Question: When can a country intercept a vessel?

A maritime blockade is a tool countries can employ during an armed conflict to stop the passage of weapons and other goods to a country or entity. Israel has imposed one on Gaza since January 3, 2009, during Operation Cast Lead.

Melanie Lidman asks and answers the Question: When can a country intercept a vessel?

Of course we've been through all of this before but this time the flotilla is clearly a propaganda device and has nothing to do with the delivery of humanitarian aid. In the meantime, there are more indications of the presence of violent elements among the passengers.

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

It's not that often that I agree with Age editorials on the subject of Israel but I have to say that I was at one with yesterday's piece entitled Israel should uphold press freedom until I reached the last sentence of the fourth paragraph when it referred to the fact that Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty were among media on board last year's flotilla to Gaza:

The value of their work was recognised when McGeough received the 2010 Walkley Award for best print news report.

That was the point where reason departed and the editorial turned into bullshit. McGeough's work might have been recognised by the Walkley people but the accuracy of the report, its truth and its value as a piece of journalism is strongly disputed. Many would maintain that it was mere propaganda

Don’t believe me?

Then please read the transcript of an exchange between McGeough and comedian Sandy Gutman during a recent episode of the ABC’s Q & A in response to a question from a member of the audience.

PAUL BLANKET: Yes, my question is to Paul McGeough. In your news article on the Gaza flotilla, you stated that the Israeli Navy 'hunted like hyenas'. Where do you see the line should be drawn in factual journalism, between reporting the news accurately and factually and creating an emotional atmosphere, stirring up anti-Israel opinion?

PAUL MGEOUGH: I didn't talk about the Israeli troops hunting like hyenas. I talked about the moment of the boats on the water, dark shadows before dawn, moving on the water as being like the movement of hyenas hunting, which is a very different analogy.

SANDY GUTMAN: No, it isn't. It's the same thing.

PAUL MGEOUGH: No, it's not.

SANDY GUTMAN: It's exactly the same thing.

PAUL MGEOUGH: No, because the argument...

SANDY GUTMAN: You're trying to vilify the Israeli Navy. That's what you're trying to do.

PAUL MGEOUGH: No, the argument is being made is that here was me saying that Israeli human beings as individuals were hyenas and I wasn't.

SANDY GUTMAN: But where were you? Weren't you on a smaller vessel? Weren't you on the Challenger?

PAUL MGEOUGH: I was on – yes. Yes.

SANDY GUTMAN: So how could you see them hunting like hyenas?

PAUL MGEOUGH: Because they were moving around our boat too. They were moving around all...

SANDY GUTMAN: Oh, right. That's when you went down underneath there somewhere. Didn't you go into the cabin or something?

PAUL MGEOUGH: We were taken down into the cabin after the Israeli troops came on board but I was watching the boats from the flying bridge.

SANDY GUTMAN: Right.

Read McGeough's pathetic response to the question as you wish but to me they are very much weasel words until I see evidence of the first sighting in the Mediterannean of a swimming hyena.

Five Hezbollah members to be indicted in Hariri assassination

Haaretz reports - Five Hezbollah members to be indicted in Hariri assassination
The United Nations special tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri will indict five Hezbollah members for the 2005 killing, the Asharq Alawsat newspaper reported on Monday.

I wonder how many of the usual suspects will be marching down Western streets today with banners declaring, "We are all Hezbollah!"

ON THE BUS FOR PEACE IN A DIVIDED LAND

Every once in a while an article appears in the Age that is written with no other agenda but to tell the whole story in an honest and sensitive way that cares for all sides.

It doesn't occur very often but when it does, it's a winner.

What a pity, such stories come from those who write mainly about sports and not world politics - ON THE BUS FOR PEACE IN A DIVIDED LAND

Five minutes for Gilad Shalit

I commend Five minutes for Gilad Shalit by Sam Tatarka

Corporal Gilad Shalit has been held in captivity by the barbarian Hamas regime without the most basic of human rights. "The Red Cross cannot visit him. He is denied any contact with the outside world and there is no way to know whether his physical well being is being maintained."

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

These names appear on a letter supporting Marrickville Council's failed endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

Julian Burnside

John Pilger

Antony Loewenstein

Sonja Karkar

Nasser Mashni

David Hicks

Jeffrey Loewenstein

Say, no more.

