By Alison@Creekside
Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was presented with this Toronto Maple Leafs jersey in Toronto, Israeli commandos dropped from helicopters onto the lead vessel of a six ship international aid flotilla bound for Gaza and opened fire.
Israeli Radio is reporting 16 to 19 killed with 30 injured and confirms the flotilla was in international waters.
According to AFP, “the Israeli military censor ordered a block on all information regarding those injured or killed during the storming of the ship.”
The six ships bearing 10,000 tons of supplies and over 600 activists from 40 countries, including 86 year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, are now being towed to Ashod.
I was watching a Turkish TV live feed from the lead vessel until it went off the air. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying except for a voice shouting in English that they were in international waters and a woman calling for help for the wounded. The live footage is now being rebroadcast at the same link with commentary in English.
Al Jazeera report during storming:
But back to the jersey photo op. Netanyahu says Israel has never had a better friend than Canada and thanked Steve today for being “an unwavering friend of Israel.”
Too true. Canada was the first country in the world to boycott Gaza for electing Hamas. When Israel bombed Lebanon in 2008 killing 1400, Steve called Israel’s actions “measured.” A Canadian killed when Israel shelled UN offices went unremarked by our government. We support the Wall at the UN. Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has more than once stated on his website that “an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada.” We have cut off funding to humanitarian groups like Kairos and UNRWA who have been sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, and replaced members on the board of the once independent group Rights and Democracy with pro-Israel hawks. Canada had the largest delegation at last year’s Conference on Anti-Semitism in Israel and provides nearly twice the Canadian forces to man the borders of Gaza as does the United States. We have our own McCarthyite Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism and banned George Galloway from Canada. Con MPs have sent out flyers to their constituents suggesting that Liberals are soft on anti-Semitism, the definition of which has now been expanded to include any criticism of Israel, following the lead of our prime minister who has accused MPs of anti-Semitism in the House of Commons. Last month the Ethics Commissioner reported that Israel is the top destination of choice for MPs seeking junkets abroad paid for by outside organizations, and Ontario Premier McGuinty is there now drumming up trade. Two years ago Israel and Canada signed what it pleases Israel’s Ministry of Public Security to describe on their website as a pact on “cooperation in home land security and counter terrorism issues.”
BFF.
Against this complicity by our own government in the three-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza, we must raise our voices in support of international law. We must no longer allow our government to speak in our name here.
Witness Gaza. Witness. Gaza.
In the immediate aftermath, The Jerusalem Post quoted the IDF as reporting at least 15 killed:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176970
At the time the post above was published, the exact number remained unknown:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/up-to-19-killed-in-israeli-attack-on-gaza-aid-flotilla/article1586180/
A qualified ‘up to 19’ was what I heard reported in the media initially. While 9 is in the range of ‘up to’, thankfully it’s in the lower part, though still 9 too many.
“I think that many of us sometimes overshoot with the antisemitism accusation because it holds a powerful association in our minds;”
You’re going to want to be very careful about that. You’re in the process of redefining the term in a way that makes it softer and less objectionable overall. I’m sure that’s not your intention, but that’s where it’s going. You’re defanging a term which ought not be defanged.
First of all, let me state the casualty numbers are intentionally misstated. You may say “up to 19” but the number was known to be 9 immediately. Of course many who support the Palestinians always make a prelude to everything they say with the usual “criticizing Israel isn’t anti-semitic” disclaimer, as though someone made the equation between anti-semitism and mere criticism. The anti-semitism is in the details; the hyperbole, the intentional mistakes, accusations that Jews have a stranglehold on your government, the willful blindness towards provocative anti-semitic comments that go uncriticized in such blogs, the use of the Holocaust to criticize Israel as we see in Aryadny’s comment.
I think that many of us sometimes overshoot with the antisemitism accusation because it holds a powerful association in our minds; for us antisemitism often equates to stupidity and so when we see it, we think it must be personal. So sorry.
My point had less to do with “party politics” and more to do with willful ignorance. I don’t care who is running the country as far as party….what I do care about is that they represent Canadians and Canadian ideals. That they make certain they are abreast of all current world situations and that they do what is right…not what is popular with the Americans…that they lead, rather than follow blindly and that they uphold the rights of oppressed peoples everywhere whenever possible and finally; that they be knowledgeable about all aspects of any given situation that they dare venture an opinion about.
“I cannot sit complacently, while a man I didn’t vote for, holds up to the world a view of current events that, to me, is so far from what Canadians as a whole would blindly accept.”
The person I vote for generally doesn’t get in, but in a democratic process, them’s the breaks sometimes. That said, a democratic process should result in something reflecting the will of the people. That’s essentially the point. When a significant majority of Canadians vote centre left, and we get a right wing government, something is seriously rotten in the state of Canada.
