Earlier today, the Irish ship, the Rachel Corrie, carrying aid to Gaza was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops without resistance. BBC News reports the ship is now in the Port of Ashod, "Israel says it will question those on board at the port and transfer the aid to the Gaza Strip by land after checking the cargo for banned items."
Referring to the fatal confrontation between a Gaza aid flotilla and his forces that left nine activists dead and many more activists and Israeli troops injured from earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "We saw today the difference between a ship of peace activists, with whom we don't agree but respect their right to a different opinion from ours, and between a ship of hate organised by violent Turkish terror extremists."
A Free Gaza spokesperson, though, condemned the actions, "This is unacceptable to be happening in international waters," and while British Foreign Secretary William Hague was glad this incident was peaceful, he "renewed his stance that Israel needs to lift its closure of Gaza." According to ABC News, "In Northern Ireland , deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Saturday that the Rachel Corrie should have been allowed to proceed to Gaza "without Israeli aggression," while in Sweden, the Swedish dockworkers' union was urging its members to refuse handling Israeli goods and ships for a week, starting June 15."
In a Daily News op-ed yesterday, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn) argued that the U.S. needs to reexamine its relationship with Turkey, which has been helping Hamas by "funding an attack on the blockade and stirring up international opposition to Israel... The sad truth is that we treat Turkey like an ally, while the rest of the world treats Israel like a problem the U.S. has to solve. The week's events and Turkey's growing hostility toward Israel upend this misguided world-view."
