The Gaza Truth:

[busyb555]

From: Consulate General of Israel
Date: May 31, 2010 2:53:36 PM PDT
To: [email protected]
Subject: The Gaza Flotilla and the Maritime Blockade of Gaza
The Gaza Flotilla and the Maritime Blockade of Gaza


Israel regrets all loss of human life and injuries which came as result of the unfortunate events aboard the vessel Mavi Marmara on Monday, May 31.

The responsibility for the consequences of this politically motivated publicity stunt aimed at capturing the attention of the international media, rests on the organizers of the flotilla, which included elements with links to Hamas - a murderous terrorist organization which smuggles arms aimed at killing Israeli citizens.

Background

Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, more than 10,000 rockets and mortars have been fired on our civilian population. As a result, Israel had no other option but to impose a naval blockade in order to stem the flow of such munitions.

Israel appealed to the convoys of ships to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod so that humanitarian supplies could be delivered to Gaza via land through existing crossings after being checked for dangerous materials. The flotilla rejected the offer, and one of the organizers themselves said that issue was not about the delivery of humanitarian aid, but rather about breaking the 'siege'. All attempts at dialogue and reaching an understanding were rejected, leaving no doubt that this was as an act of provocation having nothing to do with a genuine concert for the wellbeing of Gazans. Ships forcing their way into Gaza will do nothing to aid the people there.

International Maritime Law

Israel said that it would use all means at its disposal to prevent the vessels from violating Israeli and international law.

Under international law, a maritime blockage is recognized as a legitimate tool during a time of armed conflict. A blockade may be imposed at sea, including international waters, so long as it does not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral states. International maritime law clearly states that when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats - including both civilian and enemy - can enter the blockaded area. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured over even attacked under international law.

Israeli response

When it became clear that the flotilla of 6 vessels intended to break the blockade, Israel attempted to intercept the boats and then boarded the vessels to escort them to Ashdod. Due to the large number of vessels, there was an operational need to undertake measures to enforce the blockade a certain distance from our shores.

Five of boats proceeded to Ashdod without incident, while active resistance was encountered on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara. Aboard the ship, Israeli forces were savagely beaten with lead pipes, knives and pistols prepared in advanced by the crew. Several Israeli soldiers were wounded as result of the confrontations, including one who is in critical condition.

Israel will continue to act decisively to protect its sovereignty and right to protect itself. No other nation would accept a violation of this sort.

Humanitarian situation in Gaza

There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Thousands of tons of food, goods and equipment are transferred to residents daily by Israel and international organizations such as the United Nations.

Since January 2009, more than 1 million tons of humanitarian aid have been transferred. That is approximately one ton of aid for each man, woman and child in Gaza.

During the first quarter of 2010 alone, almost 100,000 tons of supplies have been provided, including: 48,000 tons of food products; approximately 550 of milk powder and baby food; 2,700 tons of rice; 40,000 tons of wheat; 185 tons of aggregates; 2,000 tons of clothing and footwear; 20 tons of iron; 25 tons of cement; and more than 1,000 tons of medicine and medical equipment.

In a typical week, 15,000 tons of supplies enter Gaza including truckloads of meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, fish, vegetables, milk powder, baby food, wheat and other essential goods.

Similarly, fuel and electricity needs are being met, and hundreds of Gazans receive medical treatment in Israel.

[Zeno Swijtink]

Israel is the US's North Korea: an insubordinate vassal state with nuclear weapons that has spied on its master and has an outmoded ideology, cursed with a mental disorder that originates in WWII.

[Debunker]

Israel is the US's North Korea: an insubordinate vassal state with nuclear weapons that has spied on its master and has an outmoded ideology, cursed with a mental disorder that originates in WWII.

Not only have they spied on America for decades, they have intentionally killed Americans on at least two occasions (that they admit, there's mountains of evidence it was more than twice) and attempted to blame it on their enemies in an effort to get America to do their killing for them.

We have never been riper for another Israeli false flag operation than we are at present.

