When Sunday night’s Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship left a large number of civilian aid workers, including at least eight Turkish citizens, slain and a large number wounded, the Turkish population was understandably angry and, like much of the world, protested the incident.
But somehow it seems that Israel, not Turkey, feels the more aggrieved by the Israeli massacre, and Israelis were out in force nationwide, protesting in favor of the killings.
Read that again: protesting in favor of the killings. Jingoism is alive and well in Israel, and while it has ceased to become surprising when Israelis rally in favor of aggressive wars, few really anticipated the breadth of Israeli support for a military attack on a civilian aid ship and the killing of large numbers of civilian aid workers.
The response of Israel’s far-right coalition government, a combination of restrained jubilation and faux outrage that the rest of the world could feel anything else, has done it immeasurable harm the world over since the massacre, but combined with a vigorous military censorship regime it seems to have succeeded in convincing the Israeli public, or at least a large portion of them, that attacking a civilian aid ship was not only a necessary evil but actually a laudable act, a matter of national pride.
Israel’s ability to spin a flotilla full of medical aid as an “existential threat” is unsurprising, of course. After all, Israeli society has been easily convinced in recent years that both video iPods and leavened bread posed similar threats to the very existance of the nation-state. The ability to spin longtime ally Turkey as the real villain and even a new enemy of epic proportions.
Israeli protesters condemned Turkish Prime Minister Edrogan as a “terrorist” and held up photos of him with a drawn-on Hitler-mustache. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman took a surprisingly angry swipe at Turkey as well, insisting Turkey was “wholly to blame” for the tensions and likening them to Iran.
Turko-Israeli relations have been on the downslope for quite some time, with some decidedly petty but high profile incidents fueling tensions. Hawkish anger over Turkey’s recent attempts to stave off war with Iran is also palpable. Yet it seems that “fury” over Turkey not taking the massacring of its civilians with good natured aplomb may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
The loss of Turkey as an ally could be costly for Israel, analysts warn, and attempts to put Turkey into the “enemy camp” could be disastrous, as Turkey remains a key member of NATO. Though some will need little convincing to put Turkey into the role of villain, the wisdom of doing so will remain in doubt.
Just shows you the ridiculous sense of entitlement these people have. Chutzpah indeed!
the israeli people are a sick bunch.
Definitely not humans, somewhere between tigers and monkeys on the empathy scale…
Thats oxymoronic… anyone who can say something like that about a people, doesnt seem to be very high on the empathy scale either.
It's hard to know how to describe what chinaman is right to call "sickness". There's certainly a strong mass psychology in that culture, now, and whether you call it "the Israeli people", or take a step back and use the phrase, "the supporters of the raid", or "some considerable fraction of the population inside Israel's borders", there's no doubt it's a disturbing and dangerous pathology on the part of a group that like it or not, self-identifies as a group, whether we'd like them to be individuals with distinct opinions or not.
There's a sickness in Israel, and it's affected a lot of their people, and it seems highly contagious.
If a country ever needed mental health counselling its Israel.
Oh BTW, its illegal for a person in the USA to criticize Israel, its true! Bush singed it into to law under
the premise of being Anti-Semitic.
Remember the USS Liberty!
Zionist Fascism rears its ugly head in the US.
Mama goes to a parade, Little Johnny is in the band. Band comes marching by. Mama says, "Just look everybody is out of step but my Little Johnny!" This happens in every parade.
Mama (United States)
Little Johnny (Israel)
And the band plays:
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully
"Your comment must be approved by the site admins before it will appear publicly."
This is what US censorship looks like in our own fascist regime.
Wait until you start getting the "This comment has been deleted by the administrator" messages!
I must have hit a big personal nerve because the almighty censor choose not to post my comment from an hour ago
One of the few benefits to the world of hideous Israeli slaughter of more innocents is the further unmasking of the regime to those that never paid attention before. Will Israel attack the Irish ship the Rachel Corrie? Then I guess Ireland will be accused of the same lies as Turkey.
More insanity will be on display by Israel. More Hitler mustaches will appear on poster of Irish politicians.
Chillingly you can see the blood lust of the dying Zionist regime in people like Netanyahu.
One can only hope that once and for all Israel will get a loud and clear message that decades of their brutality, savagery, slaughtering of innocents and maniacal heinous crimes will soon be avenged and accounted for.
