OTTAWA – 1977-1990
I come from a Zionist household. I learn from an early age that anti-Semitism is always on the rise, that another Holocaust is always just around the corner and that no matter what, Israel is always right. That’s a lot for a kid to handle.
Twice a week, after regular school, I head to Hebrew school. I meet kids from all over Ottawa, and we learn how to be Jewish. We study Hebrew. We raise money to plant trees in Canada Park. We get certificates in the mail from Israel, thanking us for our trees, and tiny minds fill with glee at the thought of saplings growing in a park. Nobody ever tells us that Canada Park is built on the site of demolished Palestinian villages.
We learn to consider Israel as our homeland, a fallback zone against ever-present anti-Semitic hordes. We learn that we Jews, whoever we were, had lived in Israel for thousands of years, and that we must defend her. We learn of Israel’s military might, but never of the untold billions in American money and weapons gifted to her over the years. We learn of Palestinian suicide bombers, but never of illegal settlements and occupied territories. We learn to accept whatever Israel does as right, and whatever Palestinians does as wrong. It is that simple.
ISRAEL – 1998-99
Fifteen years later, as a disillusioned youth, I think myself a candidate for the Israeli army. I move to Israel to live on a kibbutz. I figure the streets will be filled with happy Jews, welcoming me to my spiritual home. Instead, after getting kicked off said kibbutz, I find myself down-and-out in Tel Aviv, sleeping eight to a room and line-cooking. My cookmate is a Palestinian named Azi. He isn’t allowed to leave the kitchen, because patrons won’t eat there if they know a Palestinian is their cook. When he gets evicted, we have a hard time finding him somewhere to stay, as many hostels in Tel Aviv are No Arabs Allowed.
In the years following, more than once I turn my back on Judaism. But I always come back. It’s part of my heritage—lots of my ancestors did get killed in the Holocaust, and the flight from religious persecution, three generations ago, is the reason I’m here, born, and now living in Halifax. I can’t forget that it’s part of who I am. I’m a Jew. But I’m no Zionist.
HALIFAX – May/June, 2011
I start writing for the Media Co-op. I interview key figures in the Palestine solidarity movement, and am offered a spot on the Canadian Boat to Gaza. We are to join 10 other boats, and over 1,000 activists from around the world, in the Freedom Flotilla II. We will attempt to sail from Greece to Gaza, challenging Israel’s sea blockade of the embattled Palestinian territory. Last year, the first Freedom Flotilla ended in bloodshed and disaster, as the Israeli Defense Forces boarded the Turkish ship, the MV Mavi Marmara, on the high seas, and killed nine activists. How could I say no?
I also learn that the province of Nova Scotia will stage a government-sanctioned trade initiative to Israel in October. Premier Darrell Dexter returns from a trip to Israel, gushing fascination with the country and its people. He says nothing about Palestine. He says nothing about the blockade of Gaza. It’s as though it doesn’t exist. And I’m right back in Hebrew school all over again.
Except now it’s 25 years later. I start an import/export company and create my own trade mission from Nova Scotia to Gaza. The Israeli blockade of Gaza involves a crippling of trade, the logic of which completely escapes me. I call my company Peaceful Waters Trading Company.
I go to local businesses, explain myself and receive offers of support that could fill a boat. Small businesspeople load me with samples of salt cod, honey, seeds, soaps, preserves and pottery. I head to Greece, where the majority of the Flotilla is congregated.
ATHENS – June 19, 2011
In years past, the Greek islands have been safe harbour for boats sailing for Gaza. But Greece now teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. The financial giant Goldman Sachs was very involved in propping up the Greek economy, and their scheme has fallen apart. Debts hidden in bond sales and currency exchanges have been revealed. Greece’s credit rating has been downgraded. The Greek economy is beholden to the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF demands cuts to social services and large-scale privatization of formerly public services. If Greece doesn’t accept the austerity measures attached to IMF’s multi-billion-dollar loan, prime minister George Papandreou warns the government will run out of money to pay the public service.
But if Greece votes to accept more IMF money, the Greek public—which has taken control of town squares across the country— may seize parliament. In Athens, the people have sequestered Syndagma Square, which faces the parliament buildings. The people have organized a tent city, a food detail and a media centre, along with all the little things that make for a good square seizure. Thousands, from grandmothers to children, gather nightly in Syndagma to jeer Papandreou and demand his party’s resignation.
“We have a situation where the population is profoundly disenfranchised to the demands of the government to tighten belts,” says Michael Chronopolous, a former anarchist filmmaker and volunteer Syndagma masseuse, “where no more tightening can be done. From taxi drivers to teachers to the unemployed, there doesn’t seem to be any hope. I Mavri Trypa, The Black Hole, is an image that keeps coming up in conversation time and time again. The ordinary Greek person, to tell you the truth, doesn’t really see any hope in all of this.”
The situation is as sticky as fresh baklava. The political climate is roiling under the feet of the Freedom Flotilla II, and there’s not a thing to be done. The Greek government is weak. In an attempt to placate the people, Papandreou shuffled his cabinet. The foreign minister, who appeared to be a friend to the Flotilla movement, quit his post in disgust. This isn’t a good sign.
This government is wide-open to political pressure from Israel and its international friends: from Ban Ki-Moon to Hillary Clinton to John Baird to almost every EU foreign minister in between, these friends are warning participants not to join the Flotilla. Israel doesn’t want the boats to sail at all, and most of the Western world is putting the screws to the Greeks to make it so.
As for the Greek people, they’re embroiled in a revolution with key points much closer to home. Freedom for Gaza is far from the collective mind at the moment, and it will be tough to count on a public uprising of support for the Flotilla in Greece. I Mavri Trypa—The Black Hole, indeed.
AGIOS NICHOLAOS, CRETE – June 23, 2011
As we approach our theoretical date of sailing, Flotilla participants scatter across the Greek archipelago. The plan is to reconvene in international waters, and from there make our push. Participants with the Canadian Boat to Gaza, which include Australians, Belgians and Danes, head to the island of Crete.
There are 50 of us, meeting for the first time, holed up in a pair of swanky hotels. We overlook palm trees, rust-coloured hills and the gentle turquoise Mediterranean. This is the hedonistic world of breakfast buffets, beach umbrellas and island-hopping tours. Nice digs, but there’s a false sense of security here. Last year, several boats were sabotaged. Over half the group are senior citizens. Will this force challenge the Israel Defense Forces on the high seas? Not without medication.
