Updated-Israel Sails Into Insanity

Update: Coverage of Israeli state terrorism:

– Gaza Inquiry Pushed
– Gaza Flotilla Attack: Guns and Blood
– Gaza aid flotilla: Israeli sabotage suspected
– Irish aid boat, MV Rachel Corrie, holds course towards Gaza

Update II: Israel deports human rights activists, Batch of Freedom Flotilla passengers reach Jordan as Israel drops plan to prosecute activists.

Israeli press blackout still in effect.

Israel refuses to release the names of the dead, wounded and detained, announces pending release.

Israel says it acted in self-defense as it assaulted humanitarian ships in international waters.

From Amy Goodman:

For continuing updates, see Witness Gaza, Al Jazeera and Informed Comment.

By Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement:

The Israeli military has been busy spinning the story of their attack on a civilian convoy trying to deliver aid to the imprisoned people of Gaza.

They’ve had a head start, sending out edited videos, posting ‘supposed’ military footage of the passengers attacking them, saying that they confiscated weapons which turned out to be marbles, sling shots, kitchen knives and aluminum chairs.

But they can’t spin for much longer. Video footage from dozens of people is beginning to surface about what really happened. Al Jazeera has posted their coverage as gun shots sound in the background, speakers beg the passengers to go below and a white flag is set out for the paramilitary groups. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn-l_JltCB4

More will come out as passengers are released. We already know that Israel shot the captain of the Marmara and the European Campaign boat, maybe hoping that we would no longer be able to hire captains. Several activists have spoken to their Consulates and told of being kicked, beaten, dragged along the ground, tear gassed and bags thrown over their heads.

Knowing that video of this vicious attack in international waters was going to surface, Captain Aria Shaliker of the Israel Defense Forces, who was part of the operation on Monday, said the commandos began the raids armed with paint ball guns. “I was, myself, on one of the boats, the Israeli boats, approaching the flotilla,” he told the BBC’s World Today programme. “It is true that the Israeli commander unit… came on board with paint ball weapons… in order to disperse people.

No mention of paint-stained clothing.

As Israel’s hysteria mounts, “they now claim “self defense” in attacking ships in international waters today, killing 9. Israel informed the US and Britain that the convoy was ferrying stolen nuclear weapons that would be used for a terrorist attack on Israel. The “stolen nukes” have been in Israel for 18 years while the US has spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives looking for them. Today 9 more died”

– http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/06/gordon-duff-israel-scams-u-s-%E2%80%9Cgaza-convoy-carrying-stolen-nukes%E2%80%9D/

The world is watching a county imploding, having a massive nervous breakdown in full view. It’s tragic that thousands of Palestinians have died and 9 human rights workers lost their lives yesterday.

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