3 Facts you need to know about the "Israeli" attack on Peace Activists on the Gaza Flotilla

Our main media organizations have willingly allowed "Israeli" spokespeople to fill the airwaves with misinformation. Let's reiterate a few simple facts:

It is quite astounding that "Israel" has been able to create over the past 12 hours a news blackout, just as it did with its attack on Gaza 18 months ago, into which our main media organizations have willingly allowed "Israeli" spokespeople to step in unchallenged.

How many civilians were killed in "Israel's" dawn attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla of aid? We still don't know. How many wounded? Your guess is as good as mine. Were the aid activists armed with guns? Yes, says "Israel". Were they in cahoots with al-Qaeda and Hamas? Certainly, says "Israel". Did the soldiers act reasonably? Of course, they faced a lynch, says "Israel".

If we needed any evidence of the degree to which Western TV journalists are simply stenographers to power, the BBC, CNN and others are amply proving it. Mark Regev, "Israel's" propagandist-in-chief, has the airwaves largely to himself.

The passengers on the ships, meanwhile, have been kidnapped by "Israel" and are unable to provide an alternative version of events. We can guess they will remain in enforced silence until "Israel" is sure it has set the news agenda.

So before we get swamped by "Israeli" hasbara let's reiterate a few simple facts:

* Israeli soldiers invaded these ships in international waters, breaking international law, and, in killing civilians, committed a war crime. The counter-claim by Israeli commanders that their soldiers responded to an imminent "lynch" by civilians should be dismissed with the loud contempt it deserves.

* The "Israeli" government approved the boarding of these aid ships by an elite unit of commandoes. They were armed with automatic weapons to pacify the civilians onboard, but not with crowd dispersal equipment in case of resistance. Whatever the circumstances of the confrontation, "Israel" must be held responsible for sending in soldiers and recklessly endangering the lives of all the civilians onboard, including a baby.

* "Israel" has no right to control Gaza's sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law "Israel" is responsible for the welfare of the Strip's inhabitants. Given that the blockade has put Palestinians there on a starvation diet for the past four years, "Israel" should long ago have been in the dock for committing a crime against humanity.

"Israel" chose to direct its deadly assault not only at Palestinians under occupation but at the international community itself.

Will our leaders finally be moved to act?