....they said that they would leave next week....They were lying. They have tried to make a run for it and have been caught by the Greek Coast Guard ...The vessel was stopped by the Greek Coast Guard some 25 minutes after its unauthorized departure. It was not immediately clear whether the boat will be taken back to port. The vessel, dubbed "The Audacity of Hope", left Perama port for the open seas, a Reuters witness said. Greek authorities said earlier on Friday that ships destined to Gaza were prohibited from leaving Greek ports.
Despite the Greek ban, the vessel left port around 4:45 pm Friday, Ynet learned. It was banned from departing by Greek officials citing technical problems, but chose to ignore the orders.
According to Joseph Dana, who is aboard the US ship, the Greeks have circled the ship and look to be preparing to board.
The captain of the US boat is supposedly telling the Greeks that he doesn't want to be in the port, because he fears the ship will be sabotaged.
Greek authorities may now go an take over the Canadian ship, which is in Crete. Update: they may be going after all ships in Greek ports.
The situation has hit a new high, Joseph Dana, is having some pasta and Alice Walker is writing on an Ipad.
BREAKING: AP is reporting that Greek authorities have indeed stopped all flotilla ships from leaving port and going to Gaza.
Update: Greece's Foreign Minister has told CNN that all ships heading for Gaza from Greece will be stopped.
Reports are now coming in that the Coast Guard is leaving the ship, unconfirmed. The Greeks are saying the ship is not "seaworthy."via challah and image via twibbon.com
According to a New York Times report, a second flotilla of vessels led by the Turkish Mavi Marmara is due to sail for Gaza within the next few months. Last time, the real motives and agenda of those involved in the flotilla only became clear after Israeli commandos were attacked by extremists brandishing weapons.
Last time, the flotilla organizers were allowed to sell a false narrative of so-called “peace activists” delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans suffering a humanitarian crisis as a result of an Israeli blockade.
This time, there is no excuse for the media not to question the agenda behind a second flotilla and to include the relevant context. The New York Times, however, has published such a shoddy piece of journalism that it is difficult to believe how such an article was allowed in the newspaper of record.
We now have the definitive source on the Mavi Marmara affair and it proves Israel was right. The ship was controlled by radical Jihadists who planned to attack Israeli forces and provoke confrontation. The source is a book, including photos, by a Turkish journalist named Şefik Dinç who was on the ship.
Dinç is sympathetic to the militants but also points to the responsibility of the Turkish government and the IHH, the sponsoring Islamist group, for the crisis. His text and pictures show the Jihadists taking out iron bars and clubs, preparing for battle, beating Israeli soldiers, and trying to throw one of them into the sea. Dinç also reports that Israeli soldiers opened fire only trying to rescue soldiers taken hostage. His account corresponds in almost every detail with that given by Israel.
He writes: “When everyone who had been assigned a task reported to their stations, clubs were taken out of a hiding place….In addition to the wooden clubs I’d seen earlier, there were now iron bars as well.” Those passengers not choosing to participate in the attack went down to lower decks. The first three soldiers who landed were beaten and dragged to the upper deck. When they tried to throw a soldier overboard, some non-Jihadi passengers intervened and stopped them; others sought to stop the beatings.
You can see extensive quotes and photographs from his book HERE
The report from a very reliable Israeli research center that translated extracts from the book also contains more detailed information than I’ve seen before from the Israeli side about what happened:
“IHH operatives and their supporters fired live ammunition as soon as the first soldiers descended from the helicopter. One IDF soldier suffered a knee injury from a non-IDF weapon as soon as he came on board the ship….IHH operatives used three weapons taken from the Israelis against other IDF soldiers. It appears that two of them were thrown into the sea, as were one or two non-IDF [guns], at least one of which was used to fire on the commandos descending from the helicopter.”
BS”D
by Gil Ronen of Israel National News
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Israel’s representatives the world over that there were never any humanitarian supplies or equipment aboard the Mavi Marmara, where Israeli commandos were ambushed by armed mercenaries posing as peace activists. The commandos opened fire and killed nine of the attackers after three soldiers had been brutalized and temporarily captured.
