One of the organisers of the flotilla, which includes three vessels from Turkey, is IHH, a humanitarian aid group supported by Ankara.
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During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire.
According to initial reports, these events resulted in over ten deaths among the demonstrators and numerous injured, in addition, more than four naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners are currently being evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
The IHH is a humanitarian group? Not by a long shot.
Missing from all coverage thus far is any indication of the radical nature of the organizations sponsoring the flotilla. To characterize them as "pro-Palestinian," while accurate, hardly conveys adequately who they are and what they promote. The organizations include far-left individuals, such as members of the Communist Party in Sweden and members of the extremist International Solidarity Movement which advocates "armed struggle" against Israel as well as Islamist groups fronting for Hamas and with ties to the global jihad and Al Quaeda.
Uri Goldflam of the Canada-Israel Committee writes:
When watching the coverage of the intl. media I noticed that the boat people are chanting. Fair haired and bright eyed "human rights activists" from all over the world who are sure they are doing the right thing are sitting hand in hand and chanting in Arabic:
Haibar Haiber ya Yahud - Jaish Muhammad Sa'ufa Ya'ud
Translation: Remember Haibar Oh, Jews - Muhammad's Army will return.
What does this mean? Don't believe me, ask any Arabic speaker with a basic Islamic education.
The battle at Haibar is an episode that every Muslim knows from the early days of Islam. After Muhammad traveled to Medina from Meca he tried to convert the Jewish tribes living there. When the Jews refused to convert he expels them from the city. At a place called Haibar he slaughtered the men and sold the women into slavery. The loot from this carnage was used to buy much support for Muhammad and strengthen his leadership.
What does this have to do with Gaza? With human rights? Nothing. When Muslims chant "remember Haibar" - it is not a figure of speech it's a genocidal political program. And the misguided "human rights activists" are chanting right along thinking they are singing Kumbaya or "we shall overcome".
Based on the paper: The Role of Islamic Charities in International Terrorist Recruitment and Financing by Evan F. Kohlmann, published by The Danish Institute for International Studies, the court papers of the case of the United States of America v. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi (especially page 17), and Right Side News, it emerges that:
Not surprisingly, the media continues to give this group--and everyone associated with the flotilla--a pass.
And that was before Israel confronted the ships.
Now that there have been deaths, how much more tilted can we expect the media to be?
by Daled Amos
Posted by daledamos at May 31, 2010 4:14 AMThe Gaza flotilla was a big publicity stunt by the organizers. They really weren�t concerned about the materials that they were bringing in. It was all a publicity stunt. If they really wanted to get relief supplies in they could have used the land route specifically for that purpose. As your video shows, they refused and insisted on heading for Gaza
That having been said, I couldn�t believe it when I woke up this morning and read the headlines.
That standoff between the Israeli navy and a flotilla of ships carrying civilians and relief supplies to Gaza actually ended in a shootout and 10-15 civilian were dead
Never would I have guessed it would have ended this way.
I figured that the Israelis would end the standoff by ramming the boats, shooting bullets into their hulls, or disabling their rudder.
Standoff ended.
But shoot at civilians�.No.. I wouldn�t have even considered that to be an option.
The Israeli government says they were attacked. But when the score is
15-20 civilians dead and 0 military dead, you don�t have to be there to realize it was a massacre.
So maybe if they discover that the boats were carrying supplies of rockets, guns, explosives etc. it would help to justify the attack.
But if all they find is wheelchairs, medical supplies and cement, it�s going to be a PR nightmare for Israel.
Whoever came up with this response needs to be fired and put behind bars. Israel needs to apologize to the victims families. Then it needs to say it will conduct a thorough investigation and make reparations.
The flotilla organizers staged a publicity stunt to draw worldwide attention and sympathy�and the Israeli�s foolishly obliged them by playing right into their hands.
Stupid..Stupid�Stupid
Posted by: norris hall at May 31, 2010 11:51 AMThe skunks aboard the flotilla got what they deserved.
noris hall you are a pathetic little nervous nellie. When you are being attacked with knives, bats and metal pipes, shooting back is perfectly justifiable. These weren't activists, but terrorists.
