Comments on: Israeli Army claims their troops were attacked by “peaceful” militants

By: David

David — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:31:18 +0000

, state terrorism is vaslty more destructive than anti-state, individual or small group terrorism. Always has been, always will be. As so it follows, and simple maths and cameras do their thang to confirm my easily verifiable assertion: the terrorism of modern state power of a regime like Israel courtesy of its bottomless supply of US high technology weaponry, exceeds qualitatively by many orders of magnitude the political violence relied upon by (pre-modern, was it?) groups like Hamas. How is Israel being backed into a corner and responding with military might against terrorist provocation, state terrorism or, indeed, any kind of terrorism?You might not like the accepted definitions, but let’s not allow that to lead you to engage in flights of fantasy! Some free advice for all you cyber warriors. No thanks.

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:38:16 +0000

From Italy, the nice official comment that the whole
”humanitarian” operation was just provocation.
Strangely enough, the French UMP’s (the political party
from which Sarkozy orginated) communique starts with
lamenting the number of dead AND recognizing the
provocation too. Comments of a more expected kind
(not the worst) from Sarkozy and from his minister of
Foreign Affairs (Kouchner) while, of course, the Socialist party is vehement.

By: obsy

obsy — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:38:28 +0000

Interesting:

A reliable poll shows a dramatic shift in Turkish public opinion. The Sonar company survey shows the left-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP, to use its Turkish initials) narrowly coming in first in elections. The party would get 33 percent compared to 31 percent for the ruling AKP Islamist party.

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-hope-from-turkey.html

By: incognito

incognito — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:39 +0000

Israel braces for Turkish, Hizballah, Hamas reprisals. Greece halts joint drill
DEBKAfile Special Report May 31, 2010, 1:45 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags: Israel-Greece Pro-Hamas flotilla Turkey
Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basburg

debkafile’s military sources report Israeli concerns that Turkey may not confine itself to strong diplomatic retaliation for the Israel Navy’s seizure Monday, May 31, of the Marmora, the Turkish vessel leading the flotilla for breaking the Gaza blockade and resort to military action along with the Iranian-backed Hizballah and Hamas. A statement from Ankara threatened “unprecedented and incalculable” reprisals, following which the Turkish chief of staff Gen. Ilker Basbug was recalled urgently to Ankara from a visit to Egypt. Greece has since halted its joint exercise with Israel in protest against the naval action.
debkafile reports from Ankara that the Turkish government is planning to continue pounding the Israeli blockade with more flotillas and have them escorted by Turkish warships and fighter jets. Israel merchant vessels moored outside Ashdod port have been instructed to sail into port and take shelter in case of missile attacks from the Gaza Strip against Ashdod and Ashkelon.
Monday morning, Israeli warplanes headed west over the Mediterranean in support of the still ongoing Israeli commando operation aboard the Turkish Marmora, the scene of violent clashes between Israeli troops and the 600 “peace activists,” some of them armed. Ankara later reported 15 dead aboard the vessel.
Israeli army spokesman, Col. Avi Beneyahu, called the incident “an act of terror on the high seas.” Far from being a humanitarian mission, the flotilla was sponsored personally by Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and permit arms supplies and terrorist to reach the Strip unrestricted. It aimed at provoking a widely publicized international incident with fatalities and showing Israel using strong-arm tactics against unarmed peace-lovers.

Its leaders and the nations involved therefore refused to heed warnings that the vessels would be prevented from entering Gaza Port and rejected Israeli offers to ferry their aid cargo overland to the Gaza Strip. Population within missile range of Gaza advised to take shelter in secured areas.
An estimated 14 activists were killed battling with Israeli troops, and dozens injured. Ten Israeli soldiers were wounded. They were all ferried to Israeli hospitals by helicopter.

The pro-Hamas passengers were described as mobbing the Israeli commandos as they were dropped onto the Marmara’s deck, using knives and iron bars to beat them and shooting with a sidearm snatched from a soldier and at least two other pistols recovered empty from two of the bodies.

Israeli security forces are preparing for the Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian Hamas to go back to shooting missiles and rockets against Israeli towns, in support of the seaborne attack on Israeli commandos. The police are also on special alert in and around Israeli Arab communities, after Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyah called them out on a general strike, and the Holy Places, especially in Jerusalem.

Egypt will face pressure to end its joint embargo on Gaza with Israel at the Arab League Council meeting urgently Tuesday, June 1. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas demanded the session.
Demonstrations against Israel were staged in Syrian and Lebanese towns. Jordan hands stiff complaint to head of Israeli diplomatic mission in Amman.

By: incognito

incognito — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:54:37 +0000

Since Erdogan is involved, we should have one eye at domestic politics in Turkey.

That’s gonna be pretty predictable.

By: incognito

incognito — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:53:21 +0000

Elementary logic seems to be gone.

A long time ago and the very reason Israel cannot allow itself to not defend itself, because the current kind of “logic” leads directly to perdition.

It does look as some military failure, though, which would not surprise me given today’s Zahal. Stealing pistols from COMMANDOS???????? If it happened it’s really scary.

By: E.G.

E.G. — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:52:32 +0000

Turkish TV. At about 1 hour on, there’s footage of the “peaceful militants” being boarded.

http://www.livestream.com/insaniyardim/video?clipId=pla_445245cd-e246-496e-a579-f8da45014981

There are (I’ll try to find them again) a few images of people on the boat clearly holding clubs (or are these axes held by the blades?)

By: Michelle Schatzman

Michelle Schatzman — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:43:45 +0000

Reposting my (somewhat updated) #34 post re. “The flotilla of fools tilts…”

Listening this morning to the radio news on France-Culture (the intellectual arm of french state radio). No one mentions the little chanson mentioned by Eliyahu in his #23 re. “The flotilla of fools…” Of course – it would probably spoil the virtuous indignation to be developed against the bad Israelis.

If I had been in charge of the operation, would I have done better? I’m just waiting for the videos that the Israel navy should have shot. If they had helicopters, did they have also video equipment on board? And people dedicated to the task of shooting pictures? We already heard witnesses explaining that the commandos fired their weapons even before being on board. We also learn that the militants on board were at the ready with knives and axes. Didn’t the navy know this? There were journalists on the navy ships. I am also waiting for their pics.

But nobody seems to point out in the french news that if the people who sailed on this flotilla were pacifists, they should not have resisted the attack. Elementary logic seems to be gone.

By: incognito

incognito — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:35:59 +0000

I reiterate: no matter what Israel does, there will be things to use to demonize and delegitimize it. So she might as well take action to defend its interests. If she does not there will be an avalanche of this stuff to the point of stifle its life out of it.

I think intelligence errors were made — there has been a deterioration in quality of the military for a long time — but letting the flotilla thru was not an option.

We’re talking existential issues here and yielding can be lethal.

By: obsy

obsy — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:28:48 +0000

Since Erdogan is involved, we should have one eye at domestic politics in Turkey. Though the timing probably is due to the Netanyahu-Obama meeting.