Of the seven flotilla ships that were intercepted by Israel on May 31 and afterward, only four were freight ships, the MFA reported to its embassies and consulates: The Challenger 1 (a small yacht), the Sfendonh (a small passenger boat) and the Mavi Marmara (a passenger ship) did not carry any humanitarian aid, and had only the passengers’ personal belongings.
The four freight ships are the Gaza, the Sofia, the Defeny and the Rachel Corrie. As of June 7, Israel had only offloaded equipment from the Defeny. The equipment offloaded was loaded onto 26 trucks, and an additional eight trucks are waiting at the Kerem Shalom crossing to enter Gaza.
The equipment includes:
1. 300 wheelchairs
2. 300 new mobility scooters
3. 100 special mobility scooters for the disabled
4. Hundreds of crutches
5. 250 hospital beds
6. 50 sofas
7. Four tons of medicine
8. 20 tons of clothing, carpets, school bags, cloth and shoes
9. Various hospital equipment – closets and cabinets, operating theater equipment, etc.
10. Playground equipment
11. Mattresses
"There is no starvation in Gaza. No one has died of hunger," Khalil Hamada, a senior official at Gaza's Ministry of Justice, told London's Daily Telegraph
perhaps this is because Hamas would be blamed for not taking the flotilla aid?
The Christian Science Monitor, relying on conversations with businessmen in Gaza, reports that the Hamas government is benefiting financially from the "blockade" by virtue of its control of the tunnels on the Egyptian border, through a 14.5 percent value-added tax on goods that pass through the tunnels (with an even higher levy on cigarettes), as well as money changing activities and tax revenues. The vast sums of money flowing into Hamas' treasury are being used for the purchase of land and buildings throughout Gaza.26 In testimony before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 25, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked: "Much of the material that gets in to Gaza, which still comes through the tunnels - through smuggling - actually is taxed by Hamas, which then provides Hamas with the money that they use to buy arms and other material that is used against Israel."27
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde on October 10, 2009, Bassem Khoury, minister of national economy for the Palestinian Authority, offered this description:
The shelves of the stores are full, and you can find anything you want if you can pay the price. The cost of real estate has tripled as a result of the tunnel economy. Hamas is benefiting from the situation, since the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is continuing to pay the salaries of civil servants in Gaza and this is half of our budget. Then these employees buy goods that come in by way of the tunnels, on which Hamas gets paid a tax. The result: the Palestinian Authority's economy is cut off from the VAT revenues that were previously collected [by Israel] for goods imported into Gaza, while Hamas doesn't know what to do with its money.
Khoury emphasized that "taxpayers in Europe should know that as a result of this system their money ends up in Hamas' pocket." He questioned the desire of both Israel and Egypt to combat the smuggling, arguing that everything is done to maintain a status quo of sorts, so long as Hamas is not too strong militarily.28
The Young Turks follow the narrative that counters all found evidence. Further there was no aid on board of the Mava Mamari. What is more is it appears that Hamas has rejected any aid resulting from the flotilla. It has been confirmed that Obama was behind the demand forcing the young IDF soldiers to use paint balls against violent terrorists through the Israeli defense minister former PM Barak. Many of Obama's top staff were behind the flotilla which used cruelty only seen in movies.
the key: Under the law of a blockade, intercepting a vessel could apply globally so long as a ship is bound for a "belligerent" territory, legal
experts say.
the blockade is legal if it proportionately can be argued that it saves lives. Even if it doesn't
There was no AID on the Mava Mamari. What is more is it appears that Hamas has rejected any aid resulting from the flotilla. It has been confirmed that Obama was behind the demand forcing the young IDF soldiers to use paint balls against violent terrorists through the Israeli defense minister former PM Barak. Many of Obama's top staff were behind the flotilla which used cruelty only seen in movies.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.
