NOT QUITE GANDHI . . .

GAZA PEACE ACTIVIST BOASTS HE COULD HAVE "TAKEN OUT" 3 IDF COMMANDOs


Some direct quotes from:
The weblog of Ken O’Keefe


A beautiful gift from the BBC

If you haven’t seen it, look for BBC Panorama’s “Death in the Med” program online, you will be treated to first class propaganda as only the BBC can deliver.

I am one of the passengers/witnesses interviewed for this program . . .

. . . I solicited an agreement with the BBC producers, in return for my interview the program would include the fact that we disarmed, captured and ultimately released three Israeli commandos (after giving them medical attention no less). That was the deal, a deal I made with an audio recorder in service.

And yes the poor Israeli commandos were beaten, just as any invader in any capable persons home would be beaten. I take no issue with that fact.

But truth be told, the commandos we captured should thank us for their lives. I ask the Israeli’s, British and American people specifically, if your home was invaded, your family being murdered, would you be willing to disarm, completely control, and then set a murderer of your family free???


STORMBRINGER: OKAY there Hero, we let you have your say; now here's the professional anaylsis:

Close-Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers




Those Israeli commandos showed INCREDIBLE RESTRAINT, when in fact they had every right to use deadly force; every rule in the Law of Land Warfare allows a soldier to defend himself. Consider: these soldiers were following legal orders, enforcing a legal naval blockade designed to prevent the import of weapons via maritime means into Gaza - weapons intended for use in terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

In the course of their duties, the Israeli soldiers were set upon with stun grenades, chains and iron bars. In one of the clips we see an Israeli soldier being thrown overboard - weighed down with full combat kit, this is a potential death sentence.

To be swarmed by an armed mob like that, in confined space, my instincts would have been to open fire, take as many of them with me as possible. Some Israeli soldiers said they used their pistols only after activists struck one of their comrades. Activists on board said the IDF opened fire on the ship before boarding.

Espen Goffeng, an activist from Norway, said Israeli soldiers started with paintball rounds, then switched to rubber bullets and then afterwards used live ammunition. This kind of escalation of force is acceptable within normal Rule of Engagement. Again; the Law of Land Warfare does not preclude a combatant from using deadly force in self-defence.

Nine activists were shot and killed, many at close range, and dozens were injured. Again, the IDF showed incredible restraint. Any of the so-called "peace protestors" who survived the situation, should consider themselves very fortunate - THEY ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE.

Seven Israeli commandos were injured. The wounded activists were evacuated by Israeli air force helicopters for treatment in Israeli hospitals and medical facilities of the Israeli Prisons Service.


Mavi Marmara Passengers Attack IDF Before Soldiers Board Ship




These so-called "peace activists" were looking for a fight:

Weapons Found on the Flotilla Ship Mavi Marmara Used by Activists Against IDF Soldiers:




Over the past 10 years there have been many attempts to smuggle weapons to terrorist organizations by sea. These attempts highlight the cooperation between Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas in their goal to undermine the State of Israel and target its civilians.

Source: Talia Wissner-Levy, IDF News Media


May 7th, 2001: Santorini

The Santorini was intercepted on its way from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip. It contained a large shipment of 40 tons of weapons including Strela anti-aircraft missiles—the same kind that terrorists fired at and narrowly missed an Arkia Israeli passenger jet taking off from Mombassa, Kenya in November 2002. The shipment also included mortars, rifles and guns, grenades, mines and explosive material, anti-tank RPG-7 missile-launchers, and artillery rockets.

Three crew members aboard the Santorini were convicted for trying to smuggle weapons from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip — the captain, a professional weapons smuggler and two of his relatives aboard the ships, had been involved in three previous smuggling attempts backed by Hezbollah and PFLP-GC.

The Santorini was acquired by PFLP-GC in a small island off Syria, and registered as Syrian. During previous smuggling attempts by the crew, arms were packed in Syria and transferred to Lebanon by a Syrian bus. Part of the anti-tank weaponry originated from Iran.


January 3rd, 2002: Karin-A

Karin-A was intercepted in the Red Sea along the Iranian coast, heading towards the Palestinian Authority. It carried 80 submergible containers of 50 tons of weapons, including: RPG-7 rockets, RPG-18 anti-tank rocket launchers, Iranian-made anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 2200 kilograms of high explosive demolition blocks, Sagger anti-tank launchers and missiles, as well as rifles, machine guns, AK-47s, 735 hand grenades, 700,000 rounds of small ammunition, and diving equipment. The submergible containers were to be dropped into the sea and then washed ashore the Gaza Strip or picked up by a smaller vessel and delivered to the Strip.

Yasser Arafat's former CFO and confidante at the time, Fuad Shubaki was heavily involved in the smuggling attempt, the crew included members of the P.A. and Arafat eventually admitted P.A. involvement in the smuggling attempt. The ship was purchased in Lebanon and sailed to Sudan and Yemen to pick up civilian goods (watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, rice, toys, clothes) to disguise the weapons aboard.

June 8th, 2002

Two Palestinians were found swimming along the north Gaza Strip shore armed with four grenades, an AK-47, and four ammunition magazines in an attempt to infiltrate an Israeli community.


