It was an ambush.

Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep.
[T]he phenomenon of charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida is by no
means exclusively limited to the Arabian Peninsula. Indeed, elsewhere in the Muslim world,
other such entities have been established with near equal success – as in Turkey, with the so called Foundation for Human Rights, Liberties, and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). Turkish
authorities began their own domestic criminal investigation of IHH as early as December
1997, when sources revealed that leaders of IHH were purchasing automatic weapons from
other regional Islamic militant groups.43 IHH’s bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched,
and its local officers were arrested. Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items,
including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a “jihad flag.” After analyzing
seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that “detained members of IHH were
going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya."
According to a French intelligence report, the terrorist infiltration of IHH extended to its
most senior ranks. The report, written by famed counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, revealed that IHH President Bulent Yildrim had directly conspired in the mid-1990s to “recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war [jihad]. In particular, some
men were sent into war zones in Muslim countries in order to acquire combat experience.”45
Furthermore, in the hopes of “obtaining political support from these countries, financial aid
was transferred [on behalf of IHH], as well as caches of firearms, knives, and pre-fabricated
explosives.”46 An examination of IHH’s phone records in Istanbul showed repeated telephone
calls in 1996 to an Al-Qaida guesthouse in Milan and various Algerian terrorist operatives
active elsewhere in Europe – including the notorious Abu el-Ma`ali, who has been subsequently
termed by U.S. officials as a “junior Osama Bin Laden."
During the later Seattle trial of would-be Al-Qaida Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressam, federal
prosecutors called French magistrate Bruguiere to the stand as an expert witness. Bruguiere
testified that IHH had played “[a]n important role” in the Al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot
targeting LAX. Under repeated questioning, Bruguiere insisted that “[t]here’s a rather close
relation”:
The IHH is an NGO, but it was kind of a type of cover-up… in order to obtainThis was one of the major groups behind the flotilla - a charity group that is a front of Islamic terrorism.
forged documents and also to obtain different forms of infiltration for Mujahideen
in combat. And also to go and gather[recruit] these Mujahideens. And
finally, one of the last responsibilities that they had was also to be implicated or
involved in weapons trafficking.48
For a man who knows that he would face almost certain death if he ever returned home, Mohammad Saad appears remarkably at ease and sanguine about his predicament.And to them the terrorists who target Jewish children are heroes. Two sides of the same coin.
Mr Saad is among perhaps the most reviled class of person in Palestinian society - someone who has given or sold information to Israel.
In a frank and remarkably open interview, Mr Saad has told the BBC why he betrayed his own people and why, he thinks, he now deserves more protection and help from the Israeli state.
Mr Saad says that he infiltrated Palestinian militant groups and claims to have saved many lives.
Originally from the West Bank town of Hebron, he now sits in a cramped lawyer's office in Tel Aviv as he tries to forge a new life in Israel.
'Saved lives'
Mohammad says that for nine years in the 80s and 90s he infiltrated the Palestinian militant group, Tanzim, in Hebron.
Armed with a tape recorder, given to him by his Israeli handler, he says he helped stop attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets.
"I saved lives," says the 41-year-old father of three children.
"The Israeli agent didn't believe me at first but then I infiltrated the militants with a tape recorder on my body and recorded their plans to attack Jewish settlers. I didn't do it for money, I did it because we are all Israelis and it is wrong to kill."
Few Palestinians will have any sympathy with Mr Saad.
To them he is a traitor who took money to betray his own people.
There are various channels of communication [between Hamas and the US], some official and some unofficial, but everyone asks permission from the State Department and the White House in this for authorization to communicate, but without fanfare. The official rhetoric in the media is that the US does not communicate with Hamas, but they do communicate with us for objective reasons. They know that Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people and lead the legitimate government. Although the U.S. administration believes that the movement does not serve its objectives in the region...it knows that Hamas is a fact.He also claimed that the PA has spied on Algeria, and that he is pessimistic about Hamas/Fatah reconciliation.
