' Iranian ships won't reach Gaza'
By HERB KEINON AND YAAKOV KATZ
06/08/2010 00:55
Gov't likely to ok probe of flotilla raid with two int'l observers.
Israel said on Monday it would not let Iranian ships sail to Gaza after the Iranian Red Crescent announced it would send two vessels to the region in the coming week.
"If we didn't let an Irish ship reach Gaza, we are certainly not going to let Iranian ships pass," one diplomatic official said.
The official added that it was not yet clear how serious the Iranian threat was, and that there was often "a lot of bluster" coming out of Teheran.
"The Iranian regime has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and has a proven track record of supplying dangerous weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah," the official said. "Obviously, any shipment from Iran to Gaza would be a major concern."
Abdolrauf Adibzadeh, the Iranian Red Crescent director for international affairs, told a French news agency: "One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers.
The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week." The decision to send aid ships came a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that the Revolutionary Guards could be sent to protect ships trying to break the Gaza blockade.
"We cannot take a chance that there is weaponry on the ships."
Diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said such a move would pose a challenge not only to Israel, but also to Egypt, which could not be pleased at the prospect of the Revolutionary Guard sailing through the Suez Canal.
Defense officials said Israel would not allow the ships to reach Gaza.
"Iran is Hamas's main supplier of weaponry," one official said. "We cannot take a chance that there is weaponry on the ships." This would not be the first time Iran sent ships to test Israel's blockade of Gaza. In January 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, an Iranian ship was dispatched with what was claimed to be humanitarian cargo. While Israeli soldiers never boarded the vessel, the navy preventing it from reaching its destination by blocking sailing lanes into Gaza Port.
Also on Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to lambaste Israel, saying during a press conference in Istanbul with Syrian President Bashar Assad that last week's raid on the flotilla had been a violation of international law and human values. He also urged Israel to accept an international probe into the raid.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Monday, for the second time in two days, with his inner cabinet, a forum known as the septet, and discussed the type of probe that would be set up to look into the raid on the Mavi Marmara last week.
Israeli investigation may be established with foreign observers
Although the Prime Minister's Office made no official announcement, it is widely believed that the ministers agreed to the establishment of an Israeli investigative committee - and not a wider government commission of inquiry - with the participation of two foreign observers, one American and one from an unnamed country.
It is not clear who will lead the probe, but one name being prominently mentioned is law professor Ruth Lapidot. The panel is expected to question the political echelon and senior military officials, but not the soldiers who took part in the raid.
It is also expected to look at the legality of the naval blockade on Gaza, and the legality and manner in which Israel prevented the flotilla from reaching Gaza.
In the midst of a debate on the matter, President Shimon Peres reportedly told Netanyahu during a meeting on Monday that if he wanted to prevent further international isolation of Israel, moving forward on the peace process with the Palestinians would be more important than the establishment of a flotilla probe.
Jerusalem is also discussing the framework of the probe with Washington, to ensure the committee meets US requirements. The State Department stressed that it expected Israel to fulfill the obligations for a credible investigation laid out last week, though officials declined to address specific configurations.
"We expect the Israeli government to conduct a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards that gets to all the facts surrounding this tragic incident," one State Department official said.
The official reiterated the US position that Washington was "open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation, including international participation," without specifying which arrangement was preferred.
"We will continue to discuss these ideas with the Israelis and our international partners in the days ahead," the official said.
"This is a very difficult situation that requires careful, thoughtful responses from all concerned."
Israeli probe unlikely to suffice for Erdogan
The type of probe being formulated in Jerusalem is unlikely to suffice for Turkey's Erdogan, however, who on Monday said: "If there is hatred, it is Israel's hatred. If there is terror, it is Israel's state terrorism." With Assad at his side, Erdogan said Israel should "look in the mirror" for the perpetrators of terrorism, and called on the United States to "protect the honor of its own citizen." This was in reference to one of the nine men killed on the boat, who was a dual US Turkish national living in Turkey.
