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30 August 2010 By Kourosh Ziabari
As the racist regime of Israel moves toward greater
international isolation due to its aggressive,
belligerent policies, Iran receives wider support from
the world's nations for its uncompromising resistance
against the bullying superpowers and annulling their
mischievous plots. The world is witness to the growth
of Iran's popularity while hatred and disgust against
Israel builds up progressively. Iran is reaching out
to the hearts and souls around the world while Israel
ignites denunciation and deprecation in the four
corners of the globe.
Since Israel raided the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May
31, the flimsy existence of Tel Aviv began to splinter
as the world nations collectively and categorically
reacted to the atrocious mass killing of 9 peace
activists in the international waters by the Israel
Defense Forces.
Israel's unlawful, brutal killing of the unarmed
civilians aboard the Freedom Flotilla sparked such a
remarkable international condemnation that even the
most stalwart allies of Tel Aviv in the EU zone
recalled their ambassadors from Israel and called for
a thorough, detailed investigation of the incident
which they described as offensive and violent. The
international condemnations were so extensive and
intensive that even the most pessimistic Israeli
politicians couldn't envisage. Four countries
downgraded their diplomatic relations with Israel – in
addition to the four countries that had cut their
diplomatic ties with Israel during the 22-day Gaza war
of 2008-2009, Twelve Latin American countries
condemned the Israeli actions, Twenty-one European
countries protested Israel and Twelve non-Arab Asian
countries officially disapproved Tel Aviv.
The precursor of global protests to Israel was Turkey
which had lost 9 of its citizens in the raid. In an
insightful, thought-provoking and appreciable
statement before his country's parliament, the Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly
questioned Israel's impunity from the international
laws and called for a decisive end to the illegal
actions of this regime: "It is no longer possible to
cover up or ignore Israel's lawlessness. The
international community must from now on say 'enough
is enough'. Dry statements of condemnation are not
enough ... There should be results."
At the beginning and when the first news was released,
the extent of Israel's violence had not become clear
to the public opinion; however, as the international
peace activists began retelling the stories of their
ordeal upon being deported by Tel Aviv to their
respective countries, the world realized that a great
calamity had taken place.
Upon his extradition to Istanbul, the Irish historian
and activist Dr. Fintan Lane told the media about his
terrible experience on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which
was unjustifiably attacked by the Israeli commandos on
May 31: "when they boarded our boat, we resisted
entirely peacefully. I sat on the floor and tried to
reason with them, but the Israeli commandos physically
attacked us. Fiachra (one of the Irish passengers
aboard the flotilla) was dragged around the ground and
I had a gun pointed in my face by a screaming
commando. His mania was so intense that I genuinely
feared for my life. Others received beatings."
The American peace activist and anti-imperialist
speaker Kenneth O'Keefe was another passenger on board
the Gaza aid convoy. He witnessed the death of two of
his Turkish colleagues in person and was brutally
harassed, tortured by the Israeli forces: "while in
Israeli custody I, along with everyone else was
subjected to endless abuse and flagrant acts of
disrespect. Women and elderly were physically and
mentally assaulted… in stress positions while hand
cuffed to the point of losing circulation of blood in
our hands. We were lied to incessantly, in fact I am
awed at the routineness and comfort in their ability
to lie, it is remarkable really. We were abused in
just about every way imaginable and I myself was
beaten and choked to the point of blacking out… and I
was beaten again while in my cell."
Hassan Ghani, the 25-year-old Scottish journalist and
media correspondent of the Press TV was also among the
flotilla travelers. He was ruthlessly punished by the
Israeli commandos in what he described as the "brutal
Israeli assault" on the flotilla: "we didn't expect a
ship with 32 different nationalities on board, with
aid from 50 different countries on board, would be
attacked in such a brutal manner… They began by
throwing stun grenades on to the deck of the ship when
people were in the middle of morning prayers. Then
they began using rubber bullets, they tried to come
aboard the ship from the side. People repelled the
commandos with water cannons they had set up on the
side of the ship. Then the Israelis used helicopters
to drop people onto roof and there was scuffles on the
roof. The Israeli solders had already opened fire on
the ship, so people were grabbing anything they could
to stop the attack in international waters."
