In an article (8/10/10) on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony to an Israeli panel investigating the May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, the Washington Post gets the facts wrong on crucial history and context relating to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Joel Greenberg writes:
Netanyahu said that the naval blockade, imposed by the previous Israeli government in January 2009 during a military offensive against Hamas, was meant to prevent the smuggling of arms to the Gaza Strip, which he described as “a giant weapons depot and base for attacks on Israel.”
He added that 12 ships had tried to run the blockade since it was imposed, but none had reached Gaza.
The naval blockade imposed by Israel is part of the full-blown embargo against the Gaza Strip, which began in 2006 and grew more severe in June 2007–three years before the January 2009 date Greenberg reports. The naval aspect of the blockade, according to the UN Goldstone report, began in 2006, when Israel set the fishing zone limit “unilaterally at six nautical miles and maintained this limit from October 2006 to January 2009, when it further restricted it to three nautical miles.” The restrictions on fishing in Gaza’s waters have decimated the local fishing industry, according to a 2009 report by the Gaza City-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
It is also not true that no ships have ran the blockade since it was imposed, as Netanyahu reportedly said. Greenberg may have realized this had he correctly reported the real beginning of the Israeli naval restrictions on Gaza instead of regurgitating Netanyahu’s misleading testimony, who also wrongly put the start of the naval blockade at January 2009. In August 2008, the Free Gaza movement reached the shores of Gaza with two boats (BBC News, 8/23/08). And the Free Gaza movement successfully broke the naval blockade again in October 2008, when a “66-foot yacht, named The Dignity, arrived…with 26 activists and medical supplies” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10/28/08).
When the Washington Post typically uses euphemisms such as “two Israels “murdered”, 20 Palestinians “injured” and when the Washington Post calls aid workers who were murdered on an international humanitarian flotilla, “Pro-Palestinian Activists”, any sane person in the world can understand the bias of the Washington Post for Israel against the Palestinians. Wake up Americans! Our media is tainted and I sincerely hope that our media goes the same route as our banks. They are all corrupt and should be replaced by something that is honest and something that works.
It does not surprise me at all that the American Media is so anti-Palestinian and pro Netanyahu/AIPAC. In the long run it has devasting effects, not only for Palestinians but also for Israel and the US.
I totally agree with both Anna and Anne-Marie. Corruption is rife in both banks and the press. But I just don’t see how we can do anything about it. I mean surely the banks have not changed their attitudes since their failure, nor have they been replaced. And since the press is mostly in the hands of the same people… it all has devastating effects for the US, which it seems to me has begun a long slide to total disaster for everyone but the super-rich, and they will no doubt be effected too–just not soon, sadly.
Even FAIR does not have the story written correctly. The Free Gaza movement entered Gaza five times in 2008 before we were brutally stopped in December during Operation Cast Lead. We not only took the two small fishing boats into Gaza on august 23, 2008, but we also sailed into Gaza with members of Parliament, doctors, activists and other witnesses in October, November and twice in December 2008. We have since been stopped, but our point is and continues to be that we sailed into Gaza five times. Israel has no right to stop us. We didn’t ask them permission for the first five times, and we don’t intend to ask for their permission when we come back again in the fall. Israel illegally blockades the sea around Gaza. It is Israel who is the illegal entity and not us
US media keeps loosing credibility. Israel is the culprit with the US the enabler in denying freedom & justice for the Palestinians. I invite all Americans that value human rights and who are just decent people to donate to the sailing of “THE AUDACITY OF HOPE” a U.S. boat that plans to join the next International Freedom Flotilla to break the obscene cruel blockade of Gaza by Israel. http://www.ustogaza.org
I think we should keep out of both Gaza and let Israel and Gazans solve their own problems. Gazans erroneously elected Hamas and now has to suffer the consequences. Israel has the right to defend itself against a totally antisemitic world and specifically Arab anti Israel world that would like to annihilate it. Many of these so-called humanitarian ships are also bringing weapons used against the Israelis. We have erected giant walls and hunted down poor Mexicans trying to better themselves. Israel has even more right than we do to defend and protect itself. Stop being so one-sided.