In response to a question about the five Mavi Marmara activists listed by Israel as having ties to terrorist organizations, Erdogan said: "If there were any terrorists, then why were they set free?" Israel decided not to prosecute those who had been on the ships, but rather to deport them, in an effort to limit the diplomatic fallout.
Assad said the blockade of Gaza must end.
"This embargo, this blockade must be lifted, and at the same time Israeli must be placed in a cage of crime," the Syrian president said. "It must be placed under quarantine so that it cannot spread disease to anybody." Erdogan strongly urged Hamas and Fatah to quickly reconcile their differences at a time when Palestinian unity was of utmost importance.
"Hamas has given its consent to us to broker a dialogue," he said. "We will also talk to Fatah and see their position." Erdogan and Assad's comments came on the opening day of an Istanbul summit on Asian security. Nine heads of state, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are scheduled to attend the two-day Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
Israel is represented at the conference by its envoy in Ankara.
Israeli diplomatic officials, continuing a policy put into place immediately after the flotilla incident, refused to respond to Erdogan's comments.
"We are not looking for a public shouting match with the Turks," one official said. "So far, the shouting has been one-sided and we have earned respect from certain quarters in the world for showing restraint in the face of comments that can only be termed as undiplomatic."
Flotilla humanitarian aid has not yet been transferred to Gaza
In a related development, the Defense Ministry said on Monday it had transferred all the humanitarian aid that had been on the flotilla intercepted last week from the Ashdod Port to the military's Tzrifin Base near Rishon Lezion.
The equipment, which includes medicine that has expired, as well as used clothing, wheelchairs, couches and carpets, was being stored at the base after Hamas refused to allow it to be transferred to the Gaza Strip.
The coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot, has instructed his team to hold talks with international organizations to find a way to get the supplies into Gaza.
Hilary Leila Krieger and AP contributed to this report.
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Iranian navy threatens to break Israeli blockade
The Iranian Red Crescent on Monday announced that it had two aid ships ready to set sail for Gaza to break Israel's maritime blockade, and Iran's Revolutionary Guard offered to send its forces to thwart any Israeli attempt to intercept the vessels.
The Revolutionary Guard later extended its offer of protection to any ships trying to break the Gaza maritime blockade, but had yet to receive authorization from Iran's religious authorities to take such action.
If Iranian warships were to accompany future blockade-busting "aid" flotillas, it would likely spark a very dangerous showdown with the Israeli navy, and possibly lead to regional war.
Observers noted that it is unlikely Iranian warships would be able to get to the Mediterranean to carry out their threat, as they would need to pass through Egypt's Suez Canal to do so. Iran and Egypt are regional rivals, and the probability that Egypt would let Iranian warships pass through the canal is small, especially since there would undoubtedly be heavy international pressure on Egypt to not let the Iranians pass.
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Increased Violence in Turkish-Occupied Kurdistan
by Avi Yellin
Three Kurdish resistance fighters were killed over the weekend during clashes with Turkish military forces currently occupying Northern Kurdistan (often referred to as South East Turkey). Two of the rebels were killed near Uludere in Sirnak province, close to the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, when soldiers pursued a group of fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who had allegedly detonated explosives on a road as a military vehicle passed. The blast had failed to claim any casualties.
A third rebel was killed in Beytussebap, also in Sirnak, in a battle that erupted after a group of PKK guerrillas opened fire on a Turkish police checkpoint.
Last Friday, PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis announced that the rebels had ended a unilateral truce with Turkey - in place since April 2009 - "because of Turkey's continuing hostility towards the Kurdish people."
The statement came against a backdrop of rising violence between Turkish forces and the PKK. In one of the bloodiest attacks in recent months, the PKK fired rockets at a navy base last Monday, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
Since 1984, the PKK has been engaged in a war of liberation for the mainly Kurdish populated territories that make up the north of historic Kurdistan but currently exist as Turkey's southeast. The war for Kurdish independence has since claimed roughly 45,000 lives, with Kurds making up the vast majority of casualties.
