Quiz.

Maybe you came here from Norway, Israel and the jews in order to know what is shown in this picture, but it's not so easy; you'll have to try to find an answer by yourselves. What does this photo suggest you? Please answer in the commentary section.

Double standard.

Now it's time to focus on laSexta Noticias again.

On Friday, June 4, 2010, at the night edition, they reported about the three Spanish activists who were on board the Mavi Marmara, so their witness accounts could be heard again. This was the fourth report by laSexta Noticias that night, preceded by another one about... a simulated boarding performed by the G.A.R. (Grupo de Acción Rápida or Rapid Action Group), an elite unit inside the Civil Guard, a Spanish military corps with police functions (thus comparable with the French National Gendarmerie).

During the report, all kind of dificulties which can be encountered by a civil or military unit during a boarding were cited, such as: the helicopter pilot has to maintain it above the ship in order to make sure that those who are performing the boarding abseil onto the deck of the ship itself and not onto the water; maybe the boarding happens at night, when the visibility is severely reduced; or that the possibility of encountering violent opposition does exist, and in such a case, the officers who are boarding the ship could respond through using their firearms.

So, for laSexta Noticias, a boarding performed by armed officers and the use of their firearms when necessary are licit actions when fighting against E.T.A., a terrorist organization; but when it's about the Tzahal boarding the Mavi Marmara in order to enforce a blockade which is justified due to the military necessities of a country literally at war, the boarding is a wrongful act, as the use of firearms itself, in spite of the fact that the Israeli soldiers encountered a violent opposition during night time by members of the I.H.H., a Turkish organization linked to terrorist activities, according to the Danish Institute for International Studies and the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

One more time has been demonstrated that, for laSexta Noticias, Israel hasn't enjoy presumption of innocence, while it seems they think that the fight against anti-Israeli terrorism is not as legitimate as the fight against E.T.A. (which is, by the way, a pro-Palestinian organization).

Anti-Semitic McCarthyism in Spain.

The Spanish F.E.L.G.T.B. (Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales or State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals) has decided to veto the participation of Israeli homosexuals from Tel Aviv-Yafo in the gay pride parade, which will be held on Saturday, July 3, 2010, in Madrid, Spain's capital. The Israeli homosexuals who want to participate were notified that their presence was suspended due to security concerns, but the reason given here in Spain by the Federation was that Tel Aviv-Yafo's municipal authorities didn't condemn the operation carried out by the Tzahal against the so-called Gaza flotilla last week.

Antonio Póveda, president of the Federation, has stated (translated as accurate as possible, between quotation marks): "We can't allow that in a demonstration held in the defense of human rights, also in the defense of the murdered activists' rights, an institution which doesn't condemn those facts can participate." Póveda has also declared that Israeli associations of homosexuals are allowed to participate in the parade only if they condemn the aforementioned military operation.

A gay pride parade is supposed to defend lesbians', gays', transsexuals' and bisexuals' rights, regardless of other issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the F.E.L.G.T.B. has decided to veto Israeli homosexuals just because they're citizens of the Jewish State, which precisely is in many aspects one of the most tolerant countries on Earth towards homosexuals, and even the most one in the Middle East; but Póveda hasn't told anything about those homosexuals from Arab and muslim countries who are being subjected to persecution and repression, including death penalty.

This case reminds me Norwegian homosexual parlamentarian Anette Trettebergstuen, whose case is available in Norway, Israel and the jews (read here), a Norwegian blog which has also covered the case of the F.E.L.G.T.B.

F.E.L.G.T.B.'s attitudes towards Israeli homosexuals, forcing them to officially accept a determined ideal if they want to exercise their right to held a demonstration in the defense of their rights, also remind me Republican Senator from Wisconsin Joseph Raymond McCarthy, who was in charge of a witch-hunt against suspected communists during the 1940s and 1950s. This witch-hunt included unconstitutional measures such as making the suspects to confess their ideology, to reject communism and to swear they weren't communists, thus forcing them to accept an undesired cause in order to exercise other rights such as being free (to refuse to accept the aforementioned... "proposals" and many others used to be severely punished with imprisonment).

And as done by McCarthy himself in the past, the F.E.L.G.T.B. seems to be exclusively centred on Jews.

