Israelis Kill 10 on Ship Avoiding Gaza Blockade

[MASTERBAKER]

10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla


10 killed on Gaza Strip-bound flotilla after Israeli forces clash with passengers


BY Barry Paddock
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Monday, May 31st 2010, 6:22 AM
Updated: Monday, May 31st 2010, 9:59 AM

Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 pro-Palestinian activists and setting off a diplomatic crisis.

The flotilla of six ships attempting to carry thousands of tons of supplies and 700 passengers to Gaza was stopped by the Israeli navy in a pre-dawn raid, officials said. Soldiers rapelled down from helicopters and climbed aboard from dinghies, according to reports, but met resistance. The soldiers faced gunfire, clubs and knives, according to Israeli officials. Dozens of passengers and five Israeli soldiers were wounded.

The United Nations condemned violence against civilians in international waters, and the European Union is demanding an inquiry.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the United States "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy."

Many European nations went further. Both the Spanish and French governments called Israel's actions "disproportionate." Several nations, including Greece and Sweden, were bringing their Israeli ambassadors home.

Turkey, one of the sponsors of the raided ships, pulled its ambassador, cancelled training exercises with Israel, and even brought home its youth national football team, which was to play Israel. Thousands of protesters in downtown Istanbul condemned Israel's show of force.

A breakdown in relationships between Israel and Muslim but secular Turkey will complicate President Obama's push for peace in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House meant for Tuesday to discuss the Middle East peace process, a meeting arranged before Monday's bloodshed.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed regret for the deaths but called the flotilla a "political provocation" and blamed its organizers for the deaths.

bpaddock@nydailynews.com



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...ed_on_gaza_stripbound_ship.html#ixzz0pWIj0o6p

 

[Nat_Turner]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

The zionists will get away with this as they usually do. They are animals period.

Remember the USS Liberty

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

click link to main board
(FULL VIDEO) Israel Massacres On Freedom Flotilla Passengers (FULL RAW FOOTAGE)

http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?p=8271843#post8271843

 

[African Herbsman]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

Synagogue of satan.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

the morning star

<object width="450" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/e/1a5_1275565219"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/e/1a5_1275565219" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" width="450" height="370"></embed></object>

 

[QueEx]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

<font size="5"><center>
Washington Questions Obama's
Commitment to Israel</font size></center>

June 2, 2010

Leaders on Capitol Hill seem unlikely to come to an agreement on Israel's role in a deadly raid Monday that killed nine activists on a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, sparking criticism the Obama administration is not forceful enough in acting in defense of a key ally.

• Republican Senator John McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a staunch supporter of Israel, said Tuesday those on the Turkish cruise ship "wanted to provoke an international crisis" that "would increase support for the pro-Palestinian cause."

• McCain, who has long been critical of President Obama's approach to peace in the Middle East, told Fox the president is not living up to campaign promises when he vowed to defend Israel at almost any cost. "The mistaken belief that pressuring Israel on a settlement freeze," referring to a call from the administration that all new communities in the capitol city of Jerusalem be placed on hold, "would somehow move them closer and show the Arab world that they were putting pressure on Israel has backfired."

<font size="3">White House Condemned Loss</font size>

The White House condemned the loss of life earlier this week, and said today, "What's most important to the president is that events like the one that transpired a couple of nights ago don't transpire again," emphasizing through spokesman Bill Burton that the administration is focused on protecting the security of Israel.

New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner seems to agree with McCain, at least on some level, saying, "We know that Israel had not only warned that this boat was in violation of an entirely lawful blockade, but had offered safe harbor to the boat." Acknowledging waning support for Israel in much of the world, Weiner added in another statement to Fox, "Israel is within her rights to repeat these attacks just as surely as the U.S. has a right to protect its shores from Al-Qaeda."


<font size=="'3">Some Jews Ashamed</font size>

But some in Washington say Israel's treatment of Arabs around the world make them "ashamed" to be Jewish. Representative Barney Frank, D-Mass., told the Boston Herald the nine people killed were "innocent" and called for an exhaustive inquiry of the raid.

"Once you have a combat situation and innocent people die, I mean, you know, look at our problems in Afghanistan, and we have an obligation to try and avoid it," Frank said.

But McCain contends that while the United States has long stood next to Israel, nations across the world, including Israel's enemies, now question the strength of the U.S. commitment.

http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/02/washington-questions-obamas-commitment-to-israel/

 

[QueEx]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

<font size="5"><center>
Israeli document: Gaza blockade
isn't about security</font size><font size="4">

McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes
the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic
warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which
rules the Palestinian territory.</font size></center>


McClatchy Newspapers
By Sheera Frenkel
June 9, 2010


JERUSALEM — As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.

Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.

<center>Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers on a
Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla, Israel again said its aim was
to <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza</span>.

However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights
group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">an exercise
of the right of economic warfare</span>.</center>

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">"A country has the right to decide that it chooses not to engage in economic relations or to give economic assistance to the other party to the conflict, or that it wishes to operate using 'economic warfare,'" </span>the government said.

McClatchy obtained the government's written statement from Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which sued the government for information about the blockade. The Israeli high court upheld the suit, and the government delivered its statement earlier this year.

Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, said the documents prove that Israel isn't imposing its blockade for its stated reasons, but rather as collective punishment for the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gisha focuses on Palestinian rights.

(A State Department spokesman, who wasn't authorized to speak for the record, said he hadn't seen the documents in question.)

The Israeli government took an additional step Wednesday and said the economic warfare is intended to achieve a political goal. A government spokesman, who couldn't be named as a matter of policy, told McClatchy that authorities will continue to ease the blockade but "could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control" of Gaza.

President Barack Obama, after receiving Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, said the situation in Gaza is "unsustainable." He pledged an additional $400 million in aid for housing, school construction and roads to improve daily life for Palestinians — of which at least $30 million is earmarked for Gaza.

Israel's blockade of Gaza includes a complex and ever-changing list of goods that are allowed in. Items such as cement or metal are barred because they can be used for military purposes, Israeli officials say.

According to figures published by Gisha in coordination with the United Nations, Israel allows in 25 percent of the goods it had permitted into Gaza before the Hamas takeover. In the years prior to the closure, Israel allowed an average of 10,400 trucks to enter Gaza with goods each month. Israel now allows approximately 2,500 trucks a month.

The figures show that Israel also has limited the goods allowed to enter Gaza to 40 types of items, while before June 2007 approximately 4,000 types of goods were listed as entering Gaza.

Israel expanded its list slightly Wednesday to include soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy, said Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh, who coordinates the flow of goods into Gaza with Israel.

"I think Israel wants to defuse international pressure," said Fattouh. "They want to show people that they are allowing things into Gaza."

It was the first tangible step taken by Israel in the wake of the unprecedented international criticism it's faced over the blockade following last week's Israeli raid on the high seas.

While there have been mounting calls for an investigation into the manner in which Israel intercepted the flotilla, world leaders have also called for Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza.

At his meeting with Abbas, Obama said the Security Council had called for a "credible, transparent investigation that met international standards." He added: "And we meant what we said. That's what we expect."

He also called for an easing of Israel's blockade. "It seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza," he told reporters.

Egypt, which controls much of Gaza's southern border, reopened the Rafah crossing this week in response to international pressure to lift the blockade.

Egypt has long been considered Israel's partner in enforcing the blockade, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Hossam Zaki said the Rafah crossing will remain open indefinitely for Gazans with special permits. In the past, the border has been opened sporadically.

Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, said the international community is seeking an "urgent and fundamental change" in Israel's policy regarding Gaza rather than a piecemeal approach.

"A modest expansion of the restrictive list of goods allowed into Gaza falls well short of what is needed. We need a fundamental change and an opening of crossings for commercial goods," he said.

Hamas officials said that they were "disappointed" by Israel's announcement, and that the goods fell far short of what was actually needed.

"They will send the first course. We are waiting for the main course," Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said in Ramallah, specifying that construction materials were the item that Gazans need most. Many Palestinians have been unable to build their homes in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, Israel's punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009.

Israel said the cement and other construction goods could be used to build bunkers and other military installations.

Some of those goods already come into Gaza via the smuggling tunnels that connect it to Egypt.

(Frenkel, a McClatchy special correspondent, reported from Jerusalem. Warren P. Strobel and Steven Thomma contributed to this article from Washington.)


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/...ent-gaza-blockade.html#storylink=omni_popular

 

[muckraker10021]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

The zionists will get away with this as they usually do. They are animals period.

Remember the USS Liberty

Watch the 6 minute clip below, about the Israeli defense forces killing American soldiers of the USS Liberty.


