Maria 4 juni 2010
Turkish Captain: They pointed guns to our head
A Turkish captain has told the world how the Israeli navy threatened to sink the humanitarian ship he was sailing to Gaza this week. Captain Huseyin Tokalak says he handed over the vessel after Israeli commandos took over the ship at gun point. Guns were pointed to the sailor heads by the Israeli soldiers. During the siege Tokalak said he and the other captains assured the Israeli Navy that they were in international waters and carried nothing illegal.
He says the soldiers shot directly at the Mavi Marmara. Between 9 and 20 people were murdered by Israel. Amongst those on board was the Head of Islamic Movement's northern branch Sheikh Raed Salah. He and four others will be held by Israel for one more week.
Meanwhile Israel has started releasing the detainee captured.
124 activists have been sent to Jordan. Most others are being deported.
50 will be kept for questioning.
The US has refused to condemn the incident while Nicaragua has suspended its diplomatic ties with Israel. The Managua government "underscored the illegal nature of the attack on a humanitarian mission in clear violation of international and humanitarian law.
http://fwd4.me/06GA
Sabotaging Peace: The Real Motive Behind the Freedom Flotilla Attack
Worldwide outrage and condemnation of Israel's brazen, unprovoked attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which killed nine activists and injured dozens, was predictable and justified. Many remained puzzled, though, as to why Israel thought it necessary to send in elite, rappelling commandos to confront an unarmed civilian flotilla carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered territory. The six-ship convoy was co-sponsored by a Turkish humanitarian organization and sailed under Turkey's flag when it was raided in international waters.
The consensus was that Israel was sending a message. Anyone who dared challenge its naval blockade and siege of Gaza would meet a similar fate.
This is a correct yet superficial analysis. The real motive behind the Israeli assault is far more sinister: to deliberately undermine (if not entirely abort) consequential, substantive peace talks with the Palestinians and Syrians, and repay the Turks for negotiating a nuclear fuel-swap deal with Iran (which significantly set back Israel's case for military intervention).
In essence, it was done to sabotage peace.
We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion, David Ben Gurion once famously stated. And peace, stability and diplomacy are obstacles to Zionism's tenets of land acquisition and subjugation of indigenous peoples.
There have been calls to advance the indirect, United States-mediated proximity talks taking place between the Israeli government and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. This now seems unlikely. The opening sentence of a May 31 Associated Press report inferred similarly:
Israel's bloody, bungled takeover of a Gaza-bound Turkish aid vessel is complicating U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts, deepening Israel's international isolation.
That was exactly the intent. Israel can easily wither international isolation to the extent the U.S. will continue to protect it from meaningful sanction. Israel actually covets isolation; it permits it to operate in a nothing to lose mode. Expropriation of Palestinian land accelerates and its reckless behavior goes unchecked.
Additionally, the attack effectively severs relations with Turkey. Israel wants no part of a non-military solution to the Iranian nuclear issue like the one just brokered by Turkey and Brazil. Turkey's role in mediating between Syria and Israel, for all the perfunctory plaudits the latter gave it, was actually unwelcome and is now too off the table.
It would not be the first time that Israel deliberately provoked a crisis at the expense of civilian lives to further its expansionist agenda, justify war, or use as a campaign issue:
Six weeks before Israel's 1996 elections, Prime Minister Shimon Peres launched operation Grapes of Wrath, a two-week military blitz in Lebanon conducted in the midst of a two-decade occupation of the south. During it, the Israelis massacred 106 civilians that had sought shelter at a United Nations compound in Qana.
In September 2000, four months before his election, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (accompanied by 1,000 riot police), paraded through the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, which includes al-Aqsa mosque the third holiest site in Islam leading to the Second Intifada.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission, in a resolution titled Grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel, condemned the provocative visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians.
Sharon then campaigned on putting down the intifada he instigated.
1,500 Lebanese were killed, one million displaced, and the country's civil infrastructure decimated during Israel's failed bid to destroy Hezbollah in the July 2006 war. The conflict started after two Israeli commandos were caught snooping around the Lebanese border town of Aitaa al-Chaab. After the years of repeated, illegal violations of Lebanese airspace failed to provoke a response, the soldiers capture was the pretense needed to wage the disproportionate Israeli onslaught that followed.
The flimsy rationale upon which the savage 2008-2009 Gaza invasion was based has already been discussed.
The latest Israeli operation against 700 activists delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza is only the latest in a series of criminal endeavors meant to quash any hope for peace, negotiation or conflict resolution between Israel, its neighbors and the Palestinians.
Mission accomplished.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19526
4 oct 2010, 01:22 , Respect
Maria 5 juni 2010 update
Lichamen slachtoffers Free Gaza doorzeefd met kogels
De lichamen van de 9 activisten die omkwamen bij de Israëlische aanval op een humanitair scheepskonvooi Free Gaza afgelopen maandag, zijn doorzeefd met kogels. Verschillende slachtoffers werden van zeer dichtbij doodgeschoten. Dat blijkt uit het autopsierapport van de Turkse autoriteiten dat door het Britse dagblad The Guardian zaterdag onthuld werd.
30 kogels
Volgens het autopsieverslag werden er in de 9 lichamen maar liefst 30 kogels aangetroffen. Verschillende slachtoffers vertoonden meerdere schotwonden.
Volgens de Israëlische autoriteiten werden de soldaten aangevallen met wapens en ijzeren stokken en konden ze niet anders dan zich te verdedigen. De organisatoren van de humanitaire vloot verklaren dan weer dat de Israëli's het vuur openden en dat zij degenen waren die zich probeerden te verdedigen.
http://fwd4.me/06Gd
Sweden ports to block Israel ships, goods in response to Gaza flotilla takeover
Week-long ban is initiated by Swedish Port Workers Union, who says act is reaction to the 'unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy.'
Swedish dockworkers will launch a weeklong blockade of Israeli ships and goods arriving in the Nordic nation to protest Monday's attack on a Gaza-destined aid flotilla.
Nine activists died after Israeli troops intercepted the convoy.
Swedish Port Workers Union spokesman Peter Annerback says workers will refuse to handle Israeli goods and ships during the June 15-24 blockade. The union has some 1,500 members and supports Ship to Gaza, which took part in the flotilla.
It says the reason for the blockade is "the unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy."
It was unclear Saturday how much the blockade would affect trade between the two countries since the union still needs to identify cargos with Israeli origin.
Earlier Saturday, thousands of Australian demonstrators flocked to Sydney's Town Hall Saturday to protest Israel's lethal raid on a flotilla headed for Gaza last week.
An Israeli flag was burnt as demonstrators mostly from Sydney's large Turkish and Lebanese communities railed against the Jewish state.
Huseyin Erbis, 28, told Australia's AAP news agency that Israel deserved international censure for the blockade of Gaza and its effect on Palestinians.
"They criticize the Muslims but really our prophet was always kind to the Jewish people," he said.
The Sydney protest was replicated in cities around Australia.
Anti-U.S., Israel demonstrations had also taken palce in several New Zealand cities, as Pro-Palestinian protestors set fire to flags of
Israel and the United States.
The throwing of shoes has become a symbol of opposition to US and Israeli policy in the Middle East, following the example of an Iraqi journalist who threw one at then-president George W Bush during a press conference in December 2008.
"The sole of the shoe is dirty and holding it up that to a person or a place is an insult," John Minto, protest leader of the Global Peace and Justice organisation, told reporters.
He said it was the Middle East equivalent of the biggest traditional insult of New Zealand's indigenous Maoris - baring the buttocks
Up to 300 protestors marched through Auckland urging the government to expel Israel's ambassador in protest at last week's action by Israeli forces against a peace flotilla en route to Gaza.
Similar demonstrations were reported in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
http://fwd4.me/06Ge
Hamas welcomes EU monitoring force
Hamas has welcomed a proposal by the European Union (EU) to monitor Gaza crossings in a bid to help lift the Israeli-imposed siege on the Palestinian territory.
Hamas "welcomes this proposal in all its aspects," of EU or international presence at Rafah, Ma'an news agency quoted the Palestinian movement's senior official Salah al-Bardawil as saying on Sunday.
Bardawil, however, strongly rejected the idea of Israel policing in the south, stressing that "Israel should not obstruct any convoys or ships coming to the Gaza port."
Spanish Foreign Minster Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country currently heads the rotating EU presidency, floated the idea of an international monitoring force on Saturday.
The proposed plan reportedly includes the activation of the EU monitoring committee at Rafah and developing similar initiatives at at least three other crossings.
The force would also assist in sea patrols so that the Gaza port could open.
The proposal comes on the heels of a May 31 commando attack by the Israeli navy against a convoy carrying some 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The offensive killed nine people onboard the six-ship Freedom Flotilla which accompanied by 700 international activists indented to break Tel Aviv's blockade on the impoverished residents of Gaza.
The proposal is to be brought forth and discussed in the European bloc, "so that situations like the ones that happened this week will not be repeated," Moratinos said.
Bardawil said the Palestinian government will study the plan "so a consensus can be reached" on what is acceptable in terms of having international patrols in Gaza waters.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=129347§ionid=351020202
'Palestine must unite against Israel'
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas says the best response to Israel's attack on the Gaza-bound aid convoy is Palestinian unity.
"The best answer to (the raid) is for Palestinian groups to reconcile and resist Israel hand-in-hand," Abbas said in an interview with Turkey's NTV news channel on Monday.
The PA chief added that he would send a delegation to the Gaza Strip and seek reconciliation with the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.
The move comes after Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal last Tuesday called for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah faction, led by Abbas, saying all Palestinian groups should be united against Israel.
Abbas described the Israeli assault against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that left twenty activists dead and dozens others injured as a "massacre."
He called for more aid convoys to be sent to Gaza to put pressure on the Tel Aviv regime into ending its three-year-long blockade on the coastal sliver.
Abbas said everything must be tried in order to end the Israeli siege and pressures that are being imposed on the Palestinian people.
http://fwd4.me/06Gg 4 oct 2010, 01:29 , Respect
Maria 6 June 2010
The hijacking of the truth: Film evidence 'destroyed'
Protesters say Israel had an assassination list. Israel says soldiers fired only in self-defence. So what really happened on 31 May? Catrina Stewart reports. Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara don lifejackets after they are warned that Israeli naval ships are approaching; nine protesters died in the commando attack the next morning
Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara don lifejackets after they are warned that Israeli naval ships are approaching; nine protesters died in the commando attack the next morning
Jamal Elshayyal, a journalist with al-Jazeera, woke with a start to the opening salvos of an Israeli assault that would transform the decks of the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel bound for Gaza, into a bloodbath.
From the ship's position deep in international waters, satellite images of Israeli speedboats and helicopters approaching the vessel were beamed across the globe before communications were abruptly cut off, leaving the events on the Marmara to unfold away from the eyes of the world.
Six days after the bloody assault that left nine foreign protesters, mainly Turks, dead, nobody can recount with any conviction precisely what happened that night. The convoy of ships, whose passengers included writers, politicians and journalists, had been expected for weeks, with organisers loudly broadcasting their plans to run Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and draw international attention to the situation there.
