EDITOR: The Boat Comes in Again…
And this time, there is a whole flotilla, with hundreds of people on board. The Israelis plan to sink the boats like they did so many times before – an act of piracy on the high seas, for which no doubt the great western powers will support by closing their eyes to this inhuman and illegal act being prepared. This time, they may kill many people. Nothing is said by the high and mighty O’Bummer, so interested in human rights when Israel is not involved.
LET THE AID BOATS GET TO GAZA!: Gush Shalom
The State of Israel has no interest in flooding television screens all over the world with footage of its navy violently assaulting against peace activists at sea. It is time to remove the suffocating siege and allow residents of Gaza to have free contact with the outside world, freely operate sea and air ports of their own like any country in the world.
The Gush Shalom movement calls upon the government to allow the eight-boat aid flotilla from all over the world to reach the shores of Gaza, where they are scheduled to arrive next week, and unload the humanitarian cargo which is urgently needed by the residents of Gaza. In a letter to Defense Minister Barak, Gush Shalom calls upon him to cancel immediately the instructions given to Israeli Navy ships off the Gaza shore to intercept the aid flotilla.
“The whole world is looking. The State of Israel has no interest in flooding the international television screens with images of Israeli sailors and naval commandos violently assaulting hundreds of peace activists and humanitarian aid workers, many of them well-known in their countries. Whose interest will it serve when hours long dramatic live reports arrive from the Mediteranean, with the world’s sympathy given to hundreds of non-violent activists, on board eight boats, assaulted by the strongest military power in the Middle East?” were the words of a letter to the Defense Minister.
No harm whatsoever will be caused to Israel from the aid flotilla reaching Gaza Port and unloading a cargo of medical supplies and medicines, school supplies and construction materials to rebuild the houses destroyed by the Israeli Air Force a year and half ago and not yet been restored. On the contrary, it would be in Israel’s best interest to declare without delay that as a humanitarian gesture, the boats’ way will not be blocked. And in general, it is time to end once and for all the suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and causing terrible suffering to its million and a half inhabitants.
The siege on Gaza utterly failed in all the goals set for it by the government of Israel. The siege was supposed to result in toppling the Hamas government – and on the contrary strengthened this government, which relied on the support of a significant part of the Palestinian People. The siege was supposed to help in gaining the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit – but on the contrary, the siege just delays that release, which could have been achieved long ago had the government of Israel agreed to the prisoner exchange deal, on which most of the details have been decided long ago. It’s time to end this cruel and pointless siege.
The residents of the Gaza Strip, like the citizens of Israel and of any other country in the world, have the right to maintain direct contacts with the outside world – to leave their country and return to it, to develop their economy, to import the products they need and export their own produce to anyone who wants to buy it, without asking or needing for permission from Israel, Egypt or any other country. Just as Israel needs no permit from any other country to operate daily the sea ports of Ashdod and Haifa and Eilat and the Ben Gurion International Airport, so are the Palestinians and their state to be entitled to run their own sea port and airport in the Gaza Strip. Let the flotilla of humanitarian aid from all over the world be given the honour of inaugurating the sovereign Palestinian Port of Gaza!.
IDF launches homefront drill amid rising tensions on Lebanon border: Haaretz
Hezbollah’s deputy head says the Shi’ite organization has stepped up its alert status ahead of the ‘war game’ being conducted on Sunday in Israel.
Israel’s annual national home front exercise began Sunday, as Hezbollah played up fears in Lebanon that the drill means a conflict might loom with its southern neighbor.
The exercise, “Turning Point 4,” was due to last five days and be carried out in all parts of the country. During the first three days the drill was to involve the Israel Defense Forces’ various command centers, the police, emergency services, ministries and other government offices.
The exercise, which is held annually in May, was to be broadened on Wednesday to include civilians, with a siren sounded at 11 A.M. throughout the country. Civilians were instructed to to seek cover in shelters or other secure areas.
Hezbollah’s deputy head, Nabil Qaouk, said Friday that the Shi’ite organization had stepped up its alert status ahead of the “war game” being conducted on Sunday in Israel.
Qaouk said thousands of Hezbollah fighters will not take part in one of the stages of Lebanon’s municipal elections today because they are preparing for the possible attack by Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called on voters to pick the candidates put forth by the coalition between Hezbollah and Amal, another Shi’ite group.
Joining Hezbollah in its worries, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the Israeli exercise contradicts efforts to reach comprehensive peace in the region.
Hariri met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Saturday, ahead of his visit to Washington.
Israel has relayed messages to Arab states about the drill, stressing that it has no plans to launch an attack.
The exercise will focus this year on the ability of municipalities to respond to the launching of thousands of missiles and rockets on Israel. Most municipal authorities, where around 70 percent of the country’s people live, will hold drills as part of the national effort, conducted by Home Front Command, the National Emergency Authority and the Defense Ministry.
