Neubarth
At the Ballpark July 30th
Israel has no authority to order them to do anything.
OK, so they don't have "authority" according to some governments, doesn't change the fact that they gave themselves the authority and have actively been enforcing it on those waters for several years. Its never wise to cross the "men with guns" protecting a border, whether or not you believe they have legal "authority" to do so is irrelevant, especially if no one is willing to disarm them.
None of you idiots has yet to answer the simple question yet. What do you expect to happen when you violate a line being protected with men with guns?
I expect the self proclaimed powers that be to follow the law.
Israel violated the law and now is getting the flack. Hopefully they will be getting jail time.
They were not in violation of international law. They have a right of self defense when boarding a vessel for inspection. When the United States was founded, all of our revenue boats used for inspecting ships at harbor had guns on them for self protection as cargo carrying ships frequently figured that they could kill the inspectors and then drop off their cargo without paying import taxes. If fired upon first, they could sink the damn ship. Such is the rule of the Ocean.
What maritime law did they break? The entire episode was videotaped, or so my son in the IDF tells me. Now, if they have videotape showing that the inspectors were fired upon, by the peaceful boats, international law stands behind the Israelis. Personally I think the IDF should have sunk all of the ships and let everybody drown. They deserve to die.