Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 31, 2010

Video of weapons found aboard terror ship

From the IDF:

The iron bars, Molotov cocktail and dagger are especially interesting.

No doubt the anti-Israel terror-supporting "peace" activists would say that most of the knives are ordinary kitchen knives. Yet we have seen them used against people.

UPDATE: A reader sends me in audio, played on Israel Army radio today, of Israel's radio warnings and the terror flotilla's responses. I have not verified it.

"Jihad, Jihad, Jihad"

Free Gaza lies caused the deaths

There is an important facet of the events of last night that has not been emphasized.

The IDF soldiers went on board the ship with the expectation that they would be met with "non-violent resistance." The reason that they had those expectations was because the flotilla organizers made very clear that this is what they planned to do - as they said, "The only resistance that there might be would be passive resistance such as physically blocking the steering room, or blocking the engine room downstairs, so that they couldn't get taken over. But that was just symbolic resistance."

Because the IDF foolishly believed them, they dropped onto the Turkish ship armed with just riot-dispersal paint guns, plus personal handguns as a last resort.

And they fell into a well-planned ambush.

It is still unclear how many people were killed - the initial reports of 16 seem to have exaggerated, another likely Free Gaza lie - but the IDF had zero interest in killing anybody. The IDF only opened fire after first suffering from merciless, life threatening beatings and asking permission from their commanders.

At least some of the flotilla organizers, on the other hand, made clear that they wanted to become "martyrs."

The bottom line is, if the IDF had known that they were meeting with a mob of violent, crazy, suicidal Islamists, they would have prepared better for it and there would have been less loss of life. But since the Free Gaza and other sponsors of the ships made very public statements about their "peaceful" intentions, the IDF was ill-prepared for the confrontation and things went awry.

I do not know if Free Gaza knew that the Turkish Islamist ship would do what it did. Clearly they are supporting the violence after the fact. However, the FG mission was never a peace mission and was never an aid mission - it was meant to grab headlines, nothing more. The Turkish IHH mission, on the other hand, was military.

Tikkun Magazine wants to say Kaddish for terrorists

A stomach-turning article from Tikkun Magazine, which wants to say Kaddish for violent Islamists:

We regret and deplore the killings which took place as Israeli troops, in defiance of international law, boarded and assaulted, wounded many and killed some of the participants in a flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza (itself a morally outrageous policy) to bring humanitarian aid. We ask all people of peace to dedicate at least fifteen minutes today (Memorial day in the US) to silent memorial for those peace activists who have been killed (and we call upon all synagogues around the world to say Kaddish for those people at their Shabbat services this coming weekend), and for prayer for the speedy recovery of all those wounded in this attack (mostly peace activists, but also the Israeli soldiers who boarded the boats with violence). We invite all peace-loving people to attend a public memorial for those who died in this assault in Lafayette Park opposite the White House on Sunday, June 13, at 11 a.m-2 p.m., sponsored by Tikkun, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and many other groups, and which will include a larger consideration of U.S. policies. Memorial prayers and prayers for healing will be said at 1 p.m.

Somehow, I am not surprised that the peace-loving people of Tikkun cannot find a way to condemn the "peace activists" beatings of IDF commandos with chains and iron rods, throwing them over railings, stabbing them, calling for a repeat of Mohammed's massacre of Jews at Khaybar. No, those facts just mess up the Tikkun meme of righteous Muslims and evil Jews (except for Tikkun-style anti-Israel Jews, of course.)

Meanwhile, David Hazony writes

A good friend of mine is a nurse who was on duty in the emergency room at a Jerusalem hospital when some of the injured “activists” were brought in. She tells me that many of them are wearing camouflage. “Not sure they were official Turkish army clothes,” she says, “but they weren’t civilian dress, that’s for sure.”

The idiots at Tikkun don't want to believe the crystal-clear facts that it was an ambush - a pre-planned military operation, done by their "peace activists."

They want to say Kaddish for people who tried to massacre Jews.

Gazan drowns himself "to help the flotilla"

Firas Press reports that a Gazan citizen, upon hearing of the events of last night, threw himself into the Mediterranean in an attempt to help out the brave peace activists.

Of course, the boats were a bit further away than swimming distance, and he drowned.

Even the commenters in the Arabic-language forum are laughing at this guy, saying that it was obviously a suicide that he tried to mask as martyrdom.

Yet somehow I think that he will be listed as a victim of "Israeli aggression" on some NGO list....

