Gaza aid flotilla was anything but peaceful
On Sunday, June 6, Mr. George Garcia of Ann Arbor argued (in a letter to the editor) that the media was not reporting the truth of the freedom flotilla incident, and that Israeli commandos murderously seized humanitarian aid headed for Gaza. The truth as he describes it leaves out several key facts that are vital to understanding the flotilla situation.
The first, and most important of his mischaracterizations is his description of the flotilla as “the Freedom Flotilla”, bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. In fact, this flotilla was connected to the IHH, which is an organization with very close ties Hamas, the terrorist organization that has fired thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza, which is the reason for the blockade.
If this was a truly peaceable shipment, carrying only humanitarian aid and with nothing to hide, they could have docked at an Israeli port and allowed the Israelis to inspect the cargo, something that the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) asked them to do numerous times. The Israelis are very supportive of sending humanitarian aid to Gaza, and have sent almost 100,000 tons of supplies this year alone.
Mr. Garcia also claimed that the activists on board the ships were unarmed. In fact, they were anything but peaceful. Upon landing on the ships, Israeli commandos were met with steel pipes, knives, and at least two handguns. The commandos were armed only with crowd suppression paintball guns, in deference to the claim that the activists were humanitarians, and their own sidearms. Also the IDF found a weapons cache aboard the ships.
Why would activists, claiming to be peaceable and humanitarian, attack professional soldiers when those same soldiers could help them deliver their humanitarian cargo and at the same time prevent it from falling into the hands of organizations such as Hamas? The answer is that they were not humanitarians, but political activists looking for a confrontation.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking on behalf of the Obama administration made a statement in defense of Israel saying “I think Israel has an absolute right to deal with its security interest”. I agree with Vice President Biden, the Freedom flotilla was peaceable in name only, and presented a direct threat to Israeli national security.
Andrew J. Best Ann Arbor
Comments
bedrog
Wed, Jun 30, 2010 : 10:37 a.m.
demistify...a minor correction to the circumstances re wilkerson/coleman you cite above: the event that got wilkerson in trouble was at the UM, not city council, where she and "patient"/accomplice mr coleman (esq) staged their rope a dope act while disrupting a public speaker they disagreed with.... a close up of the security -'beaten ' and 'injured' coleman posted on some of THEIR sites shows him actually looking rather happy at the scam they perpetrated.... they were accompanied ( of course!!) by the leader of the synagogue harassers, h.h.... ( see the WASHTENAW JEWISH NEWS articles referenced above)who never met a "look at me' opportunity he didnt embrace.. all of this disingenousness provocation is indeed a local version of the flotilla scam... and while we're at it, p26 of the jan WJN article on our local "mini henry fords' has a charming picture of the hijab clad /bullhorn screeching cheerleader ( but no dallas cowboy one!!)of the local GREEN party taunting local jews while hiding behind her baby daughter....shades of HAMAS!( and flotillas!!)
demistify
Wed, Jun 30, 2010 : 9:25 a.m.
As one of the posts claimed sinister implications to Wilkerson's legal troubles, readers might appreciate a recap of the circumstances: It was at a meeting of the Ann Arbor City Council. Blaine Coleman was being ejected for disrupting the meeting (not for the first time). He swooned. According to the police report, Wilkerson then became abusive of the policemen and assaulted them, whereupon she was arrested. Prior to that, Coleman and Wilkerson (and some others) had demonstrated in front of the Beth Israel synagogue during its services, with Coleman and his wife holding up a banner with a swastika on it.
demistify
Wed, Jun 30, 2010 : 8:54 a.m.
After Henry Ford published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, he was indignant at being called an antisemite. The tradition lives on. We are told that the flotilla sent in support of Hamas had nothing to do with antisemitism. Hamas states as its objective the total eradication of the State of Israel and of its Jewish population, and wages war on Israeli civilians with suicide-bombings and Iranian rockets. Some of the posts on this blog approve: "This is another sign that Israel will soon go... totally out of existence." We are given links to Websites claiming Zionist conspiracies (like the Protocols) but we are not allowed to call that antisemitism.
bedrog
Wed, Jun 30, 2010 : 6:38 a.m.
p.s. re 'stuart's' " you witty and urban( SIC)fellow, you" phrase to me is identical to one used on another site ( to another poster)by an individual who was mentioned/ photographically depicted ( and not in a good way!) by some of the articles in the WJN referred to above, re. a2's local claque of jew bashers..even down to the characteristic spelling impairment. ( i'm actually more a 'suburban'--even country--kind of guy.) makes one wonder about which side in the local middle east fracas is involved in 'groupspeak' defamatory strategies. and i am unaware of any bogus memos sent to brian mackie...my own casual observation of the sites supporting dr.catherine wilkerson were bad enough to not require any additional 'gilding of the lily'. readers are urged to check out the local mothership site of our antisemites..." zionistsout.blogspot.com'.. to see who is who in the defamation game.
bedrog
Wed, Jun 30, 2010 : 5:32 a.m.
stuart..perhaps there's a bit of theological dyslexia going on with you.... it's the islamically sanctioned practice of 'taqiyya'that advocates 'dissimulation' ( i.e say anything in the cause of jihad) and involves whopper telling... in that regard see a lovely youtube video 'WE CON THE WORLD' ( a parody of "we are the world") on the flotilla episode) as to the WJN articles they are all perfectly true in all particulars.a demurral to one of them by the local quaker assembly, with quite withering responses, can be found in the may issue of the WJN in the 'letters' section. if these articles make local antisemites feel "defamed' or libeled they/you are free to sue..although it'd be like a pig complaining that someone said they act like a pig.
