Dear Israel… thank you

Thank God for Israel. We should be sending them bouquets right now. Great big arrangements of tube-roses and gladiolas, with a little card pinned to a leaf. Inside should be a cute drawing of a teddy bear with hearts popping around him and a hand-written message saying “Dear Israel, stay villainous! You make us look good! Love, Pakistan.”

The killing of aid workers on the way to Gaza by typically over-zealous, kill-hungry Israeli forces is a tragedy. It is an act of heinous cruelty by a nation that has worked hard towards innovating in the field of heinous cruelty. And most importantly, it distracted attention away from us. Because right now, we are looking pretty heinous and cruel ourselves. Almost 100 innocent Pakistanis killed in a single act of terrorism, perpetrated on the basis of religion, condoned by a government that is conspicuously silent in regards to criticism of the event and sanctioned by a nation that never once raised a voice of protest against such repugnant discrimination.

Israel restricts access to Al Aqsa mosque

JERUSALEM: Israeli Police on Friday restricted access to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque amid tension over the deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld also said that police “are on high alert across the country and particularly in Jerusalem,” adding that hundreds of officers were deployed around the Old City.

Only women and men over 40 will be allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque compound, he said.

UN adopts resolution to probe Israel attack

WASHINGTON: The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution setting up an independent international probe into Israel’s interception of Gaza-bound ships, on Wednesday.

The resolution, which also condemned Israel’s “outrageous attack,” was adopted after a vote, with 32 countries voting in favour, three against, and eight abstentions.

It “decides to dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian aid and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance.”

Israel, Egypt ease Gaza blockade after deadly raid

Palestinians arrive at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip June 1, 2010. Egypt will open its border with the Gaza Strip to let Palestinians cross. –Reuters Photo

JERUSALEM: Israel and Egypt signaled a temporary easing of the Gaza Strip blockade following harsh international condemnation of the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla en route to the sealed-off Palestinian territory.

Egypt said it was freely opening its border with Gaza for the first time in more than a year to allow in humanitarian aid, setting off a mad rush to the crossing by thousands of residents, while an Israeli official said there is an ”ongoing dialogue” with the international community on how to expand the amount of goods entering the area.

How far would be too far for Israel?

An Orthodox Jew smokes while holding a Palestinian flag during a protest to denounce Israel’s raid Monday on ships allegedly taking humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, outside the Israeli embassy in London, Tuesday, June 1, 2010. – AP Photo

“No matter how one looks at the conduct of the Israeli government and the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces),” writes Yossi Melman in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “it is hard to understand how stupid and tragic it was.”

“Time and again, Israel tries to prove that what can’t be solved by force can be solved by more force. Over and over, the policies of force fail. The problem is that with each failure, the part of the world in which we would like to belong is losing patience with us.”

Although it’s difficult to disagree with Melman’s conclusion, the question “Exactly how far does Israel have to go before the world cries ‘enough!’?” remains unanswered, even in the wake of the IDF’s assault, in international waters, on a flotilla carrying aid to blockaded Gaza.

Pakistanis handed over to Jordan

ISLAMABAD: Three Pakistani nationals, including The Express Tribune columnist Talat Hussain, producer Raza Mahmood Agha and an NGO representative, were handed over to the Jordanian Embassy in Israel on Tuesday, more than a day after they were detained by Israeli authorities that stormed the ‘freedom flotilla’ they were travelling on.

On Monday, Israeli authorities in international waters stormed a six-ship convoy carrying aid supplies that was intending to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, killing several people.

Pakistani authorities had desperately tried to contact Hussain, Agha, and their colleague after the raid, but could not establish a direct contact with them.

US fails to condemn Israel’s attack on aid flotilla

WASHINGTON: The United States has declined to condemn Israel for its raid on a humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza, but said the incident showed Middle East peace talks were needed “more than ever”.

The White House and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did describe the situation in Gaza as “untenable” and “unacceptable,” but Washington’s reaction on Tuesday to the raid did not match the explicit rebukes of Israel of some of its allies.

As diplomatic fallout multiplied, and threatened to derail a laborious bid to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, US President Barack Obama also called key regional power broker, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Israelis used bullets, gas, electroshock: Greek activist

ATHENS: A Greek activist told Tuesday of the moment Israeli troops stormed the ill-fated Gaza-bound aid flotilla, using rubber bullets, tear gas and electroshock weapons to subdue those aboard.

“Israeli troops jumped onto the boat around 05:30 on Monday,” Michalis Grigoropoulos said of the pre-dawn raid by Israeli forces in international waters that killed nine activists and sparked global outrage.

Grigoropoulos was aboard the Eleftheri Mesogeio, smaller than the lead boat, the Mavi Marmara, which Israeli troops had attacked earlier. “They fired rubber coated bullets, tear gas and then used electroshock weapons on some activists,” he told Skai television shortly after Israel deported him and five compatriots to Athens.

Israelis shocked by raid ‘fiasco’

JERUSALEM: With Israel’s reputation in tatters and its diplomatic standing under attack following a bloody naval raid on a fleet of aid ships heading to Gaza, many on Tuesday were wondering what on earth went wrong.The graphic footage of elite naval commandos being beaten and thrown overboard by demonstrators armed with sticks and knives has shocked a country that once prided itself on daring and secretive attack and rescue missions.

Attack on Gaza peace flotilla

What country sends its soldiers to carry out a raid on a civilian ship, killing several people, and then blames the people on the ship for all the murder and mayhem? Israel. The head of the Israel Defence Force (IDF – a misnomer if ever there was one) was quoted as saying after the deadly attack on a flotilla of ships carrying activists from all over the world trying to break through Gaza’s naval blockade (in place since 2007) the following: “There is no connection between what occurred on the ship and peace efforts and humanitarian aid. Our forces were met with extreme violence from cold weapons, and in once instance, from firearms that were snatched from our fighters.” So, General Gaby Ashkenazi is saying that the soldiers of the much-vaunted Israeli army had to use all the resources – read weapons – at its disposal to quell the resistance it apparently faced from activists who were trying to break through the naval blockade. Perhaps one should ask the IDF chief if this indeed was the case, how come not a single Israeli soldier was killed or even wounded but 20 activists died?