propagnda machine is just like Soviet one , interconnected,centralized,and permeated at every level with the objective of guarding the image of Israel. Ethan Bronner is doing his part. I guess his son has done his also.
“the Israeli government “sought to flood the airwaves with their versions of events … more importantly, the authorities ensured that their narrative gained early dominance by largely silencing the hundreds of activists who were on board during the attack” (Financial Times, June 2, 2010, p2.). The Jewish state held all the prisoners alive, wounded and dead incommunicado, seized their mobile phones and prohibited any interviews, barring all journalists. While dozens of human rights people were shot, killed and maimed, Israeli propagandists doctored video releases portraying one of the Israeli assailants on the deck, cutting out the preceding sequence of attack (Financial Times, June 2, 2010, p. 2).James Petras
www.globalresearch.ca
Here are some other question Mr. Bronner should ask.
“What does the United States owe the state of Israel, and why?”
“How long would it take the United States to return to peace after ending the special relationship with Israel?”
questions
Exactly Trains!
And who are these New Communists? Same as the old communists.
It is eff’g outrageous that only Israel (with the help of it’s diaspora) can get away with murder on the high seas, hide the bodies for a week, not divulge their identities, steal all the 680 passenger’s personal property, mistreat all the survivors, and lie through their teeth about the whole matter from A to Z. And when the truth finally comes out, Israel will probably have killed twice as many people.
The Middle East’s only democracy again demonstrates it’s “light to the world”.
Stopping a ship of that size really is very difficult to do safely. I think the three safest tools would have been daylight, overwhelming show of strength and a lot of tear gas on the bridge. That the IDF chose the method they did suggests to me that they wanted a few specific deaths.
But it disheartens me to read how much “news” revolves around the question whether the IDF is competent or not. Clearly they are not. Can we talk about wounded children yet?
I’ve no doubt the israelis carried out their terrorist attack exactly in the manner intended. They intended to kill Turks and offend the nation of Turkey to send Turkey the message that you don’t ever criticize israel, or zionism, and get away with it. The israelis, and their american quislings, came to the conclusion Turkey was moving outside their control some time ago. Turkey’s refusal to allow the israeloamericans to launch their war of aggression against Iraq from Turkish soil was the wake-up call that Turkey was escaping. Certainly after Turkish reaction to israeli terrorism in Gaza last year, they must have come to the conclusion Turkey had escaped. And worse than that, the Turkish guv had recently quashed the coup plotters israeloamerica had set-up for just this contingency.
Since they cant coup Turkey, like they’ve done a few times in the past when Turkey got a little too independent, they decided to outright attack Turkey. Which is exactly what that israeli terrorist act of piracy was. And so was that simultaneous attack in Turkey. Now we will see israeloamerican covert ops and “color revolution” agents go into high gear. Naturally, the israeli occupied western media will do its duty and start demonising Turkey non-stop like they do Iran now.
The Turks are not wasting any time on putting their own defensive strategy into motion:
Erdogan invites Russian Putin to conference in Turkey Russian Prime Minister Putin expressed his sorrow over killing of nine people during the raid. Friday, 04 June 2010 11:29
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Erdogan invited his Russian counterpart to the conference on “Cooperation in Asia and Confidence-Building Measures” in Istanbul on June 8.
Prime Minister Putin accepted the invitation and the two leaders agreed to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the conference.
link to worldbulletin.net
A bit of irony here is that israeli/zionist dominance of american foreign policy is bringing together two nations who have been opponents for literally 100′s of years.
who knows maybe puttin will say, “its ok to come home my children” too much time has passed, europe needs to populate especially russia. even when that time comes and the zionist leave Palestine forever, it will all have been destoyed already.
Mooser was right on the money when he said that (not 100% verbatim) “what the political fallout for Tel Aviv is, is not very important if you rapell down a rope with an Uzi in your hand”. Especially when you are a Jewish supremacist Arab-hating fascist like most members of the IDF. Those good people at Breaking the silence surely are the minority.