Israeli raid

I wasn’t one of the Americans who watched a parade of
military and civilian officers on Memorial Day one week ago just hours after Israeli
commandoes attacked the Freedom Flotilla. I did not go to a march and celebrate the past
histories of American wars and the soldiers who had fought in them, but let’s
suppose for one moment that I had.

Israel has mounted a media blitz specifically aimed at creating this belief that the Freedom Flotilla had intentions that were not exactly humanitarian. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is circulating talking points suggesting the IHH, which the Free Gaza Movement counts as a supporting organization, is affiliated with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al Qaeda so the IDF raid was entirely justified.

Immediately following a deadly attack by Israeli commandos on the Freedom Flotilla, a humanitarian aid convoy seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, Israeli authorities put in place, according to Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), a ban on media preventing any information about the dead and wounded taken to hospitals in Israel from being reported by journalists.