As a non-Arab Middle Eastern minority, the Kurds hold positive attitudes towards Israel and generally view Zionism as a model to follow in their quest for independence. The PKK has demanded an end to all discrimination in Turkish laws against ethnic Kurds, hoping instead to be granted full political freedoms. The party has also demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds' identity in its constitution and of their language as a native language along with Turkish in Kurdish populated areas. Most Kurds currently living under Turkish occupation openly sympathize with the PKK despite it being considered a 'terrorist' organization by both Ankara and Washington. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Erdogan: Israel must pay the price
By ASSOCIATED PRESS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
06/07/2010 19:16
Turkish PM meets Assad, demands UN investigation of flotilla raid
Israel must be me held to account for its action during the raid on the Mavi Marmara last week, demanded Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.
"We believe that those responsible should not be left without paying the price," Erdogan said during a press conference with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Istanbul. He also asked the UN to investigate "the unlawful incident in a very transparent and firm manner."
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Turkey wants security summit to condemn Israel
Turkey's foreign minister on also called on Monday for Israel to accept an international-led inquiry into the commando boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.
Ahmet Davutoglu said Israel should declare it agrees to the probe proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He said: "Otherwise, it means that they have something to hide."
"The international community is facing a serious test. Does a country have the right to intercept a ship in international waters or not?" Davutoglu said at a news conference with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They spoke on the sidelines of a summit of a 20-nation security group.
Turkey, which had a solid alliance with Israel until the three-week Gaza war that ended in early 2009, said it would reduce military and trade ties and shelved discussions of energy projects, including natural gas and fresh water shipments. It threatened to break ties unless Israel apologizes for the raid last week.
"We are evaluating everything. It is up to Israel how our ties will continue," Davutoglu said. "Israel has to accept the consequences of its actions and be held accountable."
Davutoglu said "normalization of Turkish-Israeli relations was out of the question," unless Israel conforms to international law. He said Turkey would pursue accountability in the killing of the eight Turks and one dual US-Turkish citizen, until the end.
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Israeli Navy Thwarts Attack by Sea
Video
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/June/Israeli-Navy-Thwarts-Attack-by-Sea/
GAZA STRIP - The Israeli Navy thwarted a maritime terror attack early Monday morning.
Members of the elite Shayetet 13 unit spotted five armed Palestinians in wetsuits sailing north toward the Israeli coast about 4:30 a.m.
The Navy intercepted the cell in the Nahal Aza area, a fire fight ensued and four of the gunmen were killed.
The al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, the "armed wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, confirmed that four of its members were killed and a fifth was missing.
The IDF said the size of the terror cell, their weaponry and equipment indicated they had planned to carry out a major terror attack.
WAFA, the official PLO news agency, reported that the Israeli Navy "shot dead" four fishermen after sinking their boat, and "still Israeli gunboats patrolling the sea off the shores of Gaza."
The Navy remains on high alert for Palestinian terror cells attempting to infiltrate Israel by sea.
IDF troops monitoring the border with Gaza thwart frequent attempts to plant bombs along the security barrier and build tunnels to facilitate infiltration.
A short time later, the IDF targeted a rocket-launching cell in northern Gaza, injuring one Palestinian.
In the last three weeks, Palestinians have fired more than 10 rockets and mortar shells on southern Israel.
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Demonstrators Say ‘No' to Mosque at Ground Zero
by Fern Sidman
"No mosque at Ground Zero" was the rallying cry Sunday as thousands of angry demonstrators protested a proposed 13-story mosque just blocks away from the site of the 9/11 attacks.
