Disabled Palestinian loaded on board FGM ship (Reuters)

Activists of the Free Gaza Movement boarded their two boats this morning and left the port bound on a return journey to Cyprus after successfully breaking Israel’s siege of the enclave.  They carried on board 7 Palestinians denied exit visas by the Israelis including a 16 year-old boy in a wheelchair awaiting an artificial leg.

Until the moment of sailing, the participants weren’t certain how the Israeli navy would react.  They were prepared for forcible boarding of their boats.  But thankfully, it hasn’t come to that.  I note that certain elements of the IDF disagreed vociferously with this decision not to interfere as Maariv reports (Hebrew):

Sources in the security establishment expressed marked dissatisfaction with Israel’s passive reaction.  A security source told Maariv: “Tzahal vociferously opposed the decision to allow the Palestinians to leave.”  Elements of the military even specifically requested “overpowering the ships with whatever level of force was necessary.”

Other security sources explained it was better to allow the ships to leave without interference.  “We discovered the peace activists intended to add a disabled Palestinian to their number.  None of us wanted to see on international TV channels Israeli military personnel forcefully removing a disabled Palestinians in a wheel chair [from the ship].”

The implication is that Israel would’ve had no compunction using such force against able-bodied Palestinians exiting on the boats.

All I can say is that I’m pleased that cooler heads prevailed in the Israeli government and they took a restrained approach to this matter.  Of course, the FGM plans to return to Gaza on the same boats this time with food and other humanitarian relief.  I doubt Israel will be as restrained the next time.  But one can always hope.

In Maariv’s coverage (Hebrew) it interviewed Jeff Halper, who noted his debt to Abie Nathan, the pioneer Israeli peace activist who died this week:

Abie Nathan met with Arafat and was imprisoned twice.  Today the president and prime minister are eulogizing him.  Then [when Nathan met Arafat] the situation was exactly as it is today.  Nathan believed that the citizen must act even if he pays a personal price.  Had they listened to his voice then [in 1966 when he flew to Egypt], perhaps they would have avoided the Occupation, made peace with the Egyptians and prevented thousands of Israeli dead.

Halper also noted his philosophical approach to citizen peacemaking which precisely mirrors Nathan’s:

The attempt to break the Gaza siege “could only be mounted by private citizens.  Governments with political agendas are not suited to do this.  Only after private citizens break down the walls can there be an opening for governments to begin negotiations.”

I’m guessing that the Nobel committee is watching this episode with interest.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have Halper’s Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions nominated alongside a Palestinian peace group for a Nobel Peace Prize?  Do I hear Nobel, anyone?  Thanks again to Ira Glunts for providing the links.

Every so often a reader publishes a comment here that is so hateful I feature it in my Hall of Shame.  My coverage of Jeff Halper’s travails with the Israeli justice system has brought out of the miasma just such a “human being.”  He calls himself Yoni Brukirer and this is what this fine specimen of a Jew (ultra-Orthodox natch) and militant Zionist has to say for himself:

Jeff Halper is an evil man for wanting to help Islamist terrorists who seek Israel’s destruction. This has nothing to do with “occupation”, the Arabs themselves controlled those lands before 1967 (Jordan and Egypt), and as Benny Morris himself writes in “1948″, if the Jews had lost that war the surrounding Arab countries would have taken what is now Israel for themselves. The whole idea of “the Occupation” was invented by the Arabs to destroy Israel. Only demented leftists obsessed with “open-mindedness” accept Arab propaganda in the name of “understanding” and “alternate  narratives”. Jeff Halper and others like him should be tried and executed for treason.

Yoni’s IP reveals him to be in New York.  A little online research shows him to live in Washington Heights (I’m sorry to say that my grandparents shared this lovely neighborhood with this hazir).  I have half a mind to report his incitement either to the FBI or New York City police department.  These people think their thoughts and ideas are mere rhetorical ranting.  The problem is that words can kill and maim even if indirectly.  This is the type of hate that led to Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination.  I feature it here because I believe we have to look it in the eye unblinkingly in order to disarm it.