But there’s more to grandma than meets the eye. Grandma with the cane is Mary Hughes-Thompson. She’s 77, broke the Gaza blockade by boat in 2008 and was beaten half to death by Israeli settlers in an olive grove. That quiet guy in the corner with the wire-rim glasses and the bucket hat? Harmeet Sooden, kidnapped in Iraq in 2005, volunteering as a Christian peacekeeper. His captors kept him chained for four months. And the old man with the sunburnt head, the wax-able moustache and a penchant for wearing Speedos, even when not swimming? That’s former war correspondent, and Belgian senator, Josy Dubie. He bargained for his life in Iran. This may be a ragtag group, but more than canapes and cocktails beat beneath their breasts.
We spend four days learning how to be a peaceful activist on a boat courting a collision course with the IDF. We learn to take a beating, how to be stepped on and how to suck an onion to mitigate tear gas. We discuss jail solidarity plans and how the IDF will probably film us eating the food they’ll theoretically offer us, then use the footage as propaganda on how humane the IDF can be. We decide not to bite the apple if it’s offered.
From across the Med, in Tel Aviv, the Israeli spin-machine beats its war drum; we feel the reverberations. They’ll meet us with force, they say. They’re testing new water cannons, they threaten. It’s one thing to read this. It’s another to read this and realize it’s it’s going to happen to you.
Training also carries moments of poignancy. We discuss who would like to be where if the IDF arrives. Most vote to block the path to the wheel cabin, sitting with our arms linked. Such an action is personally foolish, and seems to invite violence against us. But collectively, it appears that we consider it a necessary “final” step. An understanding of willingness and common cause passes through the group.
But while we train, the net cast around the Flotilla project is drawn tight. In rapid succession, the American boat—The Audacity of Hope—is slapped with a lawsuit questioning her seaworthiness. The Greek-Swedish-Norwegian boat is sabotaged. The Irish boat is also sabotaged, the act discovered at sea. Israel does not deny responsibility. There are lip-readers in the local cafe. We are being followed. Zionist sympathizers threaten to burn down my house in Halifax. And my mom wonders if I am a terrorist.
ABOARD THE TAHRIR – July 1, 2011
The lynchpin to the mission breaks. Greek parliament bows to international pressure, and Papandreou issues an edict declaring that no boats may sail from Greece to Gaza. In the coming weeks Greece and Israel participate in joint military ventures, and Greek officials are publicly thanked by their Israeli counterparts.
As for our boat, the Tahrir, representatives from the port authority promptly arrive. They demand her travel log. Sandra Ruch, the Tahrir’s owner, refuses to part with the log, believing that once the document leaves her sight it will be gone. An emergency call goes out, and we congregate onboard. Moments ago the Tahrir was an incognito ferry. Now we unfurl her banners. Now, 50 strong, we chant “Shame on Papandreou!” Now we fly the Palestinian flag. We march through the streets to the port-authority offices. An officer at the port authority cannot answer why they are doing what they are doing. Only that they are following orders.
Things get worse. The Tahrir’s captain and crew inform us they will not sail. They have too much to lose. If caught, the Greek captain will be arrested, serve time and have his livelihood taken away. Our captain, George, is a lion of a man—he’s already attempted to sail to Gaza five times. But lions get tamed.
These are desperate times. No legal way to leave. No captain and crew. There are also return tickets to consider, and now that we have moved out of the hotel and onto the hard floor of the boat, the clock is ticking on the whole mission.
HIGH SEAS – July 4, 2011
Almost $500,000 has been raised for this effort. Fifty people have collectively travelled tens of thousands of kilometres to be here. The money expended on the Flotilla climbs into the millions of dollars. And it’s been a full year’s worth of work for the organizers.
The eye of the mainstream media is upon us. But mainstream media has a short attention span, and if our boat doesn’t sail within the next 24 hours, this story dies. If there’s going to be a climax, it must happen soon. The steering committee decides that we will sail illegally, regardless of the edict. We will attempt to outrun the Greek coast guard.
The next morning we arrange for a diversion at the marina. A Greek coast guard cutter is berthed right next to us, and we need to get the jump on her. We pretend to be having a party. They’re not buying it. Truth be told, it’s a feeble attempt. But secreted behind the Tahrir are two of the activists in rented kayaks. That’s the trump card.
The Tahrir starts her engines. The cutter starts hers. And as the engines rumble, Michael Coleman from Australia and Soha Kneen from Ottawa paddle forward and position themselves in front of the cutter’s nose. Coleman grabs the anchor and holds on while the irate Greeks try to bounce a buoy off of Kneen’s head. The Tahrir executes a three-point turn in the marina, and we are away. Aboard we cheer voraciously and sail for Gaza.
In seconds, however, a coast-guard Zodiac motors up along our port side. There are two police-types on board, and one guy in camo fatigues with an M16. They’re not happy. They’d like us to stop now. We don’t.
The cutter then comes racing up on our starboard. She edges ahead and tries to cut us off. The Tahrir, an antiquated ferry, is not meant for action like this. But she rumbles on at full throttle, ramming through the coast-guard’s wake.
A second Zodiac pulls up off the starboard bow. There are now three boats in the chase. An angry, mustachioed man is in command of this second Zodiac. They edge closer.
A railing is grasped, a leg is extended from the Zodiac to the Tahrir, and the Greeks are aboard. In a flash they seize an empty wheelhouse. Our makeshift crew has scattered. The Tahrir is on autopilot. They find no captain.
It is surreal, as they seize our boat and tow us back to port, to listen to the incredulity of our apologetic captors. The Greeks— with guns, mind you—whisper regrets, and in hushed tones tell us they hate Israel for making them do this. Later, we all convene around a laptop and look at the photos I snapped of them as they attacked us. They laugh and point each other out on the screen. This is the outsourced “soft hand” of Israeli foreign policy. They are the enemy, but as we share gyros, it’s hard to hate them.
We are towed back to Agios Nicholaos, left at the port-authority marina for a night and a day. The coast guard has no captain to lay charges upon, and none of us will comment. We assume, correctly, that the Greeks won’t process charges against 50 captains— if we just stay quiet, we’ll all go free.
But they want to save face and pin this mess on somebody, so they charge Coleman and Kneen, the “kayaktivists,” with obstructing a coast guard vessel, and Sandra Ruch, the owner, with owning a boat that sailed illegally. But the story has gone international, and the whole legality of Papandreou’s edict, in an international-justice sense, rests on questionable ground. Can a country ban a boat from sailing to another country, just because a third country asks them to? Coleman, Kneen and Ruch get off with 30-day suspended sentences and fines.
