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| Following the killing of nine Turks on a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid vessel by Israeli Defense Forces, Turkey is considering scaling back its relations with Israel to a minimum. It is argued that Israel should no longer have a chance to benefit from Turkey’s defense tenders. Experts also claim that Turkey may implement serious sanctions against Israel in the long run. |
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Oh please, whether you are happy about this development or not, does anyone believe this was not going to happen once an Islamist party got into power? This has been on the horizon for long while.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a credible investigation of the violence and killings on that particular ship, Turkey's involvement should be scrutinized, too. Those soldiers were not stabbed and beaten by "peace activists", folks. People who make a commitment to nonviolence do not do that sort of thing. Now, I think the majority may have been sincere, but there were sinister parties working to make it turn out exactly the way it did.
I condemn Israel's actions, but I am NOT buying the whole cloth of the opposing narrative.
As for Turkey, well, I wish they would take some of their own condemnations and apply it to their conduct with regard to Kurdistan, Christians in Turkey, and of course, When are they going to end their occupation of a part of Cyprus?
Photos from a Turkish newspaper
ReplyDeletehttp://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/GaleriDetay.aspx?P=9&cid=36575&rid=2
Poor IDF goons..They were viciously attacked by terrorists while they were in their excercise of a humanitarian mission.
ReplyDeleteWhat is clear from the photos is that the IDF terrorists were actually protected rather than lynched. Abunimah has an article on this:
ReplyDeleteIsrael hasbara fails again: Photos show Mavi Marmara passengers protecting, aiding Israeli soldiers
http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/blog-post-israel-hasbara-fails-again-pics-sho
anan
ReplyDeleteCould you please keep your trash at Totten's and not pollute this blog. Thank you..
<span><span><span> "but there were sinister parties working to make it turn out exactly the way it did."</span>
ReplyDeleteWhen reading your comment vza one would conclude that the soldiers were the victims who were attacked and not the attackers! Are people not meant to defend themselves since evidence has emerged that the soldiers opened fire first! I don't get this!</span></span>
Sorry, I have good reason to not trust the Turkish Islamist group involved. I am NOT going to simply accept any side's version of events. You are a 100 per cent partisan of one side and quite naturally are going to embrace their version. I think what Israel did was wrong. They could have stopped that ship without the killings...but a group that proclaimed itself as peaceful non-violent resistance at all times....remember these are their own words and a part of their mission statement, should have had NO resistance and most did adhere to that promise. But stabbing and beating soldiers, rightly or wrongly, does not constitute non-violent resistance.
ReplyDelete<span><span><span> "Are people not meant to defend themselves..."</span></span></span>
Well, hell yes...unless you declare beforehand that you are non-violent.
Why did none of this happen on the other ships?
From what I have read, there were people who tried to shield the soldiers. Considering that most of the people on board really did mean to stick to their peaceful non-violent beliefs, I am not surprised at all and have enormous repsect for them. But why is it so difficult for you to believe that there were some bad hats hoping for a confrontation among the people involved with the flotilla? Do you really think they were all of pure and noble motives?
ReplyDelete<span>Why did none of this happen on the other ships?</span>
ReplyDeleteMaybe you haven't read what took place on the other ships!! Passengers were badly beaten and brutalised for goozesake! It was all over the news.
I did not post the link to elicit sympathy for the soldiers, real or feigned.
ReplyDeleteHere's a post I made 2 days ago: Paul Laraudee was NOT on the Marmara and yet!
ReplyDeleteCaptured and detained by Israel, an American tells his story After two days in an Israeli jail, 64-year-old Paul Larudee speaks out
"When the Israeli forces picked him up, Larudee said, he was severely beaten and tied to a mast at the stern of their ship. His legs and hands were bound as he was subjected to the hot sun in wet soaking clothes for four hours. He said his body almost went into shock from the extreme hot and cold conditions."
http://www.salon.com/news/israel_flotilla_attack/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/06/03/paul_larudee_flotilla_account
The Flotilla Raid Was Not “Bungled.” The IDF Detailed Its Violent Strategy In Advance.
ReplyDelete"Statements by senior Israeli military commanders made in the Hebrew media days before the massacre revealed that the raid was planned over a week in advance by the Israeli military and was personally approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. The elite Israeli commando unit known as Unit 13 was tasked with carrying out the mission and its role was known by the Israeli public well before the raid took place. Details of the plan show that the use of deadly force was authorized and calculated. The massacre of activists should have been unexpected."
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/the-flotilla-raid-was-not-bungled-the-idf-detailed-its-violent-strategy-in-advance/
Besides, if the soldiers deadly shootings were a response the activist violence, why did the Israeli Naval Officer Reserves just called upon Netanyahy to halt the campaign to blame the incident on the civilans onboard the Gaza Relief flotilla?
ReplyDelete<span><span></span>Maybe you haven't read what took place on the other ships!! Passengers were badly beaten and brutalised for goozesake! It was all over the news.</span>
ReplyDelete<span>I meant why weren't the Israeli soldiers stabbed and beaten on those other ships? I have not read any Israeli claims that they were. Which makes the accounts of the passengers on the other ships particularly powerful. If resistance was on the one ship, why in the hell was it necessary for Israel to beat up some of those passengers on the other ships who did not resist? Thugs and scoundrels.</span>
Really? Do you have a link? I am not blaming the civilians. TGIA. I have questions about SOME of those involved. I do not trust Islamists of any kind on any issue. I would hate to think of good people being used by others for their own agenda.
ReplyDelete<span>"When the Israeli forces picked him up, Larudee said, he was severely beaten and tied to a mast at the stern of their ship. His legs and hands were bound as he was subjected to the hot sun in wet soaking clothes for four hours. He said his body almost went into shock from the extreme hot and cold conditions." </span>
ReplyDeleteThere is no excuse for this brutality.
I wonder what our illustrious State Department did for this guy? I am writing to Sec. Clinton.
<span>"But why is it so difficult for you to believe that there were some bad hats hoping for a confrontation"</span>
ReplyDeleteBecause they did not initiate the hostilities..Even Ethan Bronner had to admit it. The confrontation came about after the soldiers opened fire and threw stun grenades.
I thought you wanted to prove that they were attacked and fell victims to "Islamist terroror"..
ReplyDeleteThere are witnesses saying that individuals were specifically targeted for execution and who were NOT engaged in any violence. Sounds strange doesn't it?
ReplyDelete<span><span>"Really? Do you have a link?"</span>
ReplyDelete<span></span>Sure. It's in Haaretz:
"First and foremost, we protest the fact that responsibility for the tragic results was immediately thrust onto the organizers of the flotilla," wrote the officers. "This demonstrates contempt for the responsibility that belongs principally to the hierarchy of commanders and those who approved the mission. This shows contempt for the values of professionalism, the purity of weapons and for human lives."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-navy-reserves-officers-allow-external-gaza-flotilla-probe-1.294536</span>
Thanks. Very important coming from them.
ReplyDeleteWell, they were definitely attacked weren't they? We just do not know conclusively who attacked first?
ReplyDeleteSurely the IDF did not stab and beat up their own people?
Very strange, indeed.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to wait until all the pieces of the puzzle are found and then try to fit them in. As you know, all cameras, film chips, cell phones, laptops and every other media able to transport infos/photos were confiscated and destroyed. Few has escaped the idf's systematic search..What was it they were trying to hide?
ReplyDelete