Gaza Flotilla Shakedown
This was the flavor of some of the folks who, with the blessing of Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan, set sail for Gaza aboard the “peace activist” flotilla flagship, the Mavi Marmara. Israel offered to offload the “humanitarian supplies” and deliver them overland. That offer was refused. When Israeli commandos tried to peacefully board the ship (as they did successfully with the rest of the flotilla), dozens of “peace activists” — wielding knives and metal rods — mobbed and attacked them, beating and stabbing. The Israelis fought back in self-defense. That was how those nine Turks died.
You know the rest of this script. Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan denounced Israel and demanded punishment for Israel. The United Nations — ever ready to assist in such endeavors — convened an inquiry, which produced a report flagrantly biased against Israel (don’t take my word for it — the Obama administration protested to the UN Human Rights Council that “we are concerned by the report’s unbalanced language, tone and conclusions”). Threats of further slanted inquiry and international legal action against Israel have continued. This has become an industry. For Israel to pay the families of its attackers is not a way to buy better ties with Turkey. It’s a way to invite more attacks. But the larger question by now is not how Israel should handle this. What’s most disturbing is that the free world stands by and accepts it as business as usual that Turkey’s Erdogan — having wished godspeed to a terror-linked group embarked for terror-controlled Gaza — demands apologies from the real victims.
Agree. Any Israeli government that offers anything that smacks of apology or compensation deserves to be brought down. This is more than a manner of honor, it would be government sanctioned injustice, and a slap at IDF personnel putting their lives on the line to defend their country.
The Mavi Marmara wasn’t even an “aid ship” as it contained some 500 “activists” and no aid to speak of. Among those activists were martyrdom-seeking militants who, from the captain’s own testimony, virtually commandeered the ship, and organized teams to repel IDF borders with knives and metal poles sliced from the ship’s railings. When IDF naval personnel ordered them to turn away from Gaza, the response from one ship was “Go back to Auschwitz”.
An apology suggests Israel and the IDF did something wrong; they did not. Israel’s blockade was entirely legal under international law as Gaza remains in a state of active war against Israel, and it was conducted legally. Compensation to the families of those militants killed would be nothing less than a reward for terrorism.
Israel has put itself into the position where they appear to desire reconciliation with Turkey more than Turkey does with Israel. But Turkey has already made its sentiments clear with its “shift” away from the West and its growing alignment with Syria, Iran and Hamas. Israel is only debasing itself by negotiating over the terms of its humiliation. Israel should instead make clear it owes Turkey nothing, that if Turkey wants reconciliation, the door is open. Otherwise, there are many other countries it can work with. (It’s already growing closer with Greece.)
Raymond, while many of my fellow Zionists are courageous and stand up people, the leftist crew leading Israel(except for a paltry few nationalists who do not wield the final power)are delusional fantasists.
Even though Likud is considered a center-right party, in reality it is not.
The power levers in Israel are run by leftist media and corporate tycoons, and are desperate to hand over our Jewish heartland, thus stripping Israel of its Jewish essence.
Therefore,they think NOTHING of diminishing the self respect, the honor of the Jewish citizens and their soldiers.
In fact, the fact that our Defense ! Minister sent navy commandos aboard a boat with terrorists-yes, the intelligence officers warned of the terrorists on board-and armed ! them with paintballs, instead of high powered rifles, bespeaks of his mendacity and desire NOT to attain victory.
IF not for the fact that others came on board with their sidearms, our Shayetet Naval commandos would have been slaughtered.
To wit,most of Israel’s leaders are NOT fit to be dog catchers.
Well Adina, while I don’t entirely agree with your characterization of Israeli leaders not even being fit for catching canines, I must remind you that you only get to choose from what’s on the shelf, and this is true of Israeli politicians and military leaders as well.
The only sort of people willing to immerse themselves in the fetid swamp that we call the Knesset are people who are already inclined to swim in filth. The decent, faithful, and influential Jewish Zionists who could provide positive and determined Jewish and Zionist leadership already know how they would be hacked to pieces by the ultra Leftist and largely anti Israel Israeli media. Worse they also know that their entire life would be investigated and reported on, and if nothing bad was found, then the Left wing media would just make things up.
