ILC - Turkey should be placed on trial, not Israel

Israel Law Center..
Press Release..
06 November '12..







Tel Aviv, Nov. 6, 2012: "It is the Turkish government which needs to be tried for the deaths of the Islamic terrorists on the Mavi Marmara and not IDF officials" – this according to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center.

Today, a Turkish court decided to begin a trial for four former Israeli military commanders over their role in the 2010 killing of nine Turkish citizens taking part in the flotilla aiming to reach Hamas-ruled Gaza. The Israeli officers are being tried in absentia.

Darshan-Leitner: "The Turkish leader Erdogan was the one who allowed these extremists from Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to launch a naval expedition against Israel, a country that Turkey was not at war with. The United Nations has investigated the Israeli coastal blockade of Gaza and has determined that it was in full compliance with international law. The flotilla, which was provided material support by the Turkish government, was a provocation designed to endanger the lives of Israeli sailors tasked with enforcing the lawful blockade. As such, officials in Istanbul and their role in this act of war against a non belligerent nation needs to be investigated. Erdogan must be tried for his liability over the deaths of the terrorists and the serious injuries to Israeli servicemen."

In 2011, Shurat HaDin's legal actions against the Mavi Marmara's insurance companies prevented it from once again sailing to Gaza's shores.

With humanitarians like these, who needs militant barbarians? Revisiting the Mavi Marmara

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 October '12..

Remember the Mavi Marmara? It's the ship that tried to force its way past an Israeli naval blockade of the terrorist Gaza Strip in June 2010.

The deaths of nine men - mostly Turks and all of them invariably described in the media as 'activists' - in a commando raid on the vessel continue to be cited by the Turkish prime minister as the reason why he refuses to reconcile with Israel. He made the point again this past Sunday [source]. At a congress of his political party in Ankara and while standing beside Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood prime minister Mohammed Morsi, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Israel must lift its blockade of Gaza and must also apologize for the attack on the Mavi Marmara.

Let's note Israel's position: that it regrets the loss of lives, that an apology is not required, and that its commandos opened fire only after they came under violent armed attack by the 'activists'.

This blog post is not actually about the ship. It's about the organization that arranged it, financed it, sent it on its way and continues to thoroughly milk the public relations impact of what happened on board two years ago. We are referring to İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı. Translated from Turkish, the name means The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief. It's commonly called IHH [website here].

Daifallah: What They Don't Want You To Know About The Turkish Flotilla

Adam Daifallah
Hudson New York
June 8, 2011

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2180/turkish-flotilla

Brace yourselves: the Gaza flotilla is back for a repeat performance this summer. Political activists, led by Turkey's Islamist IHH, are in the midst of preparing "Freedom Flotilla 2," a convoy of ships intent on breaking through Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. The flotilla will be led by the same ship as last year – the Mavi Marmara – and will reportedly be joined by others, including one backed by a taxpayer-funded Canadian coalition.

There are five easy, safe and legal crossing-points in Israel through which to reach Gaza: the northern Erez crossing, the eastern Karni crossing (specifically designed for cargo), the southern Sufa crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing and Rafah. If the flotilla's real intention were to deliver aid to Palestinians, it could be done wth no problem by passing through any of these points.

Items truly for humanitarian aid get through to citizens already. It is only those deemed as "dual-use" -- things like steel pipes, fertilizer and cement -- that are blocked. Some of the items on last year's flotilla included ballistic vests, gas masks, night-vision goggles and clubs. You can expect more of the same this time.

The timing is also questionable. The Middle East today looks a lot different than it did a year ago. Gaza is now as lavish as any place in the Middle East. There are appalling refugee camps in Gaza, but since for several years, it has been under the full control of its own government, Hamas, presumably these humanitarian crises should be laid wholly at the door of the Arabs. Why, therefore, are they not being held accountable? Further, these camos are perpetuated and presided over by the UN, why is the UN not being held accountable?

