"New aid convoy departs for Gaza": More BS from CNN

An item entitled "New aid convoy departs for Gaza" (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/18/uk.gaza.convoy/?hpt=T2), published yesterday by CNN, states:

"A survivor of the fatal Gaza flotilla incident in May headed out Saturday on a new convoy to bring medical supplies to the Palestinian territory.

Kevin Ovenden departed London on Saturday morning with about a dozen vans and more than 30 international volunteers as part of the Viva Palestina Lifeline 5 convoy.

Two other convoys were being organized at the same time from Casablanca, Morocco, and Doha, Qatar, his group said.

. . . .

Unlike the flotilla in May, the convoy aims to enter Gaza by land, through the Rafa border crossing with Egypt, Ovenden said. When the three convoys meet in Syria, they plan to be shipped past the point at which the Mavi Marmara was attacked and down to the Egyptian port of Al Arish before going to Rafah, he said.

Organizers said it is the largest convoy set to break the Gaza embargo."

The CNN item also includes claims by "survivor" Ovenden that he witnessed the unprovoked shooting of persons on the Mavi Marmara, but fails to mention how the Israeli commandos were violently set upon by the "activists" when they boarded the ship.

In its sole attempt at balance, the article mentions that "Gaza is run by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that has said it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel." Nowhere, does the article mention the most recent flurry of rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza into southern Israel in response to the Israeli-Palestinian peacetalks sponsored by Obama.

Most absurd, however, is the willingness of CNN to uncritically accept the claim that this land convoy is intended "to break the Gaza embargo." As known to all, the organizers of this alleged aid shipment (previous shipments of medicines to Gaza consisted in large part of expired drugs that went straight to the rubbish bin) can freely send their wares to Gaza via the Israeli port of Ashdod. Israel also does not oppose sending aid to Gaza via Egypt, but following the violence that accompanied an earlier Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza led by George Galloway, which resulted in the death of an Egyptian soldier (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6977949.ece), Cairo's response to this latest PR ploy remains in doubt.