~ Pity The Poor Peaceful Palestinians ~

The "world" seems to be condemning Israel for wreaking violence upon the poor peaceful Palestinians and their activist allies aboard the Marmara yesterday. Apparently the Palestinian flotilla failed to grasp the concept of a blockade. Let's look at that for just a minute...

Blockade: blockade ( ) n. The isolation of a nation, area, city, or harbor by hostile ships or forces in order to prevent the entrance and exit of traffic and commerce.

That's not so complicated as to be incomprehensible, even to those nitwits. A blockade is essentially a physical barrier telling people they cannot pass - at least without interception and inspection for items declared to be contraband (weapons, munitions, military/medical/food supplies, etc.) by those conducting the blockade.

The Gaza Strip, which was the destination of the flotilla's cargo, has been under the control of Hamas, one of many Islamic terrorist organizations, since 2007. Israel has every right to protect itself from attack, and the blockade is intended to do so by restricting the types and quantities of cargo allowed to pass.

Here's the problem - as the Israeli Commandos rappelled from helicopters down to the deck of the ship, they were immediately attacked by activists wielding knives, huge metal clubs (which are visible on AlJazeera's own video on YouTube), and "live weapons" (whatever those are - maybe the activists were swinging babies at the soldiers). Everybody knows that you don't whip out a knife or a club to assault soldiers armed with genuine military weapons. Sadly, 9-10 activist's lives were forfeited in the ensuing melee.

The entire incident could have been avoided - including the loss of life - had the Palestinians and their activist co-conspirators not tried to break the blockade. Once again: Blockade: blockade ( ) n. The isolation of a nation, area, city, or harbor by hostile ships or forces in order to prevent the entrance and exit of traffic and commerce. If you do not respect a military blockade you should expect to forfeit lives. Personally, I think they were fortunate that more of their number weren't killed, and that the ships weren't all scuttled. Deep sixed. Sent to Davy Jones' Locker. SUNK!
You can't antagonize a pitbull and not expect to be bitten. As for me, I assign blame to the organizers of the "relief" flotilla... they got exactly what they wanted.

Israeli Shells Kill 42 at UN School - Hamas Cowards Hide

"GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians on Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said ..." and, of course, the liberal media is blaming Israel for the collateral damage in its retaliation against Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

Why is it that the international press - collectively - choose to defend the wrong side in almost every encounter between the forces of good and evil? Hamas continues to provoke Israel, at every opportunity and, personally, I'm tiring of the whiny liberal media implying (when not simply stating outright) that Israel is the bad guy here! This is the same, warped, left-wing reasoning they used when they implied that the US was the initiator of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center! Where is the international outrage over Robert Mugabe's tyrannical rule of Zimbabwe, which he retains against the expressed will of the Zimbabwean people? Where is the hue and cry over Hamas' rocket attacks and homicide bombings against Israel? I use the word "homicide" as opposed to the PC word, "suicide", because if the Hamas Muslim cowards could get away with it they would not sacrifice their own lives to kill anybody. And I use the word "cowards" because they do not wear uniforms so they may blend in with, and hide - like the yellow dogs they are - within the civilian population. That is the root cause of all collateral damage in Gaza! Any moral government will go to extreme lengths to avoid inflicting civilian casualties, and extreme means withholding the full power of their military to the point that their own people's lives are placed in even greater danger. The cowards of Hamas know this, and use it to their advantage. There comes a point at which any sovereign government being attacked by terrorists must say "ENOUGH!", or be ready to forfeit their sovereignty. And, when it comes down to "fight or flight", the Israelis are totally unfamiliar with the "flight" portion.

Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, there have been over 5,000 rocket and mortar attacks launched into Israel by Hamas, with the year 2008 accounting for a full 50% of those attacks. The time for ENOUGH has arrived, and Hamas is now paying the price for their continued terrorist aggression. I doubt that you'll see these statistics in the media - print or broadcast - so here they are:

(The spelling of "mortar" is not mine - it belongs to the Israeli government. I'm certain they can count much better than they spell in English! I can't do either in Hebrew.)

I could be wrong about this ... but I'm NOT!