Metro – Trying to limit damage, Israel drops plans to prosecute activists detained in high-seas raid.

Metro – AP INTERVIEW: French judge says Turkish charity behind Gaza flotilla had terror ties.

PARIS – France’s former top counterterrorism judge says in an interview that the Turkish Islamic charity that organized the ill-fated relief flotilla for Gaza had “clear, long-standing ties to terrorism and jihad.”

Jean-Louis Bruguiere has told The Associated Press that the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, had a role in the thwarted plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999.

Bruguiere who now heads a EU program to track terror financing said Wednesday that IHH leaders “were basically helping al-Qaida when (Osama) bin Laden started to want to target U.S. soil.”

The group denies any links to terror groups.

A Setup On The High Seas?.

via Attackers of the IDF soldiers are Al Qaeda mercenaries.

On board the Mavi Marmara ship that arrived as part of the flotilla to Gaza was a group of approximately 40 people with no identification papers, who are mercenaries belonging to the Al Qaeda terror organization. This was disclosed by the Israeli Security Cabinet, which gathered on Tuesday evening (June 1) for a special meeting.

According to intelligence disclosed during that meeting, the terrorists wore bullet-proof vests, and carried with them night-vision goggles, weapons, and large sums of cash.  Each person in this group had the exact same amount of cash in his pockets.  While the civilian protestors were sent to the lower deck during the Shayetet Naval Special Force’s interception of the ship, the group divided into cells and remained on the upper deck in order to attack the soldiers.

An announcement delivered at the completion of this special meeting stated that blocking the entrance of these ships into Gaza is an act of self defense. The Cabinet places full responsibility for the incident on those who started the violence which clearly endangered the lives of the IDF soldiers, and commends the IDF for the way it responded. The meeting on this subject will continue on Wednesday (June 2).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the meeting that he regrets all loss of life, but gives full support to the IDF. “This was not a flotilla for peace, but instead was a violent and organized force. We have films and photographs which show what our soldiers faced, but the last thing that can be said about this ship is that it was a flotilla of peace,” he said.

“We know from the experience of Operation Cast Lead, and beforehand, that weapons entering the Gaza Strip are used against our civilians. Within Gaza there is a terror state aided by Iran, and therefore we attempt to prevent the entering of weapons to Gaza by land, air and sea. On the Francop ship alone we caught approximately 200 tons of weapons which were smuggled by Iran to Hezbollah,“ he added.

The Prime Minister emphasized that “Opening a martime channel to Gaza will present a grave danger to the security of our civilians. Therefore we are upholding the policies of the maritime blockade, and check the ships. There is no possibility to establish these policies without checking the contents of the ships. It is true that there is international pressure on and criticism of this policy, but we must understand that it is necessary in order to ensure the security of Israel and her right to self defense.”

The current Israeli inventory consists of five German-built Dolphin class diesel-electric submarines – the latest two are equipped with a very quiet air propulsion system. Some of the submarines were purchased using American military assistance funds – which required special dispensation – and some were donated by the German government.

War disguised as aid in Gaza | Full Comment | National Post.

Canadians who are sincerely concerned about human rights should ask hard questions about the so-called “peace and human rights activists” who tried to sail into Gaza on Monday morning. Evidence is mounting that some of those on board had anything but human rights on their minds.

Last week, a number of ships set sail from European ports, bearing what they described as humanitarian aid for Gaza. Their explicit goal, however, was less the delivery of that aid than the breaking of the blockade that Israel and Egypt have imposed on Gaza since that territory was taken over by Hamas, an Islamist radical group with direct ties to Iran. The goal of the blockade is to prevent arms from entering Gaza, while ensuring that Gazans have access to food, fuel and medical supplies.

In a strategic decision that was either dangerously naive or deliberately provocative, the flotilla organizers partnered with a Turkish group called the IHH, designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. It comes as no surprise that it was specifically the ship sponsored by the IHH that was the site of violent resistance to Israeli sailors who were boarding the vessel, following repeated warnings to the ship that they were approaching a proscribed area.

