Obama’s Timidity and Deaths at Sea
Obama’s Timidity and Deaths at Sea
By Ray McGovern
June 1, 2010
Casualty figures are still arriving in the wake of Israel’s Sunday night-Monday morning commando attack on an unarmed flotilla trying to bring relief supplies to the 1.5 million Palestinians crowded into Gaza. Already, at least nine civilian passengers aboard the ships are reported killed, and dozens wounded.
Yet, seldom has an act of aggression been so well advertised in advance. Israel had made clear that it would use force to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza and heard no stern protest from President Obama, who apparently could not overcome his fear of Israel’s legendary political clout.
Earlier this year, Obama did criticize Israel’s continued settlement of Palestinian areas and Netanyahu’s resistance to hold meaningful peace talks, but the President has failed to follow up his words with firm action or resolve.
For that reason, Netanyahu was left convinced that Israel could do what it wished, including dropping commandos by helicopters onto crowded ships and after an apparent clash with civilians on one of the ships, ordering the use of lethal force.
Then, Netanyahu could expect that America’s Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) – with leading figures like Wolf Blitzer who built his journalistic career by working for the Jerusalem Post – would finesse the murderous assault into something reasonable and possibly even tilted sympathetically toward the Israeli troops.
Early on, CNN began repeating the Israeli “explanation” for its attack on the high seas, parroting the Jerusalem Post which reported that “militants were killed” after they set upon Israeli naval commandos who boarded one of the six ships Monday morning at two o’clock.
The commandos “were met with strong resistance from men armed with bladed weapons and the situation degenerated into a massacre when one of them grabbed the weapon of a soldier and opened fire,” said the Jerusalem Post, quoting Israeli military sources.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the relief convoy organizers had a “radical Islamic anti-Western orientation,” and that Israeli “naval forces were attacked with metal clubs and knives, as well as live fire,” though there were no reports of Israeli deaths. The IDF statement continued:
“The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose,” adding that the Navy then used riot dispersal methods, which include live fire, according to JTA, the global news service of the Jewish people.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed the organizers of the convoy for the violent outcome, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told a news conference why that was so: “The organizers’ intent was violent, their method was violent, and unfortunately, the results were violent.”
So, you see, the Israeli military resorted to violence only in self-defense. Right.
Quiet Conversation
On Monday, President Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone about the incident. Afterwards, the White House said Obama had expressed “deep regret” over the deaths, but declined further comment, citing “the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances” as quickly as possible.
However, don’t count on the timid Obama or his Likud-leaning advisers — much less the FCM — to question the Israeli version.
We are likely to get an “explanation” worthy of the late Alexander Haig as to why the slaughter may well have been “justified.” Haig’s death in February brought to mind comments he made about a brutal incident on the night of Dec. 2, 1980, shortly after Ronald Reagan’s election victory.
In rightist-ruled El Salvador, government security forces stopped four American churchwomen in their mini-van and were ordered to kill them. The soldiers first raped the women and then executed them with high-powered rifles.
Reagan’s foreign policy team decided to treat the rape-murder as a public relations problem, best handled by shifting blame onto the victims. And so, the women were deemed not nuns, but “political activists.”
After becoming Reagan’s first Secretary of State, Haig told Congress that “the nuns may have run through a roadblock or may have accidentally been perceived to have been doing so, and there may have been an exchange of fire.”
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This is some article. Let’s just jump over the facts and go straight to bashing Isreal. I’ve got news for you. If I was the second man down the rope, and saw the first man being beaten and stabbed. I’d of opened fire on the way down and used a sweep the decks action when my feet landed. I personally am amazed at the restraint those commando’s maintained. By all rights, once those on the decks had confirmed that they were enemy combatants bent on running the blockaid instead of humanitarian relief, there should have been a lot more of them dead.
Anyway, Sledge, stones against firearms. As an ex soldier with some commandos friends I can tell you that any Honorable soldier will never shoot unarmed people and by arms I mean firearms, of course this may be too hard for you to understand, if you are going to mention the greatness and power of the US just remember one thing this country has never won a war,(sorry veterans) but I’m related to veterans too, and that is their truth. If you think that people is going to just submit themselves because the US or israel says so, you are wrong, the WHOLE WORLD is sick and tired of your BULLSHIT. Stupid people talks all the time about killing and killing, would this people have the balls to fight, kill and be able to live with themselves?, look around how our soldiers are killing themselves when they get back home, depression?.
By the way Sledge if you were the second guy going down the rope and I was on the boat, you wouldn’t have make it on the boat.
LoL Ketten. Wanna bet? Ex soldier? I doubt it. Friends who are commando’s, yea right. You wouldn’t know a spec ops if he kicked you in the backside. I’m a vet and your words don’t ad up to what I’ve lived. Sticks and stones and knives. Yea, those guys should have said, “Beat and maim me, stick me with a knife a couple of times and throw me over the side.” Let me tell you, my opinion of you is extremely low. You don’t even have the clarity of mind to even look at the situation rationally. If the people on the ship wanted to deliver aid they had every opportunity to do so. That obviously wasn’t their objective. They wanted a fight. That was their objective. They got one and now all they are doing is crying. Just like you! Deal with it. If more ships come Israel will be forced to kick their butts too. If they don’t want their butts kicked, they should deliver the aid thru the proper routes. Got any more “big, bad talk” for me? It’s easier when you don’t have to look me in the face isn’t it? Go for it sis.