Stuart Brown
Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 8:57 p.m.
bedrog, You witty and urban fellow, you! Can I look forward to an article in Washtenaw Jewish News explaining why sometimes a little lie is necessary? I would like to know if you think it is ok for supporters of Israel to send bogus and antisemetic themed communication in the name of political opponents of the Israeli regime? Your evasive answers to my first post suggest that you think these kinds of tactics are legitimate.
bedrog
Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 4:21 p.m.
akanajashi..re pirate-o- phobia:.sooo, can you refer me to other posts of yours condemning somali pirates...often affiliated with al shabaab and other jihadist groups??? also, i kinda doubt the israelis were in this for profit ( ala blackbeard, captain kidd, l'olonoise, black bart, calico jack rackham et al in the brotherhood of the black flag.) justified national security ain't quite the same thing as buccaneering.
akanajashi
Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 4:07 p.m.
Israel acted as the pirates of the Mediterranean. Plain and simple.
bedrog
Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 4:03 p.m.
good article/elyakin post...and the 'rebuttals' by a prime 'usual suspect' and a couple of new ( or maybe old) allies cut no ice whatsoever... and as to the kind of abusive antisemitic language used by our local jew-bashers ( including the lately...and happily..less visible dr. catherine wilkerson whose case was raised by a previous commenter): cmon!! i was witness to a bullhorn amplified jewbash-fest at the jewish community center,where wilkerson was an enthusiastic participant... i also am in possesion of a photograph of wilkerson in synagogue harassment mode, in which a synagogue -bound mother and small child passing her look much as the jews in germany must have looked when encountering a group of brownshirts. more telling though is an article in the feb WASHTENAW JEWISH NEWS..."the few and the just'...by a former and now repentant member of this atrocious local cabal which leaves no doubt as to where they are coming from as do other exposes in the WJN for jan, feb and march...the 'false witnesses series'). prosecutor mackie was right on and its too bad the case was lost on some narrow technicalities. one of the principals, who is on this thread, need only be seen in action ---especially in his famous 2 word sandwich board which rhymes with 'duck israel'-- to be recognized as a true 'out of control bufoon' in the words of the late ANN ARBOR NEWS... MODERATOR: these the late ANN ARBOR NEWS' words ( per reporter/commentator tom gantert), not mine, so please dont delete as a 'personal attack'
Stuart Brown
Sun, Jun 27, 2010 : 7:20 p.m.
I have a question: why does the government of Israel feel the need to plant false antisemitic statements if real antisemitism is so prevalent? I mean, if Jews were really under assault by real antisemites yelling, "Go back to Auschwitz!", the Israeli Information services would not need to doctor recordings of ship transmissions, now would they? But here it is in 2010, and Israel has been busted by getting caught fabricating bogus recordings of ship-to-ship transmissions during the raid on the Mavi Marmaria claiming that the blockade breakers were telling the IDF forces raiding their ship to, "Go back to Auschwitz!". Turns out it was a complete hoax (see http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/press-releases/1217-idf-admits-it-doctored-the-audio-tapes). The reason I am interested in this is due to the fact that after Dr. Wilkerson was acquitted, her defense committee received an email from Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie in which he claimed that he had received hate letters from supposed supporters of Dr. Wilkerson who he alleged told him that Jews should be placed on a Jew Train to a death camp. These hate letters from people claiming to be supporters of Dr. Wilkerson were reasons he cited for his justification in prosecuting Dr. Wilkerson. Nobody on Dr. Wilkerson's defense committee knows anybody who would use language like this, so this was interpreted as an example of a false flag or bad jacketing attempt by supporters of Israel. These false flag disinformation attempts should serve as a cautionary tail for any claims made by the State of Israel. Consider the fact that the IDF forces who committed acts of piracy also seized recording equipment from the activists on the flotilla as well as physically abused many of the members who were not murdered; the IDF did not want the truth about what happened broadcast to the rest of the world. The activists made no apologies about their intentions which were to break the blockade and in fact seem to have done so. This incident has cost the US dearly in terms of international respect since Israel could not carry out such brazen acts of international law violations without the uncritical support of the US.
Neal Elyakin
Sun, Jun 27, 2010 : 5:56 p.m.
I would recommend reading this article which details IHH connection to terror networks going back to the mid-1990s in Bosnia. http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2010/06/ihh-from-the-war-in-bosnia-to-the-gaza-flotilla.html The Mavi Marmara held activists who were armed, trained and ready to attack the lightly armed Israeli soldiers. The flotilla was not about anything except goading Israel into a confrontation; as Israel did what any UN member state would do to protect its citizens against an avowed threat to its existence.
Basic Bob
Sun, Jun 27, 2010 : 1:44 p.m.
The Israeli government is the only one in the world to claim IHH is a terrorist organization with ties to Al Qaeda. According to the US government, "IHH is sympathetic to Hamas... that by itself does not make them terrorists. Some people will not be happy until the Palestinian people are eradicated.