Whatever action Israel would have taken they would have been condemned. You ought to know that by now.
I wish they hadn't risked the lives of their soldiers and simply sunk the flotilla.
Posted by: Laura at May 31, 2010 12:28 PMI always find the apologists to be amusing. Does every piece of human garbage belong to a secret club or something? You sure defend murder and terrorism pretty quickly. Israel is now and has always been a terrorist nation. They should be wiped off the map. Arab terrorists are no better, but there is one giant difference: In the Arab and Muslim countries there is a percentage of people who are engaged in or support terrorism, but in Israel it's the entire country. Every single man, woman and child there. The world won't mourn them.
Perhaps, just as Israeli school children write their names and their messages of hate on missiles (which most probably killed school children in Lebanon), we citizens of the world can all sign a nice Hydrogen Bomb.
Posted by: James B. at June 1, 2010 12:12 AMThe Israeli government says they were attacked. But when the score is 15-20 civilians dead and 0 military dead, you don't have to be there to realize it was a massacre.
You're absolutely right of course--when you want to condemn Israel, you never need to know the actual circumstances.
You sure defend murder and terrorism pretty quickly. Israel is now and has always been a terrorist nation. They should be wiped off the map.
Hey, nice segue there--sure proves your point!
Arab terrorists are no better, but there is one giant difference: In the Arab and Muslim countries there is a percentage of people who are engaged in or support terrorism, but in Israel it's the entire country. Every single man, woman and child there.
Yeah, especially those Israeli men and women in Haiti--or any other world disaster where you find Israel helping.
Side-by-side with the Arabs, right?
The world won't mourn them.
Not till they're gone, no.
Posted by: Daled Amos at June 1, 2010 2:12 AMThis is like the years leading up to the Holocaust. Consensus was the Jews were at fault for everything. German propaganda had been pumping this out for years. When outrages occurred against the Jewish population during the Holocaust they were minimized. Said to all be Jewish lies. When the big pogrom was carried out in Germany in November 1938 no country would take Jews in. They all turned their backs when Jews needed them most. The genocide went on for years.
The facts do not matter. Iran has a fanatical and devious regime that has stirred the Mideast pot and is training and abetting terrorists and arming them with missiles. Turkey is following them into Islamic extremism and has been the enabler of this flotilla provocation. Israel acted properly by all objective standards, yet the facts do not matter. Many in the media, even in the Israeli media like Ha'Aretz, are playing a cynical game where they criticize Israel in order to weaken them enough politically and diplomatically so that they will be forced to lift the Gaza blockade and give up more land for a supposed peace. While some of these leftist media people are sincere, they are misguided and are pushing Israel into danger. Then there are those who are antagonistic to Jews and always rush to condemn them, hoping to see the Jewish State destroyed. These two groups are working together whether they know it or not. Everyone who knows the facts should defend Israel and dig behind the media's presentation of the facts. The BBC, CNN, and the NY Times have not presented this story objectively. The real truth came out in dribs and drabs, but was obfuscated. It was too little and too late. What the dissemblers and the haters don't see is that they will bring about a great war in the Middle East that will have worldwide repercussions. Just as the callous world, with few exceptions, thought that the Nazis would only threaten the Jews, and they themselves would be safe and didn't care or were even happy at the fate of the Jews, so will the forces that wish to destroy the Jews again turn on the uncaring of today's world. There are many people who can see through the lies directed against Israel, but the mob is piling on more provocations and more lies. It will end badly for the world unless it turns back from its old Jew-baiting ways. The Jewish people have made a long journey of thousands of years to return to Israel. This is the last stop. There is nowhere else to go. All the lies against Israel won't ultimately matter. The world will be shocked at the future turn of events, but their own actions will have brought them about.
Israel remains what she has always been, a highly moral nation, the best there is. And Israel will prevail.
Posted by: Edwin Rowe at June 5, 2010 11:26 PM