Ship to Gaza - The yearly flotilla farce to Gaza is upon us

...Another such holiday, akin to a pilgrimage, is the Freedom Flotilla. Every year since 2010 -- meaning that this year marks a five year anniversary -- the worshippers of Palestinianism go to the Mediterranean, but unlike others, who go to Club Med, these people swear by Gaza. Clearly, where the main attraction of a trip to the Mediterranean is typically the sandy beaches, the good weather and the great food, followers of Palestinianism are attracted by terror tunnels, Iranian made missiles and promises of ethnical cleansing of all Jews from the state of Israel. It is now that sweet time of the year again, when the most religious of the devotees get ready to board their vessels and set sail to Gaza.

Judith Bergman..
IsraelNationalNews.com..
22 May '15..

New religions add new holidays to their calendars these days. However, one religion keeps piling them on. Known as Palestinianism, and despite being relatively fresh on the historical scene compared to older world faiths, it has been gaining devotees at an amazing speed. Furthermore, it has fully understood that in order to galvanize followers and to gain new proselytes it needs to have holidays, which can serve as rallying points, strengthening that burning flame of faith.

One such holiday, which has become as regular as Christmas Eve, is Israel Apartheid Week, which commences worldwide every year around February and has done so since 2005. This festival has as its aim the “enrichment” of campuses with virulently anti-Semitic and vitriolic abuse of the State of Israel.

Another such holiday, akin to a pilgrimage, is the Freedom Flotilla. Every year since 2010 -- meaning that this year marks a five year anniversary -- the worshippers of Palestinianism go to the Mediterranean, but unlike others, who go to Club Med, these people swear by Gaza. Clearly, where the main attraction of a trip to the Mediterranean is typically the sandy beaches, the good weather and the great food, followers of Palestinianism are attracted by terror tunnels, Iranian made missiles and promises of ethnical cleansing of all Jews from the state of Israel.

It is now that sweet time of the year again, when the most religious of the devotees get ready to board their vessels and set sail to Gaza. This year the pilgrimage is called “Freedom Flotilla III” comprising several planned sea voyages, all aptly named “Ship to Gaza” from different ports in Europe, as well as Canada, Turkey, and South Africa according to the website of the organizers.

Some of the most devoted followers of Palestinianism are Scandinavians – a fact worth mentioning, since Scandinavia is one of the least traditionally religious places in the West, Palestinianism thus filling a notable void – and it should therefore come as no surprise that the first ship in the Freedom Flotilla III is from Sweden. Norway helped purchase the ship and has sent a few members from its own sizeable community of Palestinianists.

The trawler, named Marianne of Gothenburg, left its homeport on Thursday. It travelled first to Malmoe, that lovely city in the far south of Sweden, where Jews cannot wear a kippa in the streets out of fear for their personal security. Then it continued to Copenhagen, where it picked up a lonely female populist Danish parliamentarian, scrambling for Muslim votes before the upcoming parliamentary elections.

While Marianne of Gothenburg is the first boat in the Freedom Flotilla III to leave for Gaza, according to the website of Ship to Gaza Sweden, it is scheduled to stop at several ports on the way that will be announced later. One devotee observer posting on Facebook, but not travelling on the ship himself, wrote that the purpose of these stops is to “expose Israel’s occupation of Palestine”.

Before leaving the port of Copenhagen, the Ship to Gaza devotees tried to explain the purpose of their voyage to the Danish press. “The ship’s cargo consists of important things such as solar panels and midwife equipment… but the cargo is primarily symbolic…probably our most important cargo is our message. We are carrying international law and human rights,” said the ship’s Swedish communications coordinator Staffan Granér to the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. Another co-religionist, the Norwegian left wing politician from the party “Red”, Torstein Dahle, felt it pertinent to add his belief that the Israeli navy “shoots Palestinian fishermen and throws them into the sea”.

