Taking a moment from all the Israel-bashing taking place here.. who is actually right and wrong?

You are spot on DarkAl....Israel has the fundumental right to protect the State and it's citizens.

This so called "convoy" is nothing more than a stunt organized by Israel haters!

It has little to do with aid..Anyone who is deluded into believing thet those on board are neutral aid workers are naive in the extreme.

I don't think for one minute that the Israeli soldiers just opened up on poor innocent aid workers.

With over 500 Palestinian supporters on board that lead ship, the Israeli soldiers had to take control and defend themselves....those Hamas, Hezbloah and PLO supporters would have torn the soldiers to pieces if they had got their hands on them!

There are millions of irrational haters of Jews in this world. The Arab peoples have been fed hatred of Jews in their mothers milk!

This incident is seen by the haters as an opportunity to go for the jugular!

(1) From the little information available...you can thank the Israeli's for that blockade;

(2) The Israeli's do not allow accurate information on items allowed and disallowed into Gaza so the activists are taking goods that they know to be blocked;

(3) The Israeli's cannot be trusted to allow these items to be forwarded to the people of Gaza as they have proven before and if they insist on checking all that cargo they will be spoiling it's potential effect e.g. what do they intend doing with the tons of cement after they have opened the bags and sieved them?

1.5 million people blocked from receiving aid. Israel provides insufficient aid, only enough to keep them from starvation.

I am not anti semitic. Neither am I a Islamic Fundamentalist. Somewhere in the middle lie people who care about what's going on in Palestine and do not try to score political points.

Israel consistently scores points by wailing Antisemitism and Palestine is not going to go away. Violence should never be the answer but that's easy to say while you're not on the receiving end.

I regularly read Haaretz and Al Jazeera. They give more information on this than any of the big UK or US stations who spend so much effort trying not offend the Israeli state.

It would be good to come back later and discuss this when all the facts are known however it's possible that may never happen as everyone covers their tracks.

You make a lot of good points. In the end, it would be better if no-one had any of these bloody things, but the ones who have them have signed all sorts of non-proliferation treaties in order to try and limit their spread. The sad thing is that North Korea and Iran are just the sort of countries you don't want with nuclear weapons since they are aggressive, xenophobic countries who are trying to get the capacity in order to threaten and blackmail their neighbours. Like you say, I'd rather no-one had them, especially not America, but I'd like it even less if some of these loose cannon nations had them.

Israel is being called on the carpet for their blockade of gaza by this flotilla.

They have let such missions proceed in the past. They not only didn't this time, they used deadly force. They didn't have to, but they did.

That country is moving to the far right on their political spectrum, claiming Jerusalem and anyplace else their "chosen people" choose.

And this event is part of a pattern that is right out of the Saddam and N. Korea playbook.

Do what you want. Back down. Rinse and repeat

Now the biggest issue is really how Israel is blocking the discussion on nuclear arms control by refusing to join. Why? Because they have nukes and don't want to be open to any inspections.

That is that fast track to Armageddon right there - and I think as long as they coddle their "settlers" who in reality are much like the taliban, and don't get honest with their nukes, then they are much more dangerous than humas sending home-made rockets at them.

If you saw people denying you access to your property, then building housing for incredibly in-tolerant fanatics with guns, you might feel a little put off too.

"Before the ships set sail from waters off the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Sunday, Israel had urged the flotilla not to try to breach the blockade and offered to transfer the cargo to Gaza from an Israeli port, following a security inspection. "

Many of those blockade runners don't care about "aide"; they only care about publicity and have a greedy desire to be a "heros"....

In spite of being given the opportunity to peacefully transfer the materials, this group chose to cause a confrontation. Now that it has happened, they don't want "blame" for causing it, but "credit" for being "victims".

What a hoot ...and fine example of the "new world order", which is to provoke a confrontation, then claim to be a "victim".

"Are some people on here so blinded by their hatred towards Israel that they actually justify an unprovoked attack by the IHH which resulted in numerous casualties just so they can find another excuse to bash on Israel?"

Yes, either they are blinded, or they are cynical distorters of the truth.

What any other country can do is forbidden to Israel.

I knew there was more to the story than what anyone was currently hearing, as it is almost impossible to get a report on an event in that area without someone putting a spin on it. I will continue to look into this subject for myself, but thanks for clearing some of it up.

Not supporting the aggressors here, why would anyone stand by israel and especially in times like this?

Just 30 mins ago the ships arrived at the israeli port, and all the ships were inspected in Cyprus and proved to contain nothing but aid products. The 6th ship merely insisted on going to the Gaza strip directly, israel had no business in attacking these ships. And everything that happened on these ships is recorded.

The answer to your question is easy because it all depends on which side you favor because that is the side that is right even if it is the wrong side. People are reacting to feelings they do not want to see or hear facts.

Nobody really knows what is going on, other than what they have heard or read. We should all know by now how unreliable that is.

What is important is the need for the International community to get involved and try and solve this problem. Blaming one side or another will do nothing other than alienate people.