Gideon Levy pushes back on Israeli claims regarding the Madleen

[Goddessartist]

https://youtube.com/shorts/Zz8aKyCq9eQ?si=0Ks2NiPUDHjoKYcG

"Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy pushed back against claims that Israel’s hostilities against the Madleen aid ship bound for Gaza were due to the alleged danger posed by activists onboard, who Israel accused of being “antisemites” and “Hamas sympathisers”.

The Haaretz columnist responded by saying Israel is only “scared” of revealing Gaza’s destruction, and it is the “first war” in which journalists have not been allowed to enter a conflict zone for 20 months."

[Beastly Boy]

1. Ummm... how many journalists were in th selfie flotilla?

And what was their plan to deliver food in a war zone?

As far as I know, they didn't even arrange for the "symbolic" amount of food to be taken off the ship.

[Gaugamela]

2. There is one journalist among the crew of the Madleen. It's not a ship it's a 60' sailing yacht. It's

not hard to unload a boat as long as you don’t have the military of an ethno-religious supremacist authoritarian apartheid state shooting at you.

[Beastly Boy]

4. An Al Jazeera journalist. Very unbiased choice, right?

It doesn't matter what the size of the boat is. It's the cargo. "Symbolic" amounts of aid. Probably enough for twelve bacpacks. Make it eleven - the Al Jazeera journalist would have his hands full with professional equipment. Presumably.

Such symbolic amount calls for symbolic effort to unload it. But that is not the problem.

What did they intend to do with their symbolism after they unloaded it? Symbolically feed 12 Hamas operatives? Because they wouldn't get far in Gaza without Hamas permission.

[Gaugamela]

6. What was Gandhi going to do with the paltry amount of salt he got from the sea? Do you seriously

not understand how symbolic protests work?

[Beastly Boy]

7. Oh no, please, not Gandhi!

Gandhi never claimed he was kidnapped. He never claimed that children will die if he didn't deliver salt to them.

I know how symbolic protest works. It is meant to gain publicity. Were the publicity Gandhi sought to center on himself, he would have been the first to condemn it, not promote it.

I have no clue how symbolic food helps starving children, especially when everybody knows they will not see it, not even the symbolism in it.

[Gaugamela]

8. LOL. It's hard work clutching at straws to defend an ethno-religious supremacist

authoritarian apartheid state, isn’t it?

[AloeVera]

9. It's a full-time job. Takes a lot of imagination too.

The work never ends...

Seriously though, you'd think maybe the sight of starving kids might give at least a small pause...but you'd be wrong.

[Beastly Boy]

11. I wouldn't know.

You wouldn't expect me to get defensive over every meaningless word salad I come across, would you?

[AloeVera]

12. The amount of aid was a lot more than Gazans got for at least 200 days of the "war".

When they got nothing.

About a truckload of aid present on the boat - estimated by Israeli sources - would be enough to feed how many children? Israel would let in maybe 100 trucks a day for much of the war. So by Israel's own low standards of not-quite-starvation, at a population of 2.1 million, Greta's load would be enough to feed around 21,000 people for a day. Save babies from starvation. That is not symbolic, it is real - to those people, if not for others. At least for a few days.

Which is why it is imperative that Israel immediately allow in the 6,000 - six THOUSAND - lorry loads of aid from the UN and partners waiting to be let in at the border. Enough to feed the population for 2 months!

That is where the real narrative lies, and what Greta and the others want to bring to light.

But some of course would rather spend their time parroting the IDF - "selfie-yacht!" and dreaming up imaginary elephant tales to distract from the fact that the aid is readily available, lives could be saved and Israel is entirely at fault for deliberately starving babies.

[Beastly Boy]

13. They got none of it! Not even "symbolically".

That's way less than the terrorists managed to steal from Gazans in the last 200 days.

[AloeVera]

14. You mean Israel lied? That just shocks me.

No, not really.

Guess you don't realize Israel said the aid would be delivered to Gaza? I have my doubts about that though.

If you do know, you are correct to have your doubts about the IDF's word, though I have to say it is uncharacteristic.

For once we can agree and happily close this discussion on that note.

[Goddessartist]

3. Watch the video n/t

[Beastly Boy]

5. I did. n/t

[AloeVera]

10. He is right. It is what we don't know that worries Israel.

That the full extent of the crimes, atrocities, tragedies and catastrophe as he put it would shock even Israelis supporting the war, let alone the rest of us.

It is why the humanitarian agencies have been thwarted, locked out and demonized. Why UNRWA was destroyed. Why over 200 local journalists have been killed (not because they are "all Hamas" ). Why anyone with an active social media account chronicling the atrocities is targeted for murder.

I had to laugh at that "journalist". With a straight face and seemingly sincere, he sputtered out that of course Israel had to act - Greta is an anti-semite!! Of course she is, dear. There, there...

This is what passes for journalism in Israel. No wonder Israel doesn't allow real, international journalists into Gaza.