Faced with a question about Israel’s legitimate interest in screening ships for weapons shipments, the Palestinianists gathered in the port of Copenhagen became markedly evasive. “We are non-state actors and have no contact with Hamas. It is up to the Palestinians to decide, which government they wish to have” said Torstein Dahle. Notice the almost immediate denial of having anything to do with Hamas -- bringing to mind that old Shakespearean quote of “methinks the lady doth protest too much” -- and the convenient omission of the fact that there have been no “elections” in Gaza since 2006, when Hamas gained power. Not to mention that they did not answer the legitimate question posed by the Danish journalist.

Will the Turkish Flotilla Group Be Named as Terrorists?

Jonathan Schanzer
Foreign Policy
20 August '10

It's not every day that House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ed Royce (R-CA), the ranking member of terrorism subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, agree on anything. But, when it comes to the terrorist connections of one particular Turkish charity, there's no daylight between them. These legislators recently sent a letter to Stuart Levey, the under secretary for terror finance at the Treasury Department, stating that evidence "strongly supports" designating the Turkish charity IHH (Insan Haklari Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi) under Executive Order 13224 for its support of terrorist groups, and urging Levey to take action.

IHH, by way of background, sponsored the ill-fated flotilla designed to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in late May. And though the Israeli military has come under intense fire for a confrontation that led to nine deaths on the high seas, legislators are increasingly convinced, based on a growing body of evidence, that IHH could meet the Treasury's legal criteria for terrorist designation.

Other influential members of Congress are getting in the act, too. Representative Ron Klein, a Democrat from Florida, has also asked the government to scrutinize IHH. He sent a letter to the State Department last month asking its counterterrorism department to consider a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing. Last week, Richard Verma from State's Office of Legislative Affairs responded with a letter indicating that the Turkish charity may not qualify as an FTO, but that "U.S. government agencies are taking a close look at IHH" for Treasury designation because "serious questions of support to terrorist organizations have been raised."

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Rashid Khalidi Appeals for Funds for Ship to Run Israeli Blockade of Gaza

Winfield Myers
Campus Watch
20 July '10

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, has signed an appeal for funds to outfit a ship--to be named The Audacity of Hope after Barack Obama's second book--that will challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza in September or October, according to a report by Robert Mackey at The Lede, a blog of the New York Times. His wife Mona is also a signatory.

The appeal is posted at the site USTOGAZA.ORG, which says the ship will sail from the US to the Eastern Mediterranean, where it will join ships from "Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and parts of the Middle East." The appeal employs the word "we" when speaking of the upcoming trip, which gives the impression that the signatories intend to be aboard.

The site's opening paragraph is laden with falsehoods of commission and omission:

This is an important moment in history. In the aftermath of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre and increased world-wide scrutiny of Israel's blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has mounted a huge public relations campaign spreading the lie that by letting a few more items into Gaza the blockade has been lifted. This is not the reality. Gaza is still under siege, vital building materials and other supplies are banned, exports of goods from Gaza are denied and neither ships nor people can travel without permission from Israel, permission which Israel will not give. Gaza is essentially an open-air prison under a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade.

Somehow, USTOGAZA omitted reference to this video, which shows Israeli commandos being brutally attacked by those on board.

It notes the amount of money needed and the size of the ship:

We turn to you to help make the U.S. boat, The Audacity of Hope, a reality. We must raise at least $370,000 in the next month. These funds will be used to purchase a boat large enough for 40-60 people, secure a crew, and cover the licensing and registering of the boat. In addition, the funds will subsidize some other costs of sending a U.S. delegation.

Mackey's brief report notes the Khalidi-Obama connection, about which CW examined closely during the 2008 presidential campaign:

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More documentation of flotilla planning violence against Israel

Itamar Marcus/Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Media Watch
01 June "10

A day before the confrontation with Israel a university lecturer revealed on Hamas TV that the Gaza flotilla's commander had announced that the participants were planning to use "resistance," the Palestinian euphemism for violence, against "the Zionists." He added that the participants sought to die as Martyrs, even more than they wanted to reach Gaza.



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Gaza looks beyond the tunnel economy

Tobias Buck
Financial Times
24 May '10

(Not exactly the picture they normally are trying to convey, is it.)

