The author is correct. The whole thing was organised by Turkey and an Islamic 'charity'. Only the usual idiots have fallen for the Islamic terrorists' ploy. Any 'essential aid and food' could have been landed in Egypt or Israel, then moved to Palestine overland. We couldn't, of course, expect the usual Leftist deadbeats who dominate the couple of dozen comments anything attracts on OLO to know that.

Bren Carlill makes multiple clear and definite statements about what occurred when the Israeli soldiers boarded the flotilla. But he gives no evidence that he was in a position to observe what occurred.

He makes the statement that "five of the six ships were captured without violence". This statement is contradicted by the evidence that Kate Geraghty, who was on one those five ships, was "Tasered" by the Israelis.

It does little for Bren Carlill's credibility, the credibility of his other statements about what occurred, and therefore his defence of the Israeli soldiers, that at least one of his clear and definite statements is false.

Welcome back Leigh. You really are a breath of fresh air on most topics. Now that the climate change hoax has been uncovered these socialist need another outlet for their violence. This time they met a nation that won't put its citizens at any more risk than necessary. Maybe Japan could learn a bit from them.

Arjay,

I do not think there will be a problem in honest explanations from the people who were on the boats.

The Journalist and Photographer are both from the SMH, not The Australian so the truth will be there.
Just wait to get a weekend of spin from Greg Sheridan, Jewish mouthpiece whose column is probably being written by the Melbourne Jewish establishment right now or possibly even Murdoch has put pen to paper just for the occasion. It will be creative and full of Israeli lies.

As for the original heading, 'confrontation and not aid' ...perhaps the writer should keep up to date on his news sources, no doubt from inside Israel as the Weekend Australian doesn't get printed until tomorrow. Israel, in front of the cameras of the world are currently unloading the aid right this very minute.
Of course, if one listened to that argument from that person, he would probably view it asonly being on the boats as 'ballast', not aid.
If so, Israelis are now unloading all the hundreds of tons of 'ballast' of buildings and medical supplies.
What a cynic he must be.

While we are giving the Jews a flogging (and quite rightly so) for their ghetoization of the Palestinians let us consider the humanitarian support they are receiving from their Muslim brothers and sisters. Arab governments marginalize Palestinians and deprive them of basic political and economic rights. They trap them in the camps, bereft of realistic prospects, but heavily armed.

Some 250,000 Palestinians were chased out of Kuwait and other Gulf States to punish the Palestinian political leadership for supporting Saddam Hussein. Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Iraq were similarly dispossessed after the second Gulf war.
In 2001, Palestinians in Lebanon were stripped of the right to own property or to pass on the property that they already owned to their children – and banned from working as doctors, lawyers, pharmacists or in 20 other professions.

Even the Palestinian refugee community in Jordan, historically the most welcoming Arab state, has reason to feel insecure in the face of official threats to revoke their citizenship. The systematic refusal of Arab governments to grant basic human rights to Palestinians who are born and die in their countries – combined with periodic mass expulsions of entire Palestinian communities – recalls the treatment of Jews in medieval Europe.

It seems that Palestinians like the Jews have no friends in the Middle East. Could the answer to this hostility be that the Jews and the Palestinians make crappy neighbours?

sonofgloin: << While we are giving the Jews a flogging (and quite rightly so) >>

I don't think anybody should be "giving the Jews a flogging". That just feeds into the Antisemitism by which Israel always seeks to justify its militaristic excesses.

We should, however, quite rightly be subjecting to intense scrutiny and condemnation those Zionist Israelis and their supporters who are responsible for human rights abuses, disregard for international law and wanton murder.

There are many Jews and Israelis who actively oppose these actions of the military government of Israel, and it does them a grave disservice to tar them all with the same brush.