Baker: The Gaza Flotillas to Come - Some Ground Rules before Setting Out

Alan Baker
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Published June 2011
Vol. 11, No. 3
5 June 2011

Click here for original link

An ostensibly civilian, humanitarian flotilla was employed in May 2010 to demonstratively breach the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza coast. This flotilla was organized by the Turkish IHH, which has extensive links to extreme Islamic terror groups. Provoking a confrontation with Israel continues to be the primary aim.


Since May 2010, the Israeli government has altered the manner in which it administers the limitations on the transfer of goods to Gaza. It now specifically prohibits only those materials that might be taken and directed by Hamas and other terror groups in furtherance of their hostile purposes.


There is no humanitarian emergency among the civilian population in Gaza, and hence there can be no justification for conveying emergency shipments intended to alleviate an emergency that clearly does not exist. Any genuine wish to provide materials to the Gaza population can be directed through Israeli ports and the relevant authorities.


Hamas routinely fires missiles randomly at Israeli civilian targets. Thus a situation of ongoing armed conflict exists between Hamas and Israel, which has the prerogative to institute a naval and land blockade to prevent the introduction of weapons and materials that could serve belligerent purposes. Such a blockade is well established in international law and practice.


It is internationally accepted that any attempt to breach such a blockade may be prevented by Israeli naval patrols. Such a process may take place outside the area of the blockade if the declared intention of the flotilla is to violate the blockade. Furthermore, any vessel refusing to respond to the demands of the naval forces may be stopped forcefully.

Aiming to Provoke a Confrontation

Since the May 2010 wave of "flotillas" organized by Turkish and other groups, ostensibly conveying cargoes of vital and indispensible aid intended to reach the population of Gaza, much has been written and televised as to the real intentions of the organizers. Additionally, several enquiries have been instituted in order to analyze the legal, military, and other aspects of the flotilla affair and the way it was handled.

What seems to have been made very clear by the groups that organized the flotilla, especially the Turkish-led IHH terror-related organization, is the fact that the use of an ostensibly civilian, humanitarian flotilla and a huge PR campaign in order to demonstratively breach the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza coast and thereby challenge Israel's policy regarding the Gaza Strip and provoke a confrontation with Israel, was clearly and continues to be the primary aim.

Hornik: Israel Faces New Flotilla Threat

P. David Hornik
frontpagemag.com
01 June '11

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/06/01/israel-faces-new-flotilla-threat/

It was a year ago on Tuesday that Israeli naval commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara, one of a convoy of six ships that had sailed from Turkey with the aim of breaking Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. The commandos, attacked with metal bars, clubs, and knives by a mob of jihadists from the terror-linked IHH organization, fought for their lives and killed nine of the assailants—sparking yet another round of international Israel-bashing and investigations.

Now, a year later, the same IHH is, along with the Free Gaza Movement, organizing another flotilla—and it’s supposed to set sail for Gaza toward the end of June.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which is connected to military intelligence, published an explosive exposé on the new flotilla. IHH leader Bülent Yildirim and another senior figure in the organization, Hüseyin Oruç, say this one will be much larger—numbering 15 ships, including the Mavi Marmara again, and a total of 1500 passengers.

As with last year’s flotilla, the non-Turkish contingent can be expected to consist of leftist-NGO and other Western fellow travelers of the jihad, largely under the Free Gaza Movement’s aegis. Yildirim says members of Arab parliaments and anti-Israeli “Jews from around the globe” will also be on board.

The IHH claims that this time none of the passengers will have weapons, and that it is prepared for UN or European observers to inspect the flotilla’s cargo. The Meir Amit Center expresses “skepticism,” noting that

for the previous flotilla IHH also claimed that the luggage of the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara had been inspected by the Turkish authorities as they boarded the ship in Istanbul. In reality, the “inspection,” if it was indeed carried out, was meaningless, because many weapons were loaded aboard the ship, as was military equipment and tools for making improvised weapons.

Some other reasons for skepticism that this new flotilla will be a pacific one:

Phillips: The floating theatre of the jihad (part two)

Melanie Phillips
The Spectator
31 May '11

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6990380/the-floating-theatre-of-the-jihad-part-two.thtml

Two things are due to happen in Gaza in June.

