{"id":7887,"date":"2011-06-20T16:25:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T12:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=7887"},"modified":"2011-06-20T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T12:25:46","slug":"audacity-of-hope-unlikely-to-protect-gaza-flotilla-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/audacity-of-hope-unlikely-to-protect-gaza-flotilla-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Audacity of Hope&#8217; Unlikely to Protect Gaza Flotilla Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/us-boat-gaza.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7888\" title=\"us-boat-gaza\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/us-boat-gaza-e1308572686895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/us-boat-gaza-e1308572686895.jpg 498w, https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/us-boat-gaza-e1308572686895-145x92.jpg 145w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a>The United States flotilla group, US to Gaza, reacting to Israeli threats of violence, <a href=\"http:\/\/ustogaza.org\/latest\/letter-to-obam\/\">sent a letter<\/a> to President Barack Obama informing him that:<\/p>\n<p>As U.S. citizens we expect our country and its leaders to help ensure the Flotilla\u2019s safe passage to Gaza \u2013 as our country should support our humanitarian demand that the Gaza blockade be lifted. This should begin by notifying the Israeli government in clear and certain terms that it may not physically interfere with the upcoming Flotilla of which the U.S. boat\u2014<em>The Audacity of Hope<\/em> \u2014 is part.<\/p>\n<p>The group asks that people call the White House (202-456-1111) in order to express their support for the international nonviolent protest and to tell the President that they \u201cexpect [him] to take action to uphold the rights of peaceful citizens to safe passage on the seas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I have little hope that Mr. Obama would respond to a call to protect Americans from an Israeli assault. He has failed to do this in the past. But isn\u2019t it a wonderful irony that the name of the U.S. boat is a phrase closely associated with the President? Although Obama is not on board, maybe there are groups and individuals who have not publicly supported the flotilla movement in the past that would, at least, demand strongly that the IDF refrain from using violence against citizens who are obviously peaceful demonstrators.<\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t nonviolent protest one of the tenets of activism for American liberals and progressives?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRA GLUNTS, MONDOWEISS: The American boat due to participate in the upcoming flotilla to Gaza is named after one of President Obama&#8217;s books. Will hope be enough for those on board?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,82,60],"tags":[1103,278,1572,18311,2613,121,18297,1808,18302,2099],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}