Israel may allow future aid ships into Gaza after inspection
By YAAKOV KATZ AND HERB KEINON
06/06/2010 04:54
Commandos stop ‘Rachel Corrie' peacefully.
The defense establishment is considering allowing future aid ships to sail into the Gaza Strip after their crews first agree to dock in Ashdod Port and undergo a military inspection to ensure that they are not carrying weaponry, officials said Saturday night.
The idea was one of several being "floated around" as Israel searches for a new policy to handle future flotillas in the wake of the international criticism it has been facing since Monday's takeover of the Mavi Marmara. Commandos from the navy's Flotilla 13 - known as the Shayetet - came under attack from a group of mercenaries aboard the ship and killed nine of them.
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Senior diplomatic sources said Saturday night that "nothing has been decided" but "there are a lot of ideas out there." At the same time, one official said, the principle that Israel will not allow unchecked cargo into the Gaza Strip will not change.
He stressed that Israel has no problem letting civilian materials into Gaza, including cement - if they are intended for a clearly earmarked humanitarian project, and are monitored by an international agency. Israel, the official said, was "willing to explore new ideas," but at the same time was intent on keeping the naval blockade in place.
Rachel Corrie boarded with no violence
On Saturday, commandos boarded the MV Rachel Corrie cargo ship as it made its way to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the Israel-imposed sea blockade. Navy forces then piloted the ship into Ashdod Port where its cargo will be unloaded and allowed, after inspection, to cross by land into the Gaza Strip.
The boarding took place without any violence and was carried out by sea and not by helicopters, like on Monday. Passengers aboard the Rachel Corrie - named for an American activist killed by an IDF bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003 - even, according to the IDF, threw the boarding soldiers a rope off the side of the vessel.
Prior to the takeover, three navy ships tailed the aid boat for several hours throughout the morning, a few dozen kilometers from the blockaded Strip. The army said it had contacted the boat four times and urged its passengers to divert to Ashdod, but that the passengers had refused.
Eleven passengers were aboard the Rachel Corrie, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and Denis Halliday, a former United Nations assistant secretary-general.
The Rachel Corrie was carrying 20 tons of paper, 550 tons of cement, 100 tons of high-end medical equipment including electric wheelchairs, hospital beds, a CAT scan machine and dental equipment as well as fabric and thread.
Netanyahu: We respect the right to express different opinions
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, was updated throughout the day on Saturday about the situation with the boat. He issued a statement after the boat was brought into the Ashdod Port, saying that "we saw today the difference between a boat with peace activists, with whom we do not agree but whose right to express their different opinions we respect, and a boat of hate organized by violent extremists and terrorist supporters."
Netanyahu said that Israel operated in the same way with each of the different boats in order to implement the naval blockade to prevent the smuggling of arms to Hamas and to enable civilian goods to be brought into Gaza after being checked. He said that Israel would continue to maintain its right to self-defense and "not allow the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza."
The Free Gaza movement, which organized the flotilla, announced Saturday that it planned to send additional ships to break the blockade in the coming months.
"We are putting Mr. Netanyahu on notice that we are returning in the next couple of months with another flotilla, that his actions and the actions of his soldiers have energized thousands of people who have stepped forward with offers to help and participate on the next voyage," the movement said in a statement.
The navy is also concerned that the Turkish government, which is suspected of support and involvement in the flotilla, will dispatch its navy to accompany future aid ships to the Gaza Strip.
"This is an event of diplomatic significance," a top defense official said.
Irish FM offers plan for delivering aid to Gaza
Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, meanwhile, issued a statement Friday saying that an understanding with Israel was reached whereby the Rachel Corrie would have approached Israel's "exclusion zone" before being diverted to Ashdod.
Under the plan, Martin said, "the cargo would have been unloaded and inspected under the supervision of the UN and officials from the Irish Aid Division of my department. The entire cargo, including what is understood to be 550 tons of cement, would then have been transported to Gaza. Two persons from the Rachel Corrie would have been permitted to accompany the cargo to the Israeli border crossing into Gaza at Erez."
