Boazy: << Israel, since it's inception and the conquest of the Canaanites is under divine protection. Nothing changes this..from it's founding to the day of resurrection. >>

If almost anybody else had typed that, I'd think they were taking the piss. Unfortunately, as David G points out, Israel behaves as if that mythical nonsense is true, by thumbing its nose at international law and human rights.

I mean, it's the "Promised Land", right? The Israelis are protected by their divine right to Palestine and are anwerable only to God.

Israeli’s actions in maintaining the blockade against Gaza and boarding the humanitarian flotilla were unconscionable.

However, in criticising Israeli actions Australia ignores actions of its own.

The Bougainville conflict is not at the forefront of Australian consciousness. Societal and environmental devastation caused by the Panguna mine sparked Bougainville’s flight for independence from Papua New Guinea. Patrol boats maintained by the Australian navy carried out the blockade of the island. Those boats which tried to run the blockade were machine gunned. The UN rapporteur issued a report on the blockade which caused many deaths due to the denial of medication to the people of Bougainville. Australia was condemned by the United Nations as blockades which prevent delivery of medical and other humanitarian aid are illegal.

Mercenary pilots on detached service from the Australian and New Zealand armed forces flew helicopters which helped PNG forces combat the Bougainvilleans.

Ordinarily it is against the law to recruit mercenaries on Australian soil. However, Lionel Bowen, the then attorney-general ruled that the Crimes Act would not apply in the PNG recruitment.

There was even a movie of the action. The following is part of a review.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_%E2%80%93_Our_Island_Our_Fight

“Bougainville – Our Island Our Fight is a 1998 documentary film. It was produced and directed by Wayne Coles-Janess.

The film focuses on an indigenous people who fight against a multinational mining company and government forces. The guerrillas hold the belief that they are fighting to defend their independence and the local environment on the island of Bougainville. This film is notable for its unique subject matter, as most Western media has not reported upon the Bougainville conflict.”

"Living with Rebels" by Rosemarie Gillespie tells the story of one brave woman who ran the blockade to bring supplies to the Bougainvilleans.

The big difference between the blockade of Bougainville and the blockade of Gaza is that press coverage of the blockade of Bougainville was almost non-existent, and most Australians are still unaware of the blockade.

As far as I can see the big similarity between the two blockades is that they both stink to high heaven.

David f, Good one mate. The red/green/getup/labour coalition have a lot of blood on their hands from East Timor to Papua, both West & East, plus poor old Bougainville.

But whenever somebody who can easily be identified as one of those evil, right wingers, allegedly misbehaves, they scream blue murder.

I agree with David G.
Algoreisrich needs to take some time off and seek counseling!

I am no apologist for the state of Israel.In fact I am totally opposed to their theft of Palestinian land and homes.
However, about this peace armada.Everyone is baying for blood just as I was till my son sat me down and pointed out a few poorly advertised facts.Letme go over a few salient features with my readers.
If this was nothing but an armada of boats bringing food and medical supplies for the people of gaza, what were the media crew and activists doing on board the flotilla? Each boat didnt need more than 4 crew.There was one large vessel with an entire sophisticated media unit with tv transmitter on board. The space they occupied could have been filled with much needed medical supplies or food parcels.
To me this smatters of hyprocisy and political manipulation. They knew that Israel would never allow passage for the flotilla and would be prepared to open fire if necessary.
Dont forget that Israel and Egypt had conferred and offered to grant access to Gaza by overland routes through check points .If merely bringing food and medical supplies was the honest intention of the activists why didnt they acceot the offer. No,they turned it down. Egyptstill has the Raffa crossing open.
It's blatantly obvious that the intention of the "peace" ( hah! LOL!!) activists was to politically embarrass Israel.
Each of the flotilla captains was warned by the Israel navy to pull out.Warnings that were deliberately unheeded. That alone invited direct military response. The Israeli commander erred by intercepting the flotilla in international waters. That constitues an act of piracy. I am still waiting for details to clarify if the interception was in international waters and why the Israeli action was so premature.
.When the Israeli rapelled down the ropes to board the boats they were attacked by "peaceful" means as was seen on tv. Whobegan the vbiolence? The peace activists, ironically.
Let's get a perspective on the story Truth is the real casualty here.

socratease

OK, here is the link to the footage showing the "peaceful protesters" initiating a vicious, unprovoked and obviously premeditated assault on Israeli troops, who had taken steps to prevent the illegal entry of the flotilla into Israeli territorial waters (Gaza & Hamas don't have Territorial Waters, Gaza isn't a State), despite being repeatedly told not to and warned of the consequences.

Piracy does not enter into it (although I do adore the way the intellectually limited repeat the party line ad-nauseum)... Try and run a blockade conducted by one combatant to prevent illicit resupply of another, is a dumb move, one that is certain to provoke conflict. When an outcome is certain, that outcome was intended (QED).

Let's see what happens (and where the mouthpieces go) when there is an independent, judicial inquiry into the events at hand. Who did what to whom, whether the initial soldiers were beaten to the ground and then on it, whether they acted entirely properly in self-defence, or whether, as HAMAS would have us believe, the IDF members simply lost their cool and slaughtered passengers indiscriminately.

For once, this looks like it might still be on the boil when the FACTS come out... I've been looking forward to that for some time (I wonder how the cheap-politicians who backed them will react when they are made to look like the weak nonentities they are).

It still raises the serious concern, given Mr Rudd's knee-jerk comments, which compare rather badly with the comments of President Obama & Hilary Clinton, what would happen if the RAN or the Australian Army conducted an operation that was blown up in this fashion? Would they leave our own troops, who are conducting similar operations almost daily, hanging in the wind? I certainly couldn't say for sure they would not, can you?