“Because they will finish your state. Your state has to go.”

Shouldn’t be too surprising, really. Europeans are at least as anti-Semitic today as they’ve ever been.

Palestinian flags and ‘human rights’ are simply convenient vehicles for driving that agenda.

I know you’ve covered it before, but I’d love to know where the “Obama’s a friend of Israel” folks are now.

I’m on your side on this one, believe me. And I know that past “aid” ships have brought in real weapons, but the video you linked to shows wrenches, knives, batons and slingshots. Slingshots! Hardly weapons.

Doesn’t mean the IDF wasn’t right and justified in stopping the ship and defending themselves when aboard. But I hope beyond hope that the only weapons the Gaza residents ever have in their possession are slingshots.

They had 5 and 6 inch blades, Jamie. You get attacked with a 6 inch blade and tell me that’s not a real weapon. I’ve read reports they had grenades and it looks like molotov cocktails in the vid. All real weapons.

Nikhil, I have no idea. So, so silent. I actually lost a friend because I dared not believe that Obama’s approach to Israel was going to get Gilad freed.

[...] Invasion/occupation. Israel could return to a policy of entering and controlling Gaza, eliminating the state of semi-independence that allows threats to fester. This, too, is a strategy that is costly in lives and [...]

Yeah, a 6 inch knife *is* a real weapon, against an unarmed opponent. But against an armed Israeli soldier it’s a joke. Hell, against an 80 year old grandma in Texas with a .38 revolver in her purse, it’s a joke. I don’t consider a shipment of knives to be in the same class as smuggling in a shipment of AK-47’s.

Molotov cocktails are similarly ineffective ‘weapons’. It’s nothing but gasoline in a bottle with a rag stuffed in it. I’m pretty sure Gaza residents already have kitchen knives, glass bottles and gasoline in their possession. Yeah, they cause a big mess and they’re good for setting things on fire, but against an army, they’re nothing but a nuisance.

As for the grenades, those *are* real weapons as they’re designed for high explosive detonation with shrapnel remnants. And I’m pretty sure if they had been found on the boat they would have been shown front and center of the seized “weapons” and then we wouldn’t be having this small little squabble.

The “aid” flotilla was bringing in these implements of no destruction because that’s all they have access to. I’m still not calling this a “weapons” shipment.

And, to be clear, I’m still defending the IDF’s right to defend themselves with deadly force and stop ships running a blockade.

So then I don’t get it, Jamie. What are the IDF soldiers supposed to do when they are attacked with knives and sticks?

I never said it was a weapons shipment, just that Israel has to be vigilant about weapons shipment and that is why all ships to Gaza will be stopped.

What are the IDF soldiers supposed to do when they are attacked with knives and sticks?

Defend themselves appropriately, with deadly force if necessary. And that holds true if they’re attacked with knives, sticks, AK-47’s or bare fists. My point is that a knife or a stick is hardly an effective weapon, that’s all.

I never said it was a weapons shipment

I was under the impression that you linked to a video of what you called ‘weapons’ so that you might have considered it to be a weapons shipment. We’re on the same side that ships into Gaza need to be stopped and searched for weapons for the sake of security.

I just think it’s silly to trot out a video of homemade knifes and slingshots to justify an action that doesn’t need justification. The video would have been WAY more effective if guns and armaments had been found on that boat.

Instead of releasing a video of stupid stuff, they should just be saying, “Hey, a ship ran our blockade and the people aboard attacked our soldiers when we came on board to inspect. So we shot them in self-defense.” End of story.

It’s to point out that the “peace” activists were ready to be very non-peaceful.

You mean they still need to prove that point? I think they should have stopped that line after Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly wearing a sidearm.

Yes, they do. See storm of worldwide criticism.

“Instead of releasing a video of stupid stuff, they should just be saying, “Hey, a ship ran our blockade and the people aboard attacked our soldiers when we came on board to inspect. So we shot them in self-defense.” End of story.”

Ya, because SO many people are eager to take the Israel’s word for it.

Have you read some of the AP headlines??? C’mon really??

Lisa – That’s my point. Who gives a rat’s ass what other people think? Those people aren’t going to take Israel’s word for ANYTHING, no matter what evidence is presented, so why try to appease them? Israel has been trying for 60 years to convince these people of their legitimacy. There isn’t anything left to argue about.

‘That’s my point. Who gives a rat’s ass what other people think? Those people aren’t going to take South Africa’s word for ANYTHING, no matter what evidence is presented, so why try to appease them? South Africa has been trying for [number] years to convince these people of their legitimacy. There isn’t anything left to argue about.’
This could be a line from any defense of Aparteid in about 1987. Change the country to East Germany, it could be heard at a Politburo meeting in 1988.

Seemed like an awfully risky way to board a ship that may contain hostiles imo. And to have your guys armed with paintball guns, talk about kid’s gloves.

The “world’s” reaction is absolutely ridiculous. I guess people expect a soldier to die before he can defend himself.

There was some off-color joking that BBC would have a headline: Peace activists murdered while playing stickball with the IDF onboard a baby milk ship.

Where Did the Bernard Madoff Money Go?

In a word: Israel. The money was funneled to the Israeli Nuclear Department and military forces to fend off radical factions in the region.

