Message in a Bottle for the Kids of Gaza

A small act in Athens for the most significant problems children in Gaza face each day.

OJ shows her vessel of peace.

(ATHENS / SALEM) - Members of the Freedom Flotilla II will always have a set of stories to tell from their turbulent trip to Gaza that was stopped cold in its tracks by the long arm of Israel.

Greta Berlin's offering for Gaza kids.

Greta Berlin, who has exited Greece and is presently in France, is no stranger to Gaza, where she has successfully sailed in past blockade breaking runs.

She tells this story from the end of their saga.

"The day before I left, the six of us who remained on board the boat decorated bottles and put messages in them for the children of Gaza. We added rice at the bottom of the bottles to keep them upright (just in case one miraculously got to Gaza). Then we went in search of a place to throw them into the sea".

What seemed like a simple goal, indeed began that way.

"Ann threw her bottle in next to the Audacity of Hope since she stayed to guard the boat, and the five of us set out in search of a good place to toss the bottles, finally walking down to the cargo area not too far from where our boat is moored. Missy asked the people in charge if we could throw out the bottles".

Ann's bottle hits the drink!

Greta believes they would never have been able to get near this cargo loading area in the U.S. without hard hats and permission from the harbor master.

Missy: it's all about the kids...

"And, even then, we probably would have had to put the bottles through the X-ray machines. But... after a half hour of waiting, an official looking jeep drove up and a very impressive man got out... decked out in a white uniform, epaulets and a very fancy hat".

She says the flotilla crew had no idea who he was, but there was no question that he knew who they were.

"If there is no gasoline in the bottles, you are welcome to throw them into the sea,"

Greta said, "We had quite an audience watching us as we wished the bottles a better fate than our boats and tossed them, one by one, into the sea".

Of course these brave flotilla participants know that enough bottles do not exist to account for the suffering of the children of Gaza. Every day, lives that should be allowed to proceed normally, are assaulted by Israel.

Regina redefines castaway

Carol's contribution

The children who have died as a result of Israel's aggressive military policies were denied fairness, they were disqualified from life and that is playing God, something no country or religion has a right to do.

That is why international laws clarify expected behaviors of governments.

However, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel means there is no accountability.

There is no gauge or system of measurement that reveals the level of cruelty applied to others, not in Palestine. Everything is denied and downplayed, Israel simply issues false statements to cover its warmongering, violent acts against human beings.

But these brave souls; peaceful courageous and resolved women who are willing to face down Israel's bullets - now that is really something. I'll cast my lot with them and damn everything else. This simple act for children means more, far more, than any of the pathetic excuses for why we allow Israel to abscond from its responsibility to mankind.

These activists are who give the rest of us the drive to go on, because if they are willing to go to the maximum level for the future of the world's children, Palestinian and Israeli and everyone else.

Americans for a Stronger Israel