The IHH calculus — apparently aided and abetted by the “peace activists” who sponsored the flotilla — was as risky as it was cynical: deliberately provoke a violent reaction by Israeli soldiers who were under attack, with international media and well-intentioned observers on board and in harm’s way, with a view to generating casualties and global condemnation.
The facts are available for anyone who cares to seek them. Video shows the Israeli navy warning the ships that they were about to be boarded. Other video shows Israeli soldiers being attacked with clubs, knives, stun grenades and molotov cocktails.

These are not “peace activists.” These are well-prepared fighters. This is the group that Canadians who care about human rights are being asked to support.

The real victims of violence and political oppression — in the Congo, Darfur, Iran — must be wringing their hands in despair as their supposed allies rush to judgment on Israel, spurred on by a barely-obscured Islamist agenda. Also lost in the shuffle is the well-established, and utterly abysmal human rights record of the Hamas government of Gaza — known for knee-capping its opponents and burning children’s summer camps. And of course, the chief beneficiary of this incident is the government of Iran, from whom international attention has now at least briefly been deflected as the rational world seeks to prevent it from acquiring nuclear capability.

As rabbis, we are saddened by the loss of life of those involved in the flotilla and the injuries sustained by Israeli soldiers. We wish that the organizers of the flotilla had heeded the warnings of Israeli officials, and agreed to transfer the supplies through the port of Ashdod. Their failure to do so speaks to the true motivation behind this effort.

The Gaza Flotilla was pure guerilla warfare; an unabashed exploitation of “human rights” language and discourse in an attempt to blacken Israel. And while we regret also that the Israeli navy failed to anticipate the level of violence that would be directed against them by “peace activists” and “humanitarians,” it is clear that had the Israeli soldiers not been attacked, no one would have been injured.

Such double standards in diplomacy and in upholding human rights are despicable. They do a disservice to Israel, to Palestinians and to all those in true need of human rights protections globally.

We say: Enough with the hypocrisy. Condemn the militants, not Israel’s defensive actions against them.
National Post

By MAX FISHER on June 02, 2010 9:21am

One country is emerging as a key player in the regional and international reactions to the Israeli flotilla raid: Turkey. As Israel’s most important Muslim ally, the only Middle East member of the NATO security pact, and a current non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Turkey is matched only by the U.S. in its importance to the international proceedings. Turks also played a key role in the flotilla itself, which was heavily funded by Turkish money and filled with Turkish activists. Turkey has suggested it may send its navy to escort a future convoy to Gaza. The backlash has also been among the strongest in Turkey, where thousands of demonstrators initially gathered to protest the Israeli raid. Here’s Turkey’s role and why it matters.

Gives Turkey Excuse to Break From Israel  Stratfor’s George Friedman writes, “The incident also wrecks Israeli relations with Turkey, historically an Israeli ally in the Muslim world with longstanding military cooperation with Israel. The [conservative and religious] Turkish government undoubtedly has wanted to move away from this relationship, but it faced resistance within the Turkish military and among secularists. The new Israeli action makes a break with Israel easy, and indeed almost necessary for Ankara.”

Turkey Deliberately Provoking Israel?  Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum sighs, “it almost seems as if Turkey was deliberately trying to provoke an incident that would justify cutting off relations with Israel. After all, the Israeli commando raid may have turned out more deadly than anyone expected, but something like it was always probable and the Turkish government surely knew it.”

Greater Rival to Israel Than Iran  The Washington Post’s David Ignatius appraises the events: “Once Israel’s most important regional ally, Turkey now seeks to challenge Israel’s hegemony as the local superpower. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Muslim populist with a charismatic message: We won’t let Israel push us around. Where Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is often a buffoon, Erdogan is a genuinely tough if erratic rival.”

Could Become New U.S. Rival In Middle East  Foreign Policy’s Steven Cook warns, “It is hard to admit, but after six decades of strategic cooperation, Turkey and the United States are becoming strategic competitors — especially in the Middle East.” If the Israel-Turkey alliance falls apart, and the U.S. continues to back Israel, then it will lose Turkey’s crucial support in the region. Turning this essential ally into an enemy could dramatically hinder U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Worst-Case Scenario: Turkey Invokes NATO Charter  Politics Daily’s Paul Wachter cautions that Turkey could invoke Article V of the NATO charter, which states that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all. This means that if Turkey escorts another flotilla, and Israel again raids it, every NATO member–including the U.S.–would have to choose between joining against Israel or functionally ending the NATO treaty.