Related articles
From the beginning, it was clear that Israeli forces were concentrating in their largest numbers on the Marmara, a ship carrying some 550 peace activists. The remaining five boats were much smaller and easily commandeered. After the Marmara was subdued, the passengers silenced, and their recording equipment confiscated, Israel disseminated a carefully choreographed account of the events that night that would dominate the airwaves for the first 48 hours.
Only as eyewitnesses, traumatised by their experiences, started to return to their home countries, were serious questions raised about the veracity of the Israeli version of events. Israeli commandos initiated the attack on the Marmara with stun grenades, paintballs and rubber-cased steel bullets. They were met with water hoses as the ship's passengers tried to form a defensive cordon to prevent soldiers from reaching the wheelhouse. Next, the helicopters started their approach, hovering overhead as they tried to disgorge commandos.
From the other ships, passengers looked on helplessly: "The worst thing was seeing the helicopter come up because I knew they were going to invade," said Ewa Jasiewicz, a 32-year-old organiser. "You could hear the screams when they started shooting ... We wanted to stop and go back but there wouldn't have been anything we could have done."
From the moment the helicopters arrived, the sequence of events becomes confused. The dizzying number of claims and counter-claims serves only to present an incomplete account of a military operation that went badly, badly wrong. More than 1.7 million viewers have pored over the edited YouTube footage posted by the Israeli navy since Wednesday. In the dramatic clip, commandos rappel down on to the deck from a helicopter, where they are met by angry activists armed with iron bars and sticks.
This is a critical point, for Israel has rallied domestic opinion on the crucial claim that its soldiers dropped into a meticulously planned riot for which they were completely unprepared. Panicked, they acted in self-defence after they landed, shooting only those who threatened them.
The video is problematic, though. The images of angry protesters are striking, but they lack context. What happened before? What happened next? Had the soldiers started shooting when they descended to the deck? The only account offered by the Israelis of what happened next is left to Staff Sergeant S, a commando who claims he shot six of the protesters.
The last of 15 to arrive on the deck, he said he saw that two of his colleagues had gunshot wounds. Pushing others into a protective cordon around the injured soldiers, he shot at the protesters to force them to fall back. It's a neat account, but several eyewitness accounts tell a very different story.
Mr Elshayyal, a reporter for the Arab channel al-Jazeera, was standing to one side of the ship and had a view of the front and back of the vessel when the fighting started. By his account, soldiers fired down on the protesters from the helicopters before an Israeli soldier had even set foot on the ship. A man next to him was shot through the top of his head, dying instantly.
"What I saw were shots being fired from the helicopter above and moments later from below from the ships," Mr Elshayyal said. "As far as I am concerned, it's a lie to say they only started shooting on deck."
At least two other eyewitnesses saw soldiers firing from above the ships before they landed on the Marmara's deck. It is possible that this is what prompted the fierce resistance to the soldiers when they dropped down. Several passengers recount how organisers urged their peers to stop hitting the soldiers, aware of how it would harm their claim to be peaceful protesters.
Others on the ship claim they raised a white flag, but say that it was ignored. They also used a loudspeaker to reiterate their message of surrender and requested that the injured be taken off the ship to get medical assistance. Again, they were ignored.
At some point early on, the activists dragged three, possibly four, injured soldiers to a lower deck, either to keep as hostages or for their own safety. It was then, several passengers say, that the situation quickly deteriorated. Israel has insisted that the protesters took two of the soldiers' pistols and used them, but others claim the pistols were taken away to prove that Israel planned to use live rounds.
Below, the protesters rummaged through captured soldiers' belongings and claimed to unearth a document that they allege is a list of people Israel intended to assassinate. The booklet, written in Hebrew and in English, contained some photographs of passengers on the Marmara, including the leader of IHH, the Turkish charity that provided two of the ships, an 88-year-old priest and Ra'ad Salah, head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Mr Elshayyal said.
A military spokesman, Lt Col Avital Leibowitz, insisted soldiers acted in self-defence and that she "was not aware" of any list. But one thing is fast becoming clear many of the dead were shot multiple times at point-blank range. One was a journalist taking photographs. "A man was shot ... between the eyebrows, which indicates that it was not an attack that took place from self-defence," Hassan Ghani, a passenger, said in an account posted on YouTube. "The soldier had time to set up the shot." Mattias Gardell, a Swedish activist, told the TT news bureau: "The Israelis committed premeditated murder ... Two people were killed by shots in the forehead, one was shot in the back of the head and one in the chest."
When Israeli troops had subdued the ship, they rounded up the passengers, bound their wrists, in some cases forcing activists into stress positions, and prevented them from using toilets. Mr Elshayyal said he was given just three sips of water before he was taken off the ship more than 24 hours later.
Their ordeal, of course, was not yet over. Accused of entering Israel illegally, the captives were transferred to an Israeli prison, where many were held in cramped cells and denied phone calls. Furious, Turkey sent three planes to transport the activists out of Israel, threatening to sever all diplomatic ties if they were not all released.
Meanwhile, much of the video footage confiscated from Marmara passengers remains undisclosed, and Israel has sought to undermine some eyewitness accounts by alleging some of the passengers were terrorist sympathisers bent on martyrdom.
Questions remain unanswered on both sides. But without a full and transparent airing of all the evidence, the truth of that dreadful night on the Marmara may never come to light.
In the meantime, the organisers say they will seek again and again to breach Israel's defences. Scottish protester Ali El-Awaisi said: "We sent six ships this time. Next time it will be 30 ships."
http://fwd4.me/06Gi
Kidnapped by Israel, forsaken by Britain
Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened.
It was this time last week that I was on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara, and first spotted Israeli war ships in the distance, as they approached the humanitarian flotilla. Little did I know how deadly and bloody were the events that soon began to unfold.
What I will write in this entry is fact, every letter of it, none of it is opinion, none of it is analysis, and I will leave that to you, the reader.
After spotting the warships at a distance, (at roughly 11pm) the organisers called for passengers to wear their life vests and remain indoors as they monitored the situation. The naval war ships together with helicopters remained in the distance for several hours.
At 2am local time the organisers informed me that they had re-routed the ship, as far away from Israel as possible, as deep into international waters as they could. They did not want a confrontation with the Israeli military, at least not by night.
Just after 4am local time, the Israeli military attacked the ship, in international waters, and totally unprovoked. Tear gas was used, sound grenades were launched, and rubber coated steel bullets were fired from almost every direction.
Dozens of speed boats carrying on average of 15-20 masked Israeli soldiers, armed to the teeth surrounded the Mavi Marmara which was carrying 600 or so unarmed civilians. Two helicopters at a time hovered above the vessel. Commandos on board the choppers joined the firing, using live ammunition, before any of the soldiers had descended onto the ship.
Two unarmed civilians were killed just meters away from me. Dozens of unarmed civilians were injured right before my eyes.
One Israeli soldier, armed with a large automatic gun and a side pistol, was overpowered by several passengers. They disarmed him. They did not use his weapons or fire them; instead they threw his weapons over board and into the sea.
After what seemed at the time as roughly 30 minutes, passengers on board the ship raised a white flag. The Israeli army continued to fire live ammunition. The ships organisers made a loud speaker announcement saying they have surrendered the ship. The Israeli army continued to fire live ammunition.
I was the last person to leave the top deck.
Below, inside the sleeping quarters, all the passengers had gathered. There was shock, anger, fear, hurt, chaos.
Doctors ran in all directions trying to treat the wounded, blood was on the floor, tears ran down people's faces, cries of pain and mourning could be heard everywhere. Death was in the air.
Three critically injured civilians were being treated on the ground in the reception area of the ship. Their clothes soaked in blood. Passengers stood by watching in shock, some read out verses of the Qur'an to calm them, doctors worked in despair to save them.
Several announcements were made on the load speakers in Hebrew, Arabic and English - "This is a message to the Israeli army, we have surrendered. We are unarmed. We have critically injured people. Please come and take them. We will not attack."
There was no response.
One of the passengers, a member of the Israeli Parliament wrote a sign in Hebrew, reading the exact same thing; she held it together with a white flag and approached the windows where the Israeli soldiers were standing outside. The pointed their laser guided guns to her head, ushered her to go away.
A British citizen tried the same sign only this time holding a British Flag and taking the sign to a different set of windows and different set of soldiers. They responded in the same manner.
Three hours later, all three of the injured were pronounced dead. The Israeli soldiers who refused to allow them treatment succeeded where their colleagues had earlier failed when they targeted these three men with bullets.
At around 8am the Israeli army entered the sleeping quarters. They handcuffed the passengers. I was thrown onto the ground, my hands tied behind my back, I couldn't move an inch.
I was taken to the top deck where the other passengers were, forced to sit on my knees under the burning sun.
One passenger had his hands tied so tight his wrists were all sorts of colours. When he requested that the cuffs be loosened, an Israeli soldier tightened them even more. He let out a scream that sent chills down my body.
I requested to go to the bathroom, I was prevented, instead the Israeli soldier told me to urinate where I was and in my own clothes. Three or four hours later I was allowed to go.
I was then marched, together with the other passengers, back to the sleeping quarters. The place was ransacked, its image like that of the aftermath of an earthquake.
I remained on the ship, seated, without any food or drink bar three sips of water for more than 24 hours. Throughout this time, Israeli soldiers had their guns pointed at us. Their hands on the trigger. For more than 24 hours.
I was then taken off the ship at Ashdod where I was asked to sign a deportation order, it claimed that I had entered Israel illegally and agreed to be deported. I told the officer that I, in fact, had not entered Israel but that the Israeli army had kidnapped me from international waters and brought me to Israel against my will; therefore I could not sign this document.
My passport was taken from me. I was told that I would go to jail.
Only then were my hands freed, I spent more than 24 hours with my hands cuffed behind my back, with nothing to eat, and barely anything to drink.
Upon arrival at the prison I was put in a cell with three other passengers. The cell was roughly 12ft by 9ft.
I spent more than 24 hours in jail. I was not allowed to make a single phone call.
The British consulate did not come and see me. I did not see a lawyer.
There was no hot water for a shower.
The only meal was frozen bread and some potatoes.
The only reason I believe I was released was because the Turkish prisoners refused to leave until and unless the other nationalities (those whose consulates had not come and released them) were set free.
I was taken to Ben Gurion airport. When I asked for my passport, the Israeli official presented me with a piece of paper and said "congratulations this is your new passport". I replied "you must be joking, you have my passport". The Israeli official's response: "sue me".
There I was asked again to sign a deportation order. Again I refused.
I was put on a plane headed to Istanbul.
Masked Israeli soldiers and commandos took me from international waters.
Uniformed Israeli officials locked me behind bars.
The British government did not lift a finger to help me, till this day I have not seen or heard from a British official.
The Israeli government stole my passport.
The Israeli government stole my lap top, two cameras, 3 phones, $1500 and all my possessions.
My government, the British government has not even acknowledged my existence.