Martin said that the arrangement would have "offered a useful precedent for future humanitarian shipments, pending the complete lifting of the blockade." It was, however, turned down by those on the boat.
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Erdogan plans to sail to Gaza
By TOVAH LAZAROFF AND AP
06/06/2010 05:13
Turkish PM may personally try to break blockade.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may personally try to break the Gaza blockade by sailing there, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday.
The paper said the report was based on Turkish sources "in the know."
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Hello, Turkey?
According to media reports, Erdogan may also consider sending Turkish Navy vessels to accompany future protest ships that head to Gaza.
To protest against Monday's Israel Navy raid, Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations and spoken of reducing economic and military ties. It has rejected Israel's explanation that its soldiers acted in self-defense after activists attacked them with clubs and metal bars.
Namik Tan, Turkey's ambassador to the US, wrote in an article for The Washington Post that the incident enraged his country because "this was not an attack by a sworn enemy but by a friend with which Turkey has worked long and hard to develop constructive strategic and economic collaboration."
He added that "this was the first such attack against civilian Turkish citizens by a foreign military force in our republic's 87-year history.
"It will be up to Israel to decide how it reconstitutes its standing as a good bilateral partner and responsible member of the international community," Tan wrote.
"Israel owes an apology to the Turkish Nation"
In the article, he reiterated what Turkey has said to Israel through the week: that to restore the relationship between the countries, Israel "can start by bringing an end to its blockade on Gaza."
He added that further needed measures included "ending [Israel's] inappropriate and disproportionate police actions toward the Palestinian civilians of that land" and "allowing a prompt, independent, impartial, credible and transparent international investigation into the incident.
"Moreover, Israel owes an apology to the Turkish nation," Tan wrote.
He told reporters in Washington that "Israel cannot find any better friend in the region than Turkey. And Israel is about to lose that friend."
Turkey wants the upcoming summit for a 20-member security group for the Asian region to condemn Monday's raid on the flotilla of six Gaza-bound ships.
A Turkish government official said the deadly raid would be discussed during the June 7-8 Conference on Interactions and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.
He said Israel had yet to say if it would attend next week's conference, where the prime minister of Russia and presidents of Iran, Afghanistan and Syria are expected. Iraq and Vietnam are expected to be represented.
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‘Dean' of White House Reporters: Jews, Get Out of Palestine
Video
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137888
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Veteran Hearst newspaper journalist, known as the "dean" of White House reporters, exposed her bias on video by saying that Jews "should get the hell out of Palestine." She apologized for her comments on Saturday, but Jewish and non-Jewish leaders have called on the 89-year-old journalist to "hang up the typewriter" and retire.
Her remarks, along with her grilling of White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs over the flotilla clash last Monday, expose an anti-Israel bias that also was revealed in Associated Press coverage several days ago.
Thomas' comments, including the statement that Jews should "go back home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else," were posted Friday on a YouTube video. She had been asked after the White House Jewish Heritage celebration last Sunday if she had "any comments on Israel."
Thomas, a daughter of Lebanese immigrants, replied to Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLIVE.com, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. Not Germany. Not Poland."
Asked where the Jews should go, she shot back, "They go home. Poland. Germany. And America and everywhere else."
After the video was posted, Thomas wrote on her web site, "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."
That did not satisfy critics. Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance, called for her immediate dismissal. Ari Fleischer, who was White House Press Secretary for former U.S. President George W. Bush, remarked, "She should lose her job over this. As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling.
"She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her? If a journalist, or a columnist, said the same thing about blacks or Hispanics, they would already have lost their jobs."
Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said," Once again the liberal media has shown its true colors. The White House media dinosaur, also known as Helen Thomas, has called on Jews to leave Israel and move back to Poland and Germany. This anti-Semitic sentiment has no place in our public discourse. I call upon her employer, Hearst Corporation, to dismiss her at once. The White House needs to revoke her press credentials immediately."
