Pressure for the Israeli government to agree to an international probe into its attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship seems to be faltering as the Obama Administration has reportedly significantly revised its initial call for such a probe.
Now administration officials are said to be demanding that the probe, if one happens at all, preclude any questioning of the behavior of Israeli soldiers, and instead focus on investigating the Turkish aid group responsible for the ships.
Israel is still hoping to avoid an international probe entirely, but instead establish some sort of internal committee to investigate it. The Israeli military has announced a probe of its own, independent of this potential future government probe.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vehemently opposed any international probe, but some of his cabinet members aren’t keen on the domestic probe either.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is reportedly leading the charge against any probe, and was said to have advised the cabinet to “wait another two-three weeks and everyone will forget and the pressure on us will dissipate.“
Hej the guy is different but that doesn't mean that he is not pro Israeli….
What the US Gov thinks at this time is pretty much irrelevant. Everyone knows they suck up to Israel, so no one is really going to care what they think.
What Turkey does is far more important.
What we do as citizens is far too important. For instance, I'd say the next time PM Yahoo makes a US visit, a million or so of us should be there to meet him.
Sonny: amen brother.. mean time we can boycott things that are made in Israel and sold here.., as cloth or machinery or fruit.., vine and banks…..! Etc..
They will never be an honest investigation on thie subject. The USA will never let it happen. Obama is even a worse poodle than Bush.
It's simple.
Turkish ship.
International waters.
Turkey a member of NATO.
All the rest is ink in the water.
July 7,.2010: Five opposition parties in the Knesset deliver no confidence vote in Netanyahu's government over Gaza Flotilla intercept.
WASHINGTON – June 7 – 2010
JOHN QUIGLEY
Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said today: "Contrary to what many are claiming, including the New York Times in a front-page article on the Gaza flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, the vessel on which deaths occurred, is not Turkish-flagged. Although formerly Turkish-flagged, the Mavi Marmara was Comoros-flagged by the time of last week's incident. The point may be of some significance, because Comoros, unlike Turkey, is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Court has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on vessels registered in a state that is party to the Rome Statute."
FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Boyle said today: "The highest level officials of the Israeli government who ordered the attack upon the Mavi Marmara can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court: Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, Foreign Minister Lieberman, General Ashkenazi and the rest of the Israeli council of seven ministers who ordered this criminal attack. Furthermore, under the ICC's Rome Statute any state party has the power to demand that these Israeli governmental officials be prosecuted."
Boyle's books include "Tackling America's Toughest Questions." See: "Is the Israeli Blockade of
Gaza Against the Law?"
IPA
The AMERICAN Voter is watching and, this Obama Reversal on a International Probe is just more of the SAME blind eye to everything Israel does. REMEMBER THE LIBERTY!!!
The American has not only been watching but also has been voting.
Poll after poll has shown that about seventy percent of the electorate wants out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately, and has since the second midterm election under Bush.
Suddenly the Right Wing and the Paulistas and the faux Libertarians and the "Teabaggers" are now trying to blame it all on the Democrats.
Grant that Obama is Bush Lite, and that even faux Progressive Democrats are now singing the Corporatist Fascist Imperialist tune, and in regard to Israel–as with Grayson–a new version of the Neo-Con's melody, you don't seriously expect any genuine Leftist either to support anything Republican–even apple pie and motherhood—or to renew suddenly, like the Bernsteinian Socialists–faith in the US electoral system, do you?
American elections are just another part of the collapsing System, used by the Capitalists to determine whom they are going to buy off and coopt.
A truly radical Obama might have made a dent in the disaster ahead, for nothing but radical restructuring will work.
But it is now getting too late even for perestroika.
Enjoy your fantasies of "reform" left or right.
The real utopian thinking right now is the idea that any return to status quo ante is a serious option or that the present hyper-Capitalist predatory warfare state just needs a little more fine-tuning and another set of lying politicians and financiers with morePR and a better Walt Disney fantasy.
It's over.
Obama is only proving his obedience and loyalty to his masters.
This is against the character of a uni super power. If a super power denies the truth is no more super and the decay has begonnen but the Americans don,t think or unable to use their brain.
Anyhow Muslims are today oppressed killed, foltered and humiliated for hegomony of American which will give no good results.
Why is there no discussion anywhere on the internet quering the number of dead?
Many believe it was 16 whilst a figure of 10 was given for a long time.
I know exactly how Israel thinks. A figure of 9 sounds less serious than 10.
The IDF have a standard operating rule to not kill more than half a dozen Palestinians per day so not to draw condemnation from the media or UN humanitarium agencies.
Barack Hussein Obama has about as strong a backbone as a wet noodle – he is proof that 'experience' does matter – being a community organizer in corrupt Chicago politics is resulting in Obama being the worst president ever!
Israel has a strangle hold on America due to the Liberal Democrats in Congress who are TRAITORS to America!
