E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Libya aid boat aims to reach Gaza on Wednesday
TRIPOLI — A Libyan aid ship headed for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade aims to reach the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, the Kadhafi Foundation organising the mission said on Monday.
Looks like they're really going to try and force the issue ...
“The foundation’s team on the vessel has said morale on board is high and that they are preparing to enter Gaza on Wednesday,” the charity run by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, said on its website.

It said that by midday on Monday the boat was in international waters some 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the Greek island of Crete.

Amid a flurry of Israeli diplomatic efforts to divert it to Egypt, the 92-metre (302-foot) freighter Amalthea set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio on Saturday.

“We are not transporting arms of suspect goods. We only have food, medicine and young pacifists on the boat,” Mashallah Zwei, a Kadhafi Foundation representative on board, told AFP by satellite phone.

“The Israelis can inspect the ship and if they have an ounce of humanity they will let us unload in Gaza,” said Zwei, urging the international community to pressure the Jewish state to allow the aid through.

Zwei has insisted the foundation was not seeking “a confrontation or a provocation,” when asked about the risks of a repeat of an Israeli naval raid on an aid flotilla that killed nine Turks.

But Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said the aid could be delivered through Ashdod port in southern Israel after being inspected, or through Egypt.

“We recommend that the organisers either let the ship be escorted by navy vessels to Ashdod port or that is sails directly to the port of El-Arish” in Egypt near the border with Gaza, he said.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-07-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=300911