Turkish Group Behind the Flotilla  The New York Times’ Sabrina Tavernase reports on the Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), a Turkish group that declared “We are very thankful to the Israeli authorities,” for raiding their flotilla. “The group brought large boats and millions of dollars in donations to a cause that had struggled to meet its objectives. Particularly galling to Israel is the fact that the group comes from Turkey, an ally, but one whose relations with Israel have become increasingly strained.”

…Is The Group Violent?  Tavernase reports, “The organization was founded in the early 1990s, first as a charity for the poor in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, and later for Bosnian war victims. It now runs charity and relief work in more than 100 countries … Israeli authorities say I.H.H. bolsters Hamas, which runs Gaza and which they see as doctrinally committed to destroying the state of Israel. It also charges that the group has links to Al Qaeda and has bought weapons, charges the group denies.” Indian journalist Nitin Pai points out, “As you guys know, even [Pakistani Taliban front group] Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a charitable organisation. Scepticism about the Turkish ‘charity’ is warranted.”

Aid Convoy Backed Up New Turkish Policy Of \’Bashing\’ Israel, Analysts Say – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010.

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during an anti-Israeli protest in front of the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on May 31.

Turkey’s support for the ill-fated Gaza-bound aid flotilla was part of a drive to seek confrontation with Israel and win support in the Arab world, influential Israeli analysts say.

The move reflects a fundamental foreign-policy shift by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government that has seen Turkey increasingly turn its back on the West and seek alliances in the Muslim world. Attacking Israel is a symbolically vital part of the supposed new strategy, the analysts believe.

Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, says Turkey threw its weight behind the aid convoy — where at least nine aid workers died after it was stormed by Israeli commandos on May 31 — knowing that it was a “provocation” with potentially violent consequences.

“I have no evidence that they wanted this to happen but anybody who is involved in organizing a provocation probably knew that this could happen. Turkey could have agreed to the Israeli terms that the ships should load the contents of their aid to the Gazans in an Israeli port, we would inspect and pass it on. I see no reason not to accept this approach,” Inbar says. “I think that Turkey is looking for instances where it can show it is against Israel in order to win sympathy in the Muslim and Arab world.”

Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoglu attacked the Israeli raid as an “illegal act.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has insisted that Turkey tried to avoid a confrontation. He said the government had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the aid groups behind the convoy to offload the shipment at ports other than Gaza.

Gaza War As Turning Point

Once Israel’s closest Middle East ally, Turkey has put its newfound hostility on official display since the botched raid, which has drawn international condemnation.

In an extraordinarily combative speech, Davutoglu told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Israel risked losing “its legitimacy as a respectful member of the international community.” The architect of a more eastern-centered foreign policy that some observers have dubbed “neo-Ottoman,” Davutoglu is understood to have promoted a more openly pro-Palestinian stance, arguing that the issue is vital to Turkish public opinion.

It is certainly vital to the opinion of Erdogan, a onetime Islamist who has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of Israel since the 2008-09 bombardment of Gaza that resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 Palestinians.

Addressing the Turkish parliament on June 1, the prime minister described the flotilla raid as “a turning point in history,” adding, “Nothing will be the same again.” He called for Israel to be “absolutely punished by all means.”

Turning To The East

Inbar identifies Erdogan’s Islamist leanings as crucial to Turkey’s reorientation — a process that also includes a growing intimacy with Israel’s sworn enemy, Iran — and to the launch of the aid flotilla.

“Turkey should never have allowed those aid ships to go to Gaza and we have indeed a problem with the prime minister, Erdogan, who has made several times anti-Semitic statements and he is driving his country away from the West,” Inbar claims. “Basically, we see a Turkey that is distancing itself from the West and its relations with Israel are just one phenomenon which characterizes a larger change in Turkish foreign policy.”

Iran’s Mahmud Ahmadinejad with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan — Turkey has promoted itself as a mediator between Iran and the West.

