Cynthia McKinney is a certifiable nut-case who believes there are bodies of missing people from hurricane Katrina buried by the government to cover up the fact they blew up the dams. Yeah, she’s a real treat. She was attempting to give aide to America’s enemy, Hamas, and that is known as treason. The boat she was on has been trying to get over there to help the Palestinians for the last year. It has been sent back 16 times, so she knew what would happen. This woman is from my hometown, we all know how crazy she is, and all she wants is media attention. Please do not validate anything she does, or support her actions , in any way.

McKinney was on a boat with 11 other nations—(are the other nations “crazy” too?)—& was surrounded by 6 Israeli boats & rammed by them 3 times while in international waters. This is against the law. A CNN reporter was on board & verified that is what happened. The captain of the boat has 25 yrs experience & had been to Gaza before. Its not reported here correctly. 10,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv against Israel’s attack on Palestinians, & groups have formed in Israel to try & stop the attack—saying it does no good & does not lead to peace. Israel did deploy from Gaza 3 yrs ago, as per Diana, but remained in control of its borders, so in effect, held Gaza under its thumb, especially financially. Then the year long blockade of food & fuel etc., has turned Gaza into an open air prison with 1.5 million people trapped inside. That’s why the UN called it a humanitarian crisis. Hamas knows home made rockets lobbed over onto Israel are only symbolic—because they are entirely outmatched militarily—but they feel they must do it to show defiance of Israel’s occupation—to show their spirit of resistance to oppression. That’s why Palestinians like & approve of Hamas, because they are defiant to their oppressors & this keeps Palestinian spirits up. When you consider they actually have very little to no chance of stopping Israel’s occupation—it must be very important to keep the people’s spirit up so they do not despair. Its actually very brave, considering Israel’s overpowering might & its brutal & disproportionate “retaliation”. Israel insists they are bombing “Hamas” targets inside the 360 sq km Gaza Strip, to “take out terrorrists”. They say civilians suffer because Hamas hides among them. Actually, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel because this is a very small & densely populated area, with 50% children.. Israel is the 4th largest military force in the world & they have nukes also—the US enabled them & backs them up. There are 2 completely different versions of what is happening in Gaza. In the Israeli & North American version, Hamas—the “Islamic terrorists” backed by Iran—have fired deadly rockets in an unprovoked attack on innocent Israel with the intent of destroying the Jewish state. North American politicians & the media say, “Israel has the right to defend itself”. And Israel insists it has the right to drop hundreds of tons of bombs. This cartoon-like version of events omits a great deal of background & particulars. While firing rockets at civilians is a crime—so too is the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which is an egregious violation of international law & the Geneva Conventions. According to the UN, most of Gaza’s 1.5 million refugees subsist near the edge of hunger. 70% of Palestinian children in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition & psychological trauma. Medical facilities are critically short of drs, nurses, equipment, drugs. Gaza has literally become a human garbage dump for all the Arabs Israel does not want. In the past, Palestinians resorted to throwing rocks at Israel—now they lob these homemade rockets—it’s a vast outdoor prison camp filled to the brim with desperate people who have no chance of getting free. It’s actually more like a prison riot. When the so-called truce ended on Dec 19th, Israeli politicians were preparing for the national elections on Feb 19th. Israeli politics are playing a key role in this crisis. Barak, leader of the Labour Party, & Livni, leader of the Kadima Party, are both trying to prove themselves tougher than Netanyahu’s hardline Likund party—& one another. Israel’s elections are only 6 wks away & Likud was leading until the air raids on Gaza began. Now Kadima & Labour are up in the polls. The heavy attacks on Gaza are also designed to intimidate Israel’s Arab neighbors, & make up for Israel’s humiliating 2006 defeat in Lebanon, which still haunts the country’s politicians & generals. By bombing Gaza, Israel has effectively presented Obama, the incoming US Administration, with an irreversible situation. They’ve checkmated the newest player in the Great Middle East Game—Obama—before he could even take a seat at the table: The Israeli offensive into Gaza will likely short-circuit any plans Obama might have had to press Israel into withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders & sharing Jerusalem. This has pleased Israel’s supporters in North America who have been cheering the war in Gaza & have been backing away from their earlier tentative support for a land-for-peace deal. Israel’s successes in having Western media portray the Gaza offensive as an “anti-terrorist” operation will also diminish hopes of peace talks any time soon. During the US elections, Obama bowed to the Israel lobby, & as he forms his cabinet, his Middle East team looks like it may be heavy with friends of Israel’s Labour Party. Obama keeps saying he must remain silent because there’s only one president at a time, but his staff appear happy to avoid having to make a statement about Gaza that would antagonize Israel’s American supporters. Obama will take office facing a Middle East up in arms over Gaza & the entire Muslim world blaming the US for the carnage in Gaza. Unless he moves quickly to distance himself from the policies of the Bush Adm., he will soon find himself facing the same problems & anger as the Bush White House. Israel’s Gaza offensive is also likely to torpedo the current Saudi-sponsored peace plan, which had been backed by all members of the Arab League. The plan had called for Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders & share Jerusalem in exchange for full recognition & normalized