As Yoni posts at a Yeshiva University affiliated discussion forum, it’s likely he’s a graduate of that august institution, which has the distinction of having a rabbinical school dean who also called for Ehud Olmert to be hung if he conceded any of Jerusalem in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.  Dare I wonder whether Yoni earned smicha and is a rabbi?  After all, why should rabbis be immune from ideological diseases that afflict other Jews?  I think the Jewish community has a right to know where hate lives when it lives among them.  It appears to thrive at YU.

I was also tickled by this praise from a fellow forum member about Reb Yoni:

Yoni Brukirer’s response is a great example of a civil response that gets his point across without being rude or condescending.

Apparently, Yoni knows how to be kind to his fellow Orthodox Jews, while the rest of us can go hang–literally–for all he cares.

The ships which broke the Israeli blockade of Gaza have announced their intent to hoist anchor and return to Cyprus tomorrow morning.  With them, they plan to take 14 Palestinians including students accepted to universities abroad and a professor who has not been able to take up his teaching post in Europe due to the Israeli siege.

Just as Israel faced a dramatic decision when the ships were steaming toward Gaza, it faces another as they leave, since they once again will be breaking the travel ban which prevents almost all Gazans from exiting their living prison:

Two boats full of international activists that were allowed to sail into Gaza’s harbor on Saturday may be detained by the navy on Thursday as they set sail back to Cyprus, this time with 14 Palestinians on board.

On Wednesday, the Free Gaza Movement held a press conference in Gaza City to announce the departure of the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty early Thursday morning. In addition to the 40 foreign activists, organizers said, the boats would also be carrying some 14 Palestinians who had previously been denied the right to exit Gaza by Israel.

The organizers said that among the Palestinians were students with valid foreign visas or dual citizenships who had been accepted to universities abroad. Additionally, a Palestinian professor will be leaving to return to teach in Europe, and a young woman will be trying to reunite with her husband abroad.

Once again, the government seems confused about how to react to such non-violent resistance:

Government officials in Jerusalem and the Defense Ministry said they were closely monitoring the situation and by Wednesday evening they had yet to publicize their decision. It was possible that the navy would interdict the boats and at the least inspect the passengers to ensure that none of them posed a security threat to Israel.

Why would the navy need to “interdict” ships leaving Gaza and steaming away from Israel to determine whether they “posed a security threat to Israel?” As with much of Israeli government thinking, this one is a bit hard to fathom.

Abie Nathan, iconoclast, uncompromising fighter on behalf of peace (Benny Ortal)

Trusty reader Ira Glunts informs me of one of the supreme ironies of today’s news–a synchronistic moment that doesn’t happen often in life.  Just as Jeff Halper was being arraigned before an Israeli court for civil disobedience on behalf of breaking Israel’s siege of Gaza, Abie Nathan, one of Israel’s most fearless peace activists was dying in a Tel Aviv hospital (Hebrew). For those of you who don’t know, Abie was a true Israeli original and represented the absolute best that Israel had to offer the world. He was an iconoclast who harbored grand ideas and was fearless in  implementing them.  He had the bold vision of a Don Quixote and the hubris to believe he could pull it off.

After serving in Israel’s first air force, he used his flying skills to travel to Egypt against Israeli law to urge Nasser to seek a peaceful solution to his conflict with Israel. Yediot Achronot’s description of the incident is descriptive:

Abie Nathan's Peace 1 plane

He sought to meet with the leaders of the Arab world when such meetings were against the law. His first noted attempt came in 1966. Nathan, in a white Steerman plane, on which was painted the words “Shalom 1″ in black, departed the small airfield outside Herzliya, his destination Cairo.

Upon his arrival, he greeted the airport manager saying he wanted to meet with Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdel Nasser. In Israel, they announced his death. But he was well-received in Egypt.

Before leaving, he parted with the Egyptian officers and journalists saying: “Shalom u-l’hitraot.” 33 hours later his plane appeared in the skies over the Tel Aviv airport.