I was kidnapped by Israel. I was forsaken by my country.
http://fwd4.me/06Gj
Kidnapped by Israel and abandoned by Britain
A British-born al-Jazeera producer recalls his ordeal on the Gaza flotilla
A wounded activist on the Marmara after Israeli soldiers stormed the vessel
A wounded activist on the Marmara after Israeli soldiers stormed the vessel
I joined the Mavi Marmara in Istanbul on Friday 21 May as one of between 30 and 40 journalists reporting on the flotilla's mission to Gaza. I am a journalist for al-Jazeera.
It was at 11pm local time on the evening of the 30th, as we were headed for Gaza, that we first spotted the Israeli military from afar. I asked the organisers what they expected to happen. They told me they had decided to move as far away from the military zone as possible, and as far away from the Israeli army and as deep into international waters, because they wanted to avoid a confrontation.
At 2.30am I sent an email to my news desk to say we shouldn't expect anything to happen during the coming hours, and I went to bed. At roughly 4am, a huge bang on the window woke me up. I could see swarms of people in small speedboats belonging to the Israeli army close to our boat. The sound was of water grenades and tear gas canisters landing on board. I quickly put on my life jacket, grabbed my satellite phone and ran upstairs. Most of the others chose to stay down.
http://fwd4.me/06Gl
Gaza blockade: Iran offers escort to next aid convoy
Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, an aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pledged Tehran would send Revolutionary Guard units to escort Gaza aid convoys. Photograph: Reuters
Iran has warned that it could send Revolutionary Guard naval units to escort humanitarian aid convoys seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza a move that would certainly be challenged by Israel.
Any such Iranian involvement, raised today by an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would constitute a serious escalation of already high tensions with Israel, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon and of backing Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
"Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces are prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys that carry humanitarian assistance for the defenceless and oppressed people of Gaza with all their strength," pledged Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's personal representative to the guards corps.
The threat came as the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, dismissed a UN proposal for an international commission to investigate last week's commando assault on aid ships, in which nine people died. Another aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish and other peace activists, was boarded peacefully by Israeli forces on Saturday, escorted to the port of Ashdod, and its passengers deported.
Netanyahu has defended Israel's right to maintain the blockade by arguing that without it Gaza would become an "Iranian port" and Hamas missiles would strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel's undeclared aim is to weaken or bring down the Hamas government.
Iran continued to exploit the "freedom flotilla" affair to lambast Israel. Its foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, told the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah on Sunday that Israel's crime was "another instance of the Zionist regime's brazen and merciless treatment of Muslims, especially the oppressed Palestinian people."
Mottaki also called for a UN resolution condemning Israel. The security council is discussing imposing new sanctions on Iran because of its failure to meet international demands over its nuclear programme.
Iran and Israel have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 revolution and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly predicts the disappearance of the Jewish state as well as denying the Holocaust.
Shirazi said Iran should encourage international efforts to break the blockade. "We should expose our enemies to spontaneous global action and not let them achieve their heinous goals," he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which have a command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are fiercely loyal to the supreme leader. Khamenei has attacked the raid as a "mistake" that "showed how barbaric the Zionists are".
Israel's determination to strike at links between Iran and Hamas was dramatically demonstrated in January when presumed Mossad agents in Dubai assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was described as the Hamas official in charge of smuggling Iranian weapons into Gaza.
Israel's no-compromise attitude to aid convoys could be tested again after two Lebanese organisations pledged to send boats to Gaza in the next few days. Reporters Without Borders is attempting to assemble 25 European activists and 50 journalists for a boat leaving Beirut. The Free Palestine Movement is planning a similar attempt.
George Galloway, the founder of Viva Palestina, announced in London that two simultaneous convoys "one by land via Egypt and the other by sea" would set out in September to break the Gaza blockade. The sea convoy of up to 60 ships will travel around the Mediterranean gathering ships, cargo and volunteers.
http://fwd4.me/06Gm
TA: Thousands protest Gaza blockade
Leftists rally against occupation, blame government of drowning Israel."
Thousands of demonstrators from across the left-wing of Israeli politics held a rally in Tel Aviv Saturday afternoon to protest 43 years of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, and a government that organizers said is drowning Israel.
The protestors began their demonstration with a march from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv museum, where speeches were held. The demonstration, which was held under the slogan "The Government is Drowning Us All", was originally planned solely to protest the occupation, but following last Monday's deadly raid on a Turkish boat attempting to break the Gaza blockade, the rally also addressed those upset about the government's policies in regard to the Gaza Strip and the raid that left 9 foreign citizens dead and several IDF soldiers wounded.
Periodically during the course of the demonstration, dozens of right-wing counter protestors attempted to disrupt the proceedings, and at one point a smoke grenade was thrown at the rally. While the main rally was proceeding at the museum, counter protestors gathered in an adjacent patch of sidewalk and sang praise for the Israeli Navy SEALS and performed renditions of the Israeli national anthem.
As busloads of left-wing activists drove past at the end of the evening, counter protestors chanted traitors, terror supporters, and go to Gaza behind a wall of border patrolmen and YASSAM riot police.
Adam Keller a spokesman for Gush Shalom, one of the organizers of the event, told the Jerusalem Post that the demonstration was an even bigger success than he expected and said he believes the last week's events increased the number of participants.
Many people didn't agree about to what level they oppose this government, but they feel suffocated by it, and feel that it is antagonizing the entire world.
Keller's sentiments were shared by Peace Now Head Yariv Oppenheimer who said that the demonstration was much larger than he expected and that it showed that people are opposed to this government that is driving us towards international isolation.
Oppenheimer added that he hopes the larger-than-expected rally leads to a new wave of opposition to the government, and praised what he said was a lack of anti-IDF slogans, placards, or sentiments at the rally.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=177555
Israel releases 7 Gaza activists
Israel has released seven of the people it abducted for trying to challenge Tel Aviv's siege of the Gaza Strip by carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The activists, among whom were Malaysian lawmaker Mohd Nizar Zakaria and three staff of a peace organization, were received by Jordanian officials on Sunday, AFP reported.
"We are very disappointed because the whole idea was to get to Gaza. We should emphasize that we came with a message of hope and peace," one of the Perdana Global Peace Organization members, Mattias Chang, said.
They were detained alongside 12 others on Saturday while on board the Irish-owned aid vessel, Rachel Corrie, in the international waters near Gaza.
The ship was carrying 10,000 tons of aid to the impoverished Gazans, who have endured almost three years of the all-out blockade.
The capture came only five days after the Israeli commandos violently attacked the international Freedom Flotilla relief mission, killing at least 20 people.
http://fwd4.me/06Go 4 oct 2010, 01:34 , Respect
Maria 7 juni 2010
Israel admits it doctored Gaza aid flotilla audio tapes
(2:43) Israel admits it doctored Gaza aid flotilla audio tapes
Nieuwe foto's weerleggen claim dat activisten de Israelische soldaten wilden lynchen
Plaatje bij Nieuwe foto's weerleggen claim dat activisten de Israelische soldaten wilden lynchen
Uit nieuwe foto's blijkt dat de activisten op de Mavi Marmara drie Israelische mariniers hebben weten te overmeesteren. Ondanks dat er op dat moment al twee activisten waren doodgeschoten, hebben ze de soldaten eerste hulp geboden en uiteindelijk laten gaan.
Via Ali Abunimah, the Turkish paper Hurriyet has posted a gallery of photos recovered from the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, the now-famous ship involved in last week's flotilla incident. Another photo from the set, displayed here, has been posted on the Economist's Facebook page; it clearly shows the same commando and passenger as one of the other photos in the set. While we must be cautious about the authenticity of any of the information coming out about the flotilla attack, the IDF seems to concede to Ha'aretz that the photos are authentic: while attempting to spin the pictures, an IDF spokesperson did not dispute that they are real.
Taken together, the photos more or less definitively dispel the claim, advanced by the IDF and its media defenders, that the passengers aboard the ship were a lynch mob determined to kill Israeli soldiers. On the contrary, the photos show that the passengers managed to capture Israeli soldiers and escort them below deck, where they would have had more than enough opportunity to kill them had they wanted to. Far from doing so, they actually helped treat the soldiers wounds, as shown in the photo above.
The photos also lend support to the testimony of one of the passengers aboard the ship, former U.S. marine and Gulf War veteran Ken O'Keefe, who described the passengers capture and subsequent treatment of three IDF commandos:
We had in our full possession, three completely disarmed and helpless commandos. These boys were at our mercy, they were out of reach of their fellow murderers, inside the ship and surrounded by 100 or more men. I looked into the eyes of all three of these boys and I can tell you they had the fear of God in them. They looked at us as if we were them, and I have no doubt they did not believe there was any way they would survive that day. They looked like frightened children in the face of an abusive father.
But they did not face an enemy as ruthless as they. Instead the woman provided basic first aid, and ultimately they were released, battered and bruised for sure, but alive. Able to live another day. Able to feel the sun over head and the embrace of loved ones. Unlike those they murdered. Despite mourning the loss of our brothers, feeling rage towards these boys, we let them go.
While the same caveats are in order regarding O'Keefe's testimony as regarding every other piece of information being released about the flotilla raid, the photos seem to verify his account. In any event, his testimony is worth reading in full.
The week since the Mavi Marmara incident has seen a dizzying amount of propaganda and misinformation released by the IDF and its supporters. There was the claim that the ship's passengers were Al Qaeda mercenaries, since retracted; the claim that Mavi Marmara passengers told an Israeli navy vessel to go back to Auschwitz, already partially retracted and seemingly on its way to a full retraction; the claims that passengers had opened fire on the IDF commandos, now dropped without a trace. As more and more details emerge, it has come to appear that the initial image of the flotilla raid was in fact the correct one: namely, that the ship's passengers acted in self-defense after coming under surprise attack, and that despite the killing of at least nine of their fellows they resisted the urge to take retribution against the commandos.
Of course, all this must remain speculative, for the IDF has still refused to release its complete and unedited footage of the raid. Immediately after the attack, the IDF released a heavily edited clip that highlighted footage of passengers attacking commandos without showing what happened before or after. But if the facts of the raid are as clear and unambiguous as the IDF is suggesting, surely there is no reason to hold back on the full video. They have an opportunity to clear things up once and for all.
http://www.lobelog.com/about-that-lynch-mob/
Egypt to keep Gaza borders open "indefinitely"
A security official says Egypt will keep its border with Gaza open "indefinitely", easing the blockade on the territory's Palestinians.
A security official says Egypt will keep its border with Gaza open "indefinitely", easing the blockade on the territory's Palestinians and giving them a crucial link to the outside the world.
1.5 million Gazans still live under heavy Israel siege while Egypt has insisted on not to opening the only Gaza border crossing in a move condemned the world in protests, leaving Gazans desperate to digging tunnels underground and risking their lives since 2007.
But the official says the closure has failed to achieve its goals, including the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006.
Israel's deadly raid on an international flotilla of activists trying to break the blockade by sea last week brought attention to the issue.
The Egyptian official spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The security official also said Egyptian construction of an underground barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip will be completed "by the end of the summer,"
"We will close all the tunnels, for sure," the official said in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"We hope to finish by the end of summer," he said when asked when the construction of the barrier would be completed.