relations with the Muslim world. Arab governments will now be unable to sell the deal as they face a storm of criticism from their own people over their powerlessness to help the Palestinians of Gaza. Israel’s security establishment is committed to preventing the creation of a viable Palestinian state, & refuses to negotiate with Hamas, the democratically elected government of Gaza. Unable to kill all of Hamas’ men, Israel is slowly destroying Gaza’a infrastructure around them, as it did to Yassir Arafat’s PLO. Israel is confident that its mighty information machine will allow it to weather the storm of worldwide outrage over its Biblical punishment of Gaza. The US media has focused on the rockets being fired from Gaza on Israel. Though the torment of Gaza is seen across the horrified Muslim world as a modern version of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising by Jews against the Nazis during WWII, Western governments still appear bent on taking no action. Though Israel’s use of American weapons against Gaza violates the US Arms & Export Control & Foreign Assistance Acts, the docile US Congress will remain mute. Israel’s assault on Gaza was clearly timed for the interim between American administrations & the year-end holidays, a well used Israeli tactic. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel as long as Israel refuses to recognize Hamas & the rights of millions of homeless Palestinian refugees. Israel’s hopes that it can bomb Gazans into rejecting Hamas are as ill-conceived as its failed attempt in 2006 to blast Lebanon into rejecting Hezbollah. The Fatah regime on the West Bank installed by the US & Israel after Arafat’s suspicious death will be further discredited, leaving the militants of Hamas as the sole authentic voice of Palestinian nationalism. Hamas, the militant but still democratically elected government of Gaza, is even less likely to compromise. The Muslim world is in a rage. The tragedy of Palestine will thus continue to poison US relations with the Muslim world. Those Americans who still do not understand why their nation was attacked on 9/11 need only look to Gaza, for which the US is now being blamed as much as Israel. Unless Israel can make 5 to 7 million Palestinians disappear, it must find some way to coexist with them. Israeli leaders on the right & left continue to avoid facing this fact. The brutal collective punishment inflicted on Gaza will likely strengthen Hamas & reverse any hopes of a Middle East peace in the coming years. I hope Wowowow does not delete this post too—like they did my other posts in which I revealed the “mighty information machine”. Its not a “conspiracy”—its out in the open, in plain site. I was called “anti-semite” & “hateful” here in an attempt to silence me & intimidate me & discredit me, but the Truth is on MY side. The truth will out. I’m telling you here—as others did at the start of this thread—this subject is at the core of world problems & is very important to understand—beyond the “cartoon-like” version of it you get from the “mighty information machine” in North America. It’s important to me to let people know & encourage them to LOOK IT UP THEMSELVES from both sides, not just one side—because until we pressure our govt to stop giving them aide & our approval & back up—we’ll never stop this hell of ongoing war & useless destruction of peoples’ lives. It must stop—what goes around comes around—as we found out on 9/11. I don’t want that to happen again.. If we are not aware of what is going on—-as I’ve said on here many a time—our media does not give us what we need to know—we can’t make good decisions. I got this from a Canadian journalist at www.anti-war.com Since Wowowow has decided its ok to delete posts that in my opinion, were fine (despite what some on here are claiming, which is an easy attack on me—-since they’re gone) & that I worked hard on that had facts & names—while purposely allowing other posters to call me “anti-semite” & “hateful” for telling the truth—showed me not to waste my time here anymore. I just wanted to set the record straight. I don’t hate Jews—I hate what some of them have done & what they’re still doing & I believe its very important that people know what’s really happening & that you can’t get the whole story from US mainstream media—but need to go to reliable progressive sites. I understand why some people defend Israel’s actions so tenaciously & against every fact & all logic & reasoning—& try to intimidate others into silence—but it doesn’t help the world & doesn’t make it right—more people need to stand up to them. .

To the Wowowow Staff, I would like to convey my thanks for the deletion of those posts, that were deleted due to obvious anti semitic content. I take no issue with anyone expressing their opinions regarding the Israeli and Gaza conflict, like many have done here, without resorting to hateful propoganda and the attempts to demonize a people as a whole. I would also like to clarify that while I did not appreciate the underlying messages of the deleted posts, I do not deny nor dispute the original author of the deleted posts, did bring up issues that should concern everyone, that mostly being that humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinian people, and as long as it is done in a manner that would be able to offer protection to those delivering that aid. I have never denied nor disputed the fact that the Palestinians are a people experiencing great suffering. However I continue to maintain my opinion that much of their suffering is brought upon themselves by electing a known terrorist organization and supporting terror by allowing Hamas to use civillian homes and communities in which to hide and fire rockets from, and using Palestinian civillians as human shields. While no war is ideal, Israel can not sit idly by while Hamas fires rockets at her citizens, most of which goes unsaid in the mainstream media. Asking for the war to be perportional is unrealistic when the enemies of Israel, hide amongst the Palestinian population. Hamas made the choice to fire a barrage of rockets into Israel, forcing Israel to retaliate. Again I would like to thank you for having the courage and conviction to delete the posts that would only serve to perpretrate anti semitic views. Respectfully, Catherine Kaiman