"We don't have a problem whatsoever with the United States or with American interests," Khaled Meshaal told PBS television in an interview.
"America is a great state, a superpower," he continued.Rose, apparently, did not challenge Meshal on his newfound love of America. If he would have, he could have asked Meshal about something else he said a few years ago, in Arabic, that slightly contradicts his smiling statements to Americans:
"But its interest should not be at the expense of the interests of others and the peoples of in the region."
AL-YARMOUK CAMP, Syria (Reuters) - Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Monday called for an Arab and Muslim alliance to defeat the United States and Israel.
"Our battle is with two sides, one of them is the strongest power in the world, the United States, and the second is the strongest power in the region (Israel)," he told hundreds of people at the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.
"That is the caliber of the battle. We will not be victorious unless the other side of the battle is Arab and Muslim. All of the Arabs and Muslims," he said at a memorial ceremony for Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the group's Gaza leader assassinated by Israel on Saturday.
The Hamas politburo chief vowed Palestinians would "turn Earth on their heads, God willing."
The Israelis live "in horror...ahead of our response, during it and after it," he said. "Do not worry, there will be a response and resistance will continue, God willing."
"The problem is in us and not in the balance of power...if the (Islamic) nation would fight the same way (Palestinians and Iraqis) are fighting in Rafah, Jenin and Falluja then by God we will defeat both the United States and Israel," he said.
Arab and Muslim people "have a great duty and I do not want to tell them what to do... God will ask Arabs and Muslims what are they doing while the sons of Palestine are doing their duties," he said.
The Hamas leader said he did not support violence against civilians and said attacks on Israel would stop once it withdrew to the 1967 borders.Again, Rose did not challenge Meshal on the obvious contradiction between Meshal's words and Hamas' history of targeting Jewish women and children with suicide bombs, or even between what he told Rose and what he tells others in Arabic:
"We talk to the world in a language it understands, but we won't pretend to be something we're not. Yes, suicide operations in the Green Line anger international public opinion, but you must observe the Palestinian popular mood. We live under occupation and we don't have the traditional tools of warfare.So which should we believe?
...the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza continues to grow.December 6, 2000:
...impoverishing families across The West Bank and Gaza Strip and risking a humanitarian crisis, according to international economists and aid workers...June 15, 2001:
The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to a shortage of medical supplies there.November 19, 2002:
The humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza is a crisis of access and mobility; it is further compounded by an economic downturn that severely limits the ability of the civilian population to purchase and access basic needs.February 27, 2003:
Humanitarian crisis: The cumulative impact of damage to civilian infrastructure, curfews and closures, and ongoing violence led the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to describe the humanitarian situation as "the most dire since 1967."October 7, 2004:
The United Nations has warned in a special report of an impending humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.August 19, 2005:
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a chronic humanitarian crisis that is deepening during the disengagement period.March 19, 2006:
Gaza facing humanitarian crisisMay 18, 2006:
As the representatives of donor governments made fresh vows to rapidly establish a flow of aid to Palestinians on Monday, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.July 9, 2006:
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded that Israel take urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.August 16, 2006:
Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza: "People are crying, hungry, thirsty, and desperate"November 20, 2006:
Gaza: UN appeals for $2.5 million to ease 'humanitarian disaster'July 20, 2007:
U.N. Official: Humanitarian Crisis Looms in GazaDecember 8, 2007:
The World Health Organisation warned against a humanitarian crisis erupting in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip due to Israeli travel restrictionsOne would have thought that after 17 years of this "crisis" the Gaza population would be decimated by now. Reading these stories you'd expect Gaza to be like sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, somehow, the brave Gazans still manage to get weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, medicine and hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid, managing to stave off the starvation forecasted by "human rights" experts year after year.
Gaza medics said six Palestinians were killed and 12 others were injured on Saturday when a gas cylinder exploded inside a southern Gaza tunnel.The last paragraph is a lie. Israel has no limit on how much fuel is sent into Gaza outside the physical limits of its ability to transfer it. The only limitation is how much the Hamas government (or the PA) is willing to pay for fuel. This was the reason for blackouts since January.