Thomas' bias was evident in her questioning of White House spokesman Gibbs. "The initial reaction to the flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful," she asserted.
Criticizing the Obama administration for not condemning Israel for the killing of nine terror activists who attacked Israel Navy commandoes when the soldiers were virtually unarmed, Thomas added, "What is this sacrosanct ironclad relationship where a country that deliberately kills people and boycotts every aid and abet the boycott?" Gibbs responded, "Well, look, I think the initial reaction regretted the loss of life as we tried and as we still continue to gather the relevant."
Thomas retorted, "Regret won't bring them back…. Why didn't you initially condemn it?... Who put the US in charge of the world?"
After the initial Associated Press report of the flotilla clash, the Washington Times exposed AP's bias for immediately jumping to the conclusion that Israel was to blame for the violence.
The AP had reported, "Dozens of activists and six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody predawn confrontation in international waters. The violent takeover dealt yet another blow to Israel's international image." After two days passed, the news service filed a more neutral report.
The IDF has released a video clip where one of the so called "human rights advocates" on the the flotilla boat that was the scene of the violent confrontation is shouting "Go back to Auschwitz" to the soldiers. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Audio from Flotilla ‘Activists': ‘Shut Up, Go Back to Auschwitz
Audio
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137887
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The "peace activists" aboard one of the pro-Hamas flotilla ships early last Monday morning told a Navy dispatcher: "Shut up, Go Back to Auschwitz. We're helping Arabs go against the US, don't forget 9/11."
The remark concerning the September 11 Arab terrorist attacks on the United States that killed over 3000 civilians showed that the U.S.A. is also hated by the group,,but some analysts said it referred to the anti-Semitic blood libel charging that Israel was responsible for the terrorism.
The radio transmission by the Israeli Navy had warned the Gaza flotilla that they were approaching a naval blockade. The soldiers boarded the ships after they refused to redirect their course from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the "Freedom Flotilla" responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified. The Mavi Mamara ship's terror activists brutally assaulted Navy commandoes before the soldiers were able to defend themselves. The activists on the other five other vessels did not use violence against the Navy crews.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Israel Headed for Gas-Exporter Status
by Hillel Fendel
Minister Landau: "The land promised to the Jewish People flows with milk, honey and especially natural gas...
The updated and increased projections of deposits in Israel's off-shore Mediterranean gas fields have put Israel, for the first time ever, on the road to energy-exporter status.
Noble Energy Inc. and partners - two companies controlled by Yitzchak Teshuva's Delek Group - said their discoveries in the Tamar and Leviathan maritime gas fields may hold between 690 and 850 billion cubic meters of gas. The Tamar field alone has been upgraded to 237 billion cubic meters, or nearly 60 times larger in volume than the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). It was previously estimated to have held approximately 180 billion cubic meters.
According to the new appraisal, the Leviathan oil field nearby has a good chance - about 50% - of holding gas or oil to the tune of 16 trillion feet - nearly twice the size of Tamar. The finds could supply Israel's gas needs for the next 20 to 35 years.
Minister of Infrastructures Uzi Landau said, "The significance of these new finds is historic. The uncertainty has been removed, Israel is clearly a gas power, and could become a main player in the international natural gas market."
"If it truly becomes possible to produce this gas," he said on Thursday, "this could make a revolution both economically and environmentally, and Israel could turn from a consumer to a supplier of gas. This is a jump that could mean economic independence for Israel in its 63rd year."
Economists agreed. "This has the potential to turn Israel into a key regional gas player," Gil Bashan, an analyst at the IBI investment house in Tel Aviv, told Bloomberg.com. "This is also a major plus for the economy and for the partners operating the licenses, which can produce value by becoming major exporters."
