<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israel&#8217;s Murder of Activists Was No&nbsp;Mistake]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="100%" align="center">
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<td class="normal_text" style="padding-left:15px;" align="right"><strong>23:30 05/31/2010 </strong></td>
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<td height="15px" valign="top"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/palestinechronicle.com/images/separator.jpg" alt="" width="510px" height="1px" /></td>
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<td align="center"><img class="border" src="https://i2.wp.com/palestinechronicle.com/uploads/1275363036gaza_boat_attacked_jazeera_2.JPG" alt="" vspace="2" width="400px" height="300px" /></td>
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<td class="caption_text" align="center">Israel has a long record of executing premeditated atrocities.</td>
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<td class="normal_text" style="padding-top:10px;"><strong>By Ahmad Amr</strong></p>
<p>If  you think about it, Israel&#8217;s calculated murder of peace activists on a  mission to break the siege of Gaza makes perfect sense. A lot of  observers were baffled that Netanyahu’s government inflated the  importance of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was delivering vital  humanitarian aid to the largest concentration camp in the world but had  the secondary mission of publicizing the brutal and illegal siege of  Gaza. To casual observers, it seemed like Israel’s belligerent posture  was amplifying the international media attention given to the flotilla.  It seemed so counter- productive for the Israelis to hand the peace  activists what amounted to a nuclear powered bull horn.</p>
<p>The only  excuse that Netanyahu and Lieberman could make for their seemingly  irrational obsession with the supply ships was that the peace activists  on board where delegitimizing Israel. The Israelis couldn’t make the  usual ‘security’ arguments about terrorist threats &#8211; not with so many  unarmed European Parliamentarians and peace activists on board. So they  dreamed up a new category of criminals nobody has ever heard of before &#8211;  de-legitimizers. There are millions of decent people who abhor Zionism  and view Israel as a racist state. Israel and her supporters can argue  with that, but since when has delegitimizing Israel been a capital crime  that justified piracy on the high seas?</p>
<p>The flotilla was in  international waters when it was assaulted &#8211; seventy miles from its  destination. It was a pre-dawn raid and, in an operation of this sort,  the darkness elevated the risk of inflicting unnecessary casualties.  Quite a few journalists were on board and the dark offered the Israelis a  veil to ward off any cameras that could clearly document that the  violence was premeditated.</p>
<p>The overwhelming evidence suggests  that this Israeli raid was planned, perfectly timed and achieved its  desired objective &#8211; to scuttle a scheduled meeting with Obama. What else  would explain the hurry? Was there a clock ticking away? The answer to  that question is yes. Only a few precious hours remained for Netanyahu  to weasel his way out of an appointment at the White House. That might  help explain the smug self-satisfied look on Netanyahu’s face when he  announced the cancelation of the visit.</p>
<p>The scheduled meeting at  the White House was no ordinary tete-a-tete. It was a carefully  orchestrated event. A week earlier, Obama had dispatched Rohm Emanuel to  Jerusalem to butter up Netanyahu. According to news reports, Israel&#8217;s  prime minister was given &#8220;unequivocal assurances&#8221; from the US President  that an accord agreeing to talks on a nuclear weapons-free Mideast would  not endanger the Jewish state. The assurances included a significant  upgrade of Israel&#8217;s strategic and deterrent capabilities and a promise  that no UN resolutions would be adopted that would hurt Israel’s ‘vital  interests.’ One has to presume that Obama’s promises included blanket  amnesty for last year’s war crimes in Gaza. As a bonus, Netanyahu  stopped in Europe to pick up membership in the OEDC &#8211; making Israel the  only wealthy country in the world to get lavish American aid.</p>
<p>Of  course, Obama and the Europeans expected a little reciprocity and a  more flexible Israeli posture in the proximity talks with the  Palestinians. It was Netanyahu’s turn to give a little. There was talk  in the press of a love fest where a ‘new and improved’ Netanyahu would  make an appearance and be willing to make a few hard choices to end the  interminable conflict. The Israeli Prime Minister who opposed Camp  David, the Oslo agreement and the withdrawal from Gaza was under  pressure to deliver the goods.</p>
<p>Sabotaging peace initiatives is  something the Israelis excel at and Netanyahu is a skilled practitioner  of obstructionism. Lest we forget, he secured the position of Prime  Minister by putting together the most right wing coalition in Israeli  history. He leads a government that is made up of pro-settler parties  and outright expultionists. Freezing settlements or withdrawing from the  West Bank or making any kinds of concessions on East Jerusalem would  unravel his government.</p>
<p>Netanyahu didn’t have much of a choice in  the matter. There was a strategic imperative to create a crisis to  justify cancelling the meeting with Obama. Murdering the peace activists  on the high seas was a high risk maneuver and it came at a well  calibrated cost. Let’s first dispel the rumor that Israel is or has ever  been concerned with its international reputation. Notice that it was  Netanyahu who cancelled the White House appointment. Why the rush to get  back to Israel? Was there any better way to do a little damage control  than by making a few concessions in Washington in front of the fawning  lenses of pro-Israeli CNN cameras? But the White House was the last  place the Israeli Prime Minister wanted to be.  And if all it took was  piracy and murder on the high seas, it was a price Netanyahu was willing  to pay.</p>
<p>Israel’s has a well established record of planning and  executing premeditated atrocities. They’ve shot Libyan passenger planes  out of the sky and carpet bombed Gaza, South Lebanon and Beirut. One  can go down the list of infamous massacres from Sabra and Shatilla to  Jenin to Deir El Yassin, Qibya and a hundred other places where they’ve  slaughtered innocents. Aside from the attack on the Liberty, the only  thing that distinguishes this latest war crime is that the victims were  not Palestinians or Arabs. With the assistance of the Jewish Lobby and  their well-placed partisans at FOX noise and CNnothing, Israel always  manages to wipe the incriminatory blood stains off its garments and make  a miraculous recovery as the perpetual victim.</p>
<p>Anybody with half  a brain should be able to figure out that this most recent Israeli  atrocity was premeditated. Netanyahu will pay a price and there will be a  price to pay but it will be paid in short term currency. Obama might or  might not figure out that he gave away the store and walked away empty  handed but with mid-term elections on the horizon, he’ll still shield  Israeli leaders from accountability for their war crimes. Relationships  with Turkey will be strained and a few European foreign ministers will  fume. The United States had no problem figuring out how to react to  piracy with the Achille Lauro, but all they can muster up in response to  this latest act of Israeli state terrorism is a benign statement of  ‘concern.’ Washington might even work up the courage to ask the Israelis  to conduct an inquiry.  Israel will be ostracized for a few weeks but  Netanyahu will have accomplished his goal by derailing yet another peace  initiative and winning additional time to continue building settlements  and dispossess the Palestinians of their native soil.</p>
<p><em>&#8211;  Ahmed Amr, the former editor of NileMedia.com, is the author of “The  Sheep and The Guardians &#8211; Diary of a SEC Sanctioned Swindle.” He  contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.</em></td>
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<p><a href="http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16011">Israel&#8217;s Murder of Activists Was No Mistake</a>.</p>
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