"It's our right, it's legitimate. We will have goods delivered to (Gazans) over ground. It has to happen before our eyes," he said.
Queen Rania of Jordan attacks Israel over Gaza
Queen Rania of Jordan calls today for an end to the Israeli blockade that has turned Gaza into a "barely functioning, open-air prison." The human rights campaigner and wife of King Abdullah II says in an article for The Independent that "humanity remains under siege" for every day that the blockade continues.
Jordan is one of the few Arab countries that recognises the Jewish state and has peace treaties with it. However, Queen Rania is highly critical of Israeli policy from the "monstrous" military campaign against Gaza 18 months ago to the attacks on the flotilla last week. She criticises the Israeli operation against the flotilla for its "blatant and absurd disregard" for international law and human rights that "appalled our global community."
"Although, I was stunned at the glaring outrageousness of the attack, I am not surprised by it," she writes. "By its very nature, hard-line ideology is self-serving and self-perpetuating, its primary goal is to survive and that precludes everything."
Related articles
She also criticises Israel for defending its actions. She writes: "Assigning themselves authority and immunity, Israel's leaders feel licensed to do whatever they like and not expect an international outcry."
http://fwd4.me/06Gp
Queen Rania of Jordan: Hardliners are now the face of Israel
Gaza blockade: By attacking criticism as part of an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda war, they yet again fail tounderstand that the problem is policy, not PR
What do chocolate, cookies, A4 paper, potato chips, cumin, toys, jelly, nuts, dried fruit, nutmeg, and goats have in common? It's a tricky one. If you're a moderate, they have nothing in common. But if you are a hard-line Israeli politician, they are all potentially dangerous goods that could threaten Israel's security. It seems that side of the political spectrum has won the argument, as all the above are items that the Israeli government has prohibited from entering Gaza.
It's understandable. I mean, you can inflict a lot of damage on your oppressors with a chocolate biscuit. And those paper cuts, boy, they can really hurt. But I don't want to over-dramatize the situation, because it's not all doom and gloom down in Gaza. Many items are allowed in: mops, sponges for washing, egg cartons, glass cleaner, hair combs, plastic chicken cages, and lentils, for example. So what exactly are the 1.5 million Gazan people complaining about? What could possibly have been on the Freedom Flotilla that Israeli commandos attacked early last Sunday morning in international waters, in yet another assault that has appalled our global community?
By most accounts, on the flotilla were 10,000 tonnes of, not guns, but vital humanitarian aid. The people of Gaza desperately need it to survive the 1,000 days of illegal blockade which has crippled Gaza and reduced it to a barely functioning, open-air prison. This is aid like cement to rebuild homes, which have lain in rubble and ruin since the monstrous attacks on Gaza last year; school supplies; and medical equipment, like water purification tablets and wheelchairs.
The attack stunned the world because of its blatant and absurd disregard for anything resembling international law, human rights, and diplomatic norms. Its glaring outrageousness stunned, but didn't surprise, me. It cannot be viewed in isolation. It is another upshot of a dogma long fermenting on Israel's political landscape.
It is a doctrine that lives for itself and off others. It survives by tapping into the subliminal and cognisant levels. It implants into public consciousness a set of tenets that see Israeli's very existence as eternally under threat, to be defended through any means (preferably through use of force to show the enemy who's boss). It is best served through the adoption of an "us against the world" mentality. By its very nature, hardline ideology is self-serving and self-perpetuating. Its primary goal is to survive and that precludes everything. If to exist it must redefine what is acceptable, redraw the lines of international law, and re-imagine what weapons are appropriate so be it. Assigning themselves authority and immunity, Israel's leaders feel licensed to do whatever they like and not expect an international outcry.
But this hardened path is fraught with dangers for all of us. These radical policies debar Palestinian value and, by extension, human value. Harsh measures then become more palatable. Inflicting violence upon an innocent majority to punish the guilty few now seems necessary. Every day the blockade continues is another day our humanity remains under siege.
The effect is a people trapped between a rock and a hardline policy. The product is desperation; the reaction, more hardline policies, attempting to defend previous hardline policies. After all, did this outrageous attack take place to preserve Israel's security, or to sustain the blockade itself?
What is most frustrating is Israel's defence of its actions. By attacking criticism as part of an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda war, Israel, yet again, fails to understand that the problem is policy, not PR. Now and always, hardline policy and those who embrace it are vessels for darker forces that are at once self-cannibalising and combustible. No good can come of them. They are unsustainable because their sense of righteousness denies human worth. Apart from other hardliners on all sides who now have been gifted the fuel to invigorate their fanaticism and circulate it far and wide, everyone else loses out. The people of Gaza lose out: 80 per cent of them live below the poverty line. The children of Gaza lose out: one third of their schools, destroyed during the attack on Gaza last year, still haven't been rebuilt. The newborns of Gaza lose out: 95% of Gaza's nitrate-full water fails the World Health Organization's standards, leaving thousands of babies at risk of poisoning.
The people of Israel lose out: rejected by a third of the countries in the United Nations, shunned by much of the global community, ordinary Israelis find themselves persona non grata outside their "borders". Living defensively isn't a way of life; people only thrive on secure foundations. Is the Israeli government really prepared to condemn its own people to the shaky foundations of rule-by-fear, and its consequences?
Israel's leadership needs to ask itself some tough questions. "Is our long term strategy to rule by fear? Is our long term outlook for the Israeli people one of constant defence? Are these horizons of hopelessness what we want for our people?". And moderates around the world lose out: people like me, who dared to believe that the road to peace doesn't have to be a lonely and desolate one. That a two-state solution is not the figment of a naïve idealist's imagination. And those whose ethical responsibility it is now to deal with the science of reality, to form a coalition of humans that question and confront the assumptions of those on their far right, and to reaffirm the ethos of moderation. After all, isn't moderation where most of the living is done?
Speaking as a moderate, I fear if the tides don't turn in our region, moderation will be amongst the most painful casualties of continued aggression and hardline policies. As someone who lived through the late King Hussein's fight for peace, until his very last breath, and watches his son, my husband, King Abdullah, continue that fight, it actually breaks my heart to see us moving further and further away from peace.
Peace. People. Moderation. I would have thought that those were too heavy a price to pay for sustaining a hardened stance. So, when flotillas came to break the blockade, they came to help the people of Gaza. But, just as important, they came to break the blockade on the Israeli mind.
http://fwd4.me/06Gq
Netanyahu rejects UN-led inquiry into aid ship shootings
Group of Israeli naval reserve officers calls for commanders to be held to account
Israel has made it clear it would not accept a UN plan for a multinational investigation into the lethal commando raid on a Turkish passenger ship carrying aid and hundreds of activists to Gaza.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had put a proposal to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for an international committee to carry out an inquiry into the fatal shootings by Israeli forces of nine men on board the Mavi Marmara.
The proposal followed a call last week by the UN Security Council for an impartial investigation.
But Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the US, said, "We are rejecting an international commission." Instead he told the Fox News Channel that Israel was discussing with the US administration "a way in which our enquiry will take place". He added: "Israel is a democratic nation. Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board."
By contrast, a group of 10 apparently senior Israeli naval reserve officers last night wrote to Mr Netanyahu demanding an external enquiry and rejecting "widespread claims" of a failure of intelligence or public relations. Instead, the officers said, "We think that the plan was doomed to failure from the beginning."
The letter added: "We protest the fact that responsibility for the tragic results was immediately thrust onto the organisers of the flotilla. 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."
Mr Netanyahu convened a meeting of the seven-strong inner group of senior Cabinet ministers last night, partly to discuss the form of an inquiry that US President Barack Obama said last week should be "of international standards". Officials in Jerusalem insisted that Mr Netanyahu had only told his weekly meeting of the Cabinet that earlier reports that he had accepted the UN plan were untrue, and that discussions were continuing. Israeli officials say the committee would have included representatives from Israel, Turkey, and would have been chaired by Geoffrey Palmer, the former New Zealand Prime Minister who is an expert on maritime law.
Israel insists that its troops only opened fire after coming under heavy attack with knives, metal rods, and two pistols snatched from the arriving commandos, seven of whom it says were wounded. Photographs that were published by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet and also obtained by Reuters show bleeding and cowering Israeli troops on board the Mavi Marmara surrounded by activists.
Salih Bilici, spokesman for IHH, the Islamist Turkish foundation that helped to organise the flotilla, and which Israel accuses of links with Hamas, said the pictures had been taken by one of its members.
But the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told CNN Israel's rejection of an international inquiry showed it wanted to cover up the facts of the raid. "We want to know the facts," he said. "If Israel rejects this, it means it is also another proof of their guilt."
Steps were under way yesterday for the immediate deportation of the 11 passengers and nine crew members from the Irish vessel Rachel Corrie, which was boarded by the Israeli military without incident on Saturday and diverted to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Contrasting the Rachel Corrie with the Mavi Marmara, Mr Netanyahu told the Cabinet yesterday that a smaller group of "violent extremists" had boarded the latter ship separately at a "different city" from hundreds of other passengers and with the deliberate intention of clashing with troops.
http://fwd4.me/06Gr 4 oct 2010, 01:48 , Respect
Maria 8 juni 2010
A new Middle East triangle?
Turkey, Iran and Syria are emerging as a new axis to challenge the trio that has traditionally influenced policies in the region.
Recent events and diplomatic activity before and after the Israeli attack on the Gaza "freedom flotilla" have delineated a new powerful regional triangle at the expense of an old Arab one.
The rapprochement between Iran, Turkey and Syria is creating a new regional axis that, for all practical purposes, could replace the diminished Arab triangle of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria and transform the region in the process.
The visits of the Iranian and Syrian presidents to Turkey this week have underlined a new sense of solidarity and cooperation that will be followed with much interest and concern in Western capitals and Israel.
If strengthened, the new trio could break up the US imposed moderate-extremist division of the region and instead introduce a diverse, hard to isolate new axis that is fundamentally opposed to the Israeli occupation and committed to breaking the siege of Gaza.
Each of these Middle East players bring important strategic assets to the table: Iran is an energy rich Gulf power with an important nuclear card in hand; Turkey is an emerging Euro-Asian power with NATO membership; and Syria is an Arab nation with influence in Lebanon, which could as an indispensable partner in the Arab trio, legitimise the new triangle in Arab eyes.
The three countries have maintained an open border policy which could eventually create a market of more than 150 million people.
The old triangle
Syria's disagreement with Egypt over the Palestinian issue and its tensions with Saudi Arabia over the Iranian issue have - among other factors - served to diminish the so-called Arab triangle that has exercised an important influence on Arab policies for decades.
Beginning with their coordination on the eve of the 1973 war against Israel to recover lands occupied in 1967 and their cooperation on the 1989 Taif agreement that brought an end to the Lebanese civil war, through to their support for the US war to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation and the consensus that underlay the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Damascus, Cairo and Riyadh have been able, at times, to effect major change in the Arab world.
Their triangle was never formal or explicitly stated and some of their detractors saw it as no more than a fantasy.