A palpable patriotism and zeal filled the air as Zucotti Park at the corner of Church and Liberty streets in lower Manhattan was filled to capacity. Rally participants came from as far as Chicago and Los Angeles and held signs saying, "Ground Zero is a War Memorial - No Mega Mosque here", "You Can Build a Mosque at Ground Zero - When Can We Build a Synagogue in Mecca?", "Pack Your Sharia and Get out", "Mayor Bloomberg: This Mosque Has Radical Ties - and you still approve?"
Hundreds of American flags blew in the summer breeze as speakers representing every walk of life condemned the notion of a mosque being erected near the site of the former World Trade Center's twin towers.
The Cordoba Initiative, headed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the chief sponsor of the project that is to be called The Cordoba House, a name that refers to the city in Spain which, in the Middle Ages, was a center of Islamic culture and learning. Cordoba was also the seat of an Islamic caliphate in which Jews and Christians suffered under second-class "dhimmi" status and was the site of large-scale pogrom, perpetrated by Muslims, in the year 1011.
The proposed mosque is to be built at 45 Park Place, which is the site of a four-story edifice built in 1857 and was a Burlington Coat retail store until 9/11, when part of the plane's landing gear crashed through the roof. The building that currently houses a mosque will be razed to make room for the new structure.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission could conceivably thwart the intended project if it determines that the building has historic status, thus rendering it a landmark. Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Commission, said a hearing is scheduled to take place on the project. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has expressed support for the project.
Imam Rauf insists that the $150 million project is meant to heal the wounds of 9/11. "We've approached the community because we want this to be an example of how we are cooperating with the members of the community", he said.
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy says there are more productive ways to fight Islamic extremism and has questions about the financing. According to reports, the building that occupies the site was purchased last year for $4.85 million in cash by Soho Properties, a real estate company run by Muslims. Imam Rauf, who is also the founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement was an investor in that transaction.
Dr. Jasser said that with such a financial commitment, there needs to be full disclosure about where the money is coming from. "There should be transparency about who those investors are; whether that money is coming from a domestic source or not, and if it's coming from foreign interests we need to know, because I think that's a liability, and it shows that there is another agenda rather than domestic security and tranquility" he said.
Organized by such organizations as 'Stop the Islamization of America', Families of the 9/11 Victims, the New York City Firefighters, the Tea Party Activists of Brooklyn and Staten Island among other such groups, the rally supporters stood in scorching heat and listened to the impassioned words of the litany of speakers. "We're not here today to condemn Muslims or Islam" said Pamela Geller, executive director of 'Stop the Islamization of America', "but we are here today to condemn the kind of mosque that will teach the very same radical ideology that gave birth to the 9/11 attacks.
"Building a mosque just several blocks away from Ground Zero is an insult and an affront to every single person that was killed on 9/11, to their families, to the first responders and every concerned American who cherishes liberty, democracy and freedom" she continued.
James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force and who traveled to New York to speak at the rally declared, "3000 pairs of eyes are looking down at us today...These evil, cowardly bastards who took the lives of those proud Americans on 9/11 will be remembered forever and this mosque which represents the triumph of Islamic fanaticism will not be built if we have anything to say."
Lafferty received thunderous applause when he said, "The good people of the USA must also stand in solid unity with the Israel Defense Forces who are waging a war against Hamas terrorism as was evidenced several days ago when they intercepted a Turkish based flotilla of ships whose aim it was to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. It is the IDF who is on the front lines in the battle against Islamic radicalism and we must support them".
Dr. Babu Suseelan, a Hindu human rights activist told the crowd, "We Hindus and Sikhs have a story to tell. Islamists killed 80 million of us since 700 AD and they continue to kill us. They destroyed 3000 glorious temples and built mosques over them. In the last 60 years, Islamists in Pakistan wiped out infidel Hindu and Sikh populations. At one time we represented 25 percent of the population and now we are less that 1 percent.
