Thursday, June 03, 2010

Terrorist weapons

(Hat tip: Sunil)

It seems the Israel Defence Force found deadly weapons on the Mavi Marmara, which was attacked by IDF commandos resulting in the deaths of many activists.

The IDF's photographs prove beyond doubt that the ship, which according to Wikipedia has a capacity of 1080 passengers, harboured a handful of knives. (I count perhaps 20 or 30, most of which look like kitchen knives, pocket knives or Swiss army knives). It also carried various kinds of plumbing equipment: a prominent wrench, a few spanners, hammers, screwdriver. And there is a stack of CD-ROMs.

The pictures are captioned: "Pictures of the weapons found on the Mavi Marmara ship where today, when IDF soldiers attempted to board the ship and redirect it to the Ashdod Port, the activists on board lynched the soldiers in a planned attack..."

And there you have it. Beware of carrying kitchen or plumbing equipment if you sail your own boat in international waters near Israel. Remember, if Israeli soldiers board your boat and you resist, it means you planned the attack on them, and they have the right to shoot you.

You can't make this stuff up.

12 comments:

Rahul Basu said...

Wow! The IDF has a blog -- never knew it! Must be hard work for whoever runs this one. Imagine spending hours spin-doctoring all the actions the IDF gets up to to make it appear as if it's all the other side's fault. Poor guys -- must be spending sleepless nights over this.

Or perhaps they are now experts at this...

Arun said...

IDF not only has a blog, they have Indians blogging for them- http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com/2010/06/israel-takes-on-bogus-crusade.html

Rahul Basu said...

Yes, but Kanchan Gupta writes for the Pioneer (editor Chandan Dasgupta). We know where their sympathies lie. So it's not surprising...

Rahul Siddharthan said...

There are those who will support Israel no matter what, because all Muslims are dirty terrorists...

Even on this specific event, Israel has significant support at home and huge support in the US. Not a surprise that our home-grown right wing is going along with it too..

gaddeswarup said...

Juan Cole gives links to sites which say that some of the photos shown by the Israel govt. are old (not the ones mentioned here, I think):
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/netanyahu-defiant-still-fighting-ww-ii-hypocrisy-of-netanyahu-lieberman-opposing-terrorism.html

Anonymous said...

Well Rahul S.,

I do not support either side of the Islam-Israel conflict.

For the amount of Israel bashing that is going on here, let us say for the sake of argument, you were one of the IDF soldiers. What action would you have taken?

Most of the weapons in the picture seem to be much bigger than pocket and swiss army knives to me. Large enough to inflict serious harm.

Anonymous said...

Well, if Kanchan Gupta's sympathy is obvious, choice of you guys also seems obvious. Whatever happens it is Israel's fault. Was this really a peace mission? Then why did they needed more than million USD on board?
Why did they attacked soldiers? Why they were not willing to donate part of help to Israeli captured by Hamas?
Why they were not willing to have a inspection for arms?


This whole drama of terrorist right activists manipulating public opinion raises many question for India too. Are we prepared if tomorrow left wing jerks from latin America or some dumb ppl from west decide that they want to do some sort of direct terrorist saving action in maoist affected area ? If tons of islamists from middle east want to do the same in Kashmir? No sane country will allow that. But then we are in a place where ppl talk about Gandhian with gun (like celibate whore may be), in one of the most pampered university JNU some students celebrate killing of Indian soldier.

gaddeswarup said...

ANON at 6.33PM,
I think many academics know a number of Israeli scientists and have friends among them. I know of some Israeli academics with similar opinions expressed here; see for example, David Dean Shulmn's 'Dark Hope". It is the excesses of either side that one is opposing. There are some signs of the effect of the operation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/world/middleeast/04flotilla.html?hpw

Anon at 7:18 PM,
Coming to the Indian case, opposing some of the government actions in Kashmir or Adivasi areas does not mean that one is supporting jihadis or maoists.

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Gaddeswarup - thanks for the link.

Saying "criticising the Indian government is not the same as supporting the Maoists or terrorists" is a lost cause with the rightwing. Ditto with the rightwing in the US or Israel. The Bush doctrine holds. If you're not with us you're with the terrorists.

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Anon "what would I do": I'd lift the embargo, which is illegal, immoral, inhuman and does not in any way enhance Israel's security or international standing.

Anonymous said...

So according to Israel haters here
"embargo, which is illegal, immoral, inhuman"
But suicide bombing from Palestine is just fight ?????
"Coming to the Indian case, opposing some of the government actions in Kashmir or Adivasi areas does not mean that one is supporting jihadis or maoists."

Like abusing Gandhi by calling terrorist of Mao sort as Gandhian with gun???
Celebrating killing of your own soldier???

By the way, what is there to talk with Maoists??? Those ppl have no agenda other than killing innocents.
If you can talk with them, you can also talk with Osama. Not much difference between the two. Both are looking for a society where then can rule with terror and no scope for democracy.
"Saying "criticising the Indian government is not the same as supporting the Maoists or terrorists" is a lost cause with the rightwing."

and talking with left wing terrorist is like Chamberlain talk with Nazi.

Rahul Basu said...

Dissection of Thomas Friedman's usual goof ball view of the conflict in Salon

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/06/02/friedman_terrible