The British blockaded Israeli, then Palestine ports, bringing concentration camp survivors from Cyprus and they even blocked ships from leaving Cypriot harbors. However, we all know that "International Treaties" apply to all except Israel. Judge Goldstone said that "Big powers are exempt from being held responsible when they commit war crimes".

Whether foreign journalists are biased or not is irrelevant. By threatening the press, the Israeli government painted itself in totalitarian, fascist colors. Democratic states should not be seen to be punishing the press, no matter how negative their coverage is. As a country that freely criticizes itself from within, Israel should always value international free press rights, even when we are on the wrong side of the coverage.

Unfortunately, Mr. Federman's article constitutes a list of what free members of free media would've been doing under ideal circumstances, not what they de facto do. The whole controversy was caused by the outrageous conduct of the "free" press in the course of the last year flotilla incident. Rather than making up utopian scenarios Mr. Federman should have told the truth: the decision to ban foreign journalists had to be considered as an extraordinary measure as a result of the outrageous professional misconduct en masse by the journalists last year.

why is everyone so worried about gaza have they forgoton that is is rulled by hamas, these people who live inside gaza have no freedom at all because hamas controld thier every move women are trated worse than second class citizens are forced to dress a certain wahy are not allowed to drive plus many others things Israel is the least of thier problems why is no ship saiking to lybia or syria where hundreds are being killed every day and people in those countries have been denied basic human rights for many yearrs, when are you going to wake up Europe????????

Josef Federman is, I am sorry to say, a notorious pro-Palestinian propaganist engaging in ridiculous and transparent agitprop for the Palestinian side against Israel, mainly Abbas's Fatah faction throughout his career in Jerusalem. This is typical of many of his colleagues at AP, most of whom take biased anti-Israeli positions and pro-Palestinian stances. Federman notoriously skews anything which may be detrimental to the Palestinian narrative to their advantage and blemishes Israel continuously. He is the archtypical biased, one-sided so-called yellow journalist. He deliberately stuffed many cheap points into his piece on "facts" of Israeli life in the wake of Netanyahu's speech last month before the Congress, trying to sell lies on a false premise re: Israel's political amd social situation ceoncerning its Arab citziens, but also severely misrepresent inetrnational law, past agreements etc.. I protested this to the Associated Press, to no avail. They are a colossal media behemoth that is totally unaccountabel to anyone and can misrepresent and lie as much as it wants because it knows that it can get away with anything. This is shameful and must stop!

israel should announce to world any boats will be stopped or blown up. let them know what is facing them in the beginning,

The boats do not have to cross into Israeli waters. According to the San Remo Maritime Treaty as soon as a vessel captain announces that he intends to break a legal blockade we can stop them in international laws. That is what international law states.

Since when has the international press been professional and objective about Israel ????

"In no way does it mean that these foreign journalists pick sides. They merely cover events." REALLY??! I have never seen an unbiased article coming from them.