[LenInSebastopol]

"Cursed"?
"with a mental disorder"?
Very poetic, but what does that mean?
I've never understood the hatred of Jews. I know it's a long held European thing and not being familiar with that, can you explain it to me? Is it Jews, Zionists, Israel itself? What's up with that?
I kind of think it's a "lose-lose" situation: Europe hated Jews for more than a week. Adolph tried to "solve" that problem by killing all of them. European survivors tried to go to one place to get away from it all.
So if you hate them, like Arabs, you got them all in one spot to make for an easy kill. If you hate them, like Europeans (and obviously their ancestors) they are out of YOUR country.
If you like Jews then they have their "homeland" (though their claim from God of the homeland is much like Morningstar Ranch when the tax collector came around to Lou Gottlieb who then deeded the property over to God and told the IRS to get it from Him) really doesn't hold much water, since there are about a billion Arabs.
It is very confusing to me, so actually don't bother if you can't do it in bumper strip verbiage. I'll just go on being confused as to why so many hate. Dang, what did they do? And don't give me "Christ killers" as Luke 18: 32 covers that well enough.

Israel is the US's North Korea: an insubordinate vassal state with nuclear weapons that has spied on its master and has an outmoded ideology, cursed with a mental disorder that originates in WWII.

[CowGal]

Do you spend all your time on Democracy Now? Why are you always talking about Israel and the Middle East? Nobody has even mentioned the earthquake in Iceland. Isn't that newsworthy?

Nobody mentioned the little girl from Peru that shocked the first lady by telling her that her mom didn't have papers and that Obama was trying to send everyone back (south of the border) that didn't have papers.

The 6.1 magnitude temblor struck about 3:46 p.m. (11:46 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was about 50 km (31 miles) east-southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, and was about 10 km (6.2 miles) below the Earth's surface.
It was unclear exactly how many people were injured or the severity of their injuries, Olli Tynes, a journalist with Reykjavik's Channel 2, told CNN.
A hospital in a town near the epicenter was also reported damaged, and some wings have had to be evacuated, he said.
There were no reports of fatalities, but "great material damage," Tynes said. Roads and bridges in the area have been closed.
The Associated Press, quoting civil defense authorities, reported 15 to 20 people from Selfoss, near the epicenter, were taken for medical treatment.
Iceland's emergency management agency has swung into action, and rescue crews were headed to the area most affected by the quake.
Tynes said he has been speaking to residents of the towns closest to the epicenter. "They said they thought the world was coming to an end," he said. "They thought they were going to die."

[Zeno Swijtink]

The equation I'm alluding to is

US : Israel : Germany = China : North Korea : Japan

The World - Revisiting World War II Atrocities - Comparing the Unspeakable to the Unthinkable - NYTimes.com

"Cursed"?
"with a mental disorder"?
Very poetic, but what does that mean?

[LenInSebastopol]

Not being fully educated, I failed to see the equation. So that's why Jews are hated? Or the nested relationships between intermediaries gives reason or cause for hatred? Or is it simply the greater power standing in for the intermediary to the nations committing monstrous atrocities and holding accountability to them? Not to bright, I am, as the alluding is beyond me. I know I asked for bumper sticker, but I'm tangled in the glue.
Thanks anyway. I'll work on it.

The equation I'm alluding to is
US : Israel : Germany = China : North Korea : Japan
The World - Revisiting World War II Atrocities - Comparing the Unspeakable to the Unthinkable - NYTimes.com

[CowGal]

That's a doom and gloom prophecy if I ever heard it. Admit that you spend a lot of time listening to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now. The fact is that the commentators on KPFA/B and Democracy Now are predominantly of the Jewish faith. Hence, the emphasis on Israel and the Middle East. I have very good friends who are Hispanic, Native American, Jewish and White. My Jewish friend and I (who I have known since the 7th grade) laugh all the time about the emphasis on Palestinians and the Middle East. I get mailings all the time for donations to organizations that support the causes centered around the crisis in the Middle East. I tell my friend that I must be on the Schmutz List because I give to charities, and I will not say which ones because I don't want to get on another mailing list!

Every time I'm listening to the radio and something doesn't sound quite right (biased), I look down at my radio dial and I've mistakenly tuned into KPFA.

Please don't call me a racist, can't we just laugh about it? I have pet causes and so do you.