Gaza flotilla blind to Hamas

Another excellent Op Ed on the hypocrisy of the flotilla crowd - Gaza flotilla blind to Hamas

Of course, the flotilla folk don't want to know about Hamas but they're not the only ones. The story brings to mind once gain the travesty of an article from Paul McGeough of Fairfax who, in six pages about the Free Gaza movement's movers and shakers couldn't bring himself to mention Hamas or hyenas once.

I wonder why?

Fake Flotilla seeks Fame not Freedon

Adevrtising creative director Rowan Dean is also a panellist on The Gruen Transfer. Here, he exposes the latest flotilla scan - Fame, not freedom, is the goal of the latest flotilla bound for Gaza

It is laudable that people donate their time and talents in the hope of helping the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. But in this instance they have been duped. The objective of this exercise is confrontation, not mediation. Violence, not peace. Fame for those on board, not freedom for the Palestinians. It's a scam.

THE APPLE DOESN'T FALL FAR

Some time ago, Louise Adler published Antony Loewenstein's error filled tome called My Israel Question. As publisher she bore the responsibility for such monumental clangers as the map that showed the bulk of northern Israel as being in Lebanon, not to mention dozens of other factual errors in Loewenstein's fatally flawed propaganda piece.

It comes as no surprise that her offspring produces a horror story dripping with words and phrases such as "false elision", "nominal sacralisation", "historiography" and "dialectical cycle" and based on a fictional country to which she gives the name "Israel" but which bears no relationship to the actual state - BDS a last resort counter to Israeli exceptionalism.

What makes this piece so banal and evil is that it is a response to visiting former Israeli Member of Knesset Naomi Chazan's thoughtful piece in The Drum entitled The Quest for a Two State Solution in which Professor Chazan demolishes the hateful BDS campaign as being counterproductive to the quest for peace between Israel and Palestinians.

At least Adler is clear that she supports the elimination of Israel and its replacement with one state, thereby ignoring the desire and rights of both Jews and Palestinians to their own self-determination.

"The possible elimination of the State of Israel does not imply the elimination of Jews."

This is not a problem for Ms. Adler-Gillies. She just wants the Israelis to comply with some "moral standard" which she does not consider appropriate for others in the neighbourhood like Hamas, Hizbullah, the Iranians or the Syrians who would happily shoot their own fellow citizens in the face let alone the hated Jews whose destruction they call for in their charters, in their media, in mosques and on their streets.

Adler-Gillies is one of those people of who Golda Meir once said would deliver beautiful eulogies for the dead Jews had they not fought back against the Arab armies and had been destroyed in 1948. Hypocrisy is throwing people under the bus at a pinch.

I wonder what she would think about the two state solution that was applied when the Czech Republic and Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia) divorced each other amicably in the early 1990s? Czech exceptionalism is as meaningless a term as Israeli exceptionalism but Adler-Gillies feels safe in applying it to one people alone.

Rather than allow the Jews a state of their own, she would rather subject them to the "kosher" standards of governance we see in Egypt, Syria and Libya or under Hamas in the Islamic theocracy of Gaza under the yoke of Hamas whose charter gives recognition to the notorious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Ms. Adler-Gilles' piece in The Drum would fit well as just another chapter in that infamous forgery, celebrated by totalitarians of the far left and the fascists alike.

SILENCE

Yesterday a NATO airstrike on the Libyan capital of Tripoli went horribly wrong. The NATO air attack on a building claimed 19 civilian lives adding to the nine who died a day earlier in another apparently botched up attack.

Strangly enough, there are no demonstrations in the streets of the West. No flotillas. No Goldstone Report. Not even when some of those among the dead were Palestinians - NATO airstrike kills Palestinian family in Tripoli.

Silence.

WHO IS LEFT ON THE FLOTILLA?

It must have taken a fair amount of talking for the Turkish government to persuade the terrorist supporting Jihadists of the IHH to withdraw from the forthcoming flotilla of hatred and destruction to Gaza but the fleet is still moving on despite the fact that most goods can now enter the Hamas ruled enclave now that Egypt has opened its border at Rafah.

The only goods that aren't allowed in are weapons and goods that can be used to make weapons.

SO who is left on the flotilla?

