FM Liberman comments on flotilla events
May 31, 2010It is clear that the intention of those people from the beginning was to spill blood and not to bring any humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Interview on Israel TV Channel 1, Mabat News, 31 May 2010
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman: First of all, I want to express my admiration for the IDF soldiers, who showed responsibility, restraint, and great courage in impossible conditions, under the brutal attack of a bunch of anarchists, hooligans and terror-supporters…
Meanwhile…
The Anarchists Against the Wall and the Israeli radical left demonstrated today solidarity to GAZA
We knew it would not be nice, but we could not guess how brutal and mindless it would be. We had planned and prepared during the weeks and when the time was known – we prepared for reciprocal actions. The surprise and the shock we experienced when [we] got the news on the piracy on the high sea of Israel – in international waters – about 150 kilometers from the shore of Gaza, cannot be described.
Israel did its “best” to prevent a daytime confrontation with the solidarity flotilla at the sea gates of Gaza that would get a lot of media attention. However, the horrendous military fiasco in the middle of the night was plain for all to see in both the international and Israeli media. During the night, we got the sad news about the murdered and injured comrades and the radical left was mobilized according to that.
About 200 activists – mainly of the coalition for solidarity with Gaza, which the AAtW are part of – converged on Ashdod, on the shore near the entrance of ships to the harbor.
On the roads leading there, the State forces harassed some comrades on their way to the demonstration, but all succeeded in arriving.
We held placards and banners and chanted for hours… and saw a few of the kidnapped vessels being brought into the port.
In the evening, there were three mass demonstrations in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv.
In Tel Aviv, a surprisingly big mass demonstration of about two thousands participants converged in front of the war ministry compound, and included some of the Zionist left.
For about two hours we expressed our indignation and anger towards the Israeli state. After a while, we moved with our red’n’black flags and drums circles to the edge of the crowd and chanted our non-diluted slogans.
Ilan S.
i swear I heard a distinct kiwi accent on some of those videos…
ssshhhhhh…
lol, I wish anarchists could claim full cred for the flotilla!
crazy shit man.
crazy shit.
russia today. now there’s an interesting perspective. the land of the pogrom, probably the most decisive influence in the conception of zionism. also, sole contributor of massive military aid to arab states in their numerous attempts to destroy israel. well, there goes objectivity.
1. amnesty international, in ignoring human rights violations in the muslim world, can no longer be considered nonpartisan and can therefore be ignored.
2. “one of the worst violations of human rights in the world today”. again, more numerous and severe violations are perpetrated every day by muslim countries. not to mention the atrocities that would have occurred in the event of an arab victory. jesus, they don’t even hide the fact that they would slaughter every man, woman and child in israel if they had half a chance.
3. israel has intercepted ‘humanitarian aid’ vessels before containing weapons from iran.
4. “a lunatic state”??? nice embellishment. the arabs know israel is ‘capable’. what israel wanted to demonstrate was its resolve.
5. “can a lunatic state like israel be trusted with 2 to 3 hundred nuclear devices…?” more poignantly, can iran be trusted with one?
are the jews paranoid? is this why they might seem a ‘lunatic state’? if they are paranoid, it would seem that they suffer from some form of collective mental instability. however, if in reality, someone is out to get them, then all your accusations amount to diddly squat.
finally. bloody hell andy, you really are scraping the barrel when you have to resort to the blabberings of a madman on america bad russia good teevee.
russia the most decisive influence in the conception of zionism?
maybe. herzl didn’t spend much time in moscow but. and i could be wrogn, but i’m pretty sure anti-semitism existed outside of russia too, both during and prior to the nineteenth century and the birth of modern zionism. however, as yr obv the expert on the history of anti-semitism in europe, i’m sure you’ll enlighten me as to these facts, and their relevance to finkelstein’s argument.
also, sole contributor of massive military aid to arab states in their numerous attempts to destroy israel. well, there goes objectivity.
really? i had no idea. what exactly is the size of russia today‘s military budget? also, how many ak-47s did russia sell to algeria? bahrain? djibouti?
i dunno.
but yr remarkable ability to reduce complex, political qs — and indeed, entire historical epochs — to just one or two brief, throw-away lines — without, at the same time, doing outrageous violence to the facts, or damaging yr acutely objective status — is deeply appreciated.
anyway, now a few horribly subjective observations:
1. ai ignores human rights violations in the muslim world all the time. indeed constantly. their ignorance is being documented daily, weekly, monthly and annually, and has been for decades.
2. yes.
but yes, we all know what
jewsarabs are like.3. objectively speaking, i understand that the vessels contained an enormous arsenal of deadly weapons. for example, in the hands of a skilled terrorist arab / arab terrorist, a wheelchair can easily substitute itself for an m1 abrams or merkava, such that us and israeli military authorities are seriously considering abandoning these hideously expensive vehicles for the cheap but horribly lethal wheeled mobility devices.
4. finkelstein’s ref to israel being a ‘lunatic state’ is one he states is derived from a previous characterisation by israeli state officials of its nature — or, to be precise, the img these officials supposedly wanted the state to project to its enemies, real or presumed — following the december 2008 / january 2009 assault upon the gaza strip. for my part, as an anarchist, i’m inclined to view all states as more or less pathological, and as randolph bourne put it, ‘war is the health of the state’.
your own obviously and objectively vast knowledge of what the arabs know, and what they don’t, should really be included on the back of every cereal box in australia. it would quickly put paid to the debate which currently rages at breakfast tables over whether or not the arabs are crazy terrorists, or simply sub-human.
5. i don’t think anybody can be trusted with nuclear devices, but then again, i’m un anarcholoco.
finally. bloody hell anonymous amnesiac troll, you really are being excessively modest when you have to avoid citing your own contributions to the scholarly literature on modern russian history / the origins of zionism / soviet military relations with post-colonial regimes in the arab world / human rights ngo’s record on documenting hr violations in islamic states / speculative fiction / nuclear proliferation / political psychology and the israel/palestine conflict. yr failure to alert the reader to yr own substantial body of work means that the innocent must resort to the blabberings of a madman on america bad russia good teevee, someone armed only with a doctorate in politics from princeton, a long record of academic teaching, and numerous publications.