The equation I'm alluding to is

US : Israel : Germany = China : North Korea : Japan

The World - Revisiting World War II Atrocities - Comparing the Unspeakable to the Unthinkable - NYTimes.com

[theindependenteye]

>>>So that's why Jews are hated? Or the nested relationships between intermediaries gives reason or cause for hatred?

This isn't to comment directly on the Gaza situation but just on the issue of anti-Semitism, as that's a factor very often brought into these arguments.

That anti-Semitism is a persistent fact of history, there's no doubt. Many reasons at various times: Scapegoating for political reasons. Religious biases and judgments. Suspicion of any group that "doesn't assimilate" (cf. current condemnation of Mexican migrants). Jews as an under-class dragging us down, or Jews as a conspiratorial elite. Etc. etc.

But is it unreasonable to assume that if the United States had rounded up its remaining Indians, offered them land in Palestine, and they'd then proclaimed it a sovereign state for Indians, we'd have less of a problem in the Middle East? Or settling refugee Muslim Bosnians in Nevada, where they proclaim its independence and set up mosques in the casinos?

Whether or not Israel is tainted from Zionist aggression is a moot question, no different than looking at the atrocities of any migrations of peoples over the millennia, whether it's Huns against Celts or Europeans against Indians or Assyrians & Romans against the Jews or the Jews against the Canaanites, etc. etc. The fact is that Israel exists and will fight to the death to survive. The issue is the consequences of that struggle, both to itself and to its neighbors and to the rest of the world. It's truly the Gordian knot, and I don't think Alexander's solution is viable here.

My only point being that IMHO it's a straw man to invoke historical anti-Semitism as a prime factor here. No one knows if the guy who was shot in the head four times was on that ship because he hated Jews. Would he hate Jews now if he were still alive? Damn betcha.

It was about land. There were people there. It wasn't empty. Then it was about mutual fear. Now, on both sides, it's about survival and God knows what else -- and since they both basically worship the same God, I wish He'd say a few words on the subject.

Quite possibly the spirit of anti-Semitism was a motive for Britain in the Balfour Declaration -- give'em their own country and get'em out of London -- but in the current situation it's more like a zombie, a dead thing powered by Ever-Readies, that does indeed wave its arms but isn't the guy in charge.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

[Debunker]

For far too many people, invoking anti-semitism is just a lame device to try to deflect any criticism of Israel.

As we all know, it goes like this...

"You don't like it that Israel hijacked a ship in international waters and ruthlessly killed civilians?" "Why do you hate Jews?"

By the way, I enjoy your creative analogies, it's the sign of a fine mind.

>>>So that's why Jews are hated? Or the nested relationships between intermediaries gives reason or cause for hatred?

This isn't to comment directly on the Gaza situation but just on the issue of anti-Semitism, as that's a factor very often brought into these arguments.

That anti-Semitism is a persistent fact of history, there's no doubt. Many reasons at various times: Scapegoating for political reasons. Religious biases and judgments. Suspicion of any group that "doesn't assimilate" (cf. current condemnation of Mexican migrants). Jews as an under-class dragging us down, or Jews as a conspiratorial elite. Etc. etc.

But is it unreasonable to assume that if the United States had rounded up its remaining Indians, offered them land in Palestine, and they'd then proclaimed it a sovereign state for Indians, we'd have less of a problem in the Middle East? Or settling refugee Muslim Bosnians in Nevada, where they proclaim its independence and set up mosques in the casinos?

Whether or not Israel is tainted from Zionist aggression is a moot question, no different than looking at the atrocities of any migrations of peoples over the millennia, whether it's Huns against Celts or Europeans against Indians or Assyrians & Romans against the Jews or the Jews against the Canaanites, etc. etc. The fact is that Israel exists and will fight to the death to survive. The issue is the consequences of that struggle, both to itself and to its neighbors and to the rest of the world. It's truly the Gordian knot, and I don't think Alexander's solution is viable here.

My only point being that IMHO it's a straw man to invoke historical anti-Semitism as a prime factor here. No one knows if the guy who was shot in the head four times was on that ship because he hated Jews. Would he hate Jews now if he were still alive? Damn betcha.

It was about land. There were people there. It wasn't empty. Then it was about mutual fear. Now, on both sides, it's about survival and God knows what else -- and since they both basically worship the same God, I wish He'd say a few words on the subject.

