The Israeli Navy stopped the latest attempt to break the Gaza blockade. Gee, why would Israel think that there might be smuggled arms aboard a ship from Lebanon to Gaza?
The Israeli navy on Thursday intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip and said it was towing the vessel into an Israeli port.
The ship set sail from the Lebanese port of Tripoli Tuesday in a bid to defy Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Reporters from Arab TV stations Al-Jadeed and Al-Jazeera who were on the vessel said the Israelis fired at the ship before boarding it and beating those on board.
Let’s see, 60 tons of “supplies” from Lebanon, a country with which Israel is at war. And oh, yeah—this guy was on board.
Organizers said a total of 18 people were on board. Among them was 86-year-old Greek Catholic priest Hillarion Capucci, who while serving as an archbishop in Jerusalem was convicted in 1974 by an Israeli court for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to Palestinian militants. The Syrian-born Capucci was jailed but released three years later at the intervention of the Vatican and deported.
I’m sorry, but isn’t the “Free Gaza” movement supposed to be made up of people who are in it for, you know, peace? Or perhaps they’re lying about their intentions? Because 86 years old or not, once you know how to smuggle arms, you know how to do it the rest of your life, and you can pass along the information to the people you’re traveling with. Like the ones who are running 60 tons of “supplies” to Gaza. And when you do something like this, it makes you look even more suspicious:
The military said that a naval patrol spoke by radio to the Tali, told its skipper that it would not be allowed to enter Gaza and the two sides agreed that the vessel would instead sail to the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
But on Thursday morning, the ship tried to double back and slip past the navy, Israel said, raising concerns that it might be trying to smuggle arms into Gaza.
And gee, the people on the ship have no reason to lie about the capture, either.
“As a result of the actions taken by the boat crew, an Israel Navy force intercepted, boarded, and took control of the cargo boat, directing it toward (the port) of Ashdod, Israel,” the statement said. “No gunshots were fired on board during the boarding and capturing of the cargo boat.”
If there were journalists, there were cameras. If there is no pictorial evidence, then they’re lying. And as Arab TV stations have a known bias against Israel, color me shocked that they said they were “beaten” by Israeli soldiers. Yeah. Right.