[FLASH]http://www.youtube.com/v/7QrgLbb5jwk?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US[/FLASH]

<hr noshade color="#ff0000" size="6"></hr>

 

[QueEx]

Re: 10 killed on gaza strip bound flotilla

<font size="5"><center>
Iran to send aid ships to Gaza </font size><font size="4">

The move is likely to further heighten tensions in the region;
Will the Israelis attempt to intercept the Iranian vessel?</font size></center>

A flotilla of ships trying to break the blockade of
Gaza was stopped by Israel last month [EPA]

Tuesday, June 15, 2010


Iranian ships carrying aid supplies are due to set sail for Gaza in the coming week, Iran's state news agency has reported.

The move is likely to further heighten tensions in the region.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said the first ship carrying humanitarian aid will leave the port of Khorramshahr this week, heading towards Gaza.

"This ship will pass through territorial waters of Oman, Yemen and Egypt before it reaches Gaza. It is said that the ship contains only humanitarian aid and there are no peace activists on board, " the agency said.

A second vessel will be sent at a later date from the Turkish city of Istanbul to Gaza.

In January 2009, an Israeli warship approached an Iranian aid boat heading for the Mediterranean territory and told it to leave the area, 70kms from Gaza.

The ship went on to Egypt, which borders Gaza, but was refused permission to unload.

A Turkish flotilla of ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza was stopped by Israeli naval vessels on May 31 and nine activists on one of the ships were killed when the Israeli military boarded it and gunfire broke out.

Israel says its troops were attacked with knives, metal poles and other objects.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/20106158204150619.html

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Watch the 6 minute clip below, about the Israeli defense forces killing American soldiers of the USS Liberty.

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<hr noshade color="#ff0000" size="6"></hr>

my god!

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>
With Obama meeting Tuesday,
Israel eases Gaza blockade</font size></center>


McClatchy Newspapers
By Sheera Frenkel
Monday, July 5, 2010


<font size="3">JERUSALEM — Israel on Monday announced a major change in the way it will manage the country's controversial blockade of the Gaza Strip, a move Israeli officials hope will ease tensions with the Obama administration on the eve of a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.</font size>

The Israelis will no longer block merchandise from entry to Gaza through a limited list of permitted items that often changed. Instead, the Israelis published a [url='http://bit.ly/95HKC5"]list of prohibited items[/url]; everything else is permitted.

That should lead to an increase in consumer goods available to Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who is the Mideast envoy for the so-called quartet of nations monitoring peace efforts, called the change "significant."

"Once implemented, these changes should have a dramatic influence on the daily lives of the people of Gaza and on the private sector. Thousands of items that have not been available through legitimate channels for the last three years should now enter as a matter of course," Blair said.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

Israel has been under harsh international pressure to ease the blockade, which it imposed in 2007 after the radical group Hamas seized control of Gaza. That pressure increased in May, when Israeli commandos killed nine civilians aboard a Turkish vessel that was trying to run Israel's naval blockade.

In the wake of that incident, President Barack Obama called for Israel to ease the blockade, which previously permitted the import of about 100 items, including some medicines and basic foods, but effectively banned many others by not listing them, including every day items such as instant coffee and chocolate.

Netanyahu has said that one of the primary goals of his visit to Washington — he'll meet with Obama on Tuesday — is to outline what efforts Israel's has made to ease the blockade as well as what steps the country has taken to pursue peace talks with the Palestinians. Officials in Netanyahu's government said that they expect Obama to be "pleased" with the progress.

"I expect that this visit to the White House will be good — that the US will see the positive steps we have taken and be pleased by them," said Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.

Israeli officials said Gazans should be able to see the changes in the blockade soon.

"Gaza will now receive a greater variety of goods, and in greater quantity," said Eli Shaked, head of Kerem Shalom, Israel's main border crossing with Gaza.

In recent weeks, Israel has allowed the number of trucks entering Gaza to grow from 100 per day to more than 150, he said. The goal is to have 250 trucks entering Gaza with goods within a few weeks, he said.

The new list, however, still prohibits much of what Gazans say they need most — construction materials to rebuild the territory still scarred by a three-week Israeli offensive 18 months ago that was aimed at stopping Hamas-sanctioned rocket attacks on the Israeli towns.

Among the prohibited items announced Monday were insulation, many types of cement, steel cables of any thickness and construction forms. Also prohibited were fertilizers and all manner of seacraft, from boats to JetSkis.

Humanitarian organizations serving Gaza said that even with increased truck traffic and the new entry regime, the blockade would remain crippling.

"Even if Israel fulfills its promise to expand capacity at Kerem Shalom we will still be meeting only 70 percent of the ordinary needs of Gaza for import. That doesn't take into account the massive need for tens of thousands of truckloads of construction materials to rebuild Gaza and accommodate natural growth," said Sari Bashi, director of the Israeli legal advocacy group Gisha.