The Freedom Flotilla II has been reduced to one boat, sailing onwards from Corsica. As for us, we are told to consider it a success. If we are not at our end goal, then at least we are a stone in the path. Inside I worry that we shifted the focus away from Palestine, and onto a bunch of boats that didn’t sail.
EGYPT – July 9-14, 2011
The Tahrir has been mothballed for now, but I can’t go home. There’s a deep sadness, and the Nova Scotia-to-Gaza trade mission to consider. I’ll try and get to Gaza by way of Rafah, which smacks of asking the warden if I might visit the prisoners. It also runs counter to the Flotilla’s original goal of declaring the blockade illegal. I agree in principle, but I’m not part of the Flotilla anymore. Now I’m just a guy with salt cod from Shearwater in his backpack.
In Cairo, I visit Tahrir Square, where the spirit of the revolution is alive and well. I explain where I have been, and that I don’t know when the Freedom Boats are coming to Gaza this year.
I catch an overnight bus to Taba, and bribe a man named Ismail to drive me across the Sinai desert to Rafah in the back of a mini-van. Rafah is now only sporadically open to Palestinian and Egyptian foot traffic, and, at the time of writing, not at all to men between the ages of 18 and 40. I hope my press pass, and a letter from the editor of The Coast will strike the right chord with the border police.
Rafah, for what it is, serves the border- crossing. It’s really just a few tin shacks, a coffee shop and sand, as far as the eye can see. But just beyond the fence, just beyond the massive compound and looming black-iron gates, from which shouting people lugging suitcases are today pouring, is Gaza. Ismail bids me goodbye at the first checkpoint of teenage Egyptian soldiers with machine guns.
They let me pass with a sweeping gesture of their guns. I figure things are going to go smoothly. But at the gate, the white-clad guards are not having it. I hand them my press pass. “No.” I try to give them a bribe. There’s nothing doing.
After half an hour of pleading, a guard tells me “to go sit over there,” meaning the coffee shop at the end of the road. Dejected, I dust sand off a plastic chair and plunk down.
I take out the Nova Scotia honey, the preserves, and the soaps from my pack. I offer honey to the family sitting beside me, but they’ve never seen honey in a plastic bear, and there’s a certain off-putting lunacy to my actions now. Who is this blue-eyed white man trying to give away honey bears? I pantomime scrubbing myself in the shower while humming a tune, and manage to at least give away a bar of soap.
A group of travellers in desert khakis sits down at the adjoining table. Patches emblazoned on their backs say Music for Peace. They are Italians, who have been waiting for four days, with their flatbeds of medical supplies, for permission to cross. I tell them about the Flotilla, and my now-defunct trade mission. They suggest I go back to Cairo, and try for a waiver from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry office, and then try again. But that’s not for me now. I beg the Music for Peace people to take me with them, but it is impossible.
There is a motion from the fence, and the Music for Peace flatbeds rumble to life. The khaki-clad foursome extinguish their cigarettes, and move towards the trucks. In desperation I try to force honey and cherry- tomato salsa on them, but they tell me it is very difficult, and refuse. “Please,” I say. “Just take this.”
I grab a small glazed tile, which fits in the palm of my hand, given to me by Scott Barber of Coracle Pottery. On the back of the tile it says “To Gaza With Love. Scott Barber, Nova Scotia, Canada.”
One of the Music for Peace-niks, Valentina, pockets the tile. And then they are gone to Gaza. And I am alone in Rafah at the coffee shop at the end of the road.
Miles Howe is a writer and social activist from Ottawa, now living in Halifax. Photos from Howe’s trip will be hanging at the Good Food Emporium, 2186 Windsor Street. The exhibit opens Friday, August 19 at 8pm with guest speakers.
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This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2011.
What? A trading Mission with a banned Terrorist Organization? What does Hamas have that Nova Scotians would even want? The latest in Suicide Bombing technology?
Wow! the Blockade of Gaza is legal under international Law according to the Palmer Report and even experts who study international law say it is legal (http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/02/…)
This was another part that article was a lie “The Greek-Swedish-Norwegian boat is sabotaged. The Irish boat is also sabotaged, the act discovered at sea” however according to Turkish police who investigated the Irish ship found no evidence that the ship was even sabotaged.
“An investigation by Turkish police into the alleged sabotaging of an Irish ship set to sail in the flotilla to Gaza revealed that the damage to the ship occurred before it docked in Turkey, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported on Saturday. The flotilla organizers have claimed that the ship was docked in Turkey’s territorial waters when the tampering occurred. Hurriyet reported Turkish diplomats as saying that the investigation revealed that the damage done to the ship had occurred before it docked, and was most likely not caused intentionally.” source: http://bit.ly/iKOUji
I wonder who is telling the truth?
Typical writing from a bored brainwashed (older) kid that probably looks for a meaning in his life in the wrong place. Israel is defiantly no saint. BUT, so are the palestinians. If the writer was honest enough to his readers and better yet for himself, he would go to Rammala in the west bank or Nablus or any other big city in the west bank and report about the night life, the restaurants and the quality of life that rising. True, its not that great but its in very positive direction. Where in Gaza its the opposite and Israel for once is not the one to blame. The Hamas leadership in Gaza is Corrupt more then the worst Nova Scotian or west African governments. ALL of the international money and supply is taken by the local government “officials” and sold on the streets. So israel is defiantly not a saint in the story but she not the only one to blame.
If the writer really want to do something to help the locals in Gaza he can easily go there, work in the refugee camps with the children’s and do some real good and much needed work. Going on a so called adventure trip hopping for some action from the Israeli army and give 500,000 Dollars present to local thugs pockets is a very foolish and childish thing to do. Do you want to help those Palestinians that really need the help or help your self have some fun??? With the money you spent on ‘doing waves’ in the sea you can go to Israel or Egypt, buy 500,000 Dollars worth of school supplies, medicines, clothes and much needed things and get them to Gaza very easily. Like I deed few weeks back. The Palestinians will benefit from it much more then your noisy trip with no actually results in the filed where its needed.
To be honest, I’m not sure how much if the story really happened. Take a look at Rafa (the Egyptian side) on Google Earth. “All but sand as far as the eye can see”? really?
Going from Taba to Rafa in the back of someone van? You will need to cross an Egyptian military police every 15-20 km? Do you have enough money to bribe them all? A much easier, quicker and safer way is to go from St. Catharine to Rafa. Its clear that you don’t know your way around. Or worst, you are a naive guy.Too naive. Or worst – going on a crusade because your parents didn’t raise you to THINK!