Who are you to say the election of Hamas was “erroneous?” The people voted, and the election was carried out democratically. The fact Israel and its puppets doesn’t approve of Hamas is ironic, especially since it was Israel that created Hamas in the first place. Your whining that Israel is defending itself against a “totally antisemitic world” is another example of the zionists’ eternal victimhood mantra. There used to be anti semitism but it is rare today. Criticism of Israel’s policies and against zionism have nothing to do with anti-semitism. There are millions of Jews around the world who disaprove of what Israel does. Are they anti-semites too? The biggest problem Jews have is people like yourself who defend Israel no matter what crimes it commits. End apartheid. End occupation.
Free Palestine.
Mary Hughes-Thompson, co-founder, Free Gaza Movement
Ahhhhhh. if they can’t win the argument (and they can’t), the hasbara trot out the anti-Semitic card. Since that doesn’t work any more either, because we’re all sick of it and clearly know that Israel has the fourth largest military in the world that massacres Palestinians left and right, wait until someone posts here that God gave the land to them.
As though God is in the real estate business.
Ridiculous
If Mary Hughes-Thompson thinks that Antisemitism is rare today she is either blind or stupid. She might try starting with the Hamas charter which has taken themes right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion [as the co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement I guess this means she either didn’t read the charter or doesn’t care, but either way it doesn’t speak well for her credibility about Antisemitism’s frequency or significance]. Then I have seen comments on a leftist web site that I used to support denying the existence of gas chambers at Aushwitz and when I complained the moderator said it was indeed Antisemitic, but free speech meant it had to be posted, along with another saying “stuff the Jews.” Antisemitsm isn’t responsible for most criticism of Israel, but it is alive and well–and by no means rare today.
WoW, for anyone to have the audacity to use the “talking points”, of the neo-cons has authenic reasoning for the killings done by Israel is beyond comprehension. Anti-Semitism may still be out here, but its not prevalent by any sense of the imagination. Israel has the Big Dog on its side (U.S), so she will continue to get away with mistreating ppl/nations with no recourse. Peace
I seldom hear anyone on these blogs say israel has a right also to these historical lands.Or I may of missed those entries among such a liberal “live and let live” company of people.So their mind seems made up that Israel is the criminal nation who deserves some sort of punishment.What is that punishment?It is multi faceted and spread over decades.It may even be so insane that they actually are sentenced to live among a people who’s very charge is their destruction.And when they try to interdict the agents of that destruction they are called criminals again.Their words , and the words of their leaders are parsed.And this idea of a criminal nation blooms in weak minds.
But Israel will do what she thinks best for her survival.Wether that is bombing Iranian nuclear threats into dust or stopping ships that have carried arms and don’t join any part of the world in a love and respect for the Jewish state .I would wager that many of you people on these blogs will not be contacted for help ,or direction by the leadership of Israel in creating a safe haven for their people.My guess is if you found out the ships were carrying arms you would not see that as wrong.After all …Israel is a criminal nation.They deserve it!
If you want to know what Israel is about you should know that they not only prohibit Palestinians from earning a living they also prohibit their use of the Holy City where the Arab Holy site predates Israel’s occupation. The West should know they also restrict Christians from their Holy Site in Jerusalem where Netanyahu has announced the building of thousands of apartments to turn the screw of intolerance even tighter on Palestinians and Christians.
The Holocaust victims are visiting a Holocaust on the Palestinians … Israel has thrown them out of their jobs, starved them out of their homes and created a bureaucracy of bayonets to prevent their survival. It sounds like Germany in the 30s to me.
Ever been to Israel Jim?Palestinians and Israelis also live in peace and harmony side by side.Israel is a beautiful country.A beautiful experience.To compare it to Germany in the 30s.Or modern political differences to the holocaust?You are over dramatizing by a country mile