The first is that a second shopping mall is due to open. According to Khaled abu Toameh, this will house a huge supermarket, clothes and gift shops, a large restaurant, a modern coffee shop, a cinema and entertainment sites for children. This complements the first mall that opened last year, as well as the gourmet restaurants that are already turning Gaza into a magnet for the discerning Arab foodie.

The second thing that is planned to happen is the arrival of another huge flotilla carrying ‘humanitarian supplies’ to relieve the, er, starvation and destitution in Gaza. Last time, the ‘humanitarian’ medical supplies on board the flotilla were revealed to be well past their use-by date. This time round, maybe the organisers want instead to establish a rival shopping experience – bringing in on their boats products under the 'TerrorTrade' designer label, perhaps, or 'Jihadi Chic'? -- to compete with the two mega-malls.

Absurd? Of course. But the point of this exercise is not to relieve want. It is merely to stage a propaganda stunt that makes Israel look bad in the eyes of a credulous and malevolent world.

Last time, the Turkish terrorist IHH which was in charge of the lead flotilla boat the Mavi Marmara tried to lynch an Israeli boarding party searching it for smuggled weapons and which opened fire in self-defence – promptly causing the post-rational west to blame Israel for ‘aggression’.

Where They Really Need a Freedom Flotilla: Try Syria

Claudia Rosett
pajamasmedia.com
30 May '11

http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/where-they-really-need-a-freedom-flotilla-try-syria/?singlepage=true

As if there weren’t enough trouble in the world, it’s “Freedom Flotilla” season again in the Middle East. Self-declared “freedom activists” are again maneuvering to score big propaganda points by trying to break the Israeli naval blockade meant to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza — the Palestinian enclave ruled by the Iranian-backed terrorist group, Hamas. In Turkey, such activists are marking the first anniversary of the May 31, 2010 confrontation aboard the Turkish flagship of last year’s flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, in which some of the erstwhile peaceniks aboard the vessel turned out to be thugs wielding clubs and knives. They attacked the Israelis trying to enforce the blockade; nine “peace” activists died and seven Israeli commandos were wounded.

Plans are now taking shape for another flotilla to sail for Gaza, sometime in June. A major organizer of last year’s flotilla, the terror-linked Turkish nonprofit known as IHH, is seeking preliminary applications for people who want to join this year’s excursion to bait and besmirch Israel and support Iranian-backed Hamas. The IHH site lists some who have already signed up, including a number of Americans described as planning to sail aboard a U.S.-flagged ship called the Audacity of Hope.

Whatever the lofty intentions under which some of the dupes among this crowd might sail, the effect is to support the terrorist rulers of Gaza — who have recently, once again, ratcheted up their rocket and mortar bombardments of Israel, and, as clients of Iran, may be planning worse. Which is the reason for the Israeli blockade in the first place. Recall that in 2005, hoping for peaceful coexistence, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, forcibly evicting even those Israelis who refused to leave their homes there. The Palestinians of Gaza did not respond with peace. They voted into power Hamas, which is dedicated in its charter to the eradication of Israel. They launched thousands of attacks on Israel. Gaza’s real problem is not the Israeli blockade, or a lack of supplies, but its predatory devotion to the aims of terrorizing and destroying the democratic state of Israel. In the name of humanitarian aid, United Nations agencies and assorted charities have been pouring resources into Gaza for years (much of that provided by American and European taxpayers). Attempts to shred the Israeli blockade do not add up to humanitarian help; they add up to support for terror-loving Hamas.

If anyone involved in the launching of this “Freedom Flotilla II” really wants to do some good in this world, there is another piece of turf along the eastern Mediterranean coast they could aim for. It’s a place where a blockade of sorts has been imposed not by Israel, but by the country’s own government — which is now preventing entry by anyone likely to report back on the atrocities within. It’s a country where Iran has been sending in the thugs of its elite Quds force to help crush an uprising of people calling for an end to decades of dynastic totalitarian rule. It’s a place where international peace activists hoping to galvanize world opinion with a high-profile boat trip might usefully attempt a landing and display of solidarity, if only to let the world witness the response.