Chief of Ambulance and Emergency services in Gaza Muawiya Hassanein told Ma’an that the workers were inside the tunnel when the cylinder exploded and that three sustained critical injuries.
Gas cylinders are one of the many items smuggled into the coastal enclave following Israel's siege, which limits the amount of fuel into Gaza, dramatically reducing its sole power station's ability to function and provide energy to residents.
The eight ships, organized by an international group called the Free Gaza Movement, are carrying about 10,000 tons of cargo, including cement for rebuilding homes destroyed by war in Gaza, medical equipment and school supplies.
The ships are carrying 5,000 tons of construction materials, medical equipment, and school supplies, as well as around 600 people from 40 countries. "From the Irish Times on May 19th:
The nine boats are due to arrive in Gaza next week with 5,000 tons of reconstruction material, medical equipment and school supplies.
The IDF said that troops found about 150 bottles of mineral water and a few dozen kilograms of food and medicine on board, despite earlier claims that it was carrying about 60 tons of medicine, food and toys, plus 10,000 units of human blood plasma which requires constant refrigeration.
A Muslim campaign group has written to the new Education Secretary Michael Gove to object to state-aided Jewish schools promoting Zionism.Asif's organization is trying to make Gove look like a hypocrite, because Gove is on the record as being against giving public funds to Hizb ut-Tahrir schools in Britain that preach for the establishment of a unified Islamic state. Asif is facetiously claiming that support for the liberal, democratic Jewish state is equivalent to support for a pan-Islamic state that would institutionalize discrimination against women, discrimination against non-Muslims, and would severely restrict freedom of religion, the press and assembly.
Mohammed Asif, the chief executive of Engage (not to be confused with the antisemitism monitoring group of the same name), said he was "more than a little surprised" to see Zionism included as part of the ethos of several Jewish schools.
Mr Asif cited a number of Jewish schools professing explicit support for Zionism, including Manchester's King David High School, Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary in Salford, and Simon Marks Jewish Primary School in Hackney, north London.
He wrote that he understood the Jewish nature of the schools, but that he would "contest the place of Zionism in the school's governing ethos".
A spokesman for the Department of Education said it had not yet had time to respond to the letter. Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, commented: "There is nothing at all remarkable or contentious in a Jewish school stressing the spiritual and historical connection of Jews to the land of Israel, and the centrality of those connections to our faith. It is those who attempt to characterise Zionism as an anathema to Judaism who are trying to score political points."
King David's website, explaining the aims of its Jewish studies programme, states that the school has "a strong Zionist ethos and all students are given the opportunity to visit Israel. A love and appreciation of Israel is woven into the curriculum."
King David is a strictly Jewish school. Judaism is the only religion taught. There's a synagogue on site. The children learn modern Hebrew - Ivrit - the language of Israel. And they celebrate Israeli independence day..That must really upset Mr. Asif!
But half the 247 pupils at the 40-year-old local authority-supported school are Muslim, and apparently the Muslim parents go through all sorts of hoops, including moving into the school's catchment area, to get their children into King David to learn Hebrew, wave Israeli flags on independence day and hang out with the people some would have us believe that they hate more than anyone in the world.
The Muslim parents, mostly devout and many of the women wearing the hijab, say they love the ethos of the school, and even the kosher school lunches, which are suitable because halal and kosher dietary rules are virtually identical. The school is also respectful to Islam, setting aside a prayer room for the children and supplying Muslim teachers during Ramadan. At Eid, the Muslim children are wished Eid Mubarak in assembly, and all year round, if they wish, can wear a kufi (hat). Amazingly, dozens of the Muslim children choose instead to wear the Jewish kipah.
At the prize morning Carol Cooper, the RE teacher, says: "Boker tov," (Ivrit for "Good morning").
"Good morning Mrs Cooper," the children chant in reply. The entire school, Muslims, Jews, plus the handful of Christians and Sikhs then say the Shema, the holiest Jewish prayer, all together
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