And for his Jewish education – apparently he haven’t learned to criticize whatever he is been taught in Hebrew school, public school or as an adult. Every story have many sides. Presenting only one side as a reporter is a very very lousy work!!! And he should be ashamed.
Great job Miles, from another person who was lied to all through Hebrew school. Good for you for writing this and braving the predictable comments from Zionist trolls.
Calabaza
“he predictable comments from Zionist trolls.”
in other words people who have different opinions is something the leftest can not stand right? Funny how today a Armed group known as the Popular Resistance Committees from Gaza fired shots and a IED at Israeli Civilians on a bus and a car leaving 7 dead including Children I wonder what they did?
I wonder what kind of ‘love’ was Mr. Howe sending http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/18/…
Also you should not refer people who have different opinions as ‘Zionist Trolls’ I
So Mr. Howe, why did you not go to Libya or Syria when the dictators of these nations where murdering their own people in the streets. Why are there no aid ships to these places?
I heard Israel finally let Gazans receive shipments of PASTA. The Zionists would not allow in harmless things like pasta and cookies for years. It’s about punishment, not preventing weapons or militants.
Just keep going Miles.
Santiago Kohn.
Miles, your story has authenticity and heart. Keep telling it!
Will the Coast give the front page and all that space to anybody who speaks FOR Israel? Something tells me… no…
“Jihad – Exciting and new.
Hamas Huggers – the IDF’s expecting you.
…on the Hypocrisy Boat.”
Hay Miles, put down your latest issue of Tikkun long enough to take some well intentioned advice from Gopher and you might get to score with the Captain’s daughter. Humma Humma.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bkFIPLIOGL8/R_5t…
When non-Jews offer even mild criticisms of the state of Israel they are dismissed out-of-hand as anti-Semites, even when these criticisms are simply echoes of what one can read in the domestic Israeli news media any day of the week. There are even some in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government who want to bolster this equating of criticism of Israel to anti-semitism and thereby legally define criticism of Israel as hate speech.
The fact that there is a significant divide in Israeli society over the question of justice for the Palestinians doesn’t get much airplay outside of Israel, and neither does the fact that there is significant opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among his own countrymen. Israelis themselves are not of one mind on these issues although you wouldn’t know it from listening only to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frequent public pronouncements. It would be the same as trying to figure out how Canadians feel about certain issues by listening only to what Prime Minister Stephen Harper has to say or, more to the point, believing that President George W. Bush’s public statements represented the whole range of American public opinion on, say, the invasion of Iraq.
Jews who offer criticism of Israel are dealt with differently. It’s pretty difficult to smear a Jew with the charge of being an anti-Semite. It’s a charge that doesn’t gain much traction for obvious reasons. Instead, the many Jews, both inside Israel and in the Diaspora, who aren’t happy with Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and voice their opinions, are attacked as traitors or dupes or misguided fools and these attacks are usually more vicious in the international media than they are in Israel’s domestic press.
I would like to remain optimistic that there will eventually be justice for the Palestinians and peace for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. Perhaps Hamas will not be part of that solution, but then neither will Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish right-wing coalition. It will take bold leadership on both sides. The last Israeli Prime Minister who supported a negotiated settlement (the flawed Oslo Accords) with the Palestinians was Yitzhak Rabin, and he was assassinated by a far-right-wing religious Zionist who felt that any return of occupied lands was an affront to God’s plan for the Jews. These are the kinds of people that Netanyahu has cultivated as supporters.
Perhaps non-Jews who read and react negatively to Miles Howe’s article should reflect on how their own views of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were formed and on what basis do they hold the belief that the State of Israel can do no wrong.
Comandante Esposito: Good point! however I think Miles Howe is a hypocrite. In other Middle Eastern Nations Palestinians are second class citizens. Most can not get jobs, no Health care, they can not become Citizens or buy a house or own land. Also when this hypocrite was on the ‘Aid Boat’ to Gaza when Syrian government was in the process of murdering their own people and those people on that ‘ Aid boat’ did not even care about them. Also they seem not to even care of the 2000+ people murdered by Assad.
Also according to the International Red Cross they have even admitted there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza(source:http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=217460)
and also Justice Goldstone took back his report and findings on Cast Lead.
Charles,
Miles Howe was taking part in an international flotilla to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. I don’t know what the Syrian government’s treatment of its own citizens has to do with that and I don’t see that this makes Miles Howe a hypocrite. If you feel strongly about the issue maybe you should organize a public demonstration against the Syrian government, or better yet, travel to Syria and demonstrate your solidarity with the Syrian people in a more direct fashion.
The ill treatment of Palestinians in other nations in the region (it happens) doesn’t even come close to their ill treatment in their own land.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has many things to say about conditions in the Gaza Strip. You, like the Jerusalem Post and the IDF, have cherry picked a few comments to portray the situation in Gaza as no big deal. Here is another view from the ICRC website:
http://www.icrcilot.glf.co.il/
This report outlines how the Israeli blockade and other restrictions placed on Gaza residents has destroyed their economy and created massive unemployment, made farming and fishing difficult if not impossible, produced a chronic shortage of pharmaceuticals and supplies for medical care, etc.
Speaking of the Red Cross, the ICRC also takes the position that occupying military forces abide by the appropriate international conventions when it comes to establishing settlements in occupied territory. In plain English it is forbidden under international law to do so and Netanyahu’s aggressive campaign in support of new settlements (which gains him support among the religious extremists in his country) is in clear violation of international law. Be careful when you start quoting Red Cross statements. You never know where it will lead.
Finally, Justice Goldstone didn’t “take back his report”. He couldn’t. He was one member of a committee of four. He expressed the view (in a Washington Post Op-Ed) that his report might have been different if he had had access to information recently supplied by the IDF. Interestingly, the other three committee members don’t support his altered view, not surprising since no real new evidence has come to light that would support it, unless you call the IDF’s reassurance that civilians were not deliberately targeted as a matter of policy in the conflict to be some kind of “new evidence”. During the conflict in question, over 900 Palestinian civilians were killed by the IDF and roughly 5000 wounded. These figures don’t include fighters. At the same time, roughly a dozen Israelis were killed – and this figure includes both civilians and soldiers in the IDF. The IDF also seeded areas occupied by civilians with cluster munitions. This would also be a violation of an international agreement, except for the fact that Israel, along with the U.S., China and Russia, was among the few nations in the international community who refused to sign the treaty banning the use of these indiscriminate killers of innocent men, women and children.