Quite possibly the spirit of anti-Semitism was a motive for Britain in the Balfour Declaration -- give'em their own country and get'em out of London -- but in the current situation it's more like a zombie, a dead thing powered by Ever-Readies, that does indeed wave its arms but isn't the guy in charge.

Peace & joy--
Conrad

[elienos]

Jewish and Israel are different. There are tons of anti-zionist jews. My best friend is one of them. (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Neturei Karta - Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, Jews Not Zionists and there are tons more). There are tons of Jewish converts (i.e. people for whom Jewish is not a race) in Israel. My brother is one of them (and a rabbi at that).

At this point antisemitism and Israel really don't have much in common. Israel has just used too much brute violence, killed to many people, and shown too little care for Palestinians (while ALWAYS claiming to be the victim) to have any credibility at this point.

For far too many people, invoking anti-semitism is just a lame device to try to deflect any criticism of Israel.

As we all know, it goes like this...

"You don't like it that Israel hijacked a ship in international waters and ruthlessly killed civilians?" "Why do you hate Jews?"

By the way, I enjoy your creative analogies, it's the sign of a fine mind.

[LenInSebastopol]

You are about the first person that has put it into perspective for me. Thanks!

>>>So that's why Jews are hated? Or the nested relationships between intermediaries gives reason or cause for hatred?

This isn't to comment directly on the Gaza situation but just on the issue of anti-Semitism, as that's a factor very often brought into these arguments....

[artfulme]

Jewish and Israel are different. There are tons of anti-zionist jews. My best friend is one of them. (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Neturei Karta - Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, Jews Not Zionists and there are tons more). There are tons of Jewish converts (i.e. people for whom Jewish is not a race) in Israel. My brother is one of them (and a rabbi at that).

At this point antisemitism and Israel really don't have much in common. Israel has just used too much brute violence, killed to many people, and shown too little care for Palestinians (while ALWAYS claiming to be the victim) to have any credibility at this point.

Response by Artfulme:
There certainly is NO anti-semitism in the activists attempting to break the blockade. Their enablers, the HAMAS, has constantly stated loud and clear that its aim is to murder every Jew in the world, no matter where located. starting with the Israelis.

So...that's about "land"?

Earliest schooling in almost all arab schools (insuring inculcating hate at the earliest possible time)constantly portray ALL JEWS--everywhere in the world) as the vilest humans and sub-humans extant. And thus unworthy of any human consideration..

That's about land?

That's the Hamas theme: death to ALL Jews, adopted by organiztions like the Peace & Justice Center which approves and adopts Hamas' aims. They are the local arm of Hamas. And soaked with antisemitism.

And you complain about the Isaelis not treating those arab Jew-haters and their hate-indoctrinated children with more respect, ay?

Perhaps rewarding them with kisses and hugs...whilst they are aiming at a Jews with a rifle, suicide bomb, or knives. Sounds great to me, hunh? You too?

Just LAND--not out and out murderous intent. Right?

Learn a little history instead of the constant public relations stunts by the Hamas murderers. And the shipment was headed to them, Hamas, and their would-be Israeli murderers and their a world-wide enablers, the "activists."

There is NO shortage of food, medical supplies (serious arab children with diseaes are always being treated in Israeli hospitals), nor clothing. The markets there are filled with these necessaries. Israelis supply 90% of Gaza's electricity. Also, a great deal of potable water to them.

A recent picture (I'll try to locate it and post it here,) shows an arab mother-woman standing amidst counters overloaded with vast amounts of all kinds of fruits and vegetables, saying "We need everything."

In fact, Palestinians receive more foreign aid per capita than any other peoples in the world! Did you know that? Is there not grown by now, after 60 years on the dole, that they have a sense of entitlement??!!

And, yet with all this aid supplied by the world, the US being primary, the Hamas spends most of it to arm themselves for THE MURDERING, diverting resources supposedly for Plestinian health, education, and progress as a society FOR THEIR OWN PEOPLE!

Why wouldn't the arabs want peace?

Because war is the golden goose, laying money eggs aplenty and keeping these so-called revolutionaries at the top, the "leaders", in great shape for their wants and desires. And their fellow-terrorists get some of that stuff too, in the trickle-down way.