In 1973, with the help of John Lennon, Nathan founded Israel’s most famous pirate radio station, Kol Shalom. It broadcast music and news in Hebrew and Arabic from a ship in the Mediterranean. It did this in a time when relations between Israel and the Arab world were frozen. This made Nathan’s venture both bold and dangerous to some. It also forever sealed him in the minds of all Israelis as a quixotic dreamer on behalf of peace.  But to those on the political right, he was a meddlesome troublemaker and publicity seeker.

Nathan also worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Guatemala. In the 1980s, he met Yasser Arafat when contacts with the PLO were still illegal. In 1991, he went on a 40 day fast in protest of such laws.  The same year he was prosecuted and sentenced to 18 months in prison for his trouble.

Yediot Achronot reports that Nathan was born in Iran and grew up in India. As an ethnic outsider in Ashkenazi dominated Israel, that might explain why his ideas were so outside the social consensus.

In later years, he was felled by several strokes which left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. Before he lost the power of speech he spoke bitterly in an interview of the cost he had paid for his devotion to peace:

Those who put me in jail wasted my life. I could have done much more for peace.

This is precisely the reason I have covered Jeff Halper’s legal predicament so intensively.  I want to do my part to ensure that yet another peace activist doesn’t have to face the opprobrium that Nathan suffered, only to become a prophet in retrospect.  Let’s honor our dreamers and heroes, not imprison them.

Just as Nathan flew his small plane to an enemy land to broach the subject of peace with Israel’s sworn enemy, so too Halper and the Free Gaza Movement activists have boldly penetrated Israel’s siege in an attempt to break through the barriers of Occupation Israel has imposed.  And just as Nathan’s vision was redeemed with the Camp David Accords signed in 1979, so too someday Israel will achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbors.  People like Nathan and Halper make such miracles possible.

Haaretz reports this moving testament to Nathan’s energy and vision:

When asked what he would want written on the stone, he replied “Nisiti” - (”I tried)”

Nathan’s website provides a more comprehensive view of his life and achievements.  This is a true Israeli original who deserves to be celebrated.  If there was an Israeli Hall of Fame, he should be in it.

Jeff Halper flashes 'v' for victory during court arraignment (Tsafrir Abayov)

Jeff Halper was released from an Israeli jail today after being arraigned for his efforts to break the Gaza siege through the Free Gaza Movement recent journey.  Ynetnews reports:

Professor Jeff Halper, the only Israeli citizen [ed., this is inaccurate] to participate in a sea-borne attempt to sail into Gaza on Saturday, was released on Wednesday after being detained by police on Tuesday.

Minnesota-born Halper, an Anthropology lecturer from Ben Gurion University…was arrested after he passed through the Erez crossing back into Israel, since he had violated a military order prohibiting Jewish civilians from entering Gaza that was legislated pursuant to the Disengagement in 2005. Police originally thought to release Halper conditionally following preliminary questioning, but apparently decided to keep him in lock-up overnight.

There were two potential charges considered against Halper: As stated, his presence in Gaza violates a military order that delineates the region as a military-only zone. Additionally, he was considered a public hazard, since his presence in Gaza would have made him a prime target for kidnapping, which could have had massive negative repercussions on the state and its citizens.

This second justification is laughable as it places Halper in the same category as kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit who WAS kidnapped. But Halper certainly would not have been kidnapped since he was considered a hero by all Gazans. Again, this is a transparent and rather petty attempt to remind the world that Gazans are lawless, violent thugs who would kidnap ANY Israeli they could get their hands on–even someone considered a hero by the native population. Patently absurd. But again, I guess you can’t blame the Israeli police for trying to pass this off as a legitimate argument.

What is perhaps most interesting in this story is the following which indicates a decided split in the thinking between the local police and the attorney general’s office:

Police met Wednesday morning with Halper’s lawyers, as well as with representatives from the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry, to discuss his status. Despite wanting to file an indictment against Halper, the discussions, and in particular a consultation with the Attorney-General’s Office, motivated police to release him conditionally.

It is important for the peace community to exploit this difference of opinion in government circles and lobby for a sensible approach to Halper’s case. Israel will gain nothing by criminalizing a legitimate act of civil disobedience. In fact, if we organize on Jeff’s behalf we can make it be known that following a hardline against him will in fact cost Israel in goodwill.