"The Israeli military has announced a probe of its own,"
let them "probe" Netanyahu's rectum…
Netanyahu and the Israeli Right Wing–with the aid and approval of the Neo-Cons and AIPAC and the Zionist Christian Fundamentalists–have now twice set up Obama, Inc. for a Meta-Spectacular drubbing. And Obama and Emanuel and Biden know it all too well.
Without necessarily considering Obama and crew much more than Bush Lite, and as Corporatist and Fascist and Imperialist as the Republicans, still there is the simple matter of political survival to be factored into the equations.
Will there be a third time? Or are Netanyahu's days numbered?
One will see soon enough.
Clinton and Biden both, for example, are now laughing stocks, and the Chinese are treating Gates and Geithner and so on with utter contempt.
The changes ahead will surely not be the "change" Obama persuaded a naive electorate to look forward to but there may be surprising shake-ups soon enough.
Kucinich, for example,just found a voice again in relation to the Israeli piracy and Conyers is making some mutinous remarks in public.
Bambi may wake up or he may not in the matter of policy, but as for his own political currency, Netayahu may be being sandbagged more than now appears to be the case.
Muslims are numerous (about 1.5 billion / close to a quarter of the planet’s human population) but utterly powerless and controlled by the Judeo-Christian establishment. Muslims are in ignominious retreat today, even though they control most of the world’s energy resources, because they are disunited and led by self-serving and unscrupulous leaders. They need a new Saladin!
Saladin was a Kurd.
But the Israelis are working Kurdistan hard at the moment.
Are the Kurds dumb enough to fall for it?
On verra.
iran attacks no one,has no nukes, a very small defense budget, signed the NP
T years ago and they get sanctions. israel murders humanitarians on the high seas in international waters, kidnaps and takes hostages, doesn't sign the NPT, keeps people in the ugliest prison in the world(gazqa) while it rules under a miltary dictatorship in the OCCUPIED TERRITORIES for 43 years and gets away with it. Who is above international law folks? International law just as local must be fair and nonbias or IT MEANS NOTHING!! Coming from a nation where the president of change pardoned war criminals(bush,cheney-rice,etc) i shouldn't be shocked. i am though ashamed,disgusted and appalled. They murdered a high school kid, an american high school kid with 4 bullets to his head and one to his guts and our leaders do nothing but cover it up,wash their hands and hope it all goes away…like bup and black gold….
The two continent is the only source that able and can boycott Israel and when you see that they are not willing to do anything about Israel brutality is simply because of this…, Israel’s economy relies heavily on exports and imports, with foreign trade comprising 80 percent of its GDP. The main trading partners with Israel are the US, the European Union and Asia.
Israel exports more than $30 billion in goods annually, with nearly $11 billion in high-tech products. The US accounts for 36.7 percent of Israel’s exports, making it Israel’s main export market.
In 2004, Israel exported $10.7 billion to Western Europe. Another important trading partner for Israel is Asia, which purchased $7.121 billion from Israel in 2004. Diamonds account for 40 percent of Israel’s exports to Asia, with high-tech products comprising another 42 percent.
So next time you buy a T shirt that say "made in Vietnam".., but the investment money could be done by a Jewish company with the American tax dollars.
There's more censorship on this site than has been mentioned so far.
Genuine Rothbardians are always worth listening to.
But if you think any serious leftist is going to fall for anything Republican or Right Wing after not falling for the Corporatist Fascist Democrats you are whistling Dixie.
Hint: there are no genuine Leftists in the Democrat Party, with perhaps a few exceptions.
Where are they then?
On verra.
Also don't underestimate Obama and Emanuel when it comes to their political survival.
They have two years and a lot of options even if all they really offer is Bush Lite.
When, after Locke, who is philosophically and logically useful only for his egregious errors, someone says "You own yourself" with a sense of economic enlightenment, it is really quite hilarious.
What you are being invited to do is commoditize yourself as "labor" for sale.
Sorry, guys, Debord covered that one decades ago with one brilliant graffiti that the Calvinist Capitalists still don't understand.
We are accustomed to Obama's pulling america's pants down for Israel … After his first genuflexion in front of AIPAC, if any body remembers, came his deafening silence when Israelis were massacring Gaza. Fortunately for Arabs (and the rest of the World), America counts less and less on international scene. Turkey is taking leadership of the Muslim World. and things won't be quite the same in the future.
Israel shall have to learn, and fast ,that brutality isn't enough, one has to be also intelligent not to make stupidities.
Obama to Netanyahu: Shall I bow to you now?
Netanyahu: Yes. While you're bent over, do me a favor and turn around. I have something I want to give you.
Obama: Thank you, Benji. That felt great! May I have another? Oh, and here's $3 billion I stole from my citizens.
Actually the number of US dollars supporting the Palestinian-israeli conflict has cost the US taxpayers $3 TRILLION in 2003. That's a lot of schools that won't be built or local health clinics that won't open.
http://www.wrmea.com/component/content/article/25…
On the other hand, it's never over till it's over:
This really shows that Obama is in charge and ready to kick some ass. What a puppit