None of this is to minimize the terrible destruction inflicted by suicide bombers and regular Hamas rocket attacks on the Israeli population, but it should be recognized that the Israelis don’t have clean hands in any of this and the Israeli right wing and religious extremists carry much of the responsibility for the ongoing conflict.
No doubt I will shortly be attacked and labeled an anti-Semite, or ridiculed for being a fool or worse. Whatever.
I don’t think Miles Howe is a hypocrite. On the contrary, I think Miles Howe has been quite courageous, first of all by being willing to put his own life on the line in the attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and secondly by writing about his experience as a Jewish man in such a situation.
Comandante Esposito: Yes he is a hypocrite, last week Assad was even murdering Palestinians along with his own people but of course there was no outrage on that . If Gaza was really need of aid for some reason Hamas managed to build 5 star hotels, shopping malls, markets full of food and this was covered my many news organizations in West. A
Also the blockade is not illegal :
“Yes it can, according to the law of blockade which was derived from customary international law and codified in the 1909 Declaration of London. It was updated in 1994 in a legally recognized document called the “San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.”
Under some of the key rules, a blockade must be declared and notified to all belligerents and neutral states, access to neutral ports cannot be blocked, and an area can only be blockaded which is under enemy control.
“On the basis that Hamas is the ruling entity of Gaza and Israel is in the midst of an armed struggle against that ruling entity, the blockade is legal,” said Philip Roche, partner in the shipping disputes and risk management team with law firm Norton Rose.”
Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/02/us-israel-flotilla-gaza-idUSTRE65133D20100602
Other sources:
http://in.reuters.com/article/2010/08/02/i…
http://news.yahoo.com/5-star-hotel-blockad…
Sources: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-shrybm…
Also please read what Justice Goldstone said in the Washington Post NoteComandante Esposito this was written by Richard Goldstone : So he did not discredited his own report?
Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes” By Richard Goldstone
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rec…)
We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.
The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza” while “the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”
Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.
The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.
For example, the most serious attack the Goldstone Report focused on was the killing of some 29 members of the al-Simouni family in their home. The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. The purpose of these investigations, as I have always said, is to ensure accountability for improper actions, not to second-guess, with the benefit of hindsight, commanders making difficult battlefield decisions.
While I welcome Israel’s investigations into allegations, I share the concerns reflected in the McGowan Davis report that few of Israel’s inquiries have been concluded and believe that the proceedings should have been held in a public forum. Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.
Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants. The Israeli military’s numbers have turned out to be similar to those recently furnished by Hamas (although Hamas may have reason to inflate the number of its combatants).
As I indicated from the very beginning, I would have welcomed Israel’s cooperation. The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel. I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within. Something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations. I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.
Some have charged that the process we followed did not live up to judicial standards. To be clear: Our mission was in no way a judicial or even quasi-judicial proceeding. We did not investigate criminal conduct on the part of any individual in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. We made our recommendations based on the record before us, which unfortunately did not include any evidence provided by the Israeli government. Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.
Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.
In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.
I continue to believe in the cause of establishing and applying international law to protracted and deadly conflicts. Our report has led to numerous “lessons learned” and policy changes, including the adoption of new Israel Defense Forces procedures for protecting civilians in cases of urban warfare and limiting the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. The Palestinian Authority established an independent inquiry into our allegations of human rights abuses — assassinations, torture and illegal detentions — perpetrated by Fatah in the West Bank, especially against members of Hamas. Most of those allegations were confirmed by this inquiry. Regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
Simply put, the laws of armed conflict apply no less to non-state actors such as Hamas than they do to national armies. Ensuring that non-state actors respect these principles, and are investigated when they fail to do so, is one of the most significant challenges facing the law of armed conflict. Only if all parties to armed conflicts are held to these standards will we be able to protect civilians who, through no choice of their own, are caught up in war.
The writer, a retired justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, chaired the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.
Charles,
I read Goldstone’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post earlier today, in its entirety. You didn’t need to cut and paste the entire article.
To put it mildly, Richard Goldstone’s assertions in the article are somewhat disingenuous.
He states:
“The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.”
He has no grounds for making this blanket assertion. In fact, the follow-up report of the committee led by Justice Mary McGowan Davis, which he says he fully supports, states as follows:
“Therefore, the Committee remains of the view that an independent public commission – and not the MAG’s (Israeli Military Advocate General’s) office – is the appropriate mechanism for carrying out an independent and impartial analysis, as called for in the FFM report, into allegations that high-level decision-making related to the Gaza conflict violated international law.”
and the report goes on to say that this has yet to be done.
In other words, until an independent public commission is established in Israel to investigate the IDF’s actions, there will be no way to determine the “intentionality” of IDF commanders in causing the deaths 900 Palestinian civilians – over 30% of whom were children. The issue of “intentionality” goes towards establishing whether or not war crimes were committed. According to the McGowan Davis report, this issue has not been settled because the only Israeli investigation into these allegations against the Israeli military was conducted by the Israeli military itself. As noted above, the U.N. committee felt that was inadequate and flawed.
Until that happens, we are left with the numbers of dead and wounded on both sides from which to draw our conclusions. About a dozen deaths on the Israeli side (including soldiers) and roughly 1400 killed on the Palestinian side, of whom approximately 900 were noncombatant civilians among which were 300 children.
I wonder what Miles did in order to get himself kicked out of a kibbutz.
Congratulations to The Coast for publishing the Miles Howe article and for the wonderful photos.
Bravo to the Coast for this article,it is truly important that Haligonians are exposed to issues outside of our little bubble of concert scandals,inept mayors and waste treatment facilities.
a huge kudos to Miles for his gusto in going aboard the Tahrir and for publishing his own personal history for the city to read, that takes guts.
Miles,
Great article! Thanks for writing it. I fully support breaking the blockade of Gaza and I am proud that someone from our community was able to go and be a part of the attempt to do just that that. Your piece was well written and I am glad The Coast gave such promience to this article. This story rises above the tepid swill that passes as news and makes me think that insightful, well-written journalism is possible in this town.
Dave Bush
Great article Miles, very impressive and well expressed writing.
Thank you.
Yes! It’s a great story, and hopefully this article will reach people and help them reconsider their own viewpoints. The blockade on gaza must be lifted, and the global movement supporting this cause must reach a wider and wider audience. Congrats to Miles for a wonderful piece of journalism, and to the Coast as well.
