Lifting the Gaza Blockade

Maze cartoon of the Gaza Flotilla. The boat leaves in its wake violence, diplomatic crisis, sympathy for terrorist, lies, and of course an Israeli PR overhaul. Created by Yonatan Frimer

A flotilla of ships arrived just beyond the territorial waters of Gaza. What was their intention? Was it a true demonstration of identity for the people of Gaza or was it a provocation against Israel by a group of terrorists? Did the latter under sponsorship of IHH, Hamas and Iran make use of innocent peace loving passengers as pawns in their manipulation of world opinion against Israel? If the latter was the case, they certainly succeeded.

The ships were sponsored by the IHH (Insanni Yardim Vakfi humanitarian relief fund.) This is a radical Islamic organization established in 1992 and formally registered in Istanbul in 1995. It is headed by Bülent Yildirim. IHH, which plays a central role in organizing the flotilla to the Gaza Strip, is a Turkish humanitarian relief fund with a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation. Besides its legitimate philanthropic activities, it supports radical Islamic networks, including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements.

The Europeans who supported the flotilla meant well but they were very naïve and did not fathom the consequences and dangers. The goods destined for the people of Gaza could land in the hands of Hamas and not in the hands of those to whom it is intended. This has happened in the past. One must also remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization that has been responsible for many acts of terror against innocent Israeli citizens whether by suicide bombings or the firing of Qassam rockets into Israeli towns in the south of Israel.

While nobody denies the rights of the people of Gaza to a decent quality of life and their basic human rights, those who so-called sponsor Gaza in its cause against the occupation are the most reactionary anti-democratic Islamic regimes in the world. Iran with its history of human rights abuse, beatings, and rapes against those Iranians who oppose the evil Ahmadinajad regime and racism against Israel's people is no safeguard or promoter of human rights in Gaza.

President Ahmadinajad has his own agenda for dominating the Middle East. He does not care for the Palestinians any more than does Israel - maybe even less. It serves his evil agenda to create unrest and promote strife in Gaza. His nuclear programme does not render Palestinians immune from Iranian nuclear fallout should he attack Israel using nuclear weapons when Iran has the nuclear capability in the future. His nuclear threats are there to enhance his influence and power mongering in the Middle East. Ahmadinajad wishes to dominate the Middle East and he is forming alliances with Hamas and Hezbollah as a starting point to achieve his wicked aims. The flotilla is one of the instruments to achieve that and it looks as if the world has fallen for that ruse.

Gaza deserves freedom - true freedom - freedom from Hamas tyranny and its Iranian backers as well as freedom from Israeli domination. This means the end of blockades and allowing non-military supplies to enter Gaza. One must face a realistic situation. There is a large amount of weapon smuggling reaching Gaza's shores from Iran. This poses a danger to Israel as it lands in the hands of Hamas and its terrorist allies. This has to be prevented and if there were a peace treaty between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours that would ensure that blockades would be ended.

To date there is no indication that Hamas is willing to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel or recognize Israel's right to exist. This suits Iran down to the ground as they stoke the fire without going to the brink at this stage. To date it seems that Turkey is aligning itself with Iran as well.

It is obvious that this flotilla of ships is not serving the interests of the Palestinians but the Hamas tyranny. The latter are experts at making cynical use of this flotilla for their own purposes and the Palestinian people are not part of their agenda. I thought that I understood the motive for the flotilla that its aim was peaceful and I did give it tacit support until I learned the hard truth that its aim was not peaceful or in the interests of the people of Gaza whose conditions are shocking. The stockpile of crude weapons and the loutish behaviour of the IHH terrorists on board made me realize how the passengers were so cynically mislead and ill informed.

The flotilla arrived and the Israeli Commando boarded the ship, Nave Mamara. They were welcomed with clubs, beatings, lynchings and stabbings as well as sporadic pistol fire. The TV footage was horrifying and this lead many of us to ask questions as to whether the flotilla of ships were really peace ships as they claimed. Those peace people who boarded the ship from many European countries were cynically used by IHH, Hamas and Iran in order to create a provocation. The way the IHH terrorists behaved proves that they had undergone some training for a confrontation with Israeli Commandos. It was obvious that a confrontation with the Israeli Commandos was expected and this occurred with tragic consequences. Primitive weapons, iron bars, knives and clubs were found on the ships as well. They succeeded to surprise the Israeli soldiers and some were even injured. Nine people were killed in the incident and over 40 people were wounded.

This was no peace flotilla! If it were, it would not have responded with such brutal violence. The passengers were used as pawns by IHH, Hamas, Iran and sadly also the Turkish regime under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, under the guise of a “peace ship”, with a mission to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza against the Israeli occupation and blockade.

As an Israeli who yearns for peace and who opposes the occupation, I do sense a double standard here. There is no doubt that the Israeli Commando operation was ill timed, badly organized and resulted in unnecessary deaths because the Israeli intelligence was faulty and incomplete. The tragic results served the interests of the evil players who organized the flotilla of “peace ships” to Gaza. It brought about a widespread condemnation of Israel for the tragedy that occurred. It must be emphasized that IHH and its Hamas and Ahmadinajad regime backers have an agenda of delegitimizing Israel and the cynical use of innocent naive peace ideology passengers as pawns in the name of peace is so obvious. A great tactic to whip Israel was achieved with success as world condemnation of Israel gains momentum at an astonishing rate. The terrorists did not succeed with the firing of Qassam and Katyusha rockets into Israel but have succeeded by using a flotilla of “peace ships”. Surely this is a crime against humanity!

I wonder how the Turkish Government would respond had the Kurds launched a flotilla into the Bosporus on its way to Istanbul with goods intended for the PKK. No doubt the Turkish Security Forces would respond mercilessly and sink the ship without questions asked. What would the Russians do if the Georgians launched a ship containing weapons or the Chechnyans for that matter destined for Russian shores under the guise of peace ships? The Russians have no history of mercy for anybody infiltrating into their territorial waters for smuggling goods or weapons. Why is Israel forbidden to defend her citizens especially as the goods intended for the people of Gaza would land in the hands of Hamas and not in the hands of the poor people of Gaza? Hamas is not a humane regime nor is democracy part of their lexicon. It is a racist, terrorist regime which has managed by stealth and lies to gain the support of NGO human rights groups even though it is allied closer to fascist, autocratic ideologies imbued with a blind, extremist, Islamist outlook.

Surely there is hypocrisy in the attitude of many of the world’s leaders towards Israel’s actions against the “peace flotilla” sponsored by the world’s most notorious terrorist groups such as Hamas under the sponsorship of the evil Ahmadinajad regime and of late the Erdogan Turkish regime.

Another problem regarding Israel is the occupation. Israel has captured territory after the Six Day War of June 1967, and colonized it for settlement by Israeli settlers. The Israeli settlers have also behaved very badly towards their Palestinian neighbours. They have destroyed much of their agricultural land for building palatial homes for themselves. They have also demolished Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and do not intend to withdraw from the territories captured. Human rights groups always have sympathy for the underdog and in this case, it is the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. I mention this in order that we can get a sense of proportion as to why Israel is becoming a pole cat in the eyes of the free world. The Israelis are viewed as the victors and the Palestinians are the victims. Colonialism today is not tolerated and the Israeli Government under the Netanyahu-Lieberman-Barak Axis has moved towards the right and this is destructive for Israel. This is really the reason for Israel’s poor standing in the world today.