That place is Syria. It is, of course, less attractive to these flotilla types for a number of reasons. One is that Syrian security forces are likely to be a lot less considerate than Israeli commandos. Your average peace activist who might try sailing forthrightly to the rescue of Syria’s beleaguered demonstrators is more likely to get shot in the head than briefly detained and then repatriated, which is what Israel did last year with those of the flotilla passengers who actually remained peaceful. And course a “Freedom Flotilla” aiming to draw world attention to Syria might actually end up striking a blow for freedom — as opposed to scoring a propaganda coup for the terrorists of Hamas by grandstanding on the high seas about Gaza. But don’t hold your breath. Freedom is not what these flotillas are about.

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NY Times Sinks the Truth: Flotilla 2:

Simon Plosker
Honest Reporting
15 May '11

According to a New York Times report, a second flotilla of vessels led by the Turkish Mavi Marmara is due to sail for Gaza within the next few months. Last time, the real motives and agenda of those involved in the flotilla only became clear after Israeli commandos were attacked by extremists brandishing weapons.

Last time, the flotilla organizers were allowed to sell a false narrative of so-called “peace activists” delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans suffering a humanitarian crisis as a result of an Israeli blockade.

This time, there is no excuse for the media not to question the agenda behind a second flotilla and to include the relevant context. The New York Times, however, has published such a shoddy piece of journalism that it is difficult to believe how such an article was allowed in the newspaper of record.

Where is the context?

According to the NY Times:

Almost a year ago, Israeli naval commandos stormed a previous flotilla sailing to Gaza, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists on the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships in the fleet.

Only this January, The Turkel Commisssion of inquiry into the events surrounding the May 31, 2010 Gaza flotilla concluded that Israeli soldiers only took action in self-defense after being violently attacked by the ship’s passengers and their actions complied with international law.

Having adopted the simple narrative over the events of May 2010, the article continues by describing the owners of the Mavi Marmara as the “Humanitarian Relief Foundation“, a “Turkish nongovernmental organization“.

Why does the NY Times use such a benign description, particularly when the organization is best known by its acronym the IHH, which the article does not refer to? It is no secret that the IHH has a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation, supports radical Islamic networks, including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements.

Having interviewed someone from the IHH, did Susanne Gusten, the NY Times journalist not consider this background information on the IHH to be relevant to the story?

(Read full "NY Times Sinks the Truth")

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As Next Flotilla Nears Launch…

Seth Mandel
frontpagemag.com
04 May '11

On December 15, 2010 a ceremony was held in Gaza to commemorate the reconstruction of a building in Jabaliya that was destroyed during Operation Cast Lead—and thus the rebuilding was considered a symbolic victory of sorts for Hamas.

The keynote speech at the ceremony was delivered by Muhammad Kaya, a Turkish national. He brought the house down with the following remarks:

“We represent Turkey, and our interest and goal is not to feed the Palestinian people and bring them food, but to help them stand on their feet in face of the occupation’s oppression and support them in confronting their enemies. We are certain that if the force on this land submitted to imperialist dictates money would flow in from every side, but this force refused and stood firm in the face of challenges… the day will come when Palestinians will build their houses in Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Haifa.”

This was par for the course for speeches given under Hamas auspices, but the speaker in this case, Kaya, was actually a representative from the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights, Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief—better known as the IHH, the terrorist organization behind last year’s deadly “flotilla” that attempted to break the naval blockade of Gaza to help Hamas. The incident turned violent when the Israel Defense Forces boarded one ship, the Mavi Marmara, and were attacked by armed men.

And the IHH is behind a new flotilla, preparing to set sail for Gaza in May, in time for the one-year anniversary of the first.

“The Leader of the IHH is Bulent Yildirim, who said they are getting the flotilla ready and that there will be a ship from every country in Europe,” reported Voice of America. “Yildirim said the ‘Mavi Marmara’ from Turkey will be part of it, and until the blockade is lifted on Gaza, the intifada will continue by land, by sea and by air.”