But, in reality it was a pragmatic and effective way to serve their agenda when convenient: Egypt exploited the 1973 war to sign a separate agreement with Israel; Syria used the Taif agreement to get its hands on Lebanon; and Saudi Arabia took advantage of a weaker Iraq to extend its regional influence under US auspices.
However, Israeli rejection of their peace initiative and US wars and interventions after 9/11 have left the Arab trio in disarray and the Arabs in a mess.
Disagreements over how best to respond to the Israeli wars on Lebanon and Gaza, or more specifically on how to deal with Hezbollah and Hamas, have broken the camel's back.
Enter an unlikely trio
Until recently, hostility defined Turkish-Syrian relations, just as coolness defined Turkish-Iranian relations.
Even though Turkey and Iran are founding members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Turkish ties with Israel and NATO have alienated Ankara from its Southern and Eastern neighbours.
The relationship between the secular Arab nationalist regime in Syria and the religious Shia regime in Iran was strengthened primarily by their common hostility toward Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
The Kurdish issue has been important for all three nations (as well as for Iraq) and was until recently a major point of contention between Turkey and Syria. The four nations have used and abused the Kurdish question whenever it has served their agendas.
Separated by language and historical experience, they made little effort to cement strong neighbourly relationships until a few years ago.
But, the election of the AK party in Turkey triggered an important political transformation that opened the way for relations to be strengthened with its neighbours.
A reinvigorated Turkey
Since then Turkey has strengthened its economic ties, opened its borders and conducted wide-ranging consultations - even coordination - on important regional issues with its Muslim neighbours.
It has also played an important mediating role between Syria and Israel, as well as between Iran and the West.
But Turkish-Israeli relations deteriorated over the failure of the Israeli government to respond positively to Turkish mediation and its decision to instead launch the war on Gaza at the end of 2008.
And then came the Israeli attack on the Turkish flotilla in international waters.
Ankara's response to the flotilla attack is bruising the relationship between the two countries more deeply than Israel would have ever anticipated.
The decision by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to refuse an international commission investigation into the flotilla attack - a Turkish condition for normalising relations - will lead to a further escalation in diplomatic hostilities.
Already, most of those Israelis who planned to vacation in Turkey this summer have cancelled their trips and the $3bn worth of trade and strategic ties between the two countries will be impacted as a result of Israel's actions.
Important, but is it lasting?
The Turkish/Iranian/Arab triangle could be very influential, but will it endure?
The trio is capable of torpedoing any foreign intervention in the region and could have enough strategic weight to advance aspects of their common agenda.
Whether it is a solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran, the blockade on Gaza/Hamas, or the future of Iraq once US forces leave, this trio could have a say in regional affairs.
To many Arabs it appears that Turkey is attempting to exercise the same political and diplomatic influence Saudi Arabia has tried and failed to accomplish, even though they are both US allies.
Iran, likewise, has been trying to play the role Egypt once championed in the Arab and Muslim world vis-a-vis Israel and the West.
For Syria's part, the new triangle fits better with its regional vision and ambitions and provides it with the necessary regional security and clout - far more than its ties with Egypt and Saudi Arabia could provide nowadays.
In the absence of a bold and common Arab agenda, expect other regional powers like Turkey and Iran to step in and fill the political and strategic void.
And yet one wonders how long the trio will last with Western pressure building up.
Some claim that Western/US pressure on their Turkish ally and Turkish-Iranian competition over regional influence could just as easily break up their 'ménage a trois' with Syria, in favour of gaining strategic clout.
What would happen if, for example, the US and Europe step up the pressure on Turkey to choose between the two camps? Or if Saudi Arabia and Egypt offered Turkey a central role in regional affairs as part of a new 'Sunni' axis, supported by the US and Europe?
No doubt much of this depends on the 'Middle East superpower', the US.
After all, Barack Obama has proved to be a pragmatic rather than ideological president who is more focused on relations with China than with Britain; with India and Brazil than with France.
He might, therefore, focus on Turkey's new clout and its leverage with Syria, Palestine and even Iran to advance US interests in the region, instead of banking on Egypt, Saudi Arabia or even Israel - who all suffer from huge political deficits.
It is worth remembering that Ankara has been rebuffed more than once by Europe. And as a member of NATO, it could not even solicit the alliance's condemnation of Israel's attack on its citizens in international waters.
For the time being, Turkey's opposition to sanctions - and any military attack on Iran - is helping Tehran to break out of Western imposed isolation and to a large extent it provides a protective shield against any major US attack with Brazilian and perhaps at a later stage, Chinese support.
As Turkey, Syria and Iran join their efforts and strengthen their ties, they are breaking up a Western imposed division of the region into extremists and moderates, rejectionists and accommodators of Western policies - the bedrock of US-Israeli policy - and forcing world powers to change their Middle East assumptions and perhaps strategies.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/06/08/new-middle-east-triangle
Iran's Gaza-bound ships ready for clash with Israel - Ahmadinejad
An Iranian sea convoy will back up the Turkish campaign to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured Turkish leaders whom he met in Istanbul Tuesday, Jan. 8 that the vessels due to enter the disputed waters within days will not shrink from a head-on clash with Israel's Navy and Air Force exclusion forces. "We'll breach the Gaza blockade," the Iranian president vowed. The Iranian Red Crescent vessels will carry "volunteer marines" of the Revolutionary Guards "who will teach the Israelis a lesson."
Tehran's "humanitarian convoy" for Gaza will consist of three Iranian vessels flying Red Crescent flags.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that he promised Turkish leaders to attach Iranian warships and submarines to the Red Crescent ships for their voyage through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. For some months, one or two Iranian submarines have been deployed in the Mediterranean using Syrian naval port facilities.
The showdown between Turkey and Israel, said Ahmadinejad, "will change many issues in the world and mark the final countdown for Israel's existence. It shows that it has no room in the region and no one is ready to live alongside it."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Iran's plan to send aid boats to Gaza, warning that the move would deliberately aggravate an already tense situation. It is not helpful, and probably it is not designed to be helpful, he said.
Russian Prime Pinister Vladimir Putin, for his part, promised to join Ankara in bringing the Israeli attack on the Turkish flotilla before the United Nations.
The Iranian and Turkish leaders meeting in Istanbul Monday and Tuesday finalized a plan to synchronize the flotilla's approach to Gaza's shores with the UN Security Council vote on sanctions against Iran, whereupon Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon, who are SC members, will halt the procedure and turn the session around to the unfolding sea battle between Iran and Israel. The sanctions vote will be buried by the sounds of war.
Monday, June 7, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted "Iran would pull some stunt in the next couple of days" to divert attention from the unity within the Security Council.
According to our sources, the Iranian convoy will consist of a cargo ship loaded with food and other essentials, medicines and building materials; the second will carry the "volunteer" marines; and the third will be a floating hospital to be anchored permanently in Egyptian Mediterranean territorial waters opposite the divided Gaza-Egyptian town of Rafah. Small boats will ferry patients between Gaza and the hospital ship.
Tehran calculates that the Israeli navy will not attack boats carrying sick people and will be constrained from venturing into Egyptian territorial waters to hit the floating hospital. By this means, Tehran will dismantle Israel's sea blockade while also gaining a military presence off the shores of Gaza.
AS details of this scheme are drawn up in Istanbul, Israeli leaders are spending hour of hour, day after day, quibbling over the format of an inquiry commission for studying the legal aspects of the hapless commando raid they ordered against the Mavi Marmara on May 31.
Have they formed any plans for countering the Iranian-Turkish scheme to drive Tehran's flotilla through the Gaza blockade? And if so, where will the interception take place? On the Red Sea, where the Iranian Navy has a large presence, at the entrance to the Gulf of Suez or close to Gaza?
An Israel operation against Iranian vessels on any of these sea lanes would pose formidable difficulties.
http://debka.com/article/8842/
Israel awaiting U.S. green light for internal Gaza flotilla probe
IDF announced that it will conduct its own internal investigation into last week's botched raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Monday that it will conduct its own internal investigation into last week's botched raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has appointed Maj. Gen. (res. ) Giora Eiland to head the probe.
IDF chief Gabi Askenazi, L, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu, June 7, 2010
The panel is charged with analyzing the failures of, and learning lessons from, the commando raid on a Turkish-flagged ship, which left nine Turkish passengers dead and several dozen people wounded.
Meanwhile, the government is awaiting a "green light" from the United States and other sources on a separate proposal for how to investigate the incident.
The government's seven senior ministers agreed yesterday to establish a panel of jurists to probe the raid, whose work would be independent of the IDF probe. But a senior government source noted that if the type of panel proposed, and its mandate,
is not acceptable to Washington and does not enjoy the backing of the Obama administration, "there is no point in establishing it."
The proposed panel must ultimately be approved by the full cabinet, but a vote will be held only after the U.S. promises to back it.
Discussions over the nature of the committee were conducted all day yesterday between the Prime Minister's Bureau and the White House, continuing well into the night. Dan Shapiro, who holds the Middle East portfolio at the U.S. National Security Council, was in Israel to discuss an investigation of the raid with Netanyahu's advisers.
A senior source in Jerusalem said the panel would be comprised of top jurists with experience in international and marine law. Two international jurists - at least one of them American - would be invited to participate as observers, the source added.
In addition to investigating the circumstances surrounding the navy's seizure of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the committee would also be charged with examining the legality of Israel's naval and land blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The panel would also examine whether the navy used proportionate or disproportionate force during its takeover of the ship. Israel says the deaths occurred after the naval commandos were viciously attacked by the passengers and were forced to open fire in self-defense.
However, the forum of seven ministers decided, the panel will not be allowed to interrogate soldiers or officers who took part in the commando raid. It is not yet clear whether it will be allowed to interrogate senior IDF officers such as Ashkenazi and Israel Navy commander Adm. Eliezer Marom.
An official announcement of the panel's proposed composition is awaiting approval from the attorney general, who must first ensure that none of the committee members have potential conflicts of interest.
"We want to announce the makeup of the committee and its mandate only after we receive legal authorization, and also a positive response from the U.S.," a senior official in Jerusalem said yesterday.
The ministers' decision comes on the heels of a United Nations proposal to establish an international committee comprising representatives of Israel, the U.S., Turkey and one or two other states to investigate the incident. Despite growing international pressure, Netanyahu has balked at that proposal, saying Israel has the right to investigate itself.
During yesterday's meeting of the "septet" forum, some ministers pressed Netanyahu to announce the establishment of an inquiry committee in order to ease the international pressure on Israel.
"We must finish this quickly," one of the ministers said. "We have already dragged it out for too long."
Earlier yesterday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak pledged that Israel would examine ways to minimize friction in enforcing its blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza. "We intend to investigate the events," he said in response to a no-confidence motion in the Knesset.
Barak gave no details about the format of the probe, other than to say that the state panel would operate alongside the separate military investigation, and that it would seek to establish whether both Israel's four-year blockade of Gaza and last week's raid "met the standards of international law."
"We will learn lessons at the political level [and] in the defense establishment," Barak said. "Since the incident, we have heard and read mountains of statements and questions, and without a doubt, in the coming months we will discuss the lessons ... perhaps additional ways to achieve the goals of the blockade, by reducing the potential for friction as far as possible."