Another painful account of the
flotilla raid was retold by the prominent Swedish
author Henning Mankell who described the Israeli
actions as "committing murder": "they got very
aggressive and ordered us to come down. There was one
older man who was a little slow, so the Israelis
attacked him with an electric stun gun. He was in a
lot of pain. So was another passenger who was covered
in paint after being hit with a paint ball missile.
The commandos searched the ship thoroughly and emerged
waving a razor and a metal-box cutting tool, which
they claimed were "weapons" intended to be used
against them. All the passengers were then herded into
a group, with armed guards standing watch as the ship
was taken to Israel When we got off... we were made to
walk down a corridor of armed commandos who filmed all
of us with cameras. They stole my mobile phone, my
money, my clothes and my credit cards." Mankell said
that he was held in a cell for 24 hours along with a
Swedish Member of Parliament and then deported even
"without his socks".
All of these accounts attest to the
fact that Israel is being reprimanded by people from
the four corners of the world who object to the
inhuman policies and actions of Tel Aviv regardless of
the nationality they belong to and the political
stance they champion.
Today, it's known to everyone that
Israel is a political entity which the United States
supports in order to maintain its interests in the
Middle East and subject the region's nations. In the
other words, Israel plays the role of America's
permanent representative in the Middle East and is
entitled to resort to every possible mean to
intimidate and bring under control the independent
nations in the region. The fact is that Israel is a
fragile and unstable political regime and every day of
its shaky survival is hinged on the exertion of force
and violating the rights of other nations. As the
Iranian journalist Mohieddin Sajedi once noted, Israel
cannot live without creating troubles. From mass
killing to occupation, from assassination to the
construction of illegal settlements, Israel continues
to exist with illegal actions and this is what keeps
them alive.
The main adversary of Israel is Iran.
Israel has repeatedly warned Iran against the use of
force and launch of a military strike on its nuclear
facilities. The reason is clear. Iran is turning into
an inspiring model for the independent nations around
the world. Iran's 30-year-long resistance against
imperialism and its courageous confrontation with the
bullying superpowers has made it an example of
victorious struggle with political arrogance and many
independent nations on the face of world see Iran on
the frontline of battle with the United States and its
colonies such as Israel.
Iran is winning international
popularity because it has demonstrated the
effectiveness of self-sufficiency in nationalizing the
nuclear energy. While Israel possesses up to 200
nuclear warheads in flagrant violation of the
international law and Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, Iran has made striking advancements in taking
over the nuclear power and excelling in using it for
peaceful purposes. The fact that Iran has succeeded in
nationalizing the nuclear energy without the
assistance of Western superpowers is indigestible for
Israel which is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons
in the Middle East; that's why it has warned Iran
against a preemptive military strike; however, the
reality is that a 70-million-strong army stands by the
resistance movement of Iran and a coalition of
powerful troops consisted of the independent nations
around the world, stand by Iran against the collapsing
Israel forever.
- Kourosh Ziabari is an
Iranian freelance journalist. He has interviewed
political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky,
member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke,
Australian politician Ian Cohen, member of German
Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former Mexican President
Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council
advisor Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in
Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize laureate in
Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in
biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner
Ernst Zündel, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff,
American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated journalist
Eric Margolis, former assistant of the U.S. Department
of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts,
American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud, former
President of the American Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences Sid Ganis, American international relations
scholar Stephen Zunes, American singer and songwriter
David Rovics, American political scientist and
anthropologist William Beeman, British journalist Andy
Worthington, Australian author and blogger Antony
Loewenstein, Iranian geopolitics expert Pirouz
Mojtahedzadeh, American historian and author Michael
A. Hoffman II and Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon. |