I dislike the Israeli government as much as the next person. But from what I've seen and read so far, we don't seem to have an ironclad case here. Here's why:
1) What we want to hear
2) What we choose to ignore
I hate to play devil's advocate and all, but I don't want to embark on some new bullshit bandwagon. I'm just saying that I'll keep my indignation to myself until I see a bit more evidence.
7 comments:
You fool! Don't you know that this has nothing to do about the truth anymore!?
Truth isn't even defined in that part of the world. What? You're still trying to understand? Get out of there! Get out while there is still time! GET TO DA CHOPPAAAAAAAAAA
Also, notice how this "real" footage is in black and white? Just like the other "real" black and white footage of the holocaust?
There you go.
the truth is probably closer to what you expect.
The people on the boat went in there knowing they were defying an Israeli blockade and knowing full well that the IDF tends to overreact about everything.
At the same time given the occupation of Gaza is technically illegal and therefore so is the blockade and the fact that these people, based on the videos, were defending themselves with makeshift weapons and not firearms as the Israelis originally claimed (which they later retracted) it's a pretty clear case of Israel's assholeitis emerging again.
The circularity of the argument on the part of Israel is probably the most offensive thing though, mainly because I feel it directly insults your intelligence.
I'm just saying that you can clearly see commandos getting the shit beaten out of them with pipes while immediately responding with paintball guns. This shows that the commandos were ordered to use non-lethal tactics until they felt no choice to do otherwise. The violent defense guaranteed civilian casualties.
I'm not saying that the crew didn't have the right to defend itself, I'm just saying that Al-Jazeera made it sound as though the Israeli commandos went in, were met by flower pixies, and started shooting without provocation. I love to hate the Israeli government but I find that exaggeration mainly gives zionists a means to backup their own twisted views.
You're no better than your enemy if you only show one side of the story. I know that bullshit is everywhere but why can't a single news organization show a balanced view of things anymore? Would it have been difficult or damaging for Al-Jazeera and the others to show this kind of footage for what it is? I'm sick of having to read the same story from different extreme sources.
Update:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053119224340157.html
They do show and question the video, which is good. But they show an edited version and don't really make sense of it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10208027.stm
Same thing.
Either way, the devil's in the details and the big picture is clear. Consider me outraged and on board against Israel. But I'll keep my nostrils open for that familiar smell of fish.
I just find it dangerous to simply dismiss the other side (no matter how credible) with limited evidence. That's how mobs start.
Children! Who cares about who hit whom first or hardest? Pirates invaded a boat. I mean that's the way the IDF acted, didn't they? Like pirates. If they wanted any sort of credibility, they should have waited for the boat to actually cross the blockade, no matter its legitimacy. What happened after is all their fault then.
the video itself is heavily edited anyways. Notice how it just gives you clips of it and not the whole event? If they released the entirety of the sets of videos from all sources then I'd be impressed.
As it is they've sequestered the individual protestors and are preventing them from releasing anything at all. Apparently part of the event was live blogged too. There should be a vid at some point.
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