Harper is what he is, an ideologue with a hunger for power. An honorable person in his position would seek to make the government as non-partisan as possible in an attempt to serve the wishes of the Canadian people as expressed in the election. But Harper is a letter of the law guy, and whatever he can get away with to advance his agenda he will. To him it’s all just politics.
Greater blame for this current situation may belong to the Liberals and the NDP. The idea they came up with of coalition was one which would have served the electorate’s desire for a centre left government. But they backed off. The question they have to ask themselves is this; would joining forces be worse than allowing the Conservatives to be in power? If they answer ‘yes’ to that question, then they’ll prove themselves to be ideologues just the same as Harper with the same contempt for the Canadian people. At that point it might not be entirely unreasonable to whisper “Remember, remember, the 5th of November…”
Let me go back, for a moment, to a time when Canada looked at the events of world history from all angles and then came down on the side of what was just, fair and right. Growing up here during the 60’s and 70’s, I was taught by my parents and by my educators that, if you wanted a true view of the world, you looked to the Canadian view of things. I can no longer say that this is true. I cannot sit complacently, while a man I didn’t vote for, holds up to the world a view of current events that, to me, is so far from what Canadians as a whole would blindly accept.
Let me say…I believe that the holocaust was an atrocity. However; I also believe that the holocaust is being used by Israel, as a vehicle, to allow it carte blanche in it’s dealings with Palestinians. Just because I don’t agree with what is being done to the Palestinians does not mean that I am anti-semitic nor does it mean that I hate those of Jewish descent. It is time for our Prime Minister to stop making Canada look like a bunch of hillbillies to the rest of the world. It is time for him to stop following blindly on the tail of the U.S.. It is time for him to pick up a book and learn the facts of what is being done to Palestinians and to separate that information from what was done to the Jewish people during WWII.
I do not condone terrorism. I do not condone car bombs and suicide bombs. I do not condone violence done to any race by either Palestinians or Israelis nor to or by anyone else for that matter. I do not condone oppression of a people and outright theft of homes and leveling of towns. I cannot and will not ever say that this current gov’t speaks for me.
These are the things I know…most Palestinians don’t really care for being under the rule of Hamas, but what choice have they. Palestinian apartheid is wrong. Palestinian oppression by Israel is wrong. Allowing Israel an excuse for brutality to Palestine…is wrong. Our PM needs to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that just because bad things were done to the Jewish people of the world during WWII, it does not give them the right to commit atrocities against another people. The two are not related. Making someone accountable for their actions has nothing to do with hating them…it has to do with fair and just and informed action.
In closing..I am a mutt…My ancestry is English, Irish, Scots, French and Aboriginal Canadian. My family have been in Canada for many, many generations. I have no blood ties to either Israelis or Palestinians. I am simply doing what I was taught Canadians do. I’m looking at the facts. Making my mind up based on what they tell me. I’m not excusing bad behaviour in this situation because of ill treatment to those in the wrong during a past and unrelated situation. I hope that the people of Canada will make some effort to get through to our government that they should be representing Canada as a country that does the right thing, rather than the convenient and easy thing.
Israel needs to be part of this world. The day israel does not exist is the end of the world at least as we all know it. Israel needs the support of countries like Canada and the United States so it can survive. The Israeli’s are definitely aggressive, rash and extreme but thats how their enemy fights as well. This particular attack may not have been necessary but the succession of Israel is most definitely necessary.
The UK is fortunate that the US didn’t unconditionally support the IRA during ‘the troubles’. That went on too long but did eventually have to resolve. I sometimes wonder if the Israel/Palestine trouble will have to wait until the US collapses as completely as the Soviet Union did and is no longer able to support Israel unconditionally. Then that situation would have to resolve. But as long as the worse it suffers from the US is the Vice President showing up an hour and a half late for a state dinner, Israel can pretty much do whatever it feels like, and they know it.
As for Harper, I don’t think anything he does matters that much on the international stage, other than muddying whatever positive reputation Canada may have had abroad, and making less of a misconception the impression that we’re just America Jr. I hope no one puts a bullet between his eyes, because I’m not sure whichever Conservative replaced him would be any better. The only violent solution worth considering to the current embarrassment would be a complete Guy Fawkes, but I’m kind of fond of the parliament buildings. At very least, please set the charge in a way that spares the library. It was restored just four years ago at a cost of 52 million tax payer dollars, and is something of a treasure. Would be a shame to lose it.
The ‘activists’ knowingly entered a war zone, even after being warned and turned away before. War is a serious business and any fool who knowingly enters a war zone should not expect to be greeted with tea and crumpets.
My government no longer speaks for me. I can not be complicit through complacency. The issues in the Middle East, and in particular Israel and Palestine are complex. Regardless, I know what is right and I know a propaganda machine when I see one.
The defense of the actions of Israeli Navy is ludicrous, at best and only those too ignorant to tell right from wrong will continue to spout the absurdities in defense of the Gaza occupation. I am ashamed to be party to the BFF relationship between Canada and Israel.