While UN Ambassador Susan Rice is reported to have played an important role in pushing for U.S. support of a UN investigation, the decision is, one official stressed, of course the president's. The government of Israel has been consulting with the U.S. government on its own Israeli investigative panel, to be led by a retired supreme court justice, that would include respected international participants, including one from the U.S. But the Obama administration is reportedly saying that such a “kosher panel” is not good enough to satisfy the international community, or the Obama White House.
Considering all that has come out regarding the relationship of Obama to the flotilla and the Obama administration's attempt to keep these Israeli soldiers from protecting itself it seems obvious that there needs to be an internal investigation of Obama by the U.S. Now Obama is supporting a Goldstone styled libel on the flotilla incident.
There has been rumors that Joe Biden will be replaced by Hilary Clinton. Could the reason be that Obama is unhappy with Biden's Pro Israel statements?
Diplomatic sources said the White House rejected Israeli intelligence assessments that the six-ship flotilla contained weapons and Islamist fighters trained to resist any boarding operation. The sources, privy to Israeli-U.S. government communications, said Obama and his leading aides pressed Israel against any act that would be deemed excessive force.
"The White House demanded that Israel exercise extreme caution and restraint in any scenario," a diplomatic source said.
The Obama administration demands were relayed through Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak and Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, the sources said.
They said Barak, who has sought advanced weapons from Washington
persuaded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree that the Israel Navy would not use anti-riot equipment, including tear gas, to stop the flotilla.
The sources said the Israeli intelligence community had informed the
White House that the flotilla contained scores of Turks trained in weapons
and hand-to-hand combat. They said the Turkish-flagged ship Marmara was
believed to have contained weapons and components ordered by the Hamas
regime in the Gaza Strip.
In the end, Netanyahu approved a plan for the Israel Navy to board
Marmara with commandos armed with paintball guns. The commandos were quickly overpowered by Turkish
fighters until the Israeli commander ordered live
fire, which killed nine passengers, eight of them Turks.
Obama, whose aides were said to have been in contact with the flotilla,
did not condemn the Israeli naval interception. But within hours
of the bloody clash, the president withdrew his invitation to Netanyahu to
come to the White House.
"The last thing the president wanted was to stand next to Netanyahu as
he defended this action and blasted Hamas and its supporters in the West,"
another source said.
The sources said Barak and Netanyahu decided on the details of the
interception without consulting a seven-member security Cabinet committee.
Later, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon, a former chief of staff,
asserted that the naval operation had endangered the commandos.
"The prime minister decided to settle everything with the defense
minister," Ya'alon was quoted as saying. "Netanyahu shouldn't have left such
fateful decisions to an irresponsible defense minister drunk with power."
In wake of the clash, Obama has sought to ease tensions with Turkey. On
June 2, Obama telephoned Prime Minister Recep Erdogan amid rising Islamist threats against Turkey's Christian and Jewish communities. The following day, a Roman Catholic bishop was killed by an alleged Islamist.
"Obama told Erdogan 'Don't rock the boat too much. We'll take care of
business,'" another diplomatic source said. "It was a very friendly
message."
On June 4, the administration, which reinvited Netanyahu, demanded the
easing of Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip. The White House said the United
States was working with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to "develop new
procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza, while also
increasing opportunity for the people of Gaza and preventing the importation
of weapons."
"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed," White
House spokesman Mike Hammer said. "For now, we call on all parties to join
us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any
unnecessary confrontations and to ensure the safety of all involved."
Iran's Red Crescent is getting prepared to send two relief ships to the Gaza Strip.
Two Iranian aid ships carrying humanitarian relief and medical supplies for the people of Gaza will set sail for the coastal sliver in the upcoming days.
Iran's Red Crescent announced Monday that the cargo will include food, medicine and appliances and it will be accompanied by a group of Iranian doctors and relief workers.
"The aid consists of food and medical supplies, which will be transported into Gaza via the Rafah border in Egypt before the week is through," the country's Red Crescent Director Abdolraoof Adibzadeh said.