Time for a flotilla to Syria to topple the murderous dictatorial regime.
Long live a free and democratic Syria.
Anyone who supports the “lifting of the blockade on Gaza” is SUPPORTING the further arming of Hamas, PURE AND SIMPLE.
Anyone who claims otherwise is uninformed silly git, or they are a liar and are actively working to arm one of the most vicious, civilian-targeting, terrorist organizations in the world, and deserves a visit from the RCMP if not a good kick to the behind.
READ THE HAMAS CHARTER, it’s ONLINE… it calls for the EXTERMINATION OF JEWS AND THE END OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
If thats what you support, please state so loud and clear so we can deal with you on that level (i.e. as an animal who belongs in a cage).
Sorry for the upper caps above, but it’s clear your publication has a few very stupid and/or brainwashed and treasonous readers who don’t realize that once Hamas gets bored with killing as many Jewish women and children as they can, they will be happy to target the happy non-Jewish Lefties (or formerly Jewish, or whatever silly description you have to give to justify stabbing your family in the back), Lefties who will become simple, useless infidels with expired “jihad passes”.
Color me disgusted that you even published the drivel “To gaza with love”,
Has anyone here actually read the Hamas charter. It clearly calls for the death of all Jews, and you are supporting this bunch of anti-Semitic homicidal maniacs? Those rockets raining down on Israel’s civilian population today are being smuggled in, don’t you see they have a security problem?
jpeditor, I’m looking for my disgusted crayon right now…let me just wipe the froth off your message here…OK, good.
So, I personally don’t think that just because you put something in caps, that it actually does make it PURE AND SIMPLE. Really, you’re just spouting vitriolic hate from that moment onwards, which is your first sentence. Name calling, threats of the state, and violence to my person, the colloquial ‘we’, as though you speak for an aggressive mass of shadowy fellows who wander around with human-sized kennels for just such occasions.
Then, you cap it off with what I interpret as sheer madness on your part. Hamas will destroy us all, unless we destroy them first. Does that sum up your argument? Or do you mean all Palestinians?
Listen, if you are the editor from the Jerusalem Post, then you should know something about the Jewish community of Nova Scotia. It has dwindled to a very small number of what it originally was. My theory of why it has dwindled is because idiots such as yourself, and Jon Goldberg from the Atlantic Jewish Council, have decided that there is to be only one decisive Jewish voice, and that voice will speak for war and destruction and the fabrication of the Israel as living embodiment of purity and sanctimonity myth. So Jews in the diaspora have three choices.
1) They can tow your sick line, which a few continue to do.
2) They can turn their back on such a fucked up logic. Which most do.
3) They can make an educated decision about what it means for them to be Jews, choose not to reject something that they consider to be an important part of themselves, and make a personal stand.
Israelis themselves are divided. Synagogues in Nova Scotia are closed. You’re clinging to the remnants of a faith, and you have only your own anger and hate for the alienation you have birthed within the Jewish community.
And believe me, I don’t really give two shits what you say about stabbing my family in the back. I’ll keep on putting on my Talis and T’filim, and praying for the patience to deal with the likes of you. Good luck.
So Miles Howe thinks people who have different opinions other then his own must be coming from the Jerusalem Post and he speaks for the Atlantic Canadian Jewish Community when he does not.
Wow! the comment is rather illogical, the problem with people like Miles Howe is he thinks no one can have a different opinion or can they criticize him. As with most on the far left they think the only answer can be is “yes sir!” to everything they say and do. Mr. Howe this how your nothing but a hypocrite.
People like Mr. Howe will just tell people that their world view is right and will just force it down on others as with most leftists. The problem with your article it sounds made up and some parts of your article was such as the Irish ship being sabotaged never even happened according to Turkish Police the boat had that problem before it was in port. I think I might believe Turkish Police (source: http://bit.ly/iKOUji ). Also you talk a lot about Greece’s economic problems and some how you seem to be linking it to Israel again without little evidence. Also why did those Aid ships give the aid to the Greek Government as with the Israeli government agreed to give it to the people of Gaza? I wonder why that did not happen? Care to explain? I think I do know the answer but please tell us
Again Mr. Howe I wonder what will happen when a certain UN report that will be released in a few days might have to say about this. The one that was asked by Turkey. So far what is known about the report is that Israel’s blockade is legal under international law so is stopping people from trying to break it. I wonder, will Mr. Howe be freaking out by this. Also do not even bother with the report my the Human Right Council since it was chaired by Gadafi’s Libya and Assad’s Syria. I think it has lost as being creditability since those Human Rights loving nations did not care about the Human Rights of their own people.
Also Mr. Howe are you going to organize ‘aid ships’ any time soon to help the people of Syria?
At the same time you were in Greece with your fellow ship mates he was murdering his own people in the streets. 2200+ so far and no aid and no fly-ins to demand Assad stop murdering his own people? That makes you more of a hypocrite since they were in need of badly needed aid when some certain ships in Greece seemed to have it.
Ahh yes, the comment section on the Coast, where all great worldy problems are discussed and solved in a fashion where everyone is reasonable.
More people die from peanut allergies in the land of the failed zionist experiment than from anything the freely elected Hamas government ever did.
Israel was established upon the ruins of another nation that she destroyed; Palestine.
Israel holds the world record in the number of towns and villages she ethnically cleansed 500+
Israel holds the world record in the number of refugees she deported; over 4 million
Israel holds the world record in the number of homes she demolished; 60,000+
Israel is the country with the highest record of UN condemnation 500 times +
Israel is the country with the highest number of protective US security council votes 100 times+
Israel has imprisoned more civilians per capita than any other country; 250,000+
Israel has rendered more innocent civilians handicapped per capita than any other country; 50,000+
Israel has injured more innocent civilians per capita than any other country; 200,000+
Israel has only two countries to defend its policies in the United Nations; these are US and Micronesia
Israel is the only country on Earth that denies the right of return of refugees.
Israel is the only country on Earth that still occupies a whole other country and parts of two other countries.
Israel is the only country on Earth that publicly steals the water of its neighbours.
Israel is the only country on Earth that has legalized home demolishing as a method of collective punishment.
Israel is the only country on Earth that deliberately targets civilian infrastructure and justifies it.
Israel is the only country on Earth that has legalized assassination.
Israel stands unique in using human shields in military occupation.
Amongst all countries, Israel is the only one that has legalized torture.
Israel is the only country that builds illegal settlements in occupied lands.