So far, the foreign ministry’s better judgment has prevailed in allowing the FGM boats to reach Gaza without intervention. It would be a shame if such moderation were spoiled by Israeli overreaction to Halper’s alleged violation.

Here the report notes the local police’s determination to punish Halper despite the attorney general’s effort to deescalate the situation:

The head of the Sderot Police Station said that, despite the Attorney-General’s advisory opinion, it intends to file an indictment against Halper for his actions.

We also need to pressure the U.S. media to do a better job of covering this story than they did with the earlier FGM voyage. So far, reader Ira Glunts informs me that the Washington Post has run a short item on Jeff’s arrest. I hope this is the first of many such stories.

Here is Jeff’s statement to the press:

Halper said that he pleased about his release. He referred to his illegal action as part of a “historic moment, because we succeeded in breaching psychological barriers and this shows that it’s possible to make a connection between the two peoples without the interference of governments and shows that there is a partner on the other side.”

“Israel implements a policy of holding the rope at both ends. Allegedly, the state isn’t occupying Gaza but it is in charge of the entrances into Gaza, such that it is actually operating in Gaza,” he added.

If this statement by Jeff’s lawyer is a verbatim quotation, then he has made a major, and very basic mistake in representing his client:

…One of the professor’s lawyer, Yaron Gat, said that Halper had not met with any individuals hostile to Israel, nor had he cooperated with terrorists, but rather merely wanted to promote human rights in by bringing humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

“We are pleased that the attorney general and other government entities understood that this was a purely civil action that, while illegal, was only meant to promote human rights, and that they decided accordingly,” Gat said.

As an Israeli human rights lawyer told me, you NEVER admit that your client has done anything illegal, even if he has (and I think its entirely arguable that Halper has done anything illegal here). Unfortunately, the lawyer may’ve foreclosed a valuable argument in his defense. Again, there are a number of errors in this article and I can only hope the reporter got this wrong as well.

Here are some ways you can do something concrete to protest Jeff’s detention:

Minister of Interior Meir Shitreet

Phones +972 2 640 8410
+972 2 670 1411
Fax +972 2 670 1628

=======

Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni

Phone: +972 2 530 3111
Fax: +972 2 530 3367

==================

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak

Phone: +972 3 569 2010
Fax +972 3 691 6940

==============

Attorney General Menahem Mazuz

Tel: +97226708511
Fax: +972 2 6285438

Halper will hold a press conference tomorrow (August 28th) at 4.00 p.m. at the American Colony’s Pasha Room. If any reader can come up with phone numbers and e mail addresses for the U.S. embassy in Israel and State Department, I’ll add those as well since Jeff is a U.S. citizen.

Word just in from Israeli peace activist, Dorothy Naor: Israeli authorities have arrested and arraigned Jeff Halper, a leader of the Free Gaza Movement journey which broke the Israeli blockade of Gaza.  He was in the midst of the court hearing as Dorothy wrote her e mail two hours ago.  I will update you when I hear more.  This clearly ratchets up the pressure a notch against both Halper and the FGM.

As reader Fiddler pointed out, Halper is the only Israeli Jew who participated in the voyage.  As such, he holds great symbolic value for the Israeli authorities, who will be eager not only to poke a finger in FGM’s eye, take Jeff down a notch or two, and also remind any like-minded Israeli of what they will face if they try those shenanigans again.

Tzipi Livni’s foreign ministry, which made the decision to allow the boats to reach Gaza, doesn’t want a flood of copy-cat actions in future.  So it behooves her to go after Jeff and make an example of him.  For this reason, it is important for progressive bloggers to organize on Jeff’s behalf.  We must ensure that his arrest and subsequent treatment are covered, to the extent we can, by the media here in the U.S.  The way to begin is by flogging the hell out of this story in the blogs.

Jeff is a U.S. citizen.  Though it’s doubtful the State Department would be willing to do anything on Jeff’s behalf, that doesn’t mean we have to give them a free pass.  I’d urge any interested party to visit the State Department website and contact them, asking for U.S. diplomats in Israel to intercede on Jeff’s behalf.  They may not want to, but we’re paying their salary and at least can contribute our two cents about how they SHOULD be doing their job.

