Israeli leadership defending the indefensible

By David Dionisi - June 16, 2010

Title: Israeli leadership defending the indefensible

On May 31^st the Israeli military initiated "Operation Sea Breeze" and attacked six civilian ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. Nine aid workers were murdered and some 60 volunteers were injured. The attack is not piracy because piracy is an act of aggression by individuals and not sponsored by a state. The Israeli attack in international waters was against people on ships flying the flags of countries that are not at war with Israel. Since no state of war existed at the time of the attack, the attack is an act of war against Turkey, Greece and the United States.

Although the Israeli government has declared there is no Gaza humanitarian crisis, in my summer 2009 visit to Gaza I saw first-hand how the people are suffering and dying as a direct result of the siege. While a single home in Israel was not destroyed by a Palestinian, I walked on top of the rubble of some of the over 20,000 homes that have been destroyed by Israel's military.

The Gaza invasion and blockade have created a humanitarian crisis, as declared by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. The Human rights organization B’tselem reported that as of April 2010 95% of the factories in Gaza are destroyed or closed and 93% of the water is polluted. On June 14, 2010 the International Committee of the Red Cross said Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is collective punishment of a civilian population of 1.5 million people and is illegal under international law. This is why over 700 people were willing to risk their lives to get aid into Gaza that would save the lives of thousands of children. Without media scrutiny and contrary to what the Israeli government tells the world, the aid does not get delivered when sent through Israel. This is why volunteers from 43 countries traveled with the aid ships that were recently attacked by Israeli commandos.

My prayers go to all the people suffering including the families of the nine murdered aid workers and the Israeli commandos who killed them.

US citizen Furkan Dogan was shot once in the chest and four times in the head. The video of his execution, after having been kicked repeatedly by Israeli commandos, was reported by major newspapers around the world including Turkey's Hurriyet (see www.hurriyetdailynews.com which has a link to the video at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/95). The murder of this nineteen-year-old is not the first time Americans have been killed by Israel's military. Rachel Corrie, a US college student, wearing a bright orange vest and waving at the Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer, was crushed to death in 2003 when Israel's military ordered the house of Samir Nasrallah in Gaza destroyed. Another horrific example is the intentional 1967 murders of 34 US military personnel on the USS Liberty. USS Liberty Sailors have worked passionately since 1967 to educate the public that Israel tried to sink their ship and put the blame on Egypt with the objective of tricking the US into entering their 1967 war (see www.usslibertyveterans.org and on June 8, 2005 the USS Liberty Veterans Association report of Israeli war crimes committed against the U.S. military).

In January, General David Petraeus warned US soldiers are being put in harms way by Israel. He said, "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing US standing in the region."  A few weeks ago US college student Emily Henochowicz lost an eye because she was shot in the face with a tear gas canister by an Israeli border guard. The list of crimes is long and rarely reported by the US media.

Israel's leadership argues that they needed to inspect ships for guns but they know that the ships are inspected and certified as “gun free" before they leave port. In addition, Israel routinely has Mossad agents pretending to be aid volunteers so the claim the ships were transporting weapons is not true.

The decision to authorize an act of war and attack the six aid ships was likely influenced by wanting to sideline a much more damaging revelation. Recently, the formerly top secret documents showing Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa were published online at www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons. This is the first official proof of Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

Israel’s leadership is trying to fool people that an attack on Iran is necessary. The revelation that Israel stole nuclear technology from the United States and is willing to sell nuclear bombs to the highest bidder could not come at a worse time for Zionists advocating war with Iran.

Israel attacked the ships in international waters because they needed the cover of darkness. To wait for the ships to be near the established boundary would have allowed independent camera crews, not with the aid ships, to film any Israeli action. By attacking at night and seizing all cameras on the ships, Israel's leadership attempted to control the message with doctored videos. It was not until three days after the murders that the world learned that aid volunteers protected Israeli commandos and gave them medical treatment. Everyone on the Mavi Marmara took extreme care not to kill a commando and this is why not a single commando was killed. Sadly, the commandos had a different agenda and Erol Demir who was on the Mavi Marmara said the commandos “even shot those who surrendered” including a few handcuffed people. Multiple aid workers reported a journalist trying to take a picture was murdered. Other passengers including İdris Simsek reported wounded activists were thrown into the sea by the Israeli commandos.

