I'm totally sympathetic with Israel's plight, I'm totally sympathetic with the fact that that is a country that is just under daily assault. ... I'm a little concerned of how this thing seems to be sort of a set-up incident. Um, y'know, so I mean obviously it's a tragedy that these people were killed and stuff, but y'know it just really seems like part of a planned provocation which was, uh, just unfortunate. I'm a little disturbed that the, uh, boarding of the ships took place on international water so, again, I don't have all the facts and stuff to, to y'know come to the total judgment on the thing but again I totally defend Israel's right to defend itself."It smells to me, quite honestly," concluded Johnson.
That it does:
McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.Gaza blockade isn't about security
Last week, after Israeli commandos killed nine volunteers [including one natural born U.S. citizen; a former U.S. Marine and Gulf War veteran was beaten] on a Turkish-organized Gaza aid flotilla [delivering electric wheelchairs and a Pikachu backpack], Israel again said its aim was to stop the flow of terrorist arms into Gaza.
However, in response to a lawsuit by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli government explained the blockade as an exercise of the right of economic warfare.
The Israeli government took an additional step Wednesday and said the economic warfare is intended to achieve a political goal. A government spokesman, who couldn't be named as a matter of policy, told McClatchy that authorities will continue to ease the blockade but "could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control" of Gaza.
We don't much care for Hamas but it was democratically elected.
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