Free Republic

SNIPPET: "The Turkish group IHH announced Wednesday that it will send another flotilla to Gaza comprised of six ships during the second half of July. On the same day, Israel added IHH to its terrorist watch list." SNIPPET: "An IHH press conference was held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, organized by Richard Howitt, a British member of the Parliament. During the conference, Howitt encouraged the EU to back the new flotilla initiative, stating: "If this terrible (May 31) tragedy tips the balance so that the international community finally insists on full and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, then some...

By JPOST.COM STAFF 06/07/2010 15:55 Israel must send Turkey a clear message that if Turkish warships are sent to accompany the next flotilla trying to break the embargo on Gaza, these will be considered acts of war by Israel , Uzi Dayan, former deputy Chief of General Staff, told Army Radio Monday morning. "If the Turkish prime minister joins such a flotilla,” Dayan said, “we should make clear beforehand this would be an act of war, and we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it.” “If Israel doesn't make this clear beforehand,...

WASHINGTON—Turkey moved closer to severing its relations with Israel, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly apologize for his government's high-seas military action against a pro-Palestinian flotilla this week in order to avert a formal diplomatic rupture. Senior Israeli officials responded Friday that their government would never apologize for an act of "self defense" and acknowledged that Israel could be on the verge of losing its closest military and economic ally in the Middle East. Such a development, these officials said, would raise new strategic and diplomatic challenges for Israel if Ankara reorients itself away from its historically pro-Israel and...

An internal IDF review of the takeover of the Gaza-bound ship Mavi Marmara revealed that three soldiers were briefly kidnapped while aboard the vessel. The three were beaten when they boarded the ship and then, when they were wounded and groggy, were dragged to a room within the ship and held there. A short time later, dozens of their fellow soldiers began searching the ship. When the attacking passengers saw that soldiers had successfully seized control of the Marmara, they released the three captives, the report stated.

In a farcical sequel to the Mavi Marmara episode, journalists are complaining that Israel's government is using videos [the journalists] left behind on the ship to prove that the violence was started by pro-terrorist thugs. [snip] ...this one is the most dramatic. It shows the pro-terrorists attacking Israeli soldiers as they try to board the ship: [snip] ...This one shows the pro-terrorists assembling their weapons in anticipation of the Israelis' effort to board the ship. It was filmed by a couple of security cameras:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is calling the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip "tragic" and says the loss of life that resulted was unnecessary. Obama stopped short of condemning the actions of Israeli forces, saying that the U.S. wants to wait for an investigation. Obama says he believes Israel should agree to such an investigation because the incident isn't good for their long-term security. While Obama said the deaths of nine people were unnecessary, he said the U.S. wants to wait for "an investigation of international standards" to determine the facts. Israel, he...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened the 'Septet' of leading ministers Thursday evening to discuss preparations for the arrival of the 'Rachel Corrie', a Gaza-bound Irish ship on a mission to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza. Several news outlets said that Netanyahu would suggest “creative ideas” for inspecting ships claiming to carry aid for Gaza. These ideas would reportedly involve the participation of United Nations crews in the inspection process. Inspections would take place in Ashdod harbor

The Sick Man of Europe adds state-sanctioned blood libels to its genocide of 1.5 million Armenian Christians.From Erdogan and the Decline of the TurksThe newspaper Yeni Safak, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's daily read, claimed that Americans were tossing so many Iraqi bodies into the Euphrates that local mullahs had issued a fatwa ordering residents not to eat the fish. The same paper repeatedly claimed that the U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah. And it reported that Israeli soldiers had been deployed alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and that U.S. forces were harvesting the innards of dead Iraqis for sale on...

The IDF has released two more videos from the incident Monday morning on the Mavi Marmara, the largest in the Turkish-organized six-ship flotilla that challenged Israel’s blockade of Gaza, and the only one to prepare a violent ambush. One of these two videos is even more dramatic than the one released on Monday, now viewed by over a million on YouTube, that shows Mavi Marmara “peace activists” among other things beating the soldiers with iron bars. The relatively less dramatic of the two newly released videos shows the “activists”—actually jihadists seeking “martyrdom”—attacking the soldiers with a stun grenade, a box...

