Via LGF:

Iran has been making a lot of noise about sending a flotilla of “humanitarian aid” to Gaza, but today the news is that they’ve canceled their plan.

And after blustering for weeks about destroying the Israelis if they tried to stop the flotilla, Iran’s reason for canceling is: they’re afraid of “Israeli threats.”

One of the organizers of an Iranian aid flotilla that was to said to Gaza in efforts to break Israel’s naval blockade on the territory, announced Thursday that the event has been cancelled due to “Israeli threats.”

Army Radio reported that a separate Iranian ship, carrying 60 Iranian activists, was being prepared to sail to Gaza via the Caspian Sea. This after the Lebanese media reported several days ago that Egypt has denied Israel’s request to prevent Iranian ships from passing through the Suez Canal toward Egypt.

Meanwhile Thursday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement calling the aid flotillas to Gaza irresponsible.

“Mechanisms exist for the transfer of humanitarian assistance to Gaza by member states and groups that want to do so,” the U.S. State Department said regarding Lebanese plans to ship aid to Gaza. “Direct delivery by sea is neither appropriate nor responsible, and certainly not effective, under the circumstances.”

Emphasis mine. ~ waif

Even as Israel shows signs of loosening its blockade of Gaze, large majorities in the House and Senate have signed off on letters supporting the blockade and defending Israel’s enforcement of it against a Turkish vessel.

Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, along with 83 other senators, have signed the Senate version of the letter, which is backed by AIPAC; 298 members of the House have signed on.

Says the letter:

We fully support Israel’s right to self-defense. In response to thousands of rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Israel took steps to prevent items which could be used to support these attacks from reaching Gaza. Israel’s naval blockade, which is legal under international law, allows Israel to keep dangerous goods from entering Gaza by sea. The intent of the measures is to protect Israel, while allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Late last month when Israel learned that groups operating in Turkey wanted to challenge its blockade of Gaza, Israel made every effort to ensure that all humanitarian aid reached Gaza without needlessly precipitating a confrontation. Israeli forces were able to safely divert five of the six ships challenging the blockade. However, video footage shows that the Israeli commandos who arrived on the sixth ship, which was owned by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (the IHH), were brutally attacked with iron rods, knives, and broken glass. They were forced to respond to that attack and we regret the loss of life that resulted.

(via @AIPAC)

Hezbollah is determined and so is Hamas. Hezbollah’s newest strategy seems to be to use the women in its military to attempt to break Israel’s blockade, and perhaps as a means to make Israel appear paranoid. The mainstream media who are actually taking the time to talk about Lebanon’s flotilla aren’t mentioning that it has about 70 women and no men on board, which is likely an attempt on Hezbollah’s part to make the flotilla appear legitimate in its “peace” efforts. 

The mainstream also isn’t reporting is that Hezbollah has no problem with using women to further its agenda to destroy Israel. In fact, Hezbollah’s military women are not defenseless damsels. They are trained military warriors. A www.aljazeera.net article from April goes into quite a bit of detail about the type of training these women get. They are taught how to use weapons like an AK-47 and a Kalashnikov long before they are teenagers. The article stated that some are taught to fight on the frontlines, and that “These women proved determined and were often resourceful in the weapons they used.” The video below details some of their stories.

Meanwhile, a www.israelnationalnews.com article on Sunday reported that American warships and at least one Israel warship were given permission by the Egyptian government to pass through the Suez Canal after the Egyptian government refused to respond to an Israeli request to prevent an Iranian flotilla from using the same canal. The article goes on to state that Egypt then, “closed the canal to fishing and other boats as the (American – Israeli armada) moved through the strategic passageway that connects the Red and Mediterranean Seas.”

According to a www.israeltoday.co.il/ article on Sunday, Yasser Kashlak, who is of Palestinian descent, is responsible for financing the flotilla from Lebanon. He was quoted as saying, “Don’t let the moderate Arab leaders delude you. (You) cannot make peace with us.” The article goes on to state that he has referred to Jews as “Europe’s refuse,” and that he ignores the fact that a Jewish presence has been “in the region for at least 3,000 years,” and that their presence “has been documented by successive ancient empires from the Assyrians to the Babylonians to the Persians to the Greeks and, most thoroughly, by the Romans.” One specific book where that information can be easily found is in the Bible.

[…]

Emphasis mine. ~ waif

(Via)

New Video: ‘Peace Activists’ Planning Violence

The IDF is now releasing more of the video confiscated from the “peace activists” aboard the Gaza flotilla; here’s a recording made on the Mavi Marmara on May 30, 2010, in which IHH leader Bulent Yildirim gives a speech laden with jihadist symbology, telling the assembled activists not to be “cowards,” but to attack the Israeli commandos and throw them overboard.

The crowd responds by chanting, “Millions of martyrs to Jerusalem!” and “Allah Akbar!”

(via LGF)

(via unburyingthelead)

From the link:

The Times reports:

Six of the nine passengers killed in an Israeli raid on an aid convoy bound for Gaza were shot by a single Israeli commando, who is being considered for a medal of valour for saving his injured comrades as passengers attacked them with clubs, knives and even guns they had taken from downed Navy Seals.
[…]
Identified for security reasons only as Staff Sergeant S, he said that contrary to initial Israeli Army reports, the shooting had started within minutes as he and his comrades were set upon by a “mob of mercenaries”.