The question, then, is this: If the IHH and its partners will behave exactly the same as last year, how will Israel respond?
“The Israelis will use different methods to bring the flotilla under control, or at least at minimum to prevent it from making it all the way to Gaza,” said James Colbert, policy director at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, in Washington, D.C.

Just what those methods are has not been revealed, but options for disarming the ships at sea have been discussed. Last time, naval commandos dropped down to the Mavi Marmara armed with paintball guns, unprepared for the violence reception they received. In hindsight, Colbert said, this turned out to be both “unwise” and “ineffective.”

The passengers they encountered were “violent protesters, some of them known to affiliate with terrorist organizations, who met them with iron clubs, knives, sling shots and firebombs. So they are not going to put their troops at risk in the same way.”

One option, Colbert said, is to disable the power on the ships, but if inclement weather approaches the ships would be in immediate danger without engine power. Others have floated the idea of an Israeli “counter-flotilla,” which would be peaceful and display banners calling attention to the Gaza flotilla’s illegality. That would have the effect of getting the Israeli point of view in front of the news cameras covering the event. Colbert noted the inherent hazards in such an act: the Gaza flotilla boats could attempt to ram the Israeli boats, and running boats so close together carries the risk of a crash.

Israel will also have to work out the logistics of a seeming contradiction: allowing legitimate humanitarian supplies through while taking a tough line toward those who, like last year’s flotilla, attempt to bring weapons to Hamas or resist Israel’s efforts to bring the ships into Ashdod for inspection. “I don’t think it will deter the people who want to cause Israel harm, and in fact are looking for this, they’re looking for a violent confrontation,” Colbert said.

If a ship is found to have weapons aboard, Israeli forces may disable the ship’s engine and encourage its backers to have the ship towed not to Israel, but to its point of origin—Turkey or Cyprus.

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Why Was the Gaza Flotilla Postponed?

Pesach Benson
Honest Reporting/Backspin
27 April '11

http://honestreporting.com/why-was-the-gaza-flotilla-postponed/


Choose the best answer. The real reason the IHH postponed its Gaza flotilla is because:

A) The IHH doesn’t want controversy disrupting Turkey’s June 12 parliamentary elections.

B) Macho Islamists know IDF commandos will be armed with more than paintball guns.

C) Organizers are having a hard time recruiting crew members and humanitarian ringers. Others who already signed up are backing out.

D) Ship owners aren’t loaning out vessels, fearful Israel will confiscate them.

E) Flotillista fundraising to purchase ships is simply floundering.

G) All of the above, though I wish it was because they’d realize that there’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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Turkey plans to violate Israeli land, sea, airspace

vladtepesblogdotcom
Apr 8, 2011

As we say in these parts, "We will live, and we will see".



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The UN Human Rights Council: Hard at work condemning Israel

For Immediate Release:
March 21, 2011
Contact: Anne Bayefsky
info@EYEontheUN.org

This article by Anne Bayefsky appears in The Jerusalem Post.

The meeting on Monday at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva helps explain how it is possible for the horrifying murder of the Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists on March 11 to have been so easily minimized by the “civilized” world. Slashing the throat of a three-month old baby and stabbing a three-year old twice in the heart has sickened and anguished Jews everywhere, but the steady pounding of anti-Semitism at the United Nations has not skipped a beat.

At this session of the Human Rights Council a UN-accredited NGO distributed a publication containing the following picture:

The demonic Jew, with the swastika substituted for the star of David on the Israeli flag, is depicted as an octopus strangling freedom-loving innocents.

The Jews as a vile life-threatening octopus was also a feature of Nazi propaganda. Today, it is how the Turkish NGO, the International Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), is permitted to portray its attempt last May to defy a legal Israeli naval blockade.

An appeal made to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to take action against the IHH and to object to the distribution of this material on the UN “designated NGO tables outside the plenary room” was ignored.

The UN-accredited IHH “humanitarians” also delivered a statement at this Council’s session in which they said: “we consider the unlawful activities of Israel to be the most serious threat, one that is even more dangerous than that of a nuclear attack.”