The other Muslim terrorists have to be satisfied with the overriding passion of Religious ferver instigated by their Muslim "priests." They are convinced that this killing of Jews stuff is their way to Muslim Heaven where they'd be sitting side by side with Muhammed himself...AND those 27 virgins awaiting, willingly ready to comply with all his wishes.

And, in support of this murderous intent stand the anti-democratic Arab states (excepting Jordan and Egypt), welcoming for 6 decades the diversion distraction from the pitiable state of Arab lives in these countries

[Note: Syria and elsewhere in the Arab states there has existed Arab "settlement camps." They have kept many thousands of "Palestinians" in these camps for decades, refusing them entry into their own countries, telling them they are destined to remain there to return to their land when THE PROMISED MURDERING takes place.]

Voila! Blame Israel for it all, and it will never change, condemning their peoples to continuing arab dictatorships.Israel, the great distraction. No matter if Jews are killed along the way, so long as our Palestinian people remain uneducated, as long as we remain masters of the Arab universe--the people be damned!. And THIS is what the uber-lefties support!

All about LAND?

Get some perspective and report back!

That heaven promised by the Muslim priests is attractive, don't you think? It sure beats the lame promises of our culture's own view of "heaven."

[artfulme]

Israel is the US's North Korea: an insubordinate vassal state with nuclear weapons that has spied on its master and has an outmoded ideology, cursed with a mental disorder that originates in WWII.

Should we call the 2000 years of the murdering of Jews by Christians and Muslims just a Jewish mental problem? 50,000,000 of the Jews, so far.Just because they refused to convert.

Israel may be insubordinate to your family's own history in participating in these slaughterings. To you, the job just ain't completed. Hamas and the Arabs will finish the job?

A nuclear state? No country of 7 million should acquire such weaponry when surrounded by 300 million peole bent on murdering them...and continuing your own family's murdering work in the near future. If your family has ancestors from europe, your family-ancestors somewhere did some slaughtering, raping, torturing, robbing of JEWS . You are just following their lead along with Hamas!

That should then make you and your like, happy.

Stick your obvious antisemitism up your dark hole...and choke on it!

[LenInSebastopol]

Again, why the Jews?
Those Europeans that did that to the Jews a hundred, a thousand years ago, or all during history, were also doing it to each other. Oh, BTW, the Indonesians, the Koreans, the Mayans, the Pygmies, ....every tribe on the planet was doing like and similar.
So why does the Jewish thing stick in your throat?
Because you are one? That gives you a right to bring it up every ten minutes? The Arabs do the same thing and are as PROUD of it as can be. This I know because I've heard it with my own ears; they can go back to the 10th century with their family and seem to describe every death, slaughter and castigation done by or to their family. What a crock!
And they believe it and are serious about it, justifying vengeance on their perceived enemy.
You both claim "blood right" as so many other in the world, mostly based on notions of being slighted or family honor or crap that leads only to justification of vengeance and killing. Such hatred makes me anti-Semetic (Arabs & Jews are both Semites) to simply state: shut up both of you kids or I'll kill you both before dinner!
Gadz, whining over thousand year old crap to the point of death! I can better understand why folks get mad at the two of your tribes.

Should we call the 2000 years of the murdering of Jews by Christians and Muslims just a Jewish mental problem? 50,000,000 of the Jews, so far.Just because they refused to convert.

Israel may be insubordinate to your family's own history in participating in these slaughterings. To you, the job just ain't completed. Hamas and the Arabs will finish the job?

A nuclear state? No country of 7 million should acquire such weaponry when surrounded by 300 million peole bent on murdering them...and continuing your own family's murdering work in the near future. If your family has ancestors from europe, your family-ancestors somewhere did some slaughtering, raping, torturing, robbing of JEWS . You are just following their lead along with Hamas!
That should then make you and your like, happy.
Stick your obvious antisemitism up your dark hole...and choke on it!

[Zeno Swijtink]

We are all descendants of bands of H. sapiens who started leaving Africa some 6000 odd generations ago.

"My family," "your family." In the way you use these terms they are fictions.