In the IDF probe, Eiland and his team will gather new material of their own in addition to considering testimony from navy personnel that has been gathered in the week since the raid. Ashkenazi decided to appoint the inquiry panel due to the "great importance with which the IDF views a comprehensive clarification of the facts related to its operational activities," the army said in a statement.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-awaiting-u-s-green-light-for-internal-gaza-flotilla-probe-1.294786
Propagandastrijd beelden Gaza
De beelden van de strijd op het Turkse schip de Mavi Marmara zijn als een Rorschachtest: wat je er in ziet is slechts een weergave van je eigen standpunt over het conflict, zo merkte een Amerikaanse media-expert op.
Zo is er het beeld van mensenrechtenactivisten die slechts hulpgoederen naar Gaza wilden brengen. Hun schip werd door Israëlische mariniers geënterd, waarbij de militairen onmiddellijk het vuur openden. En als er al verzet was, dan was dat slechts symbolisch uit protest tegen de Israëlische piraterij.
In de Israëlische versie daarentegen wilde Israël slechts het schip beletten de blokkade van Gaza te doorbreken. Toen oproepen de koers te wijzigen niet hielpen, wilde Israël het schip op vreedzame wijze overnemen, maar het stuitte op georganiseerd gewelddadig verzet.
De Israëliërs zelf hebben vanaf de eerste dag van de gebeurtenissen te horen en te zien gekregen hoe een groepje Turkse terroristen zich op de boot hadden voorbereid om de Israëliërs aan te vallen, te kidnappen, en zichzelf te offeren in de heilige strijd. Ze zouden daartoe zelfs hebben gebeden en strijdliederen hebben aangeheven. En had niet de Arabische zender Al-Jazeera al bericht over de djihadisten aan boord?%u2019 Dat was ook hun boodschap aan de wereld: Israël vormt het front in de strijd tegen het terrorisme.
Op dag één was in Israël achter de schermen ook al ruzie ontstaan tussen de pr-mensen van defensie en die van het ministerie van buitenlandse zaken. De laatste wilde de beelden de wereld insturen waarin te zien was hoe de soldaten waren geslagen. Defensie vond dat te vernederend en slecht voor het imago van het Israëlische leger.
Een omgekeerd proces voltrok zich aan de andere kant van de scheidslijn. De Turkse media en de Arabische zender Al-Jazeera kwamen met verhalen en beelden hoe de Israëliërs het schip hadden bestormd en onschuldige activisten hadden neer gemaaid.
Dit weekeinde kwam de krant Hürriyet met andersoortige beelden onder het kopje Tranen van een commando: met staven uitgeruste activisten die de Israëliërs opwachtten, een bebloede en huilende Israëlische militair en een op de grond liggende Israëliër op wie was ingeslagen.
In de krant vertelt de Amerikaan Kenneth O'Keefe dat hij tot de activisten behoorde die de drie soldaten hadden overmeesterd. Ze keken naar ons en dachten dat we ze zouden doden. Maar we lieten ze gaan.
Dit was de boodschap van de vernedering, waarvoor het Israëlische ministerie van defensie zo bevreesd was, maar tegelijkertijd ook een erkenning dat er verzet was geweest.
Turkije eist nu een internationaal onderzoek. VN-baas Ban Ki-moon heeft al aangekondigd een onderzoekscommissie in het leven te roepen. En de VS zetten Israël onder druk om internationale toezichthouders te betrekken bij het eigen Israëlische onderzoek.
Maar aan onderzoekscommissies heeft het nog nooit geschort in het Israëlisch Palestijns conflict, net zo min als aan VN-resoluties. Een uitkomst van zo'n onderzoek kan zijn de blokkade van Gaza op te heffen. Dat pakt het onderliggende probleem niet aan. Tenzij het besef doordringt dat het hoog tijd is een oplossing van het Israëlisch-Palestijns conflict af te dwingen, is het wachten op een volgende uitbarsting van geweld en een volgende onderzoekscommissie.
[gadget]
Op YouTube wordt de strijd met filmpjes gevoerd
Ook op YouTube woedt het Israëlisch-Palestijns conflict met filmpjes over de gebeurtenissen op de Marmara. Israël is nog een stapje verder gegaan. Zo kregen de daar gevestigde correspondenten afgelopen week een verwijzing naar een clip op YouTube waarin Israëliërs verkleed als Arabieren en activisten met stokken en wapens op het deuntje van We Are The World zingen: We con the world, we con the people, we'll make them all believe the IDF (Israëlische leger) is Jack the Ripper. (We lichten de wereld op, we lichten de mensen op, we gaan ze allemaal doen geloven dat de IDF Jack the Ripper is.) En het vervolgt met: Er sterven geen mensen (in Gaza -red), dus kunnen we maar het beste de grootst mogelijke bluf creëren.
De clip was het initiatief van de rechtse columniste van de krant The Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick.
Uren later volgde een verontschuldiging : het was niet de bedoeling geweest de verwijzing te versturen en het ging hier niet om een officiële visie van overheidswege. Dat de clip de visie van Israël vertegenwoordigt staat echter buiten kijf.
http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article3089582.ece/Propagandastrijd__beelden__rsquo_Gaza_rsquo__.html
[b]Israel to hold own flotilla probe[/b]
Israel has said it will launch its own investigations into last week's deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, after rejecting a UN proposal for an international probe into the attack.
In a statement on Monday, the Israeli military said it was gathering an "internal team of experts" to examine the operation and "establish lessons from the event".
It said the investigation would report its findings on the attack, which left nine activists dead and more than 100 wounded, on July 4.
The Israeli government is also set to announce its own investigative panel, defence minister Ehud Barak told Israel's parliament on Monday.
Barak gave no details of the format of such a probe, which Israeli media reports said was still being worked out.
He also suggested Israel was also looking at ways to amend its four-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, although he added it would maintain restrictions it sees as essential to preventing Iranian missiles from reaching the Palestinian territory.
Barak said the planned investigation would run separately from the military investigation, and would seek to establish whether Israel's blockade of Gaza and its raid "met with the standards of international law".
"We will draw lessons at the political level, (and) in the security establishment," he said.
[b]'Unlawful'[/b]
The announcement of the Israeli investigations came as Turkey's prime minister reiterated calls for an immediate international inquiry into the Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.
Israel has rejected calls for an international investigation into the raid [Reuters]
Speaking on the first day of an Asia security summit in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Israeli attack was "unlawful" and required a UN backed "transparent" investigation.
"We believe that an independent inquiry ... to investigate this unlawful incident in a very transparent and fair manner ... has to be initiated as soon as possible," Erdogan said.
"We will be following that up and we would like to ask the UN to pursue this matter to the end."
Eight of those killed in the raid were Turkish citizens, while the other had dual US-Turkish citizenship.
Erdogan made his comments at a joint news conference with Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president.
"The time has come to lift the embargo on Gaza," said the Turkish prime minister.
"We don't want an open air prison in the world any more."
[b]Blockade[/b]
Al-Assad echoed Erdogan's call for an investigation as well urging an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which began in 2007.
Turks have been outraged by the Israeli raid
on the aid flotilla [Reuters]
"As a minimum we should see the establishment of a neutral investigation committee in addition to lifting the blockade," al-Assad said.
"If blood was shed for a certain objective we should make everything possible to achieve their objective [to break the blockade] and we should continue in our efforts on this path."
Erdogan and al-Assad were speaking on the opening day of a two-day summit on security in Asia.
Turkey said Israel, also a member, was invited but was not expected to be at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.summit.
[b]Alliance[/b]
Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Istanbul, said Erdogan is looking for partners in the region to take action against Israel.
"What this regional security summit is about is Turkey figuring out what partners it has if it moves to try and isolate Israel, politically, economically, militarily, however it can," she said.
Turkey had a solid alliance with Israel until the Gaza war in early 2009.
Following last week's attack, Ankara said it would reduce its military and trade ties with Israel and has shelved discussions on energy projects, including natural gas and fresh water shipments.
It has also threatened to break ties unless Israel apologises for the raid.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference in Istanbul, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said his country was "evaluating everything".
"It is up to Israel how our ties will continue," he said.
"Israel has to accept the consequences of its actions and be held accountable".
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/2010681515123625.html 15 oct 2010, 00:38 , Respect
Maria 8 juni 2010
Asia leaders in Turkey condemns Israel, backs intl probe
Asia leaders, except Israel, condemned the attack on Gaza-bound aid convoy, calling on Israel to end its inhuman blockade of the Palestinian territory.
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) on Tuesday, said that all member countries, except Israel, condemned the Israeli attack on Gaza-bound aid convoy, calling on Israel to end its inhuman blockade of the Palestinian territory for the sake of regional peace and security.
In a diplomatic coup for Turkey, all members of CICA except Israel itself denounced Israeli raid on the international convoy that was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters which 9 Turkish Gaza activists were killed.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, "during the third summit of heads of state and government of CICA, all member countries, except one, expressed their feelings, thoughts and condemnations about Israeli forces' attack on a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and killing of Turkish people."
President Gul said at a news conference at Istanbul's Ciragan Palace, "Turkey has taken over rotating presidency of the CICA which became a 22-member organization after joining of Iraq and Vietnam. CICA decisions are made unanimously. "
"During the summit, all member countries, except one, expressed their feelings, thoughts and condemnations about Israeli forces' attack on a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and killing of Turkish people. Under the rules of the organization, all decisions should be made unanimously. Therefore, I made a statement as the Turkish Chairmanship. This is the view of member countries except one," he added.
"For first time"
Gul said, "unfortunately, we witnessed killing of Turks many times by terrorist organizations such as ASALA, PKK and al-Qaeda or by criminal organizations. For the first time since the World War I, army and soldiers of a country made such a mistake. Therefore, we cannot forgive it."
Asked whether a lawsuit would be filed against Israel for compensation to relatives of victims, President Gul said, "all measures will be taken both on international and bilateral levels."
"Unfortunately, we witnessed killing of Turks many times by terrorist organizations such as ASALA, PKK and al-Qaeda or by criminal organizations. For the first time since the World War I, army and soldiers of a country made such a mistake. Therefore, we cannot forgive it," he said.
"As the president, I advise everyone not to use this incident as tool for domestic politics. This is a national cause," he said.
Replying to a question about news reports in some western newspapers claiming that Turkey could close down some institutions enabling Israel to watch Iran, President Gul said that those reports were nothing but exaggeration.
"Backing for intl probe"
Turkish chairmanship said that all member countries, except Israel, supported the idea of establishing an independent international committee by the United Nations Secretary General to investigate Israel's attack on ships.
In the statement, Turkish Chairmanship of the CICA also said that member countries, except Israel, made a call to make the Middle East a region without nuclear weapons.
A great majority of member countries called on Israel to withdraw from territories it has occupied since 1967 and demanded the establishment of an independent Palestine whose capital would be Eastern Jerusalem, the statement also said.
Israel had sent its "ambassador" to the talks.