New Book By Eyewitness Turkish Journalist: Mavi Marmara Militants Planned Attack on Israeli Soldiers to Force Confrontation

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
23 September '10

We now have the definitive source on the Mavi Marmara affair and it proves Israel was right. The ship was controlled by radical Jihadists who planned to attack Israeli forces and provoke confrontation. The source is a book, including photos, by a Turkish journalist named Şefik Dinç who was on the ship.

Dinç is sympathetic to the militants but also points to the responsibility of the Turkish government and the IHH, the sponsoring Islamist group, for the crisis. His text and pictures show the Jihadists taking out iron bars and clubs, preparing for battle, beating Israeli soldiers, and trying to throw one of them into the sea. Dinç also reports that Israeli soldiers opened fire only trying to rescue soldiers taken hostage. His account corresponds in almost every detail with that given by Israel.

He writes: “When everyone who had been assigned a task reported to their stations, clubs were taken out of a hiding place….In addition to the wooden clubs I’d seen earlier, there were now iron bars as well.” Those passengers not choosing to participate in the attack went down to lower decks. The first three soldiers who landed were beaten and dragged to the upper deck. When they tried to throw a soldier overboard, some non-Jihadi passengers intervened and stopped them; others sought to stop the beatings.

(Read full post)

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New wave of pro-Hamas ships to set sail for Gaza

Robin Shepherd
robinshepherdonline.com
06 September '10

Less than a week after Hamas terrorists murdered four Israeli civilians in a calculated attempt to scupper peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Washington, it has emerged that a flotilla of up to 20 “aid” ships to Hamas-run Gaza is to be launched in the next weeks and months by a group called European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP).

The Jerusalem Post reports today that the IDF is preparing for the “mother of all flotillas” in which other NGOs will join EJJP presumably in an attempt to recreate the public relations disaster for Israel which ensued after the boarding of the Mavi Marmara in May this year.

Indeed, one of those NGOs is the self same IHH — The Turkish jihadi organisation — which violently attacked Israeli soldiers boarding the Mavi Marmara. The resultant loss off life among the activists — nine dead in all — was widely blamed on Israel and forced the Israeli government drastically to reduce the sanctions regime against Gaza, thus bolstering Hamas. It now appears that the flotilla movement has sensed that its tactics have worked and is looking not only to give another public relations boost to Hamas but to enhance its ability to carry out acts of terror.

(Read full post)

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BBC Exonerates Israel

'We're going to defeat the Israeli commandos,' the IHH head tells BBC.


Benjamin Weinthal
The Weekly Standard
27 August '10

A rare note of European journalistic optimism in the aftermath of Israel's naval interception in May of a flotilla headed for Hamas-ruled Gaza: BBC Panorama, an investigative TV program, aired several weeks ago a remarkably hard-hitting exposure (“Death in the Med”) of what unfolded on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, when nine radical Islamists died. Jane Corbin doggedly pursues questions involving the jihadists’ animated ideology that spawned many of the Mavi Marmara activists. BBC shows previously unseen footage aboard the Mavi Marmara and fresh interviews with the Israeli naval commandos who participated in the naval mission.

One piece of evidence in “Death in the Med” that proves that the Mavi Marmara was a vessel containing a large number of jihadists seeking to kill Israelis (instead of its self-proclaimed “peace mission”) is footage of the head of the Turkish IHH “charity” Bulent Yildirim himself. In the clip, Yildrim proclaims, aboard the vessel before the Israeli interception:

We’re going to defeat the Israeli commandos –we’re declaring it now. If you bring your soldiers here, we will throw you off the ship and you’ll be humiliated in front of the whole world.

Corbin then asks Yildirim:

You said that if they board the ship you would throw them into the sea. Isn’t that a provocation, saying that to your supporters on the ship?

Yildirim’s response:

(Read full article)

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What David Cameron Doesn't Know About Turkey

Turkey is sponsoring the jihadists, not guarding against them.


Michael Weiss
The Weekly Standard
29 July '10
Posted before Shabbat

Who said this?