You share ancestors with the people around you. If you have children you may have common offspring with parents in your street, sometime in the future, some generations from now.

"Herrenvolk," "The Treasured, or Chosen, People of the Covenant," these are expressions of racial thinking that gloss over our common humanity and our participation in the web of life.

Should we call the 2000 years of the murdering of Jews by Christians and Muslims just a Jewish mental problem? 50,000,000 of the Jews, so far.Just because they refused to convert.

Israel may be insubordinate to your family's own history in participating in these slaughterings. To you, the job just ain't completed. Hamas and the Arabs will finish the job?

A nuclear state? No country of 7 million should acquire such weaponry when surrounded by 300 million peole bent on murdering them...and continuing your own family's murdering work in the near future. If your family has ancestors from europe, your family-ancestors somewhere did some slaughtering, raping, torturing, robbing of JEWS . You are just following their lead along with Hamas!

That should then make you and your like, happy.

Stick your obvious antisemitism up your dark hole...and choke on it!

[LenInSebastopol]

Thank you for succinctly putting the issue into perspective and I agree with you totally.
But because of this thread, as well as others, I came across an ugly thought yesterday: Do I (insert minority of America) have a "blood right" to hate, say the British? Seems they (an their progenitors) ran this country until the the migration of 1870 to 1922. Or possibly the Spanish can be thrown into the mix for all of our great Southwest and down into the Southern Hemisphere of all the Americas. Except for Brazil and the Portuguese.

Seems there's been a move from the 1960's to "Self identity" based on race/ethnicity with all that being upheld and promulgated by the gov't and other interested NGOs. The people marry on and on and live their lives with the gov't always playing catch-up as it tries to "lead".
Ugly thought but all this ugly going around put me in touch with the general zeitgeist of the modern age and my "ethnic" heritage. Could use a little help here.

We are all descendants of bands of H. sapiens who started leaving Africa some 6000 odd generations ago.
"My family," "your family." In the way you use these terms they are fictions.
You share ancestors with the people around you. If you have children you may have common offspring with parents in your street, sometime in the future, some generations from now.
"Herrenvolk," "The Treasured, or Chosen, People of the Covenant," these are expressions of racial thinking that gloss over our common humanity and our participation in the web of life.

[Zeno Swijtink]

Again, why the Jews?
Those Europeans that did that to the Jews a hundred, a thousand years ago, or all during history, were also doing it to each other. Oh, BTW, the Indonesians, the Koreans, the Mayans, the Pygmies, ....every tribe on the planet was doing like and similar.
So why does the Jewish thing stick in your throat?

Historically anti-Semitism goes back a long time, to ancient Egyptians who in Hellenistic times (pre-Christ) responded hostilely to the (transcendent) monotheism of the Jews, connecting it with a dark and painful period in their own history when a Pharao by the name of Akhenaten had brutally enforced a (naturalistic) form of monotheism, worshipping the Sun as the true and only god with Akhenaten as his worldly equivalent.

See Peter Schäfer, Judeophobic Attitudes Towards the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1997)

[LenInSebastopol]

Thanks, and an excellent source.
I've read about the one Pharo that founded monotheism
upseting the establishment, and scholars some did connect it to the Hebrews, while others tried to call them Hyksos, with others trying to discredit that notion, with all of it being to heady for me in the minute details. I fail to see the tie, or I lose the thread (in so many ways) to the European connection for such hatred unless it is indicated that those few Europeans who could read during the "Dark Ages" read and spread antisemitism from an African empire 2000 years prior.
Thanks again, I will look up your reference but finding amusing since it seems the ancient world was fraught with fear of other tribes continually. Of course to compare & contrast that with today's tribes we are SO much more......oh never mind! I am sure you've seen all that BS prior to today.

Historically anti-Semitism goes back a long time, to ancient Egyptians who in Hellenistic times (pre-Christ) responded hostilely to the (transcendent) monotheism of the Jews, connecting it with a dark and painful period in their own history when a Pharao by the name of Akhenaten had brutally enforced a (naturalistic) form of monotheism, worshipping the Sun as the true and only god with Akhenaten as his worldly equivalent.

See Peter Schäfer, Judeophobic Attitudes Towards the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1997)