We can also contact the Israeli consulates and embassies in our respective communities.  Call them to express concern on Jeff’s behalf.

He has done nothing wrong.  It is the Israeli siege of Gaza that is not only illegal under international law, but counter-productive to resolving the issues that divide Israel and Hamas.  A military order prohibiting Israelis from visiting Gaza is designed to ensure there is no threat to the Occupation; that Israelis will be shielded from it; that their journalists cannot report on it.  What Jeff has done is a brilliant act of civil disobedience.  One of which Henry David Thoreau would be proud.  We should support him in every way we can.

An earlier Ynetnews report that Halper was released was clearly wrong.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, who is already running as if the next election is at hand, said recently that he dreamed of becoming both prime minister and education minister.  Let it not be said that former spymaster and Barak opponent, Tzipi Livni does not have a sense of humor.  Her reply: I can make half your dream come true.  Barak didn’t need to ask: which half?

Jeff Halper facing earlier detention for protesting an illegal Palestinian home demolition (Virginia Paradinas)

Thanks to reader Ira Glunts, who informs me that Jeff Halper, the only Israeli who joined the Free Gaza Movement voyage, which successfully broke the Israeli blockade of Gaza, has been arrested.  Halper is the founder of the International Committee Against Home Demolitions and a lecturer in anthropology at Ben Gurion University.  Israeli police took him into custody at the Erez crossing on his return. He has been charged with entering Gaza in violation of an IDF order prohibiting Israelis from entering the enclave:

Police on Tuesday detained an Israeli activist who had sailed to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s blockade of the coastal region. They accused Jeff Halper, who also holds United States citizenship, of violating a ban on Israelis entering Gaza.

Halper was among 44 “Free Gaza” activists from 17 nations who sailed in two boats from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip on Saturday in defiance of the blockade. He spent three days in the Gaza Strip before entering Israel through the Erez border crossing, where police detained him.

According to Halper, Israeli forces at the crossing initially told him that if he came with the boat he should return the same way. However, he said, they allowed him to cross into Israel shortly afterward.

“He is being questioned at the police station in Sderot for entering the Gaza Strip in defiance of a military decree banning Israeli citizens from doing so,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

You see, if he was an IDF soldier he could enter and depart at will as long as he was “defending” the Occupation.

I expected that Israel would “take it out” on someone involved with the trip either by detaining the international activists in Gaza or hassling the boat once it set sail for its return journey. Israeli authorities make it a point for those who resist them to “pay” for the few victories they earn against the Occupation. But I didn’t think of the jeopardy which Halper faced as an Israeli citizen.

It should be pointed out that numerous Israelis have violated similar embargoes against visiting Lebanon and Syria. One wonders why visiting Gaza is viewed with so much more alarm.  In fact, one of them is Lisa Goldman, a freelance journalist who devised a journalistic stunt of surreptitiously visiting Lebanon.  She was not prosecuted.  Unfortunately, I doubt she’ll be writing in defense of Halper.  No doubt Israel will attempt to “teach him a lesson” and make an example of Halper to deter any other similarly adventuresome Israelis should they contemplate such troublesomeness in the future.

Halpter’s situation is further complicated by the fact that he is a U.S. AND Israeli citizen.  Do you think our State Department will express an iota of concern for Halper’s welfare?  We’re always terribly concerned by hostile governments which impede our own citizens’ ability to exercise their right to travel.  What about this case?

The expanded Hebrew language version of the Haaretz report also notes that Halper declined to meet with Ismail Haniyeh, as most of the other FGM voyagers did on their arrival in Gaza.  This likely would have opened him to further potential criminal charges.

The article further reveals that senior civilian-political elements in the government imposed their decision to allow the ships to reach Gaza and were opposed by the military, which preferred to prevent them from docking.  Only now, after threatening explicitly to use force against the FGM does the defense establishment swear it never intended to use “hostile action” to subdue the boats.

