Stephen P.
Heller
Numerous legal
experts claim naval blockades are legal. Enforcement in international waters is
legal when the vessel attempts to violate the blockade. Lethal force is legal
for self-defense. The IHH acknowledged its intention to break the blockade, and
Hamas refused entry of the goods into Gaza. No one disputes that life in Gaza
is miserable (but not as bad as in many Arab/Muslim
countries or life of Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka). Neither can it be
disputed that Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israeli population
centers without regard for civilian casualties. Egypt joined with Israel in
blockading Gaza after Hamas gained control.
The second largest amount of U.S.
financial aid goes to Egypt. No one seeks withdrawal of U.S. aid to Egypt for
its enforcement of the blockade (or treatment of
Coptic Christians). No one argues for a boycott of goods from China for
its repression of Tibet (or selling organs of
executed prisoners). No one demonstrates against Iran for its brutal
suppression of the opposition or its threats to use nuclear weapons (and brutal treatment of religious and ethnic minorities).
No one marches against Saudi Arabia for
punishing homosexuality and adultery with amputations (and
lack of religious freedom). Yet Israel is routinely vilified for every
mistake (if self-defense is mistake) it
makes. How about giving Israel a break and focusing attention on the truly
villainous governments of the world in Sudan, Iran, Somalia, China, Brazil,
Uganda, North Korea, Kenya and so on?
Netanyahu is Glutten for Punishment! Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu will head to the U.S. on Monday for his meeting with U.S.
President Barak Obama on Tuesday. The two will meet for two hours after which a
half hour press conference will be held and then the two will dine together. (After last visit humiliation of Netanyahu shouldn’t Obama
come to Israel?)
Undemocratic and Inept Government. The Israeli
Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday voted down a proposal that would
have given the Knesset the power to veto an extension of a government-imposed
freeze on the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If passed, the
legislation would have severely limited Netanyahu's power to extend current
building restrictions in the West Bank, due to expire in September.
Food for Thought. by
Steven Shamrak
Jew-haters blindly and franticly hate Israel to the point that
they are happily helping Muslims, who hate Christians even more than Jews, to
progress toward global Islamization of the world. After Israel, those idiots
are next on the Islamic terror hit-list. Al-Qaida has already started the
process. This is the highest level of stupidity!
Israel
is Destroying Vital Industry in Gaza. Since Israel eases its blockade of the
territory: Some of the hundreds of tunnels under the border with Egypt have
suspended work. Others now only bring in the most sought-after items, such as
cement, steel, fuel and cigarettes. Some Gaza shopowners and traders have
frozen orders of smuggled goods until they find out whether merchandise coming
in legally from Israel will be cheaper.
Israel
Plans Huge New Desalination Plant. After Turkey has canceled a planned water sale
that was to provide Israel with water for 20 years the cabinet has approved
construction of a desalination plant south of Tel Aviv that is to supply 300
million cubic meters of water per year.
No Plans for Peace – Just Annihilation of
Israel. 1)
Another clue as to the Palestinian Authority's true stance on how a future
Palestinian state would coexist with Israel came in a PA TV program
broadcast recently. On the program, called “The Stars,” in which PA
university students compete to answer questions, one student demonstrated what
he had learned about Israel in the PA school system: that it does not exist
altogether. 2) Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) accused the American-backed PA on Wednesday of being
unwilling to enter into peace talks with Israel. "Why are there only
proximity talks? There is no willingness on the part of the Palestinian
Authority to enter direct talks. I say to Abu Mazen: 'There is no way to solve
the conflict without direct discussion.'"
No Jewish Money
for Islamist Enemy. At least $400
million was lost to the Turkish economy due to reservation cancellations from
Israeli tourists, according to Turkish tourism agencies. The Israeli
Travel Agents Association announced that it recently cancelled 100,000
Turkish reservations out of a total of 150,000. The poll found that 74% are
against Netanyahu giving in to American pressure on the issue.
Quote of the
Week: “The Russians have crushed the struggle for independence
of the Chechens by carpet-bombing their capital. And what about a Kurdish
state? The Turks and Iraqis (and Iran) have inflicted
unspeakable horrors on the Kurds (and other ethnic
and religious minorities). And yet, there are no Free Kurdistan flotillas sailing
toward Turkey, and Russian officials don't have to fear to be arrested in
European capitals for war crimes.” - Leon de Winter
– Both, Chechens and Kurds, like most of
residents of Gaza, are Muslims but there was no real condemnations by the UN or
EU, and other bigots. There is only one difference – Israel is the Jewish
state!