Israel is the only country on Earth that publicly jails activists without trial.
Wow! Dr. David I found the website that you copied and pasted this from funny how there are no citation back any of them up.
But this is how the western left thinks: http://youtu.be/eIesXORjBps
At least he citations to back up his argument.
Also Mr. Howe you could answer my questions
I have a few questions for the misguided hard-line zionists to answer . Is it that :
A) you favour a staus quo of occupation of the West Bank in perpetuity (with accomapnying unfettered construction of illegal Jews-only ‘settlements’), or
B) you favour outright annexation of the occupied territories by the Israeli State (with – to preserve Israel’s “Jewish” character – an expulsion of the Arab occupants), or
C) you favour the creation of a wholly dependent Palestinian State, utterly disarmed so as to be be incapable of defending itself against Israeli incursion – as Mr. Netanyahu openly “offers” (with, of course, the caveat that Israel will return no stolen “settelment” land nor offer any compensation in kind)?
We would all, I’m sure, love to hear the “painful concessions” Israel is willing to make to secure peace (and abide by recognised international law, including the UN Charter that expressly prohibits member states from engaging in territorial expansion by conquest or unilateral annexation….).
Dr. David is the last name Duke by any chance?
In the last decade there has been:
1500 Palestinian children killed vs 125 Israeli children,
6500 Palestinian deaths vs 1100 Israeli,
39,000 Palestinians injured vs 8900 Israeli.
In 2009, the US gave Israel $2.5 Billion in Military aid, zero to Palestinians,
There have been 65 UN resolutions against Israel, zero against Palestinians,
Currently 7400 Palestinian political prisoners, 1 Israeli held,
25,000 Palestinian homes demolished, zero Israeli homes,
225 Jewish only settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land, zero Palestinian settlements on Israeli land.
Which is the far worse mass murderer and terrorist — Hamas or Israel?
Israel killed three times as many Palestinians in just 12 days as Hamas killed Israelis in the past 8,000 days (about 250 Israeli soldiers and civilians since 1987)!
In 12 days, Israel slaughtered 750 Palestinians, over half of them children and women (Palestinian Red Cross). In Gaza’s main hospital, almost all dead are civilians, according to a Norwegian doctor. 3,100 Palestinians are injured. Israelis are targeting ambulances trying to reach the injured as well as UN aid vehicles and facilities. Israel committed such war crimes in its past wars with impunity.
Most Hamas attacks retaliate for provocative Israeli attacks. Before 1994, Hamas never killed Israeli civilians and there were no Palestinian suicide bombing attacks in Israel.
Hamas began to target Israeli civilians from 1994 only after an Israeli suicide terrorist massacred 30 praying Palestinians inside a major Palestinian mosque. The Israeli terrorist, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, was a colonist from a nearby illegal Israeli settlement. Following his massacre of Palestinians, Yitzhak Rabin’s Israeli government imposed a two-week curfew on the 120,000 Palestinian residents of the city, while the 400 Israeli illegal settlers remained free to move around!
In response, Hamas launched the very first Palestinian suicide bombing attack inside Israel, killing eight people. A Hamas militant said: “Before the massacre we targeted only the Israeli military. We can’t sit by and watch Palestinian civilians killed year after year and do nothing. When Israel stops killing our civilians we will stop killing their civilians.”
In December 2004, Hamas put in place a unilateral ceasefire that lasted 18 months, which was broken repeatedly by Israel’s blockade, siege, and attacks. Israel fired over 6,000 shells into Gaza in two months before June 2006, when an apparent Israeli artillery attack on a busy Gaza beach killed 8 Palestinian picnicking civilians and orphaned a Palestinian girl. This provoked Hamas’ militant wing to call off its ceasefire.
In June 2008, Hamas and Israel began a 6-month ceasefire which Israel provocatively broke on November 4th, Israel entered Gaza to kill 6 Hamas members and capture 6 other Hamas members. Hamas responded with a barrage of homemade rockets, most falling harmlessly. Not a single Israeli was killed by any Palestinian from Gaza or West Bank during the ceasefire — until Israel launched war on Gaza.
Thanks for the great article Miles! And thank you The Coast!
Um…the reason I wrote Jerusalem Post was because the comment was signed “jpeditor”. JPNEWS is Jerusalem Post. Is that a logical conclusion to draw, my dear “The Great”? Or should I have consulted with you first? I don’t go around thinking that whoever has a difference of opinion is from the Jerusalem Post out of habit, so go on, grasp at another straw if you’d like. On this one, however, methinks you are the fool.
Hi Great,
First off, you should breathe before you write. Your message is so filled with typos and bluster, and insults, and generalizations, that it is difficult to respond to. Be your own copy editor. I know it makes you angry when you see something written that you disagree with, but deep breath in, and let it out…
To answer your ‘questions’:
Here’s a link reporting on the Irish Boat being sabotaged. Unlike the link you posted, Great, this one actually works. I’m sure you have reasons for not trusting the Irish Times, especially when it reports something you don’t want to believe. Have fun with those reasons.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/irelan…
Here’s a couple of news articles reporting on Israeli pressure on the Greeks. They also work, unlike your so-called Turkish police report.
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article…
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186577.html
As for the nonsense about UN reports and which ones I should read and which ones I shouldn’t, based on who wrote them, I’m going to plead ‘no comment’ because I don’t even understand you.
As for not giving the Greeks the aid aboard the ships to give to the Israelis, it was always an up-front statement of the Flotilla that the blockade was considered illegal, and that giving the aid to the Israelis or the Egyptians wasn’t an option because such an action would merely perpetuate the blockade. I know this is a point that sticks in your craw, but do you actually understand this? So you can fall back on any report you like, and hold it up, and scream ‘Aha! It says the blockade is legal!’ But I’m fairly sure that it’s not going to phase the Flotilla movement, no matter who wrote it. Because the Flotilla considers the blockade to be illegal. Do you understand now? The Flotilla considers the blockade to be illegal. Get it? One more time, say it with me. The Flotilla considers….
There were no weapons aboard any of the ships, never were. The point was/is a person to person movement, where international law and government inaction has failed.
As for the ‘why not sail to Syria?’ notion, it seems like you get a handbook or something when you type questions, and this is a classic one. I consider this to be smokescreening on your part. Yes, the situation is Syria is tragic, and I don’t consider myself a hypocrite for trying to sail to Gaza and not to Syria. I believe in a lot of things. But, just because I believe in renewable energy, should I not be allowed to also believe in ending the blockade on Gaza at the same time? Or should I just keep trying to put up photovoltaic solar panels and concentrate solely on that, to the exclusion of everything else. Why not Syria indeed, Great, but why NOT Gaza? And if you feel so strongly about sailing to Syria, perhaps you would better spend your time in organizing an initiative, rallying public support, and sailing a Flotilla to Syria. Why Syria to the exclusion of Gaza? I never said that, you did.