....The attractive terms offered by Israel encouraged the companies to go out on this pioneering adventure to seek oil in unknown waters
.
"The option for exporting natural gas has become much more realistic," Asaf Bartfeld, chief executive officer of Delek Group Ltd., similarly said. "We may be able to supply the European market and the Far East where demand is highest. Though, of course, at this point, we are waiting to drill and to try and confirm the gas."
Exporting gas is still years and billions of dollars of infrastructures away, however, analysts say.
"The attractive terms offered by the Government of Israel were what encouraged the companies to go out on this pioneering adventure to seek oil in unknown waters," Minister Landau said. "I congratulate all those involved on their daring, faith and patience in this endeavor. The Ministry of Infrastructures plans to grant whatever support is needed so that the natural gas can be used as quickly as possible. During these difficult days, when Israel is under attack from every direction, it is good to know that the land promised to the Jewish People flows with milk, honey and especially natural gas."
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Flotilla Choir: 'We Con the World'
JERUSALEM, Israel - A group of Israelis released a music video mocking the crew of the Mavi Mamara, the Turkish-owned flagship that led the "blockade busting" Gaza flotilla at the beginning of the week.
Produced by Latma, which creates Hebrew-language political satire for the Internet, the video features the Mavi Marmar's captain and crew singing about how they "con the world."
"We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events," Caroline Glick said on her website," and we hope you distribute it far and wide."
Click here to view Latma's latest production.
Meanwhile on Friday morning, Israel Radio reported that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) had uncovered more evidence confirming the flagship's lethal intent.
Further investigation of the ship revealed gun-sights and ammunition clips not compatible with IDF weapons, along with coded messages about kidnapping and killing soldiers.
Passenger recordings of their intent to become shahids (martyrs for the cause of Islam) were also discovered.
The findings confirmed statements by al-Jazerra cameraman Andre Abu Khalil, a passenger on the ship, who gave Reuters an eyewitness account.
Khalil said about 20 Turkish men, using metal pipes, slingshots and clubs, bludgeoned four soldiers sufficiently to drag them to a lower deck.
According to Khalil, when the soldiers finally received permission to use live ammunition against the attackers, one of the "activists" announced by megaphone that they would release the four soldiers in exchange for emergency medical treatment for wounded passengers.
Khalil said an Israeli Knesset member, likely Arab MK Haneen Zoabi, served as mediator.
The wounded soldiers were brought to the upper deck and transported by helicopter to hospitals.
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Sweden to boycott Israeli cargo
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/05/2010 15:08
Dockworkers to launch week-long effort due to 'Mavi Marmara' incident.
Talkbacks (118)
STOCKHOLM - Swedish dockworkers are set to launch a week-long boycott of Israeli ships and goods to protest Monday's takeover of a Gaza-destined aid flotilla, a union spokesman said Saturday.
Nine activists died after IDF troops intercepted the convoy. Nearly 700 activists had joined that operation, most of them aboard the lead boat from Turkey that was the scene of the violence.
Peter Annerback, a spokesman for the Swedish Port Workers Union which has around 1,500 members, said workers are urged to refuse handling of Israeli goods and ships during the June 15-24 boycott.
"If an Israeli ship would come we would just leave it be and not work on it," Annerback said of the measures.
The union supports the organization "Ship to Gaza," which took part in the flotilla headed for Gaza.
In a statement, the union said the reason for the boycott "is the unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy In Gaza. Several peace activists were killed by Israeli commandos and other participants were detained without any reason."
It also urged other unions and organizations to join them through similar initiatives and called for Israel to be brought to justice for the attack and that it respects international law "and that the blockade of Gaza immediately lifted."
Annerback said it was still unclear how much the boycott is expected to affect trade between the Sweden and Israel since the union still needs to identify cargos with Israeli origin.
"Right now it's not that easy to spot where it comes from so we still have a lot of detective work to do in that area," Federal Chairman Bjorn Borg said.