We should monitor this situation closely and be prepared to make a hue and cry if he is not released shortly and to ensure he does not face further charges for his brave actions.

Note: this post contains some material excerpted from a post written yesterday.

Bill Kristol, the doyen of neocon chatterati, has given his imprimataur to a McCain-Lieberman ticket in a column in today’s N.Y. Times:

…McCain…could decide that Obama’s conventional pick of Biden allows him to seize the moment by making a bold choice. He could select the person he would really like to have by his side in the White House — but whose selection would cause palpitations among many of his staffers and supporters: the independent Democratic senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman could hold his own against Biden in a debate. He would reinforce McCain’s overall message of foreign policy experience and hawkishness. He’s a strong and disciplined candidate.

But he is pro-abortion rights, and having been a Democrat all his life, he has a moderately liberal voting record on lots of issues.

“Bold choice?”  Perhaps bold in the context of the conservative Republican voters McCain needs to carry in November who think of a Democrat as a cross between Count Dracula and Judas.  But among the general election cohort, Joe Lieberman is about as bold a choice as that other Joe–Biden.  One could even paraphrase Rambam’s epitaph (l’havdil): from Joe to Joe there is none like Joe.

Kristol seems to think that Lieberman will carry independent voters and even Hillary supporters:

Obama and Biden will try to frame the presidential race as a normal Democratic-Republican choice. If they can do that, they should win. That would be far more difficult against a McCain-Lieberman ticket. The charge that McCain would merely mean a third Bush term would also tend to fall flat. And an unorthodox “country first” Lieberman selection would reinforce what has been attractive about McCain, and what has allowed him to run ahead of — though not yet enough ahead of — the generic Republican ballot.

A Lieberman pick should help with ticket splitters…

And Hillary supporters could protest Obama’s glass ceiling by voting for John McCain and the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee.

Actually, were he to run again in Connecticut for senate he wouldn’t even win there.  How is he supposed to help elsewhere?  Lieberman is damaged goods, not just for traditional Democrats but for most centrist Americans.  Maybe he’d attract the votes of those who support the Iraq war, but McCain already has the 100-year-war cohort locked up.  And the notion that Hillary supporters, drawn to her as a pioneering woman candidate, would turn to an old, white, male Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum to redeem Hillary’s values is little short of preposterous.

But the most troubling aspect of choosing Lieberman is the recent news reported by Justin Vogt in The National that Lieberman, at last month’s Christians United for Israel gala, tacitly urged Israel to attack Iran. Considering Kristol’s column, it becomes even more urgent that Lieberman’s comments be more widely reported:

Though careful to say he hoped war with Iran could be avoided, the senator ended his address with a Biblically-coded call for military action against the Islamic Republic. According to the Book of Exodus, God was saying to Moses and the Israelites [at the Red Sea], ‘The time for prayer is over. It’s time for Israel to act.’”

…There comes a moment when faith and prayer must be followed by action right here on Earth,” Lieberman concluded. Coming on the heels of his dark warnings about Iran, there was no mistaking the kind of Israeli action Lieberman had in mind.

I think this speech justifies the question: does Lieberman see Israel as a U.S. surrogate? That is, a nation which has none of the strictures preventing it from taking actions Lieberman and the U.S. wish they could take.  This raises another legitimate question: if McCain wins the presidency, will Israel will receive a green light to attack Iran?  This is an issue the American people should know about in considering which candidate they vote for in November.  If McCain wins, you can expect a nudge-nudge, wink-wink arrangement between his Administration and Israeli generals who’re fully prepared to teach Iran a lesson–at least in their minds.  Whether they can pull it off is something about which even Israeli specialists and military analysts have raised serious doubt.

Do Americans really want a potential vice-president who communicates to Israel that it would be acceptable to attack Iran, and does so at a convention of religious whack jobs and wingnuts (read Vogt’s story if you don’t believe me)?  And lest anyone argue that Lieberman hasn’t been picked for this post yet, I’d reply that Lieberman clearly has McCain’s ear and even if he isn’t vice-president, he will be a very close advisor (secretary of state or defense?) over the next four or, God help us, eight years should the Republican candidate win.