Feeding Israeli suspicions has been the role in the convoy of an Istanbul-based charity, the Human Rights and Freedom Group (IHH), an organization Israel accuses of supporting the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and of having links to Al-Qaeda.

The charity’s organizers say it is funded by Turkey’s wealthy Islamic merchant class, a group that is also seen as Erdogan’s most important support base. Three of the boats in the flotilla, including the “Mavi Marmara” — scene of the worst of the violence on May 31 after it was stormed by Israeli commandos — were purchased by IHH from a company owned by Istanbul’s municipal authority, which is run by allies of the prime minister.

However, Martin Van Creveld, emeritus professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, believes there is a more prosaic explanation for Turkey’s changed attitude to Israel. The turning point, he believes, came with Angela Merkel’s reelection as German chancellor in 2008, after which she all but ruled out Turkish membership of the European Union — prompting Turkey to reevaluate its foreign policy and drive it into the hands of Muslim states, including Iran.

“The European Union made it very clear in, I think, October-November 2008 that Turkey was never going to be a member. So the Turks reassessed their policy and decided they needed allies and since Europe wouldn’t have them, they turned to the east towards Syria and Iran and we are part of that change,” Van Creveld says. “If you want to curry favor with the Arabs, if you want to curry favor with the Iranians, you attack Israel.”

‘Losing Their Edge’

More critical for Israel’s long-term security, according to Van Creveld — a veteran historian of the Israeli Defense Forces — are the military and intelligence weaknesses evident from the botched May 31 raid. He says stopping the convoy was essential to deter possible future efforts to ship arms to Gaza, but criticizes the operation as lacking the key ingredients essential for such missions.

“What went wrong was the way this was done and my guess is that they just had bad intelligence, bad planning, and you could see it for yourself on TV,” Van Creveld says. “Success in such operations relies on surprise, either overwhelming force or surprise. This time there was no surprise and no overwhelming force and they did not even try to compensate for their absence by other means, such as deception. So what do you expect if you attack a ship with 600 people [on board]?”

The raid was the latest in a long string of Israeli military miscues, including the heavily criticized Gaza bombardment, the 2006 strikes on Lebanon intended to uproot the Iranian-backed Hizballah organization, and this year’s assassination of a senior Hamas figure in Dubai. The latter episode triggered a diplomatic row after it was alleged that Israeli intelligence agents involved in the killing had used forged passports of British and Australian nationals.

For Van Creveld, the failings are symptomatic of a long-term malaise signaling that Israel is losing its vaunted military and intelligence sharpness.

“Fundamentally, if you fight the weak over a long time then you become weak. We have been fighting the weak for decades now and we are weakening proportionately, no question about it,” Van Creveld says. “This is no longer the famous military that we used to have.”

American Thinker Blog: The media\’s epic fail in covering the Gaza incident.

Rick Moran

Turkish Jihadists Attack Israel | EuropeNews.

By Phyllis Chesler

One may describe Hitler as a “vegetarian” (which he apparently was) but he was still a genocidally exterminationist Jew-hater whose relentless racism and imperial ambitions led to the death of more than 60 million people.

One may also describe the Turks on board the “freedom flotilla” (Orwell himself could not have suggested a better logo) as “humanitarian activists.” But they are still pro-terrorist Turkish jihadists whose mission was to kill Jews, one way or the other. This was a mission which aimed to further demonize the already shamefully tarnished reputation of the Jewish state. This mission planned to force a violent confrontation; were Israeli soldiers to dare defend themselves and if Muslims are therefore martyred—even better public relations, even better for international lawfare against the Israel.

The so-called “humanitarians,” at least on one boat, came armed with metal bars and knives. They were fighters, not pacifists, and they called out traditional Islamic battle cries: “[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!” According toPalestinian Media Watch:

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

“This video shows Israeli soldiers being beaten with long and heavy metal rods on one of the Turkish boats. Jeff Dunetz (“YidWithLid”) has a series of disturbing and informative videos in which we can see the planned nature and intensity of the Turkish-Palestinian violence against Israeli soldiers—an attack which involved stabbings, beatings, firebombing attempts, throwing soldiers overboard, etc.”