The young tunnel worker flashes a broad smile as he tightens his grip and starts lowering himself down a narrow shaft into the sandy depths below Rafah.

Seated on a piece of wood attached to an electrical winch, he descends 18 metres and starts crawling into the narrow tunnel that continues for another 700 metres, linking this border town in the southern Gaza Strip with Egypt. Somewhere below, his colleagues are shoring up the tunnel's precarious supports, damaged by a recent explosion.

While the dangerous work proceeds below, Nasim, one of the owners of the tunnel, waits in the tent that covers the entrance. He is among a small number of Gazans who have made a fortune by undermining Israel's economic embargo of the Strip. Until recently, tunnel owners could expect to make at least $50,000 (€40,000, £35,000) in net profits every month by smuggling fuel, cigarettes and other goods from Egypt.

For close to three years, the tunnels below Rafah have offered a unique lifeline to Gazans, who are otherwise deprived of all but the most basic humanitarian supplies. They have also allowed Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Strip, to replenish its coffers and rebuild its military arsenal, making the tunnels a target for Israel.

Today, however, Nasim is more worried about the decline in business than he is about Israeli air raids. He says Hamas, whose security officers can be seen in the tunnel area, is taking an ever greater cut of the operators' profits. Moreover, the prices of many smuggled goods have fallen in recent months, thanks to a supply glut that is on striking display across the Strip.

Some argue that Gaza's tunnel economy is becoming a victim of its own success. Hundreds of tunnels have shut down over the past year as the result of greater Egyptian efforts to stop the flow of goods - and weapons - into the Strip. But the remaining tunnels, about 200 to 300 according to most estimates, have become so efficient that shops all over Gaza are bursting with goods.

Branded products such as Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Snickers and Heinz ketchup - long absent as a result of the Israeli blockade - are both cheap and widely available.

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International peace schlamazels

Later this month, yet another futile attempt by propagandists to "break the Israeli blockade" will be made, this time aboard the "Rachel Corrie."


Lenny Ben-David
Op-Ed/JPost
15 May '10

Toward the end of the month, a naval invasion will be attempted near the Mediterranean coast. A ragtag armada of rust buckets loaded with international “peace” activists from the US, Europe and Turkey will try to “run the Israeli blockade” and dock the ships in the tiny Gaza port.

The navy announced on May 10 that the boats will be blocked.

This attempt will be the latest of a series of schlamazel [Yiddish for one who is always getting the soup spilled on him by the schlemiel (the one who spills the soup)] Palestinian propaganda efforts to reenact the Jewish campaign of the 1940s to bring survivors of the Nazi camps past the British blockade.

Like the Jews’ famous Exodus of 1948, the Palestinians even name a flagship to lead the convoy. In 1988, the Sol Phryne ferry was purchased in Cyprus and renamed the Awda – the Return – in dedication to the Palestinians’ insistence on returning to Israel. That ship almost sank in a Cyprus port when a mysterious explosion blew a hole in the bow, seriously damaging it. At the time, Israeli-Arab affairs analyst Ehud Ya’ari wrote, “By sabotaging the ship before it ever weighed anchor, Israel turned what was meant to be a dazzling media extravaganza into a public relations fiasco for the PLO.”

In 2007 and 2008 other international aid ships were blocked by the navy. In January 2009, the Iranian aid ship Iran Shahed was intercepted, just as tons of Iranian arms shipments destined for Hamas or Hizbullah were intercepted.

In December 2009, international activists suffered their worst PR disaster. Organized under the aegis of the anarchist Code Pink group, they attempted to stage a “freedom march” with a convoy of trucks from Egypt to Gaza. But the Egyptian government refused to permit their transit, and in an embarrassing fiasco, the activists ended up holding protests and demonstrations in Cairo where they clashed with Egyptian riot police.

But they did achieve one historical, monumental fete: They boasted that they floated 1,400 candles down the Nile River in memory of the Palestinians who died in the Israel-Hamas war the year before. Of course, the activists made sure that the candles were in biodegradable cups. Really. Truly, a kumbaya moment.

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