Free Gaza Movement's Success as Israel Cracks Under Pressure

Israel's announcement that it is easing the illegal blockade of goods into the Gaza strip is a resounding success for the Free Gaza Movement, and shows that Israel is crumbling in the face of international opposition. According to the latest announcements, Israel will no longer restrict any food items, toys, stationary, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels into the Gaza Strip.

Clearly, none of these newly "approved" items poses or ever posed any threat to the security of Israel. It is further unequivocally clear to anyone not wearing blackout lenses that the sole purpose of imposing an embargo on food items, toys, books, stationary, and many other such items of personal comfort with no weapons value was for the singular purpose of breaking the spirit and will of the Palestinian people. Not only has this policy failed to break the will of the Palestinian people, but it has crystallized into a rallying call of support for these embattled civilians. History will record Israel's embargo of the Gaza Strip as the springboard for the establishment of a Palestinian State.

And yes, you can quote me on that.

Culture of Resistance Video shows IDF using laser scope

Cultures of Resistance has posted raw footage taken by Iara Lee on the Mavi Marmara before and during the attack by the Israeli IDF on the unarmed vessel. Watching the abbreviated version of the video at 1:30 you can clearly see a red laser such as the kind used on sniper scopes moving about trying to target passengers on the deck. At the same time, the IDF helicopter can clearly be heard above the ship and several alert passengers ducked out of the way of the laser beam. It is hard to conclude anything but the fact that the IDF went in shooting and killing. So much for the claim that there was a "lynch" mob.

http://culturesofresistance.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla

Israeli Mossad Chief to Knesset - Israel becoming a burden for U.S. - you got that right!

It seems there is at least some glimmer of insight in the government of Israel. According to numerous news sources, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan announced to the Israeli Knesset that Israel is turning from an asset to a burden. Not only that, but he sees the value of Israel to the U.S. greater in times of conflict. That seems quite consistent with Israel's policies of stirring the pot.

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has publicly stated the agency’s concerns that Israel is gradually turning from an asset to a burden for American foreign policy. Speaking before the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Meir Dagan said it was obvious to him that “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden”. The former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander, who has led the Mossad since 2002, remarked that every year since the end of the Cold War there are progressively “fewer Israeli assets in the US”. The importance of Israel in US foreign policy was “greater when there was conflict between the blocs”, said the Mossad chief, “while this year there has [again] been a decrease” in Israel’s significance. He went on to lament the 2008 election success of US President Barack Obama, which was “a declaration that [the US] was adopting a softer approach and did not want to use force to solve conflicts”. This, he said, “influences Israel’s difficulty in diplomatic maneuvers”. Dagan also commented on the recent IDF commando raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, warning that “[e]vents [like this] are likely to go out of control and the situation could deteriorate to extreme scenarios”. He also disclosed that the IDF initially considered sabotaging the engines of at least one of the six ships in the flotilla, but scrapped the idea, after being warned by experts that the sabotaged vessels would be stranded in international waters, possibly causing a humanitarian crisis.

Remember the Liberty

In light of Israel's most recent act of terror in international waters, this seems like an opportune moment to remember the USS Liberty, a state of the art naval vessel intentionally, wantonly and without provocation attacked by Israel on the 8th of June, 1967. Israel's laughable defense was that it had mistaken the ship for an out of service Egyptian Horse Carrier. Here's a picture of the Liberty before the attack and the Egyptian boat - can you tell which is which? It's pretty apparent to anyone over the age of 8 with a modicum of intelligence that one boat is a naval vessel and the other one is a clunker. Israel's attack on an ally ship is inexplicable unless it intended to try to foist the blame for the attack onto Egypt, thus drawing the U.S. into "the 6 day war" with Egypt.

One might be inclined to disregard all evidence to the contrary and naively conclude that the attack was indeed a case of mistaken identity, but for the fact that Israel has never abandoned its efforts to surreptitiously draw the United States into Israeli-Arab conflicts. Preceding the USS Liberty disaster was the Lavon Affair a/k/a Operation Susannah, a well documented anti-American disaster for Israel in which it was discovered that Israel was running a spy ring in Egypt whose mission was to blow up U.S. and British targets in order alienate the U.S. and Britain from Egypt.

Then, there's the murder of the marines in Beirut. Much was said about President Obama's speech in recalling the tragedy:

"On the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, we remember today the 241 American Marines, soldiers, and sailors who lost their lives 26 years ago as the result of a horrific terrorist attack that destroyed the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The military personnel serving in Beirut were there to bring peace and stability to Lebanon after years of internal strife and conflict. The murder of our soldiers, sailors, and Marines on this day on 1983 remains a senseless tragedy....In remembering this terrible day of loss, we are at the same time hopeful that a new government in Lebanon will soon be formed. We look forward to working with a Lebanese government that works actively to promote stability in the region and prosperity for its people."

"A horrific terrorist attack" - but whose horrific terrorist attack. Certainly the President has access to all intelligence information to fill in the answer, but here again the truth may be another casualty of our great bond with Israel. Rather than raising a false flag Israel refused to share the intelligence it had that such an attack was impending, including details of the make and model of the vehicle to be used.

Then, there were those fabulous dancing Israeli's on 9/11. Who could forget the reports that a group of 5 "Arabs" in a white van were dancing and celebrating as they filmed American Airlines Flight 11 crash into the North Tower at the World Trade Center. According to arresting Officer Scott DeCarlo's police report, one of the passengers told him, 'We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem. The men ranged in age from 22 to 27. The driver was Sivan Kurzberg. The other passengers included his brother, Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. The men, who all said they worked for Urban Moving, were taken to this new Jersey State Police Station and questioned by the FBI. ABC News' John Miller, now of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reported that after the five men were taken to jail, the entire case was transferred out of FBI's criminal division and into its foreign counterintelligence section, which is responsible for espionage cases because the FBI believed Urban Moving may have provided a cover for agents of Israeli intelligence. After being held all five Mossad agents were deported to Israel.

One has to wonder what, if anything, the U.S. receives in return for its close ties to Israel, unless of course, this is simply: keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.