As a result of the numerous first-hand accounts from the victims, videos and testimonies produced by Israel’s leadership are increasingly being dismissed. Critical-thinking people know if the Israeli military really showed the videos of what happened, they would show the videos from the Apache helicopter only 35 feet above the Mavi Marmara and the video recorded by both passengers and the commandos of the aid worker executions. A video shown on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now (see http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/6/10/the_images_they_didnt_want_seen_video_and_photographs_from_on_board_the_mavi_marmara) included a booklet taken from a disarmed Israeli commando showing pictures of aid workers who were high value targets.

An independent investigation will prove that the ship was gun-free, the commandos were intentionally not killed, and aid workers were murdered. The truth is had the commandos not brought guns and used them, not a single person would have been shot or killed. How do I know? Canadian peacemaker Kevin Neish was on the Mavi Marmara and he was one of many people who confirmed there were no guns until the commandos attacked with guns. In addition, I know from experience that aid organizations are careful to make sure no one does anything stupid like bring a gun, which would compromise aid delivery. Had I, or any of the people I have worked with, seen an aid worker with a gun, we would have been the first to take action to preserve the peaceful intent of the aid project.

Israeli propaganda has used the rockets fired into Israel to justify all kinds of violence. Rarely does Israel’s government reveal that according to Israel’s military that in the last ten years fewer than 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets.  The United Nations Goldstone fact-finding team concluded that prior to the Gaza invasion not thousands of rockets were fired by Palestinians but maybe two with zero rocket casualties (read the Haaretz article on February 10, 2010 “Hamas fired 'something like two' rockets before Gaza war”). On the Palestinian side however, in 2009 there were multiple days where Israeli rockets killed over 30 Palestinian children per day, killing 355 children in a 22-day period.

Almost all the aid the Teach Peace Foundation delivers is in Africa. Teach Peace was never criticized, never, until we delivered medicine in 2009 to save children in Gaza. I am still surprised by the mean-spirited false attacks that accused us of being Holocaust deniers, self-hating Jews, or people who do not support the Israeli people because we delivered medicine in Gaza. The truth is we want only good things for Israelis and Palestinians.

Increasingly we, and the world are seeing that the enemy of Judaism, the Jewish people, and the truth, are pro-violence Zionists who have the audacity to justify illegally attacking humanitarian aid ships. Zionist are attacking Judaism when they try to turn being Jewish into something material instead of something spiritual. Fortunately, the vast majority of Israelis and Jews around the world are peaceful and do not support killing humanitarian workers.

Israel committed an act of war by attacking the ships, boarding the ships, capturing the ships, attacking the passengers, imprisoning the passengers, forcibly removing the passengers from the ships, torturing passengers in prison, stealing personal property, and of course murdering humanitarian aid workers.

People sincerely interested in the truth need to know the facts on the ground are often completely different from what the media reports. This is why the courageous former Israeli soldiers speaking out for the organization Breaking the Silence are important to hear (www.breakingthesilence.org.il).

The time has come for President Obama to earn his Nobel Peace Prize. Please call upon President Obama to demand that Israel immediately end the Gaza siege and all military funding for Israel be redirected to creating jobs here at home.

Peace is possible when the truth is known. Nonviolence and love for the Israeli and Palestinian people is the answer. Zionist supporting murdering humanitarian workers are causing Israel to lose its legitimacy in the world as a force for peace in the Middle East.

Israel’s approach of stealing nuclear technology from the United States, offering to sell nuclear weapons, murdering humanitarian aid workers, and enforcing a siege killing children, creates the perfect storm to fuel anti-Semitism. Humanitarian aid and acts of kindness is good for Israel’s security.

The truth can be upsetting. I understand that and if anything I have written is upsetting, please be my dinner guest. I have found that active listening to get to know people who disagree with me is a fantastic way to not only make friends, but also find solutions to difficult problems.

If you are like us and care deeply for the Israeli and Palestinian people, as well as for disadvantaged people in other parts of the world, please consider supporting the Teach Peace Foundation. A 15 person Teach Peace team leaves on June 23rd to work in Liberia and Ethiopia. For just $100 you can send a student to school for an entire year. Our programs to make our world a better one are explained in detail at www.teachpeacefoundation.org.

Dave Dionisi, president of the Teach Peace Foundation