Israel is the smallest nuclear armed country in the world. It is roughly the size of New Jersey with an annual reported GDP of $129 billion. Even with international aid, Israel has no oil reserves like its Arab neighbors and could not afford nuclear weapons on its own. However, with the help of Bernie Madoff and others like him, Israel became a dominant power in the region. The nuclear materials were purchased in France where Madoff maintained many business contacts and a home on the French Riviera. While Madoff was sending reports of profitable trades to his French counterparts from his investment firm in New York, his well-connected French point men set up purchases of enriched uranium. The enriched uranium might then have been put on board Madoff’s boat, nicknamed Bull, and shipped 1600 nautical miles from Antibes, France to Haifa, Israel. Unfortunately for investigators, all records of these trips have been conveniently lost. Only a Geiger counter could reveal the cargo that boarded that yacht.

Other large quantities of Madoff money was found at the Banque Jacob Safra in Gibraltar. According to the IMF, Gibraltar is a well-known terrorist financier and money laundering center for Israel. Since Israel has had no laws against money laundering since its inception, any money that flows into the country is clean on arrival. This rule was enacted to aid Jews displaced by WWII who had hidden money from the German troops.

Many Palestinian charities were labeled “terrorist organizations” by the US government after they were found to be laundering money to fund terrorist operations. In these cases, money that was donated to the charities was then funneled to the terrorists. However, in the Madoff case, money that was donated to Jewish charities was “invested” with Madoff. It was through this seemingly legitimate intermediary that Jewish charities escaped the accusations of funding a war in the Middle East. Without this money and heavy political influence in the US, the country of Israel would have been invaded a long time ago. World governments have been slow to label any of the Jewish charities that have been funding this conflict in the region.

It should be noted that initially all of the Jewish charities were up in arms about the scandal as they were forced to shut down their operations. But after a closed meeting arranged by a known Israeli supporter, not another word was heard from this group. It is very possible that the group was told that their money has been defending the Jewish cause for at least four decades. At the time of this meeting in January 2009, Israel had just launched a major offensive in the Gaza Strip which crippled Hamas.

Two mysterious deaths occurred during the unwinding of the Madoff case. The first was a French aristocrat, Rene de la Villehuchet, who lost more than $1 billion in client’s money in the scam. The death was ruled a suicide. Maybe it was a suicide but it leaves a dead end in what could have been an important French connection. Another man, Jeffry Picower, was found dead on the bottom of his swimming pool. These two men may have had vital information that could have blown this money laundering nuclear scandal wide open. All there is to be said about these suspicious deaths is that “dead men tell no tales.”

Two other individuals have vital information that they are not sharing. The only problem in getting that information is that they both plead guilty to their crimes. When a defendant pleads guilty and receives a sentence longer than their expected life, they are not obligated to answer any additional questions. These men are of course, Bernie Madoff and his CFO Frank DiPiscali. It is remarkable how these two thieves were able to sell this fraud as a Ponzi Scheme and the media bought it like a fund of funds manager going after consistent high returns.

The Madoff trustee, Irving Picard, has a conflict of interest. So far, he has uncovered only the very obvious stashes of Madoff money. He has already received exorbitant payouts from the victims fund to himself and his law firm, Baker & Hostetler LLP. He is also setting himself up to be a friend of the SEC and Mary Shapiro by doing a great job of limiting the amount of money that actually gets paid back to the Madoff victims. He calls this sadistic maneuver a clawback. He is trying to rewrite the SIPA laws that require SIPC to use the amount on the victims November 30, 2008 statement when determining the account value. This would be done to the delight of the big Wall Street firms that would otherwise be the largest contributors to replenish the SIPC funds. Maybe the SEC will repay this favor by hiring his firm the next time they drop the ball as well. Picard seems more likely to be involved with the cover-up than with following the money trail and holding Israel responsible.

But Picard is not the only one involved in a cover up. It seems peculiar that the FBI and the SEC have been investigating this fraud for over a year but the public still knows nothing more about where the money went than they did three days after Madoff turned himself in to the authorities. The ramifications of Israel’s involvement in accepting money from a Jewish financier would ring loud in the Arab world. Israel may even be held to account by the victims. As long as Israel has control of its printing press and there is an exchange rate between the dollar and the shekel, Israel may be liable to pay back the victims from its own coffers.

Denial is the other option. This approach was used when Israel was accused of harvesting organs from Palestinian prisoners. However, it backfired on them when Dr. Yehuda Hiss, blew the whistle and admitted that the forensic institute he formerly headed did just that. It would be irresponsible for Israel to deny that their military was largely funded with the Madoff funds. But after all, aren’t there are still people that continue to deny the holocaust?

Yours truly,
D.B. Cooper

P.S.: Because of fear of redress from the governments or any of their agencies, no other information is available at this time.

“In a word: Israel.”

At that point, I knew the rest would be absolute tripe. Israel needed Madoff’s scheme to acquire its nuclear technology? So then what was it doing in the 1970s?

Don’t let logic get in the way of insanity.

“Because of fear of redress from the governments or any of their agencies, no other information is available at this time.”

Your IP address is being traced, expect someone from Hollywood or Wall Street to be contacting you shortly.