Syria's Assad, whose country is not a CICA member but was attending as a guest, said "Turkish blood is not different from Arab blood", while Ahmadinejad accused Israel of going beyond all boundaries in its disrespect for humanity.
Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member and a candidate to join the European Union, has sought to raise its international profile in recent years, mediating on issues ranging from ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iran's nuclear programme.
Its members include: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
On Wednesday, Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet in Istanbul for talks with their Turkish counterpart.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59693
EP members condemn Israeli attack, back Turkey
EP members condemn Israeli attack, back Turkey
Members of the European Parliament were informed by Turkish State Minister & Chief EU Negotiator Egemen Bagis about Israeli attack on Gaza-bound aid convoy.
Members of the European Parliament, who were informed by Turkish State Minister & Chief EU Negotiator Egemen Bagis about Israeli attack on Gaza-bound aid convoy, supported Turkey's stance and condemned Israel.
Bagis held talks on Wednesday at the European Parliament at the invitation of EU side of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Bagis told MEPs that Turkey would "give a European response" to Israel's deadly attack on convoy of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza which killed eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin on May 31.
"Two wrong do not make a right," Bagis said, adding that Turkey should not be expected to wage a war against Israel. He said the problem was not between two countries, but it was between Israel and the whole world.
Bagis asked EP to condemn Israeli attack and give support for an impartial and independent probe.
All MEPs, but Barry Madlener --a Dutch far-right parliamentarian--, expressed their support for Bagis.
Even Greek and Greek Cypriot parliamentarians, often speak for their anti-Turkish stance on almost every matter, said they hailed Turkey's pioneer role to stop Israeli blockade on Gaza.
However, Madlener tried to play the advocate for Israel and read the list of "weapons" he got from the Israeli Embassy which he said were allegedly seized on ships.
Bagis gave a brief answer to Madlener, saying that "all these were lies and that Israel should accept an international independent investigation if it was sure of itself."
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59712
CICA condemns Israeli attack on Flotilla
All participating members at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) have denounced the recent Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
In a final statement issued on Tuesday, the members, except Israel, "expressed their grave concern and condemnation for the actions undertaken" by Israeli forces.
The May 31 assault by Israeli commandos against the Gaza-bound aid convoy in international waters left at least 20 people dead and dozens others injured.
The CICA statement also described the brutal attack as a "blatant violation" of international law and "deeply deplored" the loss of civilian lives, AFP reported.
"This is a clear manifestation of how Israel has isolated itself," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said at the end of the security summit in Istanbul.
Earlier in the day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon insisted that the international community must be given a credible role in the probe of the Israeli attack.
The UN chief's view is that "credible international involvement is crucial to a prompt, credible, impartial and transparent investigation" of the attack, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
The UN reiterated its call after Tel Aviv on Sunday dismissed a UN Human Rights Council request for an international investigation, arguing that it would conduct its own investigation.
The UN chief had called for the establishment of a committee headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer to probe the assault on pro-Palestinian activists.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=129628§ionid=351020202
US-Israel: Moment of Truth
Beneath the recent public embrace, a genuine crisis is emerging in U.S.-Israeli relations.
Moment of Truth
Beneath the recent public embrace, a genuine crisis is emerging in U.S.-Israeli relations. Increasingly, the two countries have fundamentally different strategic priorities. In the past, high-level political understandings narrowed such differences; today, such understandings seem elusive. The trend lines are not encouraging. If left unmanaged, tensions could drive the two sides farther apart, making Israeli behavior more unpredictable and U.S. management of the Middle East more difficult.
President Obama was dealt an unprecedented number of complex challenges in the Middle East. None seem to resonate with the president as much as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he has described as a "vital national security interest." Many administration and U.S. military officials increasingly believe that the United States is paying a high price for allowing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to fester. They argue that the conflict makes it increasingly difficult for the United States to manage a range of tasks in the Middle East, from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to building international support for Iran sanctions. Though the prospects for progress on Israeli-Palestinian talks remain slim, the issue has crept up the administration's priority list. The emphasis on negotiations has put the administration on a collision course with the Netanyahu government.
While the United States has grown to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a priority and threat, the Israeli public and leadership have come to see it as a nuisance. Palestinian terrorism has been largely contained, and the wars in Lebanon and Gaza have brought an uneasy calm to Israel's borders. Still, more serious threats loom. To the vast majority of Israelis, dividing and weakening the country through painful compromises on the Palestinian front when other unprecedented threats persist seems illogical. Even if an agreement were attainable, most Israelis believe it would do little to strengthen their security.
Instead, Israel is fixated on one strategic priority: stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program. All other threats and challenges are secondary. As Israelis see it, a nuclear Iran would fundamentally alter the regional security landscape, emboldening Iran and its allies Hezbollah and Hamas, and subject Israel to an ever-rising series of threats. In all of this, Israelis see the Obama administration's push to resume Israeli-Palestinian talks as a distraction from the core issue of Iran, and perceive America's unwillingness to threaten Iran with the use of force as strengthening Iran's resolve, making a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable. They believe the United States is pressuring Israel to pay a heavy price on the Palestinian issue without promising to prevent a nuclear Iran in return. That is an equation Israelis fundamentally reject. No Israeli government is likely to make historic compromises to Palestinians before knowing how the Iranian threat will unfold. The resultant U.S.-Israeli disconnect will not be mended easily.
To be sure, each side is engaged with the other's priority issue. The U.S. government has devoted significant resources to a broad international effort to stem Iranian proliferation and contain Iranian regional ambitions. Moreover, the United States has gone to great lengths to reassure Israel by upgrading its security and missile defense cooperation, including recently requesting $205 million for Israel to produce the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system. Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government has endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has indicated a willingness to engage in final status negotiations with the Palestinians. Still, the differences and suspicions run deep.
Having raised the Palestinian issue so high on the U.S. agenda, the administration cannot easily backtrack. Opportunities for progress are slim as long as Israelis are preoccupied with Iran and Palestinians remain badly divided both politically and geographically. But while the prospects for success are at their lowest point in two decades, the consequences for inaction continue to rise.
If U.S.-Israeli relations become hostage to progress on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the outcome will likely be a continued Israeli-Palestinian stalemate and a further rupture in U.S.-Israeli relations as Iran approaches its nuclear breakout point. Even as Iran approaches that point, it is unlikely that the U.S. opposition to a military strike against Iran will change. The U.S. unwillingness to use force or at least the threat of force makes Israelis question whether the United States would stand behind Israel at a moment of truth in a potential Israeli-Iranian confrontation. As Iran approaches that critical juncture, Israel's impulse to take unilateral military action will increase. Another military confrontation in the region could, according to U.S. military officials, unleash unintended consequences.
The uncertainty and tension over conflicting priorities hurt both Israel and the United States. Despite Israel's regional power and military strength, only the United States can lead the fight against Iran's nuclear weapons program. Israel can be an asset towards that goal when it cooperates with the United States and acts in a responsible and predictable way. As part of that effort, the Obama administration expects Israeli cooperation on the Palestinian issue as the United States works tirelessly against Iran. The Israeli government must decide how it will go along with the U.S. plan. The stakes have never been higher.
Israel is a crucial part of U.S. policy in the Middle East, but it is only one aspect. To eleven successive U.S. presidents, Israel's leadership has successfully articulated a strategy and vision that complemented broader U.S. goals and made Israel a vital component of pursuing those objectives. Israel and the United States continue to share broad strategic aims, yet ongoing political tension and diverging priorities obscure those aims. Without a clearer Israeli strategy of how Israel fits into America's Middle East vision, the partnership could be damaged irrevocably, with unforeseen consequences for both the United States and Israel.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59673
Germany, Italy want quartet involvement in probe on Israel
Germany and Italy said they wanted the international quartet of Middle East mediators to be involved in a "transparent and neutral" investigation into Israel's raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.
Germany and Italy said on Tuesday they wanted the international quartet of Middle East mediators to be involved in a "transparent and neutral" investigation into Israel's raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.
Israel has rejected U.N. calls for an international inquiry into its deadly commando raid on Monday on a pro-Palestinian convoy trying to challenge the blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying it will carry out its own investigation.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini said after meeting in Berlin they wanted an international inquiry, with Westerwelle adding that it was "in Israel's own interests" such a probe take place.
"We agree there must be a thorough, transparent and neutral investigation with an international compoment, which should in our opinion involve the quartet," said Westerwelle, adding that "the blockade of aid to Gaza is unacceptable".
Frattini echoed Westerwelle's comments on the involvement of the quartet -- composed of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- and the need for a "transparent, honest and thorough" investigation.
The Italian politician agreed the blockade must be lifted, while suggesting the international community could help Israel to carry out security checks on goods allowed into Gaza.
"The situation in Gaza must be resolved now, by allowing the movement of goods and services needed by the population," said Frattini.
"Above all, we must not play into the hands of extremists. Closing the borders gives the extremists of Hamas an opportunity to use the blockade of Gaza as a flag, and not a flag of peace."
France and Britain have also called on Israel to accept an international inquiry into the incident.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59687
Turkey calls on Hamas, Fatah to unite for future
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinian groups to end their divisions with a view to reach compromise between themselves.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinian groups to end their divisions with a view to reach compromise between themselves.
"It is a must that Hamas and Al-Fatah solve their issues. Because at this time, they cannot afford divisions any more. They need to take lessons from the past and act willingly for peace," Erdogan told a joint press conference with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad in Istanbul.
Erdogan rejected labelling Hamas as a terrorist organization, saying that Hamas was the democratically elected group for power.
"But they did not allow them to remain in power and they were removed from power. It is impossible to understand the world's attitude on this issue," Erdogan said.
"The same people who once branded al-Fatah a terrorist group now see it as the representative of the Palestinians. The same people who called Yasser Arafat a terrorist later gave him a Nobel peace prize," Erdogan said.
Erdogan also rejected severely Israeli allegations that passengers of a ship with the Gaza-bound flotilla that came under a deadly Israeli attack included people with "known ties" to terrorist groups.
"They were no terrorists. If they were then why did the Israeli government let them return to their countries," Erdogan asked.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59655
Israeli Gen. threatens to drown Erdogan
A retired senior commander in the Israeli army says that any move by Turkey and its premier to protect aid convoys to Gaza would be considered an act of war and Israel should sink such ships.
"If the Turkish prime minister joins such a flotilla," Dayan said "we should make clear beforehand this would be an act of war, and we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it," former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan told Israel's army radio on Monday.
"We need to draw a clear line and say that whoever crosses it will not be boarded but sunk," al-Jazeerah news website quoted Dayan as saying.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan had told close associates about a plan to visit Gaza to "break the Israeli blockade."
The paper said Erdogan was considering traveling aboard a Turkish Navy vessel in support of aid convoys to Gaza.
The Turkish government had strongly condemned a May 31 attack by Israeli naval commandos on a Turkish-sponsored aid convoy heading for Gaza.
The onslaught on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters killed 20 activists accompanying the six-ship fleet and injured more than 50 others wounded, sparking shock and outrage around the globe.
In protest to the attack, Ankara recalled its ambassador to Israel and called for an international probe into the actions of the Israeli navy in the offensive. Turkey also demanded an apology by Tel Aviv, a measure Israel said it would not take.