In a very real way, Israel is lucky in that we still have a few Jewish leaders who are by no means perfect, but do their best to represent Jewish and Zionist values and that they outnumber the Leftist Jewish leaders like Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni who are perfectly happy sitting in the pro Palestinian camp.
Ken, I stand corrected.
Dr Arieh Eldad, Danny Danon, Dr Ben-Ari, Ayoub Kara are the only ones who even remotely resemble true Zionists.
In fact, Kara is a Druse and I would rather have a dozen like him in place of Barak, Livni, the rest of the Labor/Kadima/Meretz crew, and of course, the Arab MK inciters.
A paltry/pitiful few worthy of leading.
Reasonable…rational…decent…caring…accomodating…responsible…just…fair…trustworthy…honest
These are the unmistakeable values, priorities, actions and intentions of Israel on display as always, even when its not in their best short term interests. They, as always, hold the high ground againt the barbarians, and show themselves superior with a complete lack of rancor or hysterical grievence over the incident.
For better or worse, as my father taught me.
“treat EVERYONE like a gentleman, not because THEY are, but because YOU are”
Israel can “afford” this seemingly self defeating concilliatory behavior, because they are, quite simply, “better” than the savages who attempt to destroy her.
What utter nonsense. The only things that matter are how such a move would be interpreted by Turkey and the rest of the Islamic world, who would see it Israel’s submission to dhimmi status, and the UN, who would see it as a concession of guilt and then seek to try and imprison the commandos and commanders involved.
Grow up.
It doesn’t make any sense for Israel to pay the families of the attackers; the ship was clearly stating that it intended to violate Israel’s refusal to allow direct offloading at a Gaza Port. And, by international law, Israel was absolutely within its legal rights to do this.
Israel had offered to unload the cargo at an Israeli port and then, by land, ship the acceptable goods, i.e, the stated ‘humanitarian aid’ to Gaza. But, the Turkish ship refused this offer.
No compensation should be offered or paid. Why is Israel doing this? Since when is compensation paid in acts of war? Has Hamas/Iran etc, offered to pay for lives lost, wounded, and damages, from their Gaza-based rockets into Israel?
“The Israelis fought back in self-defense. That was how those nine Turks died.”
Umm, I think the issue is not so much what happened once Israeli commandos entered a turkish ship in international waters as why they did so in the first place. Also, the forensic reports and the subsequent treatment of prisoners tell a different tale from this piece of propaganda…
Umm, yourself. How about dealing with facts.
The facts are that the ships were openly declaring that they intended to break the Israeli-imposed sea blockade of Gaza. Therefore Israel had every legal right to, in international waters, stop them. Clear? If the offending ships, still in international waters, had openly declared their intent of breaking a sea blockade, then international law permits Israel to attempt to stop this breakage.
The facts are that Israel had warned the ships, several times, not to break the blockade but instead head to an Israeli port, where their ‘humanitarian aid’ would be unloaded, inspected and taken by land to Gaza. The ships refused. Indeed, Egypt had also offered the same solution – dock at an Egyptian port and unload and ship the goods by land. Refused. Hmmm.
And the forensic reports show quite clearly that the boarding Israeli military were attacked by the so-called ‘civilians’. Try again.
Umm, the forensic reports show that several of the killed were shot at point blank range to the head. Several of the wounded describe that the Israelis opened supressive fire before boarding as well. As for the international waters-issue, perhaps through some legalese loophole Israel could claim legal rights. But the issue is why they chose to do so instead of the other options they had, such as disabling propellers, waiting til daytime to board, hail by coastguard, etc. They sent in their most agressive special forces against nationalist turkish civilians, then called these civilians “terrorists” and insulted the whole turkish nation.