<p>The "Free Gaza" flotilla was far more than a collection of in nocent "peace activists" try ing to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most passengers may have been nonviolent -- but a significant minority were anything but.</p> <p>The passengers reportedly included 100-plus members of various Muslim Brotherhood chapters, at least 20 of whom taped al Qaeda-style "martyr" videos before embarking.</p>

(RTTNews) - The United Nations demanded of Israel Wednesday the immediate lifting of its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip following the deadly raid by its commandos on a Gaza-bound multi-national humanitarian aid flotilla. The crux of the problem behind Monday's stand-off was the long-running, crippling Israeli siege of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian coastal enclave, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York, describing it (the blockade) as "counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong." He called on Israeli authorities to provide a "full and detailed account" of the commando raid on six ships in the Mediterranean Sea's international waters which tried to...

A few months ago, I pointed out that Gordon Brown seemed to have ended a convention that whatever hostile noises towards Israel came out of the Foreign Office, Downing Street was different. British prime ministers tended to sympathise with the Israelis, whether out of genuine regard or in the interest of the special relationship with Washington. Well, Washington has played its traditional role since the seizure of the Gaza flotilla on Monday, holding off from direct criticism and watering down the inevitable UN Security Council resolution. Not so our new prime minister David Cameron, who went further than Mr Brown...

<p>ERUSALEM -- Israel has rejected calls from the United Nations and others for an international investigation of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.</p> <p>Israel says the commandos used force only after activists on board a Turkish flagship attacked them. Nine of the activists were killed.</p>

The "Free Gaza" flotilla was far more than a collection of in nocent "peace activists" try ing to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most passengers may have been nonviolent -- but a significant minority were anything but. The passengers reportedly included 100-plus members of various Muslim Brotherhood chapters, at least 20 of whom taped al Qaeda-style "martyr" videos before embarking. And the chief organizers clearly had more than "peaceful" intentions for the flotilla. The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that a Gaza-based Hamas leader declared last Friday -- three days before the voyage started -- that the head of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a statement Wednesday defending his military’s raid of a humanitarian flotilla earlier this week and described the individuals attempting to break the Gaza blockade as “violent supporters of terrorism.” “This wasn’t a love boat,” Netanyahu said. “This was a hate boat. These weren’t pacifists or peace activists.” The Prime Minister cast Israel’s involvement in the violent confrontation as self defense and added that the videos released following the incident offer “crystal clear” evidence that the soldiers were provoked. Monday’s raid, which ultimately left nine activists dead, sparked international criticism, a fact Netanyahu bemoaned. “For...

Five planes flew out of Israel Wednesday night, June 2, carrying hundreds of foreign passengers and nine bodies from the Turkish-led flotilla Israeli commandos raided and prevented from breaking the Gaza blockade two days ago. After surrendering to Turkey's ultimatum to release all the passengers, including the seven members of Islamist terrorist groups who assaulted the Israeli boarding party, debkafile reports the Netanyahu government faced a fresh ultimatum from Ankara: Lift the Gaza blockade at once. In his televised message to the nation Wednesday night , Netanyahu pledged "to continue to uphold our right to self-defense against terror," but gave...

Israeli security forces have found weapons, including Molotov cocktails and detonators, aboard the Turkish-flagged merchant vessel Mavi Marmara, which was part of a convoy that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Should Israel face censure over an attack on a Gaza aid convoy?

"....we're going to be talking for a half hour or so to Andrew McCarthy, who has written a book. It's The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America. It is especially timely given what's happening in Israel via this flotilla, the misreporting regarding the Israelis with this flotilla incident over the weekend. The Israelis and the Egyptians set up blockades to prevent more weapons from getting to Hamas in Gaza. It was purely and simply that. The Turkish government, which is now aggressively throwing in with Iran and even Hugo Chavez, led this provocation. ...." "Islamists have taken...

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank had harsh words yesterday for the Israeli Navy after a bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla outside of Gaza, describing nine activists killed in the conflict as "innocent" and calling for an independent inquiry into the showdown. Frank, in a wide-ranging interview with the Herald, went on to say that "as a Jew" Israeli treatment of Arabs around some of the West Bank settlements makes me ashamed that there would be Jews that would engage in that kind of victimization of a minority.