I also think it speaks to the level of your argument that when you are presented with facts contrary to your ‘argument’ that you resort to name calling. As though a man named David who wrote a comment against what you’d like to see is inevitably David Duke. And as though I am some extreme leftist and a hypocrite just because I didn’t organize a flotilla to Syria and because I thought that somebody who commented ‘jpeditor’ might be from the Jerusalem Post, and because I consider Jon Goldberg from the AJC to be an idiot because the best he could do on a CBC interview was personally insult me, let me know I wasn’t part of the Halifax Jewish community because I didn’t share his views, and tell the listeners that I was probably pretending to be Jewish just to…what, get some publicity? Yeah, there’s a whole lot of folks out there pretending to be Jewish. It’s the next big thing! I’m being sarcastic.
Perhaps the most frightening thing to you is that I don’t actually represent some block. I just wrote something that appears to make you very angry. I’m actually just some guy trying his best to look at the world objectively, who happened to be born into a certain household where certain things happened to be held very dear to the heart, without question.
I can’t really see where I’m misrepresenting what happened, but to you that must mean that I’m some kind of extreme leftist that is forcing things down your throat. I don’t actually think I’m forcing anything down your throat, nor would I want to. Anyways, have a great life.
Mr. Howe you sound like you need some help for one your comment is rather threatening in it nature since you are just ranting on questions.
Yes your nothing short of a hypocrite. 2200+ including Palestinians are being murdered by the Assad regime does prove this (at the same time all this happened.) Also I still do not believe the Jerusalem Post has anything to do with this. Do you really think a newspaper in Israel could care less about a free newspaper in the Halifax region? The one homeless people use as toilet paper. I think they would not even care about a certain Media CO-OP either. the the word JP could mean anything. Oh wait! got to be (without evidence) the Jerusalem Post.
Also, about the Irish ship and your sources are wrong just look at the publishing dates(I looked on Google I found a your links came from a certain organization website). If you even looked at the publishing dates of your Press TV(what a joke) published June 28; The Irish Times story was published in June 30th to the Haaretz article published July 2nd you have a different story all together and I was quoting Haaretz who was quoting a Turkish newspaper known as Hurriyet( a well respected newspaper in Turkey and a English daily) who quoted Turkish Police that the ship was not sabotage according to their investigation. Here is the original report (published July 1)
( http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=i… ) unless Turkish Police are lying(under Israeli pressure even when Turkish-Israeli relations are dead cold) ? but Mr. Howe who is lying? Turkish Police? Hurriyet daily news? Haaretz( note: loved by a lot of the Anti Israel folks)? Mr. Howe? who is lying?
Also, Mr. Howe you will be exposed one day most likely at the end of the week . The Palmer Report( at the request of Turkey) a United Nations report on the so called ‘aid ships’ will be published on Friday but most of the report was leaked to the public and what is known Israel is within it legal rights under international law to enforce the blockade and stopping these so called ‘aid ships’ is legal and recommends a end to the PR stunt. Also it does put most of the blame on Turkish government, the Free Gaza Movement and IHH.
I wonder what will happen come Friday but it is clear your already freaking out about this your ranting show this.
Also I still do not understand why you are dragging Halifax’s Jewish Community into this? Is it they do not share the same world view as you?
You say the community is falling in numbers when it is growing according to Statistics Canada 2006 census . What do you have against them?
Also please just Google the word “JP Editor” I find it rather interesting the Jerusalem Post does not even come up or are they still the evil Jerusalem Post?
Oh, you got me! Everything you say is true! I needed to think it was the Jerusalem Post, because I am very sick in mind! My my, you win, please show me how to better human be! Charles Great, I have been revealed! Yes, yes, everything you say true now! I rant like crazy man, in fear of UN report release. Jewish community united and strong in voice, census say is growing, Israel always right! ALWAYS! I am a farce, I am making things up all teh time! ALL TEH TIME! Palmer report scares me SOOOO much! It make Mr. Howe crazy in fear! What will I do when it comes out???? Like sunlight to vampire it be!!
Charles, please help me better person be! Please Charles! Please! You are right! Forever now I give up. Now only believe Israel good. Israel good!
Is this okay, Charles? You have conquered everything. You win the battle of the Coast comment section. I retire. This comment section is yours now. Please, in order to cement your victory, continue to post at all hours of the day and night. The quantity of your posts, no matter what they say, will solidify your position and make it true, by simple virtue of being repeated infinitely into the future. I cannot fight you any longer, for I need food, water, fresh air, and a balanced outlook on the world in order to satisfy my complex existence. Clearly your convictions are more right than mine, because you post more things. You are the better man. I am a sick human being, trying to undermine many things, like international law, UN reports, the Atlantic Jewish Community, and the Jerusalem Post. Is this good? Or did I forget something? I deserve to be put in a cage, or visited by the RCMP, or at least a good kick in the behind. I will never have an opinion again.
Forgive me Charles. I love you Charles for showing me the error of my ways. This has been a marvelous, cathartic experience for me. I have only you to thank for this Charles. I was blind, but now can see. I was lame, but now can walk. I will now retire to a mountaintop for the remainder of my existence, and never contemplate anything, most definitely not Israel/Palestine, for the rest of my unholy existence. I now shall wander the world in search of an exhorsism, anyone who might rid me of these terrible thoughts and opinions. Forgive me if I no longer respond to you Charles. Like the dog I am, I show you my underbelly, and yellow in colour it be. You are the victor. If you must, continue to kick the dead horse which is now my existence. But forgive me if I no longer respond. I have nothing left. Like an autumn rose, my petals are wilted, my scent no longer lingers on the breeze, my pollen given up to summer’s searching bees. Good luck Charles. I see great things for you in the future. You are the Great.
Israel is asking Palestine to recognize the Jewish state without knowing where the Jewish state starts or stops. Which particular Israel is Hamas supposed to recognize? The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel that builds, and goes on building, vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22% of ‘Palestine’ still left to negotiate over?
If Israel wants recognition as a Jewish state, then it needs to start recognizing the Palestinian state. That is the problem. Israel refuses to grant to others that which it demands for itself.