August 4th, 2002

IDF naval forces identified an armed Palestinian wearing a oxygenated scuba diving suit and carrying an AK-47, 8 grenades, 4 ammunition magazines, who was on his way towards an Israeli community from the Gaza coast.


November 23rd, 2002

After many attempts to communicate with an unknown Palestinian fishing boat heading from the Gaza Strip towards the direction of Israel, the bomb-laden boat exploded near an Israeli security patrol boat, moderately injuring three and lightly injuring one.


January 7th, 2003

A suspicious life raft found floating along the northern Gaza Strip coast was found to be booby-trapped with explosives.


May 21st, 2003 Abu Hasan

The Abu Hasam was intercepted in waters west of Haifa, sailing from Lebanon to Egypt carrying Hezbollah explosives bound for the Gaza Strip. The boat itself was a fishing boat, no doubt used purposefully to disguise its intentions. Cargo contained: a radio-activation system to detonate bombs remotely, CDs of directives on how to carry out suicide bomb terror attacks, five boxes with rocket fuses, and 25 Katyusha rocket detonators. The masterminds of the arms smuggling attempt were connected to Arafat's P.A. and Hezbollah.


October 12th, 2009 Hansa India

The Hansa India, which sailed from Iran flying a German flag was due to unload a cargo of eight containers in Egypt. Following warnings from the German authorities, the vessel was not unloaded and continued to Malta where it was seized and found to be carrying bullets and industrial material intended for the production of weapons, seemingly bound for Syria.


November 3th, 2009 Francop

The Francop, a German vessel, was intercepted off the coast of Cyprus en route from Iran to Syria where it would be smuggled by land to Hezbullah in Lebanon. The ship contained 36 containers with 500 tons of arms: 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and half of a million rounds of small ammunition, all hidden behind sacks of polyethelene. The arms smuggling was attempted without the knowledge of the crew: the cache was loaded from the Bandar Port in Iran on an Iranian vesel and stopped at an Egyptian port, where the cache was unloaded onto the Francop. The cache was ten times larger than the cache seized from the Karin A.


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ISRAELs BLOCKADE IS LEGAL

Israeli commandos aboard the
MV Mavi Marmara. On the lower-right the Flag of Turkey is visible.

The Law of Blockade was derived from customary international law and codified in the 1909 Declaration of London, and updated in 1994 in a legally recognized document called the "San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea".

Some of the key rules: the blockade must be declared and notified to all belligerents and neutral states, access to neutral ports cannot be blocked, and an area can only be blockaded which is under enemy control.

According to Philip Roche, partner in the shipping disputes and risk management team with law firm Norton Rose: "On the basis that Hamas is the ruling entity of Gaza and Israel is in the midst of an armed struggle against that ruling entity, the blockade is legal."


INTERNATIONAL WATERS

Under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea a coastal state has a "territorial sea" of 12 nautical miles from the coast over which it is sovereign. Ships of other states are allowed "innocent passage" through such waters.


Route of the flotilla



There is a further 12 nautical mile zone called the "contiguous zone" over which a state may take action to protect itself or its laws.

Beyond the 12 nautical miles limit the seas are the "high seas" or international waters.

The Israeli Navy said on Monday that the Gaza bound flotilla was intercepted 120 km (75 miles) west of Israel. The Turkish captain of one of the vessels told an Istanbul news conference after returning home from Israeli detention they were 68 miles outside Israeli territorial waters.

Under the law of a blockade, intercepting a vessel could apply globally so long as a ship is bound for a "belligerent" territory, legal experts say.


MV Mavi Marmara leaving Antalya for Gaza on 22 May 2010 Source: Free Gaza Movement


USE OF FORCE WHEN INTERCEPTING SHIPS

Under International Law a nation can use force when boarding a ship.

"If force is disproportionate it would be a violation of the key tenets of the use of force," said Commander James Kraska, professor of international law at the U.S. Naval War College.

Israeli authorities said marines who boarded the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara opened fire in self-defense after activists clubbed and stabbed them and snatched some of their weapons.

Legal experts say proportional force does not mean that guns cannot be used by forces when being attacked with knives.

"But there has got to be a relationship between the threat and response," Kraska said.

The use of force may also have other repercussions.

"While the full facts need to emerge from a credible and transparent investigation, from what is known now, it appears that Israel acted within its legal rights," said J. Peter Pham, a strategic adviser to U.S. and European governments.

"However, not every operation that the law permits is necessarily prudent from the strategic point of view."


PIRACY


Opponents have called Israel's raid "piracy"; under international law it was considered a state action.

"Whether what Israel did is right or wrong, it is not an act of piracy. Piracy deals with private conduct particularly with a pecuniary or financial interest," Kraska said.


EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

None so far but the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), an association which represents 75 percent of the world's merchant fleet, has expressed "deep concern" over the boarding by Israeli forces, arguing that merchant ships have a right to safe passage and freedom of navigation in international waters.

"These fundamental principles of International Law must always be upheld by all of the world's nations," the ICS said.


Don't worry Israel - STORMBRINGER has "got your six"!


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