YALE

Yale has closed down it's Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism. Cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen comments in his drybonesblog:-

Another Mad Middle Eastern Mufti

The mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, was quoted this week as saying that Palestinians are no longer welcome in his country. He also condemned Palestinians as “trash,” and said that he’s not afraid of their weapons -
Palestinians no longer welcome, says Lebanese Mufti

Another story you won't read in our media here.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Bill Anderson in today's Australian on Fairfax's extraordinary decision to appoint Paul "Hyena Man" McGeough as chief correspondent. Apparently, this is how a sinking ship struggles to keep "balanced" -

"AS The Age is one of the newspapers I read every day, I believe that your editorial's critique is abundantly supported by the daily evidence of bias in front of my eyes.

The editorial is timely because The Age has recently announced that the infamously anti-Israel "journalist" Paul McGeough has been rewarded for his long record of anti-Israel invective by being appointed chief correspondent for The Age and that he is going to be "covering global affairs and international crisis zones" no less. Clearly the way to get ahead at Fairfax is to put the boot into Israel at every opportunity.

Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic"

ENCORE ...

There should be more of this ...



... and less of this ...



Israeli culture in Marrickville

Rules and Guidelines for Westerners reporting on the Middle East

It would not surprise if these rules were pinned up in the offices of one of our metropolitan daily newspapers - Rules and Guidelines for Westerners reporting on the Middle East

Sound about right.

TOLERANCE

There's only one country in the entire Middle East where this would be tolerated - Over the rainbow as gays party hard in the Holy Land .

No no fly zones on this war criminal!

While it's true that harrowing reports of atrocities committed by Syria against its own people have sparked fresh international outrage, the outrage remains muted and has yet to translate into any significant action to put an end to Bashar al-Assad's human rights violations Outrage builds over bloodshed in Syria.

World politics dictates that there will be no "no fly" zones on this war criminal!

Most of the current bloodshed is at or near Syria's border with Turkey which, for Bashar al-Assad, is the wrong border.

If only he could manufacture an incident on the southern border with Israel, then he would find no shortage of useful tools to lend him support in condemning the Zionists over any concocted incident set up to divert attention from the crimes of the Butcher of Damascus.

Such is the world today.

Some more embarrassing BDS moments

The idiots keep it coming -

THE TAILOR - -presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

FARHUD

Exactly seventy years ago 700 Jews were murdered in a Nazi-led pogrom in Irak that put paid to thousands of years of Jewish history in the area.

The dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands is something most of the mmedia would prefer to ignore - Recounting ‘Farhud’ that ended 2,400 years of Iraqi Jewry

PICTURE THIS

Above are photographs from the Mavi Marmara in 2010 that have been found and belatedly been made available by the IDF and published by Yediot Ahronot on 7 June 2011.

They show one "peace activist" with gun and another with automatic weapon. Flotilla supporter and MK Zuabi is shown in the area a minute later.

I WONDER WHY ...

... we didn't read about this in our local broadsheet - Report: 14 Palestinians shot dead in Syrian refugee camp

Eye witnesses say security guards opened fire on angry mourners who attacked Palestinian faction leaders in Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus.

Fourteen dead Palestinians can't make the news when they're killed by their own.

I wonder why this isn't news?

FUNNY MAN TURNS SERIOUS

Sandy Guttman (aka Austen Tayshus) turns deadly serious and destroys Rhiannon, McGeough and the Palestinian woman planted in the audience for last night’s Q&A.

A definite own goal for those who thought this bloke was just a comic and was going to be a funny Jew who could be kicked around by the hyena crowd.

The audience wasn't impressed by Rhiannon's flog a dead horse propaganda soliloquy in favour of BDS and she fared worse when Guttman went on the attack.

McGeough's fumbling explanation as to how he came to use the term "hyenas" in his infamous Walkely Awardwinning article was so hilarious that he made Guttman look like the straight man in a comedy routine gone wrong.

Worse still were his comments about the New York Jews targetted by BDSers over in the States. Dangerous stuff about which more will almost certainly be heard later.

It was good to see bipartisan agreement from both the Government and the Opposition on the evil of the BDS movement which was so predictably supported by Rhiannon and McGeough.

POSTSCRIPT [8 June 2011]

This Australian Editorial neatly dissects why the Apartheid analogy is wrong on Israel - Tutu is wrong on Israel boycott

It concludes:

The Marrickville campaign, which was opposed by all political leaders including senator Bob Brown and which would have cost ratepayers dearly, was thankfully dumped. On the ABC's Q&A on Monday, Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon made a fool of herself talking up the boycotts and claiming Palestinians were subject to apartheid. Archbishop Tutu should be wise to such nonsense.

