Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Stephen R. Shalom: But What Could Israel Do?

By Stephen Shalom, ZNet, June 7, 2010

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Stephen Shalom’s ZSpace Page

The New York Times front-paged a story on the conflicting video images of the assault on the Gaza flotilla, concluding that neither sides case was proven because the videos lacked the necessary context. What came just before or just after?

Normally, neutrality in the face of contradictory and incomplete information is an admirable trait. But consider the circumstances. One side, the Israeli attackers, surely have video of the entire encounter, but have shown only selected snippets, carefully avoiding the period immediately before the troops landed on board the Mavi Marmara. The other side, those trying to break the blockade, had their cellphones and cameras confiscated (captured is how the IDF put it), one of their websites hacked, and limited coverage of events. Despite this asymmetry that ought to make us extremely skeptical of the Israeli version, the clips do seem to show that the Israeli forces fired before they landed and you can bet the IDF won’t be releasing their complete video for analysis. And as more and more passenger testimony becomes available, and as autopsy results show the victims shot between the eyes at point blank range, the Israeli version is more and more dubious.

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