As he landed on the ship’s top deck, he said he saw three of his superior officers who had landed ahead of him lying wounded, one with a bullet wound to the stomach, another shot in the knee and the third beaten unconscious.

Taking charge, he formed his men in a perimeter around the wounded, pulled his 9mm Glock pistol and opened fire on passengers he accused of shooting at the boarding party with guns taken off the first soldiers, who had been overwhelmed as they landed one by one.

He deserves a medal. ~ waif

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli government has sent an official letter to Reuters CEO Tom Glocer about the photo cropping exposed at LGF: Gov’t disturbed by cropped photos.

A letter was sent to Reuters chief Tom Glocer on Monday expressing the “grave concern of the government of Israel” over the cropping of photographs taken from the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship last week by Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs MK Yuli Edelstein.

The photos, which were published on Sunday in the Turkish Hurriyet daily, showed images of the commandos, their fatigues stained with blood, subdued by passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara ship but excluded the knives held by the aid activists.

At the popular blog LittleGreenFootballs.com, which initially took note of the missing knife, the blog’s founder Charles Johnson posted the story along with exhibits of both sets of pictures to the site.

Describing the cropping of the images of an “abuse of photo-imagery by Reuters,” Edelstein wrote, “I am sure you are aware that pictures – originally produced by the violent activists aboard the Mavi Marmara and published in the Turkish media - clearly show the use of knives against Israeli servicemen. However, when these pictures were initially distributed on the wires by Reuters picture service they were cropped to exclude the knives and blood that bore evidence of the violent intentions of those who participated in the attacks, and provided vital evidence in support of Israel’s claims.”

The letter was cc’d to David Thomson, Chairman Thomson Reuters, and Alistair MacDonald, Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Chief.

While acknowledging that Reuters has since “distributed the original images,” Edelstein added, “There is of course great concern that the altering of the images distributed could have been done with intent rather than due to mistakes in the editorial process.”

(via LGF)

Related stories @ LGF:

Did Reuters Crop a Photo to Remove a Peace Activist’s Weapon?

Another Cropped Reuters Photo Deletes Another Knife - And a Pool of Blood

Reuters Quietly Releasing Uncropped Photos

The organizations and passengers behind the Gaza flotilla have been variously described as “peace activists” and ”humanitarian organizations”. This could not be further from the truth. The primary objective of this flotilla was not to deliver aid packages to Gaza but to spread anti-Israel propaganda in cooperation with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Playing a central role in the flotilla is the Turkish IHH organization, which besides its legitimate philanthropic activities is also, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a supporter of radical Islamic networks, including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements.

See here and here for detailed information on the IHH.

Amongst the other organizations involved in the flotilla is the International Solidarity Movement. The ISM has a shameful record of placing foreign nationals in danger through encouraging ‘direct action’, which resulted in the death of American citizen Rachel Corrie. In 2003, ISM’s extreme ideology was underscored when terrorists, originating from the UK, used ISM as a cover to attack Mike’s Place bar in Tel Aviv, murdering three people. More recently, ISM has been a leading force in the violent protests against the security barrier at Ni’lin, while an ISM activist has been jailed in the US, charged with ”giving about $20,000 to a group he knew supported Hamas.”

Much of the equipment and supplies aboard the “humanitarian” ships for Gaza has been checked and found to be worthless.

The cargo was taken off the boats at the Ashdod port and checked there, in accordance with the Israeli embargo on Gaza. The embargo is an acceptable measure taken between entities that are in a state of armed conflict, as are Israel and Hamas-run Gaza.

An IDF source said that the poor condition of the supplies renders most of it unusable. “This once again strengthens the evaluation that the intentions of the flotilla organizers were not humanitarian in the first place,” he said.

Many of the medicines are expired and/or came in an assorted, not easily organized manner. In addition, much of the equipment is in poor condition. Despite this, it is being taken to the Kerem Shalom crossing, and will be distributed in Gaza by human rights organizations.

Israel, despite the blockade, allows thousands of tons and food into Gaza each day.

Emphasis addded. ~ waif

tennroof:

waifsworld:

Flotilla peace activist stabbing an Israeli soldier.

That’s a lot kinder treatment than they could expect from me if they boarded my ship in international waters, and I don’t give a good goddamn who they are or what they claim to represent. Your people have fucked up and attacked a NATO ally, and their attitude that international laws don’t apply to them is becoming increasingly less tenable by the day.

You would do much better to attempt convince Israel’s government to act as if they were leaders of a civilized nation than to try to convince us that an attack in the middle of the night on a NATO-flagged ship in international waters is somehow justified because god says they’re special.

I believe this is applicable.

San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994 

SECTION V : NEUTRAL MERCHANT VESSELS AND CIVIL AIRCRAFT

Neutral merchant vessels

67. Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:

(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture;
(b) engage in belligerent acts on behalf of the enemy;
(c) act as auxiliaries to the enemy s armed forces;
(d) are incorporated into or assist the enemy s intelligence system;
(e) sail under convoy of enemy warships or military aircraft; or
(f) otherwise make an effective contribution to the enemy s military action, e.g., by carrying military materials, and it is not feasible for the attacking forces to first place passengers and crew in a place of safety. Unless circumstances do not permit, they are to be given a warning, so that they can re-route, off-load, or take other precautions.

Emphasis mine. ~ waif

(via)

Flotilla Passengers Fire Live Ammunition at IDF Soldiers