Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The ISM boatniks are certainly getting the media to give them all the free publicity they could desire. Nothing's actually happened yet, but apparently activist "fears" are enough to make a story newsworthy: AFP: Gaza activists fear Israeli sabotage of anti-siege bid
Activists who plan to break the blockade of the poverty-stricken Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip from the sea said on Monday they fear Israel may try to scupper the venture.
Two sailing boats carrying 40 activists are set to sail from Cyprus 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the north in a bid to break the Israeli siege, but organisers are keeping the logistics to themselves for security reasons.
"We have a fear that Israel will do something here to sabotage the trip," Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the US-based Free Gaza Movement, told reporters in Cyprus.
"The only thing being kept a secret is the location of the boats because of what Israel has done in the past -- they don't want us to go."...
...Berlin said the group hopes that the vessels, due to sail in "four or five days," will draw attention to the plight of 1.5 million Palestinians suffering chronic shortages...
...Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but tightened the noose on the territory after the Hamas takeover...
Love that dispassionate journalistic language. In a perhaps unwitting mock of their own piece, AFP accompanies the article with the following photo and caption:
Israeli trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip enter the Sufa crossing
Some "noose".
The nooses are in the containers. Powdered milk, flour, medical supplies, and nooses.
The only thing being kept a secret is the location of the boats because of what Israel has done in the past...
I've got news for you, kid. "What Israel has done in the past" was to acquire, build, and enhance sea-based early warning systems.
They found the Karine A, they can find you.