New video of soldiers being beaten with rods, chains

From the IDF:

And Free Gaza says these peaceful people were only waving white flags....

They are no longer the Flotilla of Fools. They are the Flotilla of Tools.

Free Gaza keeps lying

Their Twitter feed says "They were waving white flags not clubs."

Here's a peace activist!

From Ha'aretz, a picture of one of the "peace protesters" and "humanitarian aid activists" on board one of the boats.

Doesn't he look like he cares deeply about peace?

"Peace activists" threatened "Jews" before trip

From Palestinian Media Watch:

On the day before the Gaza flotilla confronted the Israeli navy, Al-Jazeera TV documented the pre-battle atmosphere created by men on board the flotilla, who chanted a well-known Islamic battle cry invoking the killing and defeat of Jews in battle:

"[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!"

Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.

Al-Jazeera also interviewed a woman who said that the flotilla participants' goal was "one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or reaching Gaza."

h/t Guest

Video: Throwing soldier off deck, Molotov cocktails, stun grenades

The IDF released video showing what happened on the Mavi Marmara:

See how peaceful the pro-Hamas "activists" are?

Israel's legal right to blockade Gaza

From the MFA (via email):

1. A maritime blockade is in effect off the coast of Gaza. Such blockade has been imposed, as Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza, which has repeatedly bombed civilian targets in Israel with weapons that have been smuggled into Gaza via the sea.

2. Maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognized measure under international law that may be implemented as part of an armed conflict at sea.

3. A blockade may be imposed at sea, including in international waters, so long as it does not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral States.

4. The naval manuals of several western countries, including the US and England recognize the maritime blockade as an effective naval measure and set forth the various criteria that make a blockade valid, including the requirement of give due notice of the existence of the blockade.

5. In this vein, it should be noted that Israel publicized the existence of the blockade and the precise coordinates of such by means of the accepted international professional maritime channels. Israel also provided appropriate notification to the affected governments and to the organizers of the Gaza protest flotilla. Moreover, in real time, the ships participating in the protest flotilla were warned repeatedly that a maritime blockade is in effect.

6. Here, it should be noted that under customary law, knowledge of the blockade may be presumed once a blockade has been declared and appropriate notification has been granted, as above.

7. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian and enemy vessels.

8. A State may take action to enforce a blockade. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked under international law. The US Commander's Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations sets forth that a vessel is considered to be in attempt to breach a blockade from the time the vessel leaves its port with the intention of evading the blockade.

9. Here we should note that the protesters indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade by means of written and oral statements. Moreover, the route of these vessels indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade in violation of international law.

10. Given the protesters explicit intention to violate the naval blockade, Israel exercised its right under international law to enforce the blockade. It should be noted that prior to undertaking enforcement measures, explicit warnings were relayed directly to the captains of the vessels, expressing Israel's intent to exercise its right to enforce the blockade.

11. Israel had attempted to take control of the vessels participating in the flotilla by peaceful means and in an orderly fashion in order to enforce the blockade. Given the large number of vessels participating in the flotilla, an operational decision was made to undertake measures to enforce the blockade a certain distance from the area of the blockade.

12. Israeli personnel attempting to enforce the blockade were met with violence by the protesters and acted in self defense to fend off such attacks.

If the IDF intended to kill protesters... (open thread)

...then how come the only dead people were on the ship that attacked the IDF soldiers?

The other five ships surrendered and no one was hurt.

Just more proof of Free Gaza lies. News organizations must be careful not to trust a single word that they say. They know that their lies get broadcast as fact in real time, and FGM has a history of taking advantage of that, especially when the media is hungry for new details.

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I am not as available today to blog as I would like, so feel free to comment with any new stuff you find.

Muqata live-blogging

Jameel at the Muqata is live-blogging the events at sea. You can't do better than reading his blog right now.

2:54 PM News1 reports that the IDF soldiers were not prepared for the violence that errupted from the flotilla terrorist peace activists. The soldiers testified that Sheikh Raed Salakh was among the violent attackers. military correspondents who accompanied the soldiers said the soldiers were given paintball rifles. When they boarded the ship, they were attacked with slingshots, metal balls, chairs and live fire. The terrorists threw soldiers overboard and tried to capture soldiers. This wasn't a freedom flotilla but one of terror. It was all too reminiscent of the Ramallah Lynching of 2 IDF soldiers by a Palestinian mob.