Jews are the only race in the world that have an anti defamation league specially designed and implemented for them. It is illegal in Europe to even question the Holocaust, just what the hell is so special about these people?.
Only Jews believe that they are the `chosen people´ of god, that inherent psychotic belief seems to elevate them above all other nations in the world, and they seem to justified in having that belief becuase the international community dare not challenge their `´self professed superior immunity´.
Sometimes one has to wonder why they are the most hated nation of people in the world, one has to ponder the question, did Hitler have insight into something we dont?.
What disingenuous tripe!
Jason Ditz is angry that Turkey is "spun" as a villain. This is the ultimate hypocrisy, considering that Ditz himself bends over backward to spin Israel as a villain every single day, with every sentence he crafts.
Mr. Ditz needs to apologize for own shameless, manipulative, deceitful, sinister, bigoted, rabble-rousing propaganda before pointing any fingers.
You can say that for most if not all of the reporters here…. Biggoted, evil anit-Israel fanatics.
Mr. Ditz has no need to "spin" Israel as a villain. Israeli leaders have and are doing a smash up job of that by themselves. But according to you the whole world is persecuting poor old israel, right?
Propaganda can be easily distinguished by it's predictive value. For instance, if the Israeli line is right, and the flotilla was an armed incursion, then hundreds of Israeli soldiers will turn out to be dead, Israeli ships sunk, and so on. Conversely, if the other side is right, and the flotilla was truly unarmed, there might be dead activists.
Further: if Gazans have adequate supplies, 70% of the population won't be staving, and 90% of the children will not be anemic. Noone will be dying due to lack of medical care.
Finally, if Gaza is nothing like the open-air prison some claim it is, but is instead the heaven on earth Israel claims it to be, there will be significant numbers of people attempting to immigrate there, to the point where the Gazans have to build a wall to keep them out.
As none of that is true I think it's easy to tell whose side is spewing loathsome propaganda- don't you?
Before you do anything else please get yourself drug tested and get more fiber in your diet.
Whatever else might be said about the Israelis, it is just plain common sense that any country that treats its supposed allies the way Israel does really calls for some serious re-evaluation in the eyes of sane people. The endless "persecution complex" gets very, very old, very, very quickly, especially when the "persecuted" have their jackboots on other people's throats. Even with an arsenal of hundreds of nukes, the Zionists still feel "persecuted." This is the sign of mental instability on a societal scale.
The whole sickness/sadness about the Middle East is prove beyond doubt about the incestous nature of the murdering Abrahamic" Organized Tribal Religions" [ Judiasm, Christianity, Islam] all claiming that only They are God's Chosen little CRITTERS. The Right Wing Christian Fascist of the USSA of course want Israel converted/destroyed so that Jesus will come floating out of the ozone and then they can meet Him in the Rapture.
All three of these Religions Scribblings are chock full of violence and murder. And you think that until Religion is evolved or the Sheep WTFU there will be peace in that region. Also remember that Obeyme's Chief of Staff is an Israelly citizen and the son of an Irgun terriorist. Ya think he might have some influence on the Little God-King???
It's always sad 2C the abused become SHAMELESS ABUSERS….. The path chosen by the chosen appears alarmingly similar to the path that their abuser took…. War, war and MORE war!!!
Let's try this again. My contention is that the main problem with the Middle East is the sickness know as the " Abrahamic Trilogy Revealed Religions" each with a history of violence and murder and each claiming the title " Divinely Chosen Critters" of God Herself. Until these Tribal Myths evolve or the Sheep WTFU don't expect peace in that area of the world in our life time.
If you are expecting Obeyme to say anything against Israel remember that his Chief of Staff is an Israeli citizen and the son of an Irgun terriorist. Ya think he might have some influence on the Little " Boy King" ???
ADL cites one of the complaint s by Europeans that 'Jewish people talk too much about Holocaust" as one of the manifestations of antisemitism on its website.
Unless we are invited to think that these people ( nasser/Arfat/Ghaddafi,Saddam/Ahmednezad/Hafez) are pre-Holocaust Hitler , we are forced to bear burden of behaving as antisemite the moment we shine the daylight on the recurrent Jewish diatribe against a wide variety of people in different times.