David Segarra interacts with El Mundo's readers.

David Segarra is a Spanish journalist who was one of the three Spaniards on board the Mavi Marmara, the ship which was boarded by the Tzahal last week. While writing this, he's interacting with El Mundo's readers through its Internet website. Of course, his intervention consists of accusing Israel and exonerating the activists; he has been answering questions for the last hour (at the moment I'm writing this).

The hypocrisy he's showing is evident. For example, in the question #21, a reader asks him about the violence in Congo, where more than 5,000,000 people have been killed in the last years. The reader writes that activists usually denounce the violence suffered by the Palestinians while ignoring millions of people being slaughtered in other parts of the world. Segarra's answer? All the human beings are equal and they deserve the same attention; but neither Segarra himself nor the activists are leading a humanitarian campaign in favour of the Congolese people.

Segarra's eyewitness account was confronted with this question (#6, translated as accurate as possible, between quotation marks):

"Hello, David. You affirm that the Israelis began to shoot before the boarding and that they killed at least two people from the helicopters. However, autopsies say that all of the deads were killed by 9mm pistol shots at point-blank range. Doesn't this contradict your testimony? Do you have visual proofs which support your version?"

Segarra's answer began with this statements:

"Those who have visual evidencies are they. The facts: 10 deads, 40 wounded, they were journalists and voluntary workers. On the Israeli side, four wounded, none of them being in danger."

Segarra continues his answer through talking about his personal experience, telling, for example, that he and some other individuals were involved in a shooting aimed at them.

The issue here is that the available images show: activists singing anti-Semitic songs; an activist telling how he tried to become a martyr twice and that he is trying it for the third time; Israeli military authorities trying to prevent a violent outcome, being they answered with statements such as "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz"; activists preparing themselves to exercise violence before Israeli soldiers boarded the ship; Israeli soldiers being attacked before they began to shoot; and injured Israeli soldiers.

Of course, all of this, along with Israeli soldiers' accounts, leave every single observer with a reasonable doubt about Israeli soldiers' actions, while demonstrating the violence exercised by the activists.

Regarding the idea of the blockade and the boarding themselves, Segarra sustains they were illegal according to internaional law. Maybe the time has come to clarify that, according to the article 67 of the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea:

"Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:

(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture;".

Segarra denied that Israel allows humanitarian aid to be sent to the Gaza Strip through its border, despite all the visual evidencies showing humanitarian aid being delivered and Gaza Strip's stores and markets plenty of food and clothes.

Segarra also fails to specify the connection between the organization behind the flotilla (I.H.H.) and terrorist organizations (see here, from page 10).

Now the interview is closed. I tried to participate through asking Segarra about the violence which erupted aboard the Mavi Marmara, but I wasn't answered.

Israel's Ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, speaks Spanish better than laSexta's journalists.

During the night between Sunday, May 30, and Monday, May 31, 2010, the so-called Gaza flotilla was raided by Israeli military personnel. Proximately I'll write about the issue here, but now I'll exemplify how Spanish press is capable of distorting reality.

Israel's Ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, was interviewed by El Periódico de Catalunya's journalist Pilar Santos regarding the aforementioned Israeli raid. During the interview, the journalist said: "There have been nine deads." This was Schutz's answer:

"Yes, nine people have died in that act. But 155 died in a terrorist attack in India last week. Who does care? Have you heard something about it? Twenty-three Spaniards have died in the roads last weekend."

Of course, laSexta Noticias' reaction was an article in its official website under this title: "Sí, nueve personas han muerto. ¿A quién le importa?" ("Yes, nine people have died. Who does care?").

Well, it seems that laSexta Noticias' journalists have more problems trying to understand Spanish than an foreign Ambassador, in this case from Israel. Because it's evident that what Schutz tried to make clear is the hypocrisy shown by those who have been supporting Gaza flotilla's cause for the last days, including laSexta Noticias itself; because, as Schutz stated, the nine people killed aboard Mavi Marmara, almost for sure after having tried to harm Israeli soldiers' lives, are more important for those supporters than the 155 innocent people murdered in a terrorist attack in India.

And by the way, Schutz has apologized for his statements; but laSexta Noticias hasn't published anything about it yet.