Another Case
of “Too little, too late”. A
list of every known French collaborator with the Nazis during World War II is
set to be revealed and published online. The plan followed last year's ruling
by France's highest court that French collaborators were not forced to help the
Nazis.
Jail for Selling Land to Jews. A
PA court sentenced on Tuesday a 44 year-old man from Kalkilya to 10 years in
prison for selling land to Israelis. In the PA, selling land to Israelis is
considered collaboration with an enemy state. (In Europe
most states disallowed Jewish ownership of land. It is time for Israel to
introduce a law that non-Jews, including the Vatican, have no right to own
G-d-given-to-Jews land!)
Hypocrisy of the UN and World Press. On May 6,
Russian marines executed the daring raid of freeing the tanker, called the
Moscow University, after it was seized by pirates. One Somali pirate was killed
and 10 were captured. The operation was initially hailed as a huge success, but
Russia was later embarrassed by reports that it had let the pirates go and they
drowned after being set afloat at sea in a small boat! (Have
you heard the media frenzy or the UN calls for investigation of this highly
barbaric and probably illegal act of state killing?)
Iran Can Build Two Nuclear Bombs. CIA
director Leon Panetta admits Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for two
nuclear bombs. He virtually admitted that every effort to halt Iran's drive for
a nuclear bomb had failed.
Pack of Mad Dogs is still Silent. A US based
Human Rights Watch charged that Hamas militants are violating the rules of war
by prohibiting a captive Israeli soldier from having contact with his family
and the Red Cross (name is Red Crystal now). The treatment of the 23-year-old
soldier is "cruel and inhuman" and matches a U.N. definition of
torture because he is denied any outside contact. (For
four years neither the press nor various Human Rights groups, the UN or the IRC
cared about fate of Gilad Shalit. But recently, they have jumped like a pack of
mad dogs at Israel in defense of the ‘rights’ of Hamas terrorists and flotilla
of anti-Semitic and Islamic provocateurs!)
Blockade is a Common Tool of War.
Make no mistake,
Islamic world in war with Israel, using so-called Palestinians as a proxy!
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war
material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or
totally. (Hamas made no secret that it is at war
with Israel and its intentions to destroy the Jewish state are clear!)
…Blockades were first defined in international law at the Congress of Paris in
1856. One of the agreed rules was that a blockade had to be effective in order
to be lawful. (Easing the blockade of Gaza by Israel
may make it ineffective - therefore some, with the long record of international
anti-Israel bias attitude, will try to proclaim it as unlawful!)
• British blockade of France and its allies
during the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War.
• British blockade of the United States east
coast during the War of 1812.
• Danish blockade of Germany during the First
Schleswig War, starting in 1848.
• The Union blockaded the coasts of the
Confederacy during the American Civil War.
• In 1898, the United States blockaded San Juan,
Puerto Rico as part of the Spanish American War.
• British naval blockade of Germany during World
War I.
• 1915-1918 Ottoman blockade of Lebanon.
• United States blockade of Japan during the
Pacific War of World War II.
• Soviet land blockade of West Berlin,
1948–1949, known as the Berlin Blockade.
• Egyptian blockades of the Straits of Tiran
prior to the 1956 Suez War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
• United States quarantine of Cuba during the
October 1962 missile crisis, a partial blockade.
• Indian blockade of East Pakistan during the
1971 Bangladesh War
• Egyptian blockade of Israel during Operation
Badr, part of the Yom Kippur War.
• NATO blockade of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1993-1996 during Operation Sharp Guard.
• Israeli sea and land blockade of the Gaza
Strip since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (2000) up to the present.
• Israeli blockades of some or all the shores of
Lebanon at various times during wars and conflicts.
• Israeli
and Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, beginning in June 2007. (Because Hamas is a branch of the Egyptian Muslim
brotherhood, Egypt probably fears Hamas even more than Israel!)
• Turkey and Azerbaijan blockades on Armenia during the
Nagorno-Karabakh War.