I find it downright tragic that the muslim-hating right is winning the debates, and that no rational people seem left. this should have been a police/coastguard mission, not a SF-task. Its like launching the Navy SEALs at Sea Shepard, or the french sinking of the Greenpeace-boat. Bloody stupid and unecessary.
But I guess in this forum, Israel can make no mistakes… sigh…
Several activists were shot at point blank range to the head. So what? The top deck of the ship was small and crawling with knife- and metal rod-wielding “activists” who had already thrown 3 IDF commandos overboard to fates unknown to their other team members. If given the choice between having the same happen to your or your teammate and shooting the attackers in the head, what would you do? Break out the tea and oranges?
The rest of your ‘argument’ is nothing more than a reiteration of the usual lefty nonsense which has already been answered elsewhere.
Umm – Your ‘should have’ arguments are invalid (should have been a coast guard, should have been daylight etc) for what is their point?
The facts are: that this ship had been hailed many times and had been asked, by both Israel and Egypt, to go to either an Israeli or Egyptian port, unload their ‘humanitarian aid’ in either place and have it shipped to Gaza by land. These people refused both offers and instead, insisted on breaching a legal blockade. That means it’s no longer a coast guard but a military issue – and day or night makes no difference.
As for forensic reports – so what? If an individual is battling someone who has taken their weapon away from you or is smashing your head in with a pipe, then, you or another soldier has the right to shoot that individual – point blank or from afar.
Don’t move into the ad hominem fallacious descriptions of we who reject your arguments; we reject them because they are invalid. Not because we are anti-Muslim or pro-Israel or irrational. I focus only on the hard data and the use of reason – and I assure you, I’m known to strongly critique Israel on many occasions. This is not one of them.
Stick to the facts; you are the one who is being irrational. Sigh.
fnard
Good job of distorting reality! Keep up the good work, we all need a good laugh now and then.
The only thing that should have borded that ship was a exocet anti-ship missle.
Israel needs to demand that Turkey apologize for collaborating with the Al Qaeda-related IHH terrorists, the organization behind this attack. Israel needs to say it expects Turkey to pay Israel for ALL costs related to the operation. Turkey has chosen the path of Islamism. Relations between Turkey and israel will never be the same. NATO needs to face up to this as well and throw Turkey out of the organization and invite Israel in.
Turkey has now officially become the 21st century version of the barbary pirates. Islamic extortion 101 folks, pay attention.
The world should take note of how America handled that one! If only we had leaders with balls!
I couldn’t read the entire article. I guess we can begin waving goodbye to Israel. With leaders like that (worse than Obama) the citizens of Israel are toast.
Long ago I read an article about the Vikings sacking of Paris. There was a quote, and I don’t have time to find it, but it goes something like… If you give barbarians gold not to attack you, then attacking you looks to barbarians like a profitable endeavor.
It went on to talk about how you must exact a cost against them, so they are reluctant to come back. Israel has just done the unthinkable. It doesn’t give them moral authority. It doesn’t make them look more civilized. The VIP club for world despots called the United Nations will always hate them, and those that seek to do them harm are now emboldened.
This notion of not lowering yourself to their level is a ridiculous childhood platitude. If they could reason on a civilized level, they wouldn’t act like barbarians; therefore, you must communicate with them on a level they understand.
I thought it was the policy of Israel not to negotiate with terrorists? To pay them off is insanity and the end of Eretz Israel.
This kind of despicable appeasement makes me want to wash my hands of Israel and say they deserve what they get.
MINDBOGGLING!
Israel dispatched these nine terrorist thugs to paradise giving them the ultimate reward for jihad and now it has to apologize and pay up for their glorious deaths? It’s mindboggling! Utterly, totally mindboggling!
Danegeld, by Rudyard Kipling (1911)
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:
“We invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:
“We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”
If Israel pays $100k today, tomorrow there will be thousands Muslims ready to go and die and to be a martyr and make big money for they families in the process! Stop, no pay-no way!
Oh.
My.
God.
I am gobsmacked by this insanity.
The Arab street will dine off this for years.