Hamas are resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land. They have won an election. I have told this to U.S. officials ... I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist organization. I think the same today. They are defending their land.

That would be Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking before an exultant crowd a few weeks ago in the city of Konya as a newly decorated defender of regional Islamism. This is the man whom David Cameron was out to please the other day when, in a speech delivered in Ankara, he referred to Gaza as a “prison camp,” assailed Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara as “completely unacceptable,” and insisted that despite the aura of hopelessness now clinging to Turkey’s agonized bid to join the European Union, it must join it whatever the grumblings from Germany and France. Brutal occupation of Cyprus, subjugation of a Kurdish minority in everything from politics to linguistics, and ongoing denial of the Armenian genocide are evidently Maastricht-compatible initiatives to the new British prime minister, considered even by his support base not to “do” foreign policy so terribly well.

That didn’t stop a fellow Conservative, MP Daniel Hannan, from encouraging Cameron’s Obama-like overture to an increasingly hostile and subversive ally: “Cameron's reasons for backing Ankara's bid for EU membership are solidly Tory: Turkey guarded Europe's flank against the Bolshevists for three generations, and may one day be called on to do the same against the jihadis.”

(Read full article)

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Bad News: "peace process," UK, Hamas, Turkey; Good News: Boycotts Fail; U.S. public opinion; True News: Dead Turkish Flotilla Attackers Sought Martyrd

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
17 July '10

If you have any belief that there is going to be Israel-Palestinian peace in the near future or that the Palestinian public has been in any way prepared for a two-state solution by its leadership here's a simple point that proves the contrary.

The year is 2010. A child born on the day the Oslo agreement, the basis for a supposed peace, was agreed to by Israel and the PLO would soon be celebrating his 18th birthday and be an adult. The "peace process," however, is still in diapers. Yet according to the latest Palestinian poll, 82 percent of West Bank residents won't give up the demand that any peace agreement must let all Palestinians who were refugees in 1948 or their descendents return to live in what is now Israel. In fact, even if compensated for lost property they still demand repatriation. The Palestinian Authority has done nothing to oppose this position, which makes peace with Israel impossible, on the contrary it has consistently supported the idea.

This has always been a peculiar concept. If Palestinians were nationalist they would not go and live in another, non-Palestinian and even non-Arab and non-Muslim country. The point of this demand is, of course, to eliminate Israel's existence over time. The amount of bloodshed that would ensue if this idea was implemented would be catastrophic.

And don't get me started on the ridiculousness of trying to make peace with a revolutionary Islamist, genocide-seeking Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip.

Remember, though, that the American people--and others in the West--are smarter than much of their elites. The respected Gallup poll shows that 63 percent of Americans support Israel now as compared to only 15 percent backing the Palestinians. This is a record, except for a short period in 1991 when Israel was under Scud attack and the PLO was siding with a country, Iraq, that U.S. forces were fighting.
Asked if they were favorable toward Israel generally, 67 percent of Americans said "yes," one of the highest scores of all countries.

(Read full article)

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What Really Happened on the Mavi Marmara and Some Revealing Events in the Middle East Today

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
14 July '10

1). Saudi and Arab Leaders Want Obama to Rescue Them, Not Flatter Them

A UPI dispatch reports:

"A former Arab leader, in close touch with current leaders, speaking privately not for attribution, told this reporter July 6, `All the Middle Eastern and Gulf leaders now want Iran taken out of the nuclear arms business and they all know sanctions won't work.'"

Now there are few former Arab leaders--they usually stay leader until health or a bullet makes them no longer available for interviews--but this sounds precisely like Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, former Saudi ambassador to the United States.

This is an accurate reading of what's going on in most Arabic-speaking states (obviously not Syria and another de facto country called the Gaza Strip). It runs quite contrary to the dominant Western view that the Arabs-will-love-us-if-we-bash-Israel-and-show-we-think-Muslims-invented-mathematics-and-don't-want-to-be-aggressive-or-use-force-against-anyone school.