Earlier today, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that the Turkish-led flotilla was: “An armada of hate and violence in support of Hamas’ terror organization and was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well known for their ties with global jihad, Al-Qaeda, and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers intent was violent, their method was violent, and the results were unfortunately violent. Israel regrets any loss of life and did everything to avoid this outcome.”

Indeed, the death count currently stands at an estimated nine (mainly Turkish) dead and 34 wounded. Predictably, the Arab, European, and liberal media are viewing Israel as the vicious aggressor; as committing “obscene” acts. Al-Jazeera’s website calls what happened “a massacre.” They refer to the dead as “martyrs.”

Some say that the Israeli commandos could have used taser guns, rubber bullets, or simply sent far more soldiers onto each boat. But the Israelis initially boarded the boats armed with paintball guns. And one wonders: How many Israeli soldiers can fit on a boat? One Israeli now suggests that Israel should have surrounded all the boats, stopped them dead in their tracks, shot out their motors.

Said I: And then done what with them?

Said he: Negotiate.

Said I: Are you crazy? Negotiate with terrorists? And then feed them, house them, coddle them—terrorists who would not even agree to bring food and a note to Gilad Shalit? Incredibly, Israel has been doing just that, treating the wounded terrorists in Israeli hospitals and preparing to intern the remaining “activists” in air-conditioned tents in Ashdod.

Said he: There should have been better military planning.

I am sure that Monday morning quarterbacking is always more ingenious than what happens in the moment of battle. The problem is that, once again, the Israelis are being attacked for having defended themselves and the jihadists are still being seen as “martyrs.”

Why did Turkey attack Israel? How much Iranian support did they have? Turkey was once a haven for Jews in flight from the Christian Inquisition.

Once, long ago, Muslim Turkey gave asylum to Dona Gracia HaNasi, the noble and generous leader of the Jews who had fled from Christian Spain and Portugal. Dona Gracia, a widow, was the wealthiest Jew of her time and, after living in Italy, found final refuge in Constantinople in 1552. Some wealthy Jews still live in Turkey today—yes, despite the bombing of two Turkish synagogues in 2003. I wonder how safe they are and for how long.

As to women? Locked up in harems—but if they were lucky/most unlucky, perhaps in the Sultan’s own harem or seraglio. For example, in 1784, a French girl, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery,was kidnapped on the open seas by Algerian pirates who sold her into the Turkish Sultan’s harem. Aimee became known as “Naksh,” The Beautiful One, for her fair skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Improbably, incredibly, Aimee became the mother of the next Sultan, whose name was Sultan Mahmoud II, the Reformer. Some see the influence of the Sultan Valideh (The Veiled Sultan) in Selim’s letter of friendship to King Louis XVI—and in other pro-European gestures and customs.

Myths die hard. People still believe that Jews, Christians and other infidels lived safe and happy lives in Muslims lands. This is a Big Lie.

As a matter of historical fact, the Turks have a long and bloody history of cruelty and genocide. They colonized the entire Middle East, forced conversions or murdered those who resisted. Islamic gender and religious apartheid flourished.

To this day, the Turks continue to deny the Armenian genocide. And, the days of Kemal Ataturk are long gone. In the early 1920s, Ataturk imposed a secular democracy upon the Islamists and unveiled the women. Now, the Islamists are winning again: Women are veiling, honor killings are on the rise (both in Turkey and among Turks in Europe). Recently, a father and grandfather heartlessly buried a 16-year-old daughter and granddaughter alive for the “crime” of presumably talking to boys. I have also written about a great Turkish feminist hero, my friend Seyran Ates, here; Ates was shot for her work among Turkish immigrant girls and women in Berlin. Her 15-year-old client died. Ates, a lawyer, was left for dead—but miraculously survived.

And we nearly admitted Turkey into the European Union. One wonders if they would have intensified their anti-Israel Islamism had they been accepted as “Europeans,” or whether their candidacy was merely a calculated move in tandem with pre-existing pro-Iranian plans. For years, Turkey has opposed sanctioning Iran for its nuclear program. Turkey was among the first to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election victory. During 2009, Turkey improved its economic ties to Iran.

I am waiting for the United Nations and for the United States to condemn this unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.