For the record ALGOREisRICH, the word "Jew" was a collective term for a "citizen of Judea". It included Hebrews but was not an exclusive term to describe them alone.

Also, most of the Hebrew population had migrated westward by the time you/they claim to have somehow exclusively occupied it.

Like the 40-years in the wilderness and the alleged exodus out of Egypt, it's just romanticised myth with no basis in historical fact.

God is on whatever side god chooses... That is irrelevant. Facts are all that count. This article starts with a misleading premise, that the ships were boarded in international waters. The Ships were boarded ONLY when they were crossing into Israeli Territorial Waters (and at the last minute at that), having announced their intention to flout Israeli Marshall Law. Look at any of the pertinent laws (Helsinki, Hague, whatever, nobody is entitled to remain a neutral while running a blockade).

For those who think the response was disproportionate, have you ever been hit by an iron bar after being clubbed to the ground? Have you ever seen it happen? It is an assault with a deadly weapon. What do you think would be the result if, during a patrol, an ADF platoon was separated and one or two were isolated and assaulted in this manner? I'll give you a hint, it wouldn't involve paintguns and would sound suspiciously like a minimi (at least).

These thugs coopted respected peace activists and then used them as a front, to pursue their real goal, violent armed conflict. Which they initiated on one vessel only (the other 5 were stopped without any violence whatever), where a group who had reportedly expressed a desire for martyrdom decided to attack the first soldiers down the rope with a variety of deadly weapons.

I'm not pushing a point of view, I am expressing the facts as they have begun to come to light. I really do hope this is kept at the front of the papers long enough to blow up in the faces of the murderous scum who planned it. I suspect that finally, it is going to and an awful lot of very intelligent, very respected and very decent people are going to be left very visibly wearing egg on their face(s).

From a propaganda coup to a propaganda nightmare. Hamas has blocked the aid (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/02/israel.palestinians.aid/index.html?iref=obinsite), the footage clearly shows who initiated the violence (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/boatloads-of-bloody-minded-pacifists/story-e6frezz0-1225874166305) and the world is waking up. Watch & wait, this has only just begun.

Well, Custard, it will be interesting to hear your assertions spinning along on the Larger Gramophone.

For an indirect response to your links, try this story at
http://www.redress.cc/palestine/jcook20100604

“Mad dog” diplomacy: a cornered Israel is baring its teeth
By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
4 June 2010

which ends with:

" ... Israel’s supporters have characterized the Goldstone report and the related legal campaigns against Israel as examples of “lawfare”, implying that those who uphold international law are waging a new kind of war of attrition on behalf of terror groups like Hamas and Hizbullah.

These trends are likely only to deepen in the coming months and years, making Israel an ever greater pariah in the eyes of much of the world. The mad dog is baring his teeth, and it is high time the international community decided how to deal with him."

Plainly, Jonathan Cook is not an Unbiased Journalist. It's a shame H.S. Thompson couldn't join the party, and see him straight.

For myself, and hopefully for Israelis and others in the mid-east and elsewhere (eg the global region), I can only wish that Israel will one day get a government and bureaucracy that deploys its military with a bit better judgement than was used by our current Australian administration and bureaucracy, on the Home Insulation Scheme.

ALGORE is RICH:

No offence taken.

AS I said on another thread, a few minutes thought on what war actually is might be useful.

It is generally considered that there is a war like status between
Gaza and Israel.
Israel should to clarify matters declare a state of war with Gaza.

Baby Boomers and those younger do not seem to realise the nature of
war at sea.
In a war, blockade runners are likely to be torpedoed without notice.
If Israel had sunk the ships with all on board there is plenty of
precedence to support their action.

As much as you all are appalled at that, that is the way it is
so live with it !

Different times, Bazz.

These days, I expect it's hard for young people to believe that Churchill said the troops at El Alamein would fight to the last man.
Civilians and soldiers alike are treated more carefully, wherever the cameras are pointed. And so it should be, IMHO. More restraint is generally shown these days, even it when it isn't showtime.

And how much would sinking a boatload of civilians look like, say, setting off a car bomb in an Iraqi or Pakistani marketplace, or derailing a passenger train in India? I wonder if there are humourless bomb-makers mumbling to themselves about how folks are going to get what's coming to them, unless - - - - ?

Sydney Morning Herald reporter Paul McGeough's account of the Mavi Marmari boarding:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/prayers-tear-gas-and-terror-20100603-x7ew.html