She pointed out that while Israel had lifted restrictions on consumer goods, it maintained a ban on many construction materials and goods that could be used for industrial purposes. In order for Gazans to develop an independent economy they needed both, she said, as well as a lifting of the ban on goods to be exported.

"If the US approves what's currently being offered on the table — more ketchup and margarine — then we are not fulfilling what the international community is demanding, which is the ability for people in Gaza to engage in normal economic activity," said Bashi.

Col. Moshe Levy, a senior Israeli Defense Forces official who handles the Gaza area, said that while Israel would ease its ban on raw materials for Gaza's manufacturing sector, there were no plans to allow Gaza factories to begin exporting goods on a large scale.

Israel also will maintain its naval blockade, allowing goods to arrive only by land.

Omar Shaban, a Gaza-based economist, estimated that Gaza needs 3 million tons of cement and 600,000 tons of steel just to rebuild damage from Israel's military offensive and to account for natural population growth.

"To do business, Gaza needs all crossings to be operating fully for two years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just to make up for what happened in the past three years and cater to natural growth," Shaban said.



http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/05/97027/with-obama-meeting-scheduled-israel.html

 

[nimrod-x]

Not surprising since zionist pretty much run things here....through their control of the media other areas of course.

 

[muckraker10021]

Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
Gaza Bound vessel with 50 Americans on Board
In International waters, Okay for Israel to Attack!


by Stephen Zunes

June 30, 2011

http://www.fpif.org/articles/washington_okays_attack_on_unarmed_us_ship

The Obama administration appears to have given a green light to an Israeli attack on an unarmed flotilla carrying peace and human rights activists — including a vessel with 50 Americans on board — bound for the besieged Gaza Strip. At a press conference on June 24, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton&nbsp;criticized the flotilla&nbsp;organized by the Free Gaza Campaign by saying&nbsp;it would "provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."
<br>Clinton did not explain why a country had “the right to defend themselves” against ships which are clearly no threat. Not only have organizers of the flotilla gone to great steps to ensure there are no weapons on board, the only cargo bound for Gaza on the U.S. ship are letters of solidarity to the Palestinians in that besieged enclave who have suffered under devastating Israeli bombardments, a crippling blockade, and an oppressive Islamist government. Nor did Clinton explain why the State Department suddenly considers the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the port of Gaza to be “Israeli waters,” when the entire international community recognizes Israeli territorial waters as being well to the northeast of the ships’ intended route.
<br>The risk of an Israeli attack on the flotilla is real. Israeli commandoes illegally assaulted a similar flotilla in international waters on May 31 of last year, killing nine people on board one of the vessels, including Furkan Dogan, a 19-year old U.S. citizen. Scores of others, including a number of Americans, were brutally beaten and more than a dozen others were shot but survived their wounds. According to a&nbsp;UN investigation, based on eyewitness testimony and analysis by a forensic pathologist and ballistic expert, Dogan was initially shot while filming the assault and then murdered while lying face down with a bullet shot at close range in the back of the head. The United States was the only one of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council to&nbsp;vote against&nbsp;the adoption of the report. The Obama administration never filed a complaint with the Israeli government, demonstrating its willingness to allow the armed forces of U.S. allies to murder U.S. citizens on the high seas.
<br>As indicated by Clinton’s statement of last week, the administration appears to be willing to let it happen again.
<br><strong>Congressional Response</strong>
<br>Last year, 329 out of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed&nbsp;a letter&nbsp;that referred to Israel’s attack that killed Dogan and the others as an act of “self-defense” which they "strongly support." A Senate&nbsp;letter&nbsp;– signed by 87 out of 100 senators — went on record "fully" supporting what it called "Israel’s right to self-defense," claiming that the effort to relieve critical shortages of food and medicine in the besieged Gaza Strip was simply part of a "clever tactical and diplomatic ploy" by "Israel’s opponents" to "challenge its international standing."
<br>But not everyone in Congress believes the assaulting and killing human rights activists on the high seas is legitimate. Last week, on June 24, six members of Congress signed&nbsp;a letter&nbsp;to Secretary Clinton requesting that she “do everything in her power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board.” As of this writing, they have not received a response.
<br>Earlier in the week, the State Department issued a&nbsp;public statement&nbsp;to discourage Americans from taking part in the second Gaza flotilla because they might be attacked by Israeli forces. Yet thus far neither the State Department nor the White House has issued a public statement demanding that Israel not attack Americans legally traveling in international waters. Indeed, on Friday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland implied that the United States would blame those taking part in the flotilla rather than the Israeli government should anything happen to them. Like those in the early 1960s who claimed civil rights protesters were responsible for the attacks by white racist mobs because they had “provoked them,”&nbsp;Nuland stated,&nbsp;“Groups that seek to break Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that risk the safety of their passengers.” Again, the Obama administration didn’t offer even one word encouraging caution or restraint by the Israeli government, nor did it mention that the&nbsp;International Red Cross&nbsp;and other advocates of international humanitarian law recognize that the Israeli blockade is illegal.
<br><strong>Who’s On Board</strong>
<br>Passengers of the U.S. boat, christened&nbsp;<em>The Audacity of Hope</em>, include celebrated novelist Alice Walker, holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, veteran foreign service officer and retired lieutenant colonel Ann Wright, Israeli-American linguistics professor Hagit Borer, and prominent peace and human rights activists like Medea Benjamin, Robert Naiman, Steve Fake, and Kathy Kelly. Ten other boats are carrying hundreds of other civilians from dozens of other countries, along with nearly three thousand tons of aid. Those on board include members of national parliaments and other prominent political figures, writers, artists, clergy from various faith traditions, journalists, and athletes.
<br>Fifteen ships have previously sailed or attempted to sail to Gaza as part of the Free Gaza Campaign. None was found to contain any weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. The current flotilla organizers have stated that their cargoes are “open to international inspection.” Despite this, however, the Obama State Department&nbsp;insists&nbsp;that the Israelis have the right to intercept the ships due to the “vital importance to Israel’s security of ensuring that all cargo bound for Gaza is appropriately screened for illegal arms and dual-use materials.”
<br>Though the flotilla organizers have made clear that the U.S. boat is only carrying letters of support for the people of Gaza, the State Department has also threatened participants&nbsp;with “fines and incarceration” if they attempt to provide “material support or other resources to or for the benefit of a designated foreign terrorist organization, such as Hamas.”

