If the Israelis approached civilian craft in international waters with the intention to – and in fact did – board, take control of and then tow, or with armed force cause, those craft to land in an Israeli port, isn’t that piracy? What is the difference really between the the Israelis and the Somali pirates? [...despite the claim by Mark Regev, the egregious Israeli spokesperson that interception on the high seas with warning is allowed in some convention or other ...]

There are,however, these Articles from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea:

Article 88
Reservation of the high seas for peaceful purposes
The high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes.

Article 89
Invalidity of claims of sovereignty over the high seas
No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its
sovereignty.

Article 90
Right of navigation
Every State, whether coastal or land-locked, has the right to sail ships flying its flag on the high seas.

Article 110
Right of visit
1. Except where acts of interference derive from powers conferred by treaty, a warship which encounters on the high seas a foreign ship, other than
a ship entitled to complete immunity in accordance with articles 95 and 96, is not justified in boarding it unless there is reasonable ground for suspecting
that:
(a) the ship is engaged in piracy;
(b) the ship is engaged in the slave trade;
(c) the ship is engaged in unauthorized broadcasting and the flag State of the warship has jurisdiction under article 109;
(d) the ship is without nationality; or
(e) though flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag, the ship is, in reality, of the same nationality as the warship.

As far as one knows there is no suggestion that the flotilla was suspected of piracy, slavery, unauthorised broadcasting, or having no or bogus nationality.

There is just one thing you need to know in order to understand Israeli politics (not judaism, nor ordinary Israelis, mind):

NEVER AGAIN

If you understand that you understand the Wall, this recent piracy, and even Mark (ptooey ptooey) Regev, possibly Australia’s most embarrassing export. They will do and say ANYTHING – lie, cheat, kill, stab friends in the back – whatever it takes to maintain their existence so that NEVER AGAIN will they be the victims. You can understand this for obvious historical reasons. Of course, the problem is that this attitude/policy makes them their own victims, cages and imprisons them, and shrouds them in the fog of their own delusion and blindness. The paradox is that a policy that is all about NOT being a victim, because it is predicated on the reaction to victimhood actually makes the policy all about being a victim – in the present and into the future.

Anyway, it’s fascinating to watch them self-destructing, as they are – making increasingly appalling choices and taking increasingly hysterical actions, at the same time as we can’t take our eyes off the carcrash Labor Party self-destructing in Oz, marching with the same deliberate, inexorable, arrogance to its defeat, consciously and knowingly making one idiotic decision after another stupid tactical error after another breathtakingly moronic blunder, and apparently with the same slogan – “never again”.

[tags]Israel, Gaza, blockade, piracy, United Nations, Law of the Sea, politics, international politics, Australian politics, Australian political values, Labor Party, defeat[/tags]