There are many questions that need
answers to this incident.
Haaretz.com - had an excellent analysis
of the situation by Aluf Benn, 31 May 2010.
He stated that Israel needs a national
inquiry into the incident. "There is no
other fitting or proper way to clarify
the circumstances of the incident which
ended with many dead and a grave international
crisis..."

Blaming the organisers of the flotilla for
causing the deaths is inadequate. It's a
technique of shifting responsibility from
the government and the military. Decisions
taken by the government and the military
must be probed. The responsibility is theirs.
They did violate international maritime law
causing not only global outrage but death
and injuries. An independent inquiry needs
to be conducted.

Damn, I have to repost

Here is a link with all the pertinent information in one place...

http://www.aijac.org.au/?id=articles&_action=showArticleDetails&articleID=6836

For those who actually seek information and truth, I suggest you take it from all sides. For those of you who are incapable of rational discussion, logically, there is little point trying to reason with you.

Personally, I try to examine every issue before me, to see if I can ascertain where truth might lie. I admit, I am biased toward Israel, my Great-grandfather was well treated by Jews (and badly treated by Arabs) there in WWI (1st Light Horse Regt) and my Grandfather had similar stories about WWII (When the 2nd AIF drove through Lebanon & Syria against the vaunted French Foreign Legion).

Apart from that, I tend to eye hysterical, crap-journalism with some cynicism. It generally goes no deeper than the surface, which is blatant propaganda, the truth lies in the facts.

The cited videos, legal material and the rest are on the AIJAC site (nice collection, all in one place), if you cannot at least go there and look, then there is a serious issue - they have an interest (an obvious one) and saved me searching all night.

Find me videos/legal opinions to refute what they have and we'll discuss it further

Foxy, many, many people want an impartial, credible and independent inquiry (preferably judicial - like a Royal Commission) into the events that occurred, and the sequence thereof. I personally would love that, I suspect a few in the opposing camp would prefer the facts stay hidden.

When someone commits and act with a certain consequence, they intend that consequence, QED. Cui Bono- the benefit obviously goes, in the short-term, to the Palestinians. We have video & eyewitness footage of the incident showing "people" rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck, then being attacked with what look like bars/clubs.

This happens prior to the firing - you can tell by the extent of the crowd (crowd numbers decrease rapidly when people open fire).

The flotilla was organised and run by the IHH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHH_%28%C4%B0nsani_Yard%C4%B1m_Vakf%C4%B1%29) a group which is known to turn up wherever jihad activity occurs...

Yeah, I'd love to see the entire thing laid out into a sequential set of facts, who said and did what, when, where and to whom. Cold facts, and facts only.

The BBC has some good material at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/ -- it's worth a look to try to sort out the accusations and counter-accusations.

A book claims it's Israels "Promised Land". A book they wrote themselves. Hmmm

The same "Rule book" they used to legitimise the (illegal) blockade also states it is the right of any individual or group to defend themselves from external attack or occupation while in international waters.

Sir Ivor

"Those who curse you, I will curse"

Think of that when the next bad thing happens to you :)