"Know this: The 9/11 mosque is not a symbol of understanding. It is a symbol of conquest. Imam Rauf is a master of Taqiyya, which is the use of deception to forward the agenda of Islam. What Faisal Shahzad failed to accomplish in Times Square on May 1st with overt jihad, Imam Rauf will succeed with stealth jihad."
"Not here! Not now!" was the resounding theme of the speech delivered by Jay Townsend, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York and who will be challenging the incumbent Democrat Charles Schumer in the upcoming November elections.
"The wounds have not healed, Imam", he said. "And we cannot so soon forget. The hatred that spawned this assault on our sensibilities is still taught in too many of your mosques and inscribed into too many of your prayer rugs.
Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a co-organizer of the rally, referred to a June 5th article in the New York Post that said, "The imam behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero is a prominent member of a group that helped sponsor the pro-Palestinian activists who clashed violently with Israeli commandoes at sea this week.
"Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a key figure in Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, according to its website. Perdana is the single biggest donor ($366,000) so far to the Free Gaza Movement, a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Monday."
Members of the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam (HRCARI) also made their presence known at the rally through their visual depiction of the heinous murders committed by radical Islamists around the globe."We are an inclusive alliance of people of all religions and nationalities who cherish freedom" said Dr. Marvin Belsky, a retired internist, of the organization.
Speakers included Anders Gravers of Stop the Islamization of Europe, Simon Deng, the Sudanese ex-slave and campaigner for human rights for Sudanese Christians, Richard Connerney, a philosophy professor at Pace University, Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian ex-Muslim and author of "Now They Call Me Infidel" and "Cruel and Unusual Punishment", Nelly Braginskaya, a 9/11 family member who lost her son, Larry Savinkin, father of Vladimir Savinkin, 21 and president of the September 11th Family Group uniting 9/11 families from the Russian-American community, Dan Maloney, New York Director of the Gathering of Eagles organization and congressional candidate in District 4 in New York, among others.
The rally organizers urged those in attendance to continue their work against the mosque in their localities and they were exhorted to return for yet another rally in opposition to the mosque on September 10th, the day before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The rally concluded with the singing of "God Bless America." (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Turkey's support of Hamas worries PA
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
06/08/2010 01:38
‘We want blockade lifted, but Hamas must end Gaza coup.'
The Palestinian Authority is concerned about Turkey's increased support for Hamas, a PA official in Ramallah said on Monday.
The official said that the PA leadership was "unhappy" with Turkey's policy toward Hamas, especially with regard to pressure to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip unconditionally.
"Turkey's policy is emboldening Hamas and undermining the Palestinian Authority," the official told The Jerusalem Post.
"Of course we want to see the blockade lifted, but Hamas must also end its coup in the Gaza Strip and accept an Egyptian proposal for achieving reconciliation with Fatah."
PA concerned about opening of the Rafah border
The PA is also concerned the reopening of the Rafah border crossing to Sinai would enable Hamas to tighten its grip on the Strip.
"We wish to remind the Turkish and Egyptian governments that the border crossing was controlled by the Palestinian Authority before Hamas launched its coup in 2007," the official added. "If the Rafah border crossing is going to be reopened, that should be done in coordination with us and not with Hamas."
Azzam al-Ahmed, a top Fatah official in the West Bank, was quoted over the weekend as saying that he was opposed to the lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip until Hamas agreed to end the dispute with his faction.
Ahmed stressed that there was no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip because the PA government was sending aid through Israeli border crossings.
Abbas visits Erdogan in Istanbul
PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who visited Istanbul on Monday, was said to have relayed to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan his concern over the rapprochement between Turkey and Hamas, the official revealed.
Erdogan, according to the official, offered to mediate between the PA and Hamas -an offer that Abbas accepted.
Erdogan declared that ending the power struggle between the rival Palestinian parties "is a must." He claimed that Hamas had also welcomed a mediation role for Turkey.
Erdogan was speaking to reporters during a joint press conference with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was also visiting Turkey.
"Divisions should not continue under the current circumstances