Dear CJ,

Quite right.

As Akiva Eldar responded in "Haaretz," :

"It is much easier to claim the entire world
is against us than admit that the state of Israel,
which rose as a refuge and a source of pride for
Jews ... has become a genuine source of danger
and a source of shameful embarrassment to Jews
who choose to live outside its border."

Hamas has refused to allow the aid in... Thanks be for shortsighted fanatics...http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/02/israel.palestinians.aid/index.html

A ship in, or about to enter, Israeli Territorial Waters is Israel's problem. Gaza is autonomous, not a State, it does not have territorial waters or control of it's own airspace. If they weren't at war with Israel, then maybe that would change, inshallah.

Now the world is starting to wake up, the mainstream part of it too...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwvIHJ3DhPg

An iron bar is a very effective weapon, it is capable of inflicting serious harm and/or death. A paintball gun is not. If I'd been on the rope and seen my comrades being beaten on the ground and in serious danger, I'd have opened fire too. As would the RAN if any of their boardings were reacted to in this way.

Israel "could" legally have blown the ships out of the water with ATG Missiles, they chose not to. I think they should with the next one if it moves on inch out of line. They and Hamas have shown how desperate the need is for those supplies.

Aka wrote:

"I am shocked that there were 3 Australians in the Israeli army that boarded the boat. I feel very uncomfortable that people with dual citizenship are able to join armed forces."

They had no choice, they are conscripts. Indeed a shocking and shameful practice of kidnapping children into 3-year slavery, whose only crime was to be born and reach the age of 18 in good health.
(OTOH, Australia did it too. Would you punish Australian dual-citizens because they were forcibly taken to Vietnam?)

Now, that is a disgusting crime and there may be others. It is legitimate to criticise the Israeli government, but note one fact:

IF YOU LIVE IN ISRAEL, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE ZIONIST (not even a Jew) FOR A KASSAM ROCKET TO FALL ON YOUR HEAD!

No matter how bad the government is, ordinary Israeli people are still dependent on their strong army and on security measures to survive and prevent the rockets from falling on their heads. This may include a blockade on Gaza unless you can offer better ways (please don't forget that when it comes to atrocities, the other side is no better).

One thing that Israelis are not, is stupid: it is better to be called the worst of terrible names while alive than to have legions of well-wishers eulogising you over your grave, so unless you come with practical solutions that take Israelis into account as well rather than demonize them all, keep screaming till your voice is hoarse, or better still, find yourself 72 virgins in heaven by taking a suicide trip on board one of those "peace ships".

IT WAS, IS and will CONTINUE to be.. nothing but a PROPOGANDA exercise.

Evidence?

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israel has attempted to deliver humanitarian aid from an international flotilla to Gaza, but Hamas -- which controls the territory -- has refused to accept the cargo, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.

Clearly .. it was never about 'needed aid'.

Most of the comments here are from people who use emotion and pre-conceieved notions of Israel to argue their extremely weak case.

Now that it's been a few days we know the following:

1. Flotilla was organised by a group with major links to terrorism (as acknowledged even by the fast-approaching Islamist Turkish Government).

2. The peace activists used iron-bars, knives, chains, and reportedly guns, to try (from what I can see from the footage) to actually kill the Israeli soldiers who embarked on their ship, i.e. they were hitting the soldier on the deck as hard as they could.

3. The peace activists wanted to be martyrs and made martyrdom videos and organised their wills before leaving.

4. Israel offered to inspect the cargo, as did the UN, and Egypt, but the ship-owners refused, i.e. they WANTED a confrontation.

5. The worlds media are cowards, and possibly Jew-hating racists for not reporting the truth of these facts.

6. The UN are anti-Israeli cowards. They condemn Israel for their actions of defending themselves, yet say nothing to North Korea, which ADMITTED they sunk a South Korean military ship killing 46.

7. Anyone who can't see that 6. is absolutely insane, and shows how much power the Arab League must have at the UN is in denial.

8. Anyone who thinks Israel is to blame here is ignoring reality.

9. The western peace activists on board, just like the human shields in Iraq, have been used as 'useful idiots' as Lenin would call them.

International law states a nation enforcing a blockade CAN board ships in international waters even (that is, before they get to the blockade zone) provided they have asked them to turn around at least twice (Israel did it 4 times) and explain what is to happen.

Well we all know they were told because thats how they got all their baseball bats and knives, chains, amd so on.

peace activists...yeah, sure. A terrorist group organised the boat.

Israel should have torpedoed it. I hope they do this for the next one.