Well, the Prince who used to be known as ambassador was basically expressing this sentiment (note 1):

"If there's something strange
in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?"
(note 2)

The "Zionist entity"?

One can almost imagine the Saudi king's memo book:

Monday: Bash Israel
Tuesday: Israel destroys Iran nuclear facilities. Whew!
Wednesday: Bash Israel

2). U.S. Government Cannot Find Evidence That Flotilla Organizer is Terrorist, Germany Can

Not only are the Saudis ahead of the U.S. government, so is Germany. In an earlier article I provided proof--including U.S. court records--that the Turkish IHH, organizer of the flotilla and a Hamas ally--was lined to terrorism. Now Germany has banned the group from raising money for that very reason. So might one expect that observers reevaluate the flotilla? And I'm not talking about the good intentions of the European participants but the fact that they were being used for a pro-terrorist public relations' operation.

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A Visit Inside Turkey's Islamist IHH

A journalist's trip to the headquarters of the extremist group that sponsored the Mavi Marmara.


Claire Berlinski
The Weekly Standard
21 June '10

(Excellent read. Y.)

Istanbul

The street outside the IHH, the Turkish organization that recently dispatched the Mavi Marmara to its sanguinary fate in the eastern Mediterranean, suggests a hopeful world of multi-ethnic and religious harmony. Men and women in various forms of secular and religious dress—beards, clean-shaven, headscarves, burqas—walk in and out of the building in urgent conversation with Africans in dashikis, Swedes in stained proletarian-wear, anti-Zionist rabbis sweating nervously in black suits and payot. A gangly teenager strolls by in a T-shirt that reads, “Virgins required: No experience necessary.” It isn’t clear whether he’s off-message, highly ironic, or yet another Turkish kid who bought a T-shirt he didn’t quite understand.

The flags of the world (not the Israeli one) are flapping gaily above the street. The sign above the door reads, “The Fondation (sic) for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief”—in English only. Very few Turks read English, so this sign is not for their benefit. Inside, everything is climate-controlled and glossy and modern, the décor corporate. If ever you’re in Istanbul and down on your luck, just head over to the IHH and announce you’re a Western journalist. You’ll find the standards of hospitality excellent. You won’t see anything that might make the folks back home uneasy—nothing hinting of grim caves in Waziristan filled with raving bearded warlords screaming unpleasantly about Jews and apes and infidels. The PR flacks express some anxiety when we begin filming in the cafeteria; they worry that if we shoot the Koranic verse near the steam tables, “people will know we’re Islamists.” Does it matter, my colleague asks? They consider it briefly, decide it doesn’t, and let us keep filming.

The IHH is part of the Free Gaza movement, an international association dominated by Europeans and headquartered in Cyprus. Last week, I spoke to IHH officials and European passengers on the Free Gaza flotilla at length. My colleague and I videotaped the interviews and put the complete footage on line. Anyone who wishes may consider their comments in their full context.

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Why Is the State Department Covering for a Known Terror Group?

Moshe Dann
pajamasmedia.com
12 June '10

Why is the U.S. government covering for IHH, a Turkish “charity” organization with ties to terrorists?

A State Department spokesman told Fox News that the IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) has not been designated as a foreign terrorist organization. He added:

We are fully committed to taking appropriate action against foreign groups engaging in terrorist activity in order to prevent such groups from obtaining the resources and support needed to undertake terrorist activity.

The Treasury Department, which is mandated to implement Executive Order 13224, was even more evasive. Asked if they had seen Danish, French, and Turkish intelligence reports and other information on the IHH, a Treasury official acknowledged that the NGO is not on their “Specially Designated Nationals List,” and would not “comment on other governments’ intelligence.”

This is not about Israeli security; it is about threats to American homeland security.

A foreign NGO with a documented history of contacts with terrorists has been directly linked with Islamist terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, and government agencies tasked with protecting America have suddenly become impotent and ignorant. Concerns about keeping Turkey pro-Western and in NATO are legitimate, but they do not override American security needs. An important U.S. ally, Turkey is increasingly moving towards radical Islamism, embracing Iran and its own jihadists.

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