Hundreds of police officers are scheduled to take part in the exercise; they will practice their three main tasks in the event of missile attacks: routine security, guiding traffic and maintaining order.
The police will be tested on how they respond to local emergencies while the force is spread out all over the country.
The main scenario for the police will be a strike on Be’er Sheva by missiles fitted with chemical warheads.
Another aspect of the drill will be surprise strikes at home front targets.
Many different elements of defense and rescue will be practiced. For the first time, for example, Israel will test its response to a blow to its computer and electronic-communications infrastructure after a cyber attack.
The authorities will also examine their ability to evacuate hundreds of thousands of civilians from areas hit by missile barrages or strikes by unconventional weapons.
The distribution of gas masks, something already underway over the past three months, will be expedited during the drill to include other parts of the country. Home Front Command will be tested on its ability to shift to emergency distribution on a national level.
Extensive participation by volunteers, nongovernment organizations and youth movements is expected to be part of the drill, especially in helping local authorities reach people and communities in distress or needing special assistance.
EDITOR: Game Playing
As usual, Israelis like speaking to itself, negotiating with itself, even playing games with itself. In this war game, almost all sides are played by Israelis with responsibility for mass-murder and destruction. What fun it must be playing with yourself!!
Israelis debate how to deal with a nuclear Iran: BBC
Middle East experts debated what to do if Iran developed a nuclear weapon
By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem
There is no more pressing question for foreign diplomats and spies working inside Israel. How likely is it that Israel may take pre-emptive military action against Iran, to try to thwart its nuclear ambitions?
Iran vigorously denies that it is attempting to build a nuclear weapon. Israel, and much of the world, does not believe that.
Mr Netanyahu has said a nuclear Iran meant an iminent “second Holocast”
But what if, despite international opposition and its own protestations, Iran were to produce an atomic bomb?
On Sunday, a high-level panel from the Israeli political and military establishment considered just that question, at the Inter-Disciplinary Centre in Herziliya.
And some of the panel’s conclusions were surprising.
No senior military officer or politician in Israel thinks that Iran and its nuclear programme is anything other than a hugely serious threat to Israel and to the region.
But there is a telling difference in rhetoric.
‘Domino effect’
Speaking to the BBC after the end of the panel’s discussions, Tzipi Livni – the leader of the main opposition party, and Israel’s previous long-serving foreign minister – insisted that a nuclear Iran did not pose an existential threat to Israel.
Ms Livni directed particular criticism at the current Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu repeated warnings about a second Holocaust.
Tzipi Livni criticised the way the Israeli government is handling Iran
“The role of leadership is to give an answer to this kind of threat,” she said, rather than to stoke worry.
“Israel in 2010 is not the Jews in Europe in 1939.”
What is more, she said, Israel – and the world – should not fixate on the damage that could be caused by Iran, if and when it became nuclear-armed.
The very possibility was changing the region now.
There was, she said, a “domino effect” among states “too weak to confront (Iran) or to have their own nuclear weapon”.
As long as the world fails to “stop the bully”, these states are “going to join him, and this is going to change completely the allies and alliances in the region, and this is something that the free world cannot afford.”
Ms Livni said that you could already see some countries “come off the fence” and tilt towards Iran. She cited Qatar and Turkey.
All of which still raises the question of what course of action Israel may take, whether it is likely to try to hit Iran militarily.
No-one who is really in the know about Israel’s specific intentions and plans will talk about them.
But Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, is a veteran – not just of diplomacy, but of this type of war-game simulations.
He said that, time and again, a marked difference of emphasis would emerge from the role-playing, with the Israelis favouring military action as a “first course of response”, and the US tending to look at alternatives.
Peace deal
In that context, there was a particularly striking contribution from Dan Halutz, the previous chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces, and another participant in the day of war-gaming.
He argued strongly not just for talk of military pre-emption, but diplomatic pre-emption.
He said that the Iranians should be isolated from the rest of the Muslim world, which, he claimed, was “by and large more concerned than Israel is about a nuclear Iran.”
The way to do that, he said, was clear: a comprehensive regional peace settlement. “The price is known, all the files are ready.”
It was not, said the former chief of staff, an easy or simple decision. But it was a decision that had to be taken.
“A decision to say no [to a peace settlement] is not short-term. It is a strategic choice: we need to know that from here to eternity, we’re prepared to do whatever is necessary to fight for the decision to say no. But if we think differently, we have to say yes.”
Brigadier-General Halutz went further, disparaging talk about Israel’s “red lines” in negotiations.
The phrase should, he said, be removed from the diplomatic lexicon, because whenever it came to the crunch, those absolute boundaries disappeared.
All this needs to be set against the briefings on Iran from from the very top of Israel’s current security establishment: that there should be no doubt that Israel is intent on doing all that it thinks needs to be done to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
But there are also others, voices of powerful experience, who say that Israel needs to think as widely and as imaginatively as possible to prevent Iran shaping the region in its own image.