We started out this morning with a political briefing from our intrepid retired Colonel Ann Wright, who has been busting her butt on this project for the past year! Ann told us that the Greek Foreign Ministry came out with a statement that the flotilla is “not helpful” and encouraged Greek citizens as well as [...]
Thursday, June 23, 2011
It’s nice that we now start out our training sessions with song. I love how it changes the energy in the room and puts a smile on our faces. Instead of doing our training at the hotel, where the room is cramped, we went to a gym nearby. It was actually a boxing workout room, [...]
Thursday, June 23, 2011
By Amer Shurrab (Watch Amer give his speech here) I want to thank all the brave passengers who are going on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II and on the American boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, in an attempt to break the criminal siege on Gaza. I am not a lawyer, I am not [...]
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
President Obama’s speech announcing a drawdown of 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year was disappointing and incomplete in many ways. What he didn’t say is as important as what he did. He didn’t say that after nearly a decade in Afghanistan, there are more US troops there than ever. The “drawdown” [...]
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
We started the day with a media training where we broke into groups and practiced answering some of the hardest media questions. Many of them involved the issue of Hamas (we don't support any party; we don't support the targeting of civilians; we are doing this to support the civilian population, most of whom are under 18); others were questions about why we were willing to put ourselves at risk to go on the boat. People spoke from the heart about their reasons for going, which is quite compelling. Many have been to the West Bank and/or Gaza and seen the abuses by the Israeli military firsthand. Others are Jewish and feel a particular responsibility. Almost 30% of the group is Jewish, which is amazing given that Jews are less than 2 % of the U.S. population![...]
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Just arrived in Athens tonight. We had an orientation meeting at 8pm at our hotel. It was so exciting to be in a room with such terrific people. Some are amazing support people who are helping to pull everything together; others are the passengers who have all made a commitment to take this risk. We went around the room saying how we felt. Scared. Excited. Honored. Energized (me). Hopeful. Col. Ann Wright gave us a political orientation, including some of the pressure that has been put on the Turkish and Greek governments by the Israelis, and about the difficult situation Greece is going through financially (and how that makes Greece more vulnerable to pressure)[...]
Friday, June 24, 2011
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