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE

Anne Barker reported on the deadly demonstrations in the Golan Heights yesterday on ABC radio making the extraordinary claim that it was all "meant to be an entirely peaceful protest." This, despite a later statement from her that "there were reports that some of these protesters were throwing Molotov cocktails."

This is the standard of reporting that we have come to expect from Middle East correspondents like Barker.

Did she not stop to ask herself how people carrying Molotov cocktails could intend to take part in "entirely peaceful" protests?

Unfortunately, it was radio so I was unable to tell if she kept a straight face during this shambles of what was intended to pass for a news report.

There's no business like Palestinian show business

The Assad regime must surely be desperate to divert attention from murderous attacks on its own people when it sends lemmings across mine fields to take part in yet another publicity stunt at $1,000.00 per head.

THIS PROVES IT

Is it possible for an apartheid state to put on a talent contest featuring a woman from Ethiopian singing in Arabic?

This is 21-year old Hagit Yasou who comes from Sderot which has been bombarded in recent years by thousands of missiles from neighbouring Hamas controlled Gaza.

I think this proves what they're saying about Israel being an apartheid state is wrong and it also proves those who say it are damn liars.

SATURDAY MORNING KINKSTER

This has nothing to do with anything in particular other than that I like the Kinkster and his music - Singing cowboy Kinky Friedman saddles up

Dashing Palestinian Hopes

Just days after Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, the Age headline screams out: Palestinian hopes dashed at the border.

Why are their hopes "dashed"?

Dig deep enough into the article and it tells you.

"The Palestinian news agency Maan quoted an Egyptian security official as saying that Hamas was sending in ineligible people, including some involved in illegal smuggling through tunnels beneath Gaza's southern borders with the Sinai Peninsula."

Really?

Hamas would allow that?

JACKIE MASON ON THE SITUATION

The man is still going and he has his own special way of describing situations:

THE PALESTINE LOBBY'S OWN GOAL IN CANBERRA

The Palestine Lobby is, if nothing else, persistent in its objective of spreading its message of hatred towards Israel and the Jewish people and distorting their history with the aim of delegitimising their right to a State.

Two thousand years before the concept of a Palestinian nation was ever conceived, the indigenous people of the land where the conflict rages today between Israel and the Arabs were the Jews. They had been in this place for centuries but when Jerusalem fell to the invading Romans in 70 C.E. Masada became the only point of Jewish resistance. Two years later, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada and prepared for a long siege. Thousands of his troops established eight camps at the base of the Masada rock and surrounded it with a high wall, leaving no escape for rebels. After a long siege, the Romans stormed the fortress only to find that the Jewish rebels had committed mass suicide rather than succumb to Roman slavery two millennia ago.

A miniature of the Masada site was unveiled recently at Cockington Green in Canberra and, although the story of Masada is one that is close to the heart of Jewish dispossession and suffering, the Palestine Lobby attempted to use the occasion for their own propaganda purposes Palestinians prickle at mini Masada.

About a dozen police were present yesterday as Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem presented the $38,000 miniature Masada in real life a formidable site towering over the Dead Sea from which Jewish rebels committed mass suicide rather than succumb to Roman slavery two millennia ago.

For the Jewish people, the end of the siege of Masada marked the start of 2000 years of exile in which the Jewish community scattered to the four corners of the earth.

Anticipated protests over the Israeli embassy-funded contribution did not transpire yesterday but Cockington Green has come under fire from Palestinian groups who say the model is inappropriate.

This was another massive own goal for the Palestine lobby which makes a name for itself with its negative posturing without at any time doing anything for the Palestinian people and for the quest for peace in that region. Visitors to Cockington Green readily understood the message of Masada and that it symbolises a connection to the land with the Jewish people and this became clearer when the Palestinian objections were made clear in the Canberra Times.

Mr Rotem said Masada represented the continuity of the Jewish people.

"In the history of any nation, there are days and there are events which forever mark a crossroads in time between that which happened before and that which came after," he said.

The Palestinians are doomed to more tragedy if they continue to focus on distorting the history of their neighbours and do nothing to promote their own cause as one that carries with it civic responsibility and a desire for peace.