The Turkish Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul has already launched an investigation in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considered the main suspect and General Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are also suspects.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=129514§ionid=351020204
VS: betrek buitenwereld bij onderzoek Israël
WASHINGTON - De Verenigde Staten willen dat de buitenwereld betrokken is bij het onderzoek dat Israël uitvoert naar een aanval op een hulpkonvooi richting de Gazastrook. Dat is essentieel voor de geloofwaardigheid van het onderzoek, verklaarde een woordvoerder van het Amerikaanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken woensdag.
Tot op heden had Washington altijd vertrouwen uitgesproken in het Israëlische onderzoek. Landen als Frankrijk en Turkije hadden eerder al aangedrongen op een internationaal onderzoek naar de gebeurtenissen van vorige week maandag. Israëlische commando's enterden toen zes schepen, die met hulpgoederen op weg waren naar de Gazastrook. Bij de operatie kwamen zeker negen pro-Palestijnse activisten om het leven.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/6893886/___Buitenwereld_bij_onderzoek_Isral___.html?sn=buitenland
VS: internationaal onderzoek konvooi
De Verenigde Staten vinden nu toch dat andere landen moeten meewerken aan het onderzoek naar de Israëlische actie tegen het scheepskonvooi naar Gaza van vorige week. Aanvankelijk had Amerika genoeg vertrouwen in een onderzoek door Israël zelf.
Nu zegt het Amerikaanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken dat het goed is voor de geloofwaardigheid als er meer landen aan meedoen.
Op een regionale top in Istanbul is Israël scherp veroordeeld voor de actie waarbij negen activisten omkwamen. De landen drongen bij Israël aan op medewerking aan een internationaal onderzoek.
http://nos.nl/artikel/162993-vs-internationaal-onderzoek-konvooi.html
Buurlanden veroordelen Israël
ISTANBUL - Aziatische landen hebben dinsdag scherpe kritiek geuit op Israël naar aanleiding van de Israëlische aanval op een hulpkonvooi richting de Gazastrook vorige week.
De ongeveer twintig deelnemende landen van een conferentie in het Turkse Istanbul spraken ''hun ernstige bezorgdheid en veroordeling'' uit over de situatie. Dat heeft de voorzitter, de Turkse president Abdullah Gül, geconcludeerd.
Volgens de landen, waaronder Iran, Jordanië en China, is de Israëlische militaire operatie in strijd met het internationaal recht.
Een slotverklaring op de conferentie werd niet aangenomen. Dat was volgens Gül niet mogelijk, omdat Israël zelf ook deelnam en de aanname ervan verhinderde.
Geïsoleerd
De veroordeling ''laat duidelijk zien hoe Israël zichzelf heeft geïsoleerd, aldus Gül. Turkije was vroeger een bondgenoot van Israël, maar de afgelopen jaren zijn de banden verslechterd.
Bij de aanval van vorige week op het konvooi kwamen negen mensen om het leven, allen Turken.
http://www.nu.nl/buitenland/2265344/buurlanden-veroordelen-israel.html 15 oct 2010, 00:39 , Respect
Maria 9 juni 2010
Blair '100 percent on Israel's side'
As the world presses Israel to heed calls for an international probe into its deadly Flotilla attack, former British Premier Tony Blair echoes Tel Aviv's alleged security concerns.
Having met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday, Blair called for a "full and impartial" investigation into the attack, saying "there may be some sort of international element that could be part of it."
Blair, however, assured that he wholeheartedly supports what he called Israel's right to self-defense and backed Israel's movement restrictions on the Gaza Strip.
"There's no question that there are rockets fired from Gaza and that there are people in Gaza who want to kill innocent Israelis," the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted him as saying on its website.
"When it comes to security, I'm 100 percent on Israel's side. Israel has the right to inspect what goes into Gaza."
Blair, the special envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators, was echoing Netanyahu's defense for the May 31 commando attack on a Gaza-bound aid convoy that killed 20 activists onboard the fleet and left more than 40 injured.
The Israeli prime minister who had earlier supported the onslaught as "an act of self-defense," praised the Israeli army on Tuesday for their performance during the naval operation.
"You have proved that there's no limit to your skill, and I salute you," Netanyahu told army forces. Among the elite forces were navy commandos from Shayetet 13, the unit involved in last week's fatal attack.
Israel has been defying the global community's call for an international probe and insists to lead its own controlled examination of the carnage of Gaza-bound activists.
Tel Aviv's version of the probe would only see whether the attack was legal, according to Israeli Minister without portfolio Benny Begin.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=129666§ionid=351020202
Israel "eases" Gaza siege for watered-down probe on attack
The US president has said his nation will provide a $400m aid package for the Palestinians, as he called the situation in the Gaza Strip "unsustainable."
Barack Obama made his pledge on Wednesday after meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at the White House.
He said the money would go to both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Abbas' visit to Washington comes amid an international backlash against Israel after its forces boarded a Turkish aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip on May 31, killing nine activists.
'Status quo unsustainable'
Obama said the incident was a "tragedy", but repeated the line of his administration that it's too early to rush to judgement, saying "it's important that we get all the facts."
Obama also said he believed "significant progress" was possible in the Middle East peace process this year, and vowed the "full weight" of US involvement.
Now is the time to move forward from the current "dead end," he said.
AID PACKAGE HIGHLIGHTS
$240m investment in a mortgage finance programme in the West Bank, designed to increase homeownership.
$75m to support the Palestinian Authority's work to improve infrastructure throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
$40m to support Unrwa's Emergency Appeal for Gaza and the West Bank, to improve educational and health services, increase job creation, and repair shelters in Gaza.
$10m to enhance the Palestinian private sector's competitiveness.
"Not only is the status quo with respect to Gaza unsustainable, but the status quo with the respect to the Middle East is unsustainable, it is time for us to go ahead, move forward on a two-state solution."
Abbas repeated his calls for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza in the meeting, and described Obama's promise of aid as a "positive sign".
Israel put the Gaza Strip under siege in 2007, after Hamas seized power of the territory, saying the blockade is needed to prevent weapons smuggling.
The siege allows Israel to control the flow of goods and people going into the Strip.
Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, described Obama's comments as a "step in the right direction".
"If Mr Obama believes that the situation here [in Gaza] is unacceptable it's up to him to change things by asking the Israelis to lift the siege," he told Al Jazeera.
"We' don't only need free flow of goods and building materials. The people of Gaza also need to be given the freedom to travel.
"At present the sick are dying because they cannot go abroad to get the necessary treatment and doctors."
Previous aid promise
In recent years, US aid to the Palestinians has been sent mostly to the West Bank, governed by Abbas' Fatah movement, or funnelled to Gaza through international agencies.
Washington pledged $900m for the Palestinians at a donors conference in 2009.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said she had been chasing officials to find out how much of that money had actually been paid out.
"The state department said yesterday that in the last year, for Gaza and the West Bank, the US committed to spending $200m," she said.
"I was pushing at the White House trying to figure out where the difference is, where did the money go, and they're basically trying to brush off the question."
The Israel moves come in return for the international community reportedly agreeing a watered-down probe into a deadly flotilla raid.
Israel has allowed some formerly banned food items into the Gaza Strip in a move that Netanyahu government hopes to escape international probe on last week's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla.
Israel drew worldwide condemnation over its attack on Turkish Gaza ship which 9 activists were killed.
Palestinian liaison official Raed Fattouh says Israel has lifted the ban on soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, chips, cookies and sweets.
Fattouh, head of a West Bank-based Palestinian government committee that coordinates entry of goods into the Gaza Strip from Israel, said they are Israeli-made drinks and snack food.
Fattouh said Israeli officials rebuffed Palestinian requests for construction goods, raw materials for factories to operate and medical devices.
A Palestinian merchant, who spoke to Reuters in the Gaza Strip on condition of anonymity, said Hamas officials ordered businessmen in the enclave not to import most of the items from Israel.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
"No to building homes"
However, Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement, say the move is meant to defuse pressure for an international investigation of the raid.
The move does not include the most-needed items in Gaza, such as cement, steel and other materials needed to build homes in the war-devastated strip.
The naval raid drew attention to the blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt since 2007.
Israeli officials confirmed the decision to allow in the new foods.
They said the move was meant to defuse pressure for an international investigation of the raid. Another government official said they would continue to ease the blockade but offered no further details. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal government announcement.
Turkey has led the international criticism of Israel's siege o Gaza. The nine activists killed last week included eight Turks and a Turkish American.
"Watered-down probe"
The Israel moves come in return for the international community agreeing a watered-down probe into a deadly flotilla raid.
"Israel is poised to accept a British plan to ease its blockade of Gaza in exchange for international acceptance of a watered-down investigation into last week's deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship", sources told a British paper on Tuesday.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Britain last week circulated a document outlining proposals to ease the blockade. It quoted an unnamed Western source close to the talks with Israel saying: A quid pro quo deal is in the offing.
Israel has outlined plans to hold probes into the legality of its naval blockade of Gaza and the raid last week on an aid flotilla which was bidding to break it which killed nine people.
It is reportedly considering setting up an investigative team made up of Israeli jurists and former diplomats as well as two foreign observers.
But, this would fall short of the independent, international investigation several world leaders have called for.
The United States said Tuesday it backed "international participation" in a probe into the flotilla raid, echoing similar remarks by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Meanwhile, 21 Asian and Middle Eastern states expressed grave concern and condemnation over the raid at a security summit in Istanbul.
Turkey, whose citizens died on the flotilla, has said normalisation of ties with Israel would be out of the question if it failed to agree to an international probe.
"Keeping silent one more time against this totally unlawful attack in international waters and ignoring this attack again like it was done in the past, will open a new wound in the conscience of humanity," Turkey's prime minister said on Wednesday.
Erdogan said that a state's irresponsible, unthoughtful and reckless breach of law would do harm to people's perception of justice, as well as the reliability of international organizations.
"If we are talking about global peace, we should display a humanistic, fair, decisive and brave stance against such illegalities," Erdogan said.
The Turkish premier also said that those remaining silent would be participating in and legitimizing such violent attacks.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59707
Turkey to send delegation to US over Israel crisis
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to send a delegation to the United States in relation to Israel's attack to Gaza aid ships.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to send a delegation to the United States in relation to Israel's attack to Gaza aid ships.
Nine people, including eight Turkish and one U.S. citizen of Turkish descent, died when Israeli forces raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31. Around 30 people were wounded in the attack.
The ship was also carrying activists from Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Belgium, Ireland and elsewhere.
Headed by AK Party Deputy Chairman Omer Celik, who is also responsible for External Relations in the party will go to the U.S next week to handle the crisis with Israel.
Celik and the Turkish delegation will present Turkey's arguments and evidences to the U.S. State Department officials about the Israeli attack on the ships.
The visit will also set the foundation for the meeting between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama that it is to be held in Canada on the G20 summit.
The Turkish minister had defined the Israeli attack on aid flotilla as a problem between Israel and international community and international law, not a problem between Turkey and Israel.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=59700