<br>As with many actions supporting Palestinian rights, the coalition of groups endorsing the flotilla includes &nbsp;pro-Palestinian groups as well as peace, human rights, religious, pacifist and liberal organizations, including Progressive Democrats of America, Pax Christi, Peace Action, Nonviolence International, Jewish Voice for Peace, War Resisters League, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Despite this, Brad Sherman (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and trade, has claimed that organizers of the flotilla have “clear terrorist ties” and&nbsp;has called upon&nbsp;U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute U.S. citizens involved with the flotilla and ban foreign participants from ever entering the United States.
<br><strong>Israel’s Position</strong>
<br>Largely as a result of last year’s flotilla, Israel has somewhat relaxed its draconian siege on the territory, which had resulted in a&nbsp;major public health crisis. The State Department has gone to some lengths to praise Israel for allowing some construction material into the Gaza Strip to make possible the rebuilding of some of the thousands of homes, businesses and public facilities destroyed in Israel’s devastating U.S.-backed 2008-2009 military offensive, which resulted in the deaths of over 800 civilians. At no point, however, has the Obama administration ever criticized Israel for destroying those civilian structures in the first place.
<br>As with many potentially confrontational nonviolent direct actions, there are genuine differences within the peace and human rights community regarding the timing, the nature, and other aspects of the forthcoming flotilla. However, the response to the Obama administration’s position on the flotilla has been overwhelmingly negative. Many among his progressive base, already disappointed at his failure to take a tougher line against the rightist Israeli government as well as his reluctance to embrace human rights and international law as a basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace, feel increasingly alienated from the president.

<br>More significantly, the Obama administration’s response may signal a return to the Reagan administration’s policies of defending the killing of U.S. human rights workers in order to discourage grassroots acts of international solidarity, as when Reagan officials sought to blame the victims and exonerate the perpetrators for the murder of four American churchwomen by the Salvadoran junta and the murder of American engineer Ben Linder by the Nicaraguan Contras. Perhaps the Obama administration hopes that giving a green light to an Israeli attack on the U.S. ship and other vessels in the flotilla will serve as a warning. Perhaps they hope that Americans volunteering for groups like Peace Brigades International, Witness for Peace, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Christian Peacemaker Teams, International Solidarity Movement, and other groups operating in conflict zones like Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Nepal, Indonesia and elsewhere will think twice, knowing that the U.S. government will not live up to its obligations to try to protect nonviolent U.S. activists from violence perpetrated by allied governments.
<br>Indeed, nothing frightens a militaristic state more than the power of nonviolent action.