Murder on the flotilla

Seyyed Mohieddin Sajedi

Israel cannot live without creating crises. Tel Aviv's strategy is to respond to a crisis by creating another one. This policy helps the Zionist regime to buy time by cashing in on the new crisis, and forget the previous one or seek to tackle it with the help of its allies.

Attacking the aid flotilla for Gaza is part of the same strategy. Israel knows well that if the boats make it into Gaza, the next convoys will be on the way, shattering Israel's hope of maintaining a full blockade on 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. Killing is the first option considered by the Israeli regime and army to settle an issue. Israel is no stranger to murder, even before it was founded. Over 60 years on since the Zionist regime proclaimed its establishment, not even one day has passed without news of an individual or individuals being killed by Israeli forces.

The Israeli raid on the Gaza peace convoy is not justifiable, whatsoever. To justify the brutal attack, however, certain Western media and governments announced, as usual, that Israeli troops had opened fire in self-defense. This comes as the authority in charge of Israeli prisons had already said it was preparing to take peace activists into custody, just in case. Israeli official circles had even announced earlier that the Israeli regime itself would take charge of delivering the international aid supplies to Gaza, and that the boats crewed by peace activists had no right to enter Gaza port. To avoid any operational problems, Israel once again bombarded Gaza's already-demolished airport. Everything had been pre-planned for killing.

The attack on the Gaza aid flotilla comes at a time when the wind is blowing against Israel. A few days ago when the Israeli premier was in Canada, participants at the NPT Review Conference unanimously issued a document, calling on Israel to open up its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspectors and sign up to the NPT.

The Obama administration frowned upon the idea of singling out Israel, and US officials announced they would not allow the next NPT conference in two years time to put Israel on the agenda. However, Netanyahu should not forget that the White House nonetheless gave the thumbs up to the NPT statement.

Maybe the US wants to use the document to ratchet up pressure on Iran to engage with the P5+1, but many believe the document has been in Iran's favor, given the fact that the US-backed plan on new UN sanctions against Iran has been a nonstarter. Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon, which currently hold seats on the UN Security Council, have announced they will not vote for the new sanctions resolution.

The document and calls on Israel to join the NPT will always be there. To tackle the crisis and eliminate the possibility of "nuclear ambiguity" melting away, Israel selected the same option that a notorious murderer would chose: professional killing. Armed-to-the-teeth Israeli soldiers raided the aid convoy and opened fire on the peace activists who were resisting arrest.

"Israel's right to self-defense" is a phrase also regurgitated by former US administrations when referring to the massacre of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli troops. It is embellished with "the need for self-restraint" rhetoric, and that's all. European governments also roundly condemn the attack, without specifying any punishment for the perpetrators. The new crisis coupled with reactions from Turkey as well as other Muslim and Arab nations together with Tel Aviv's response will, for a long time, deflect attention from the Israeli nuclear question and George Mitchell's new trip to the Middle East.

Israel is in hot water. Imposing an official blackout on the footage of the Israeli attack on the peace convoy won't be of any help to the Zionist regime. The waters off Gaza have time and again been mixed with Palestinians' blood.

Nevertheless, Israel needs to bend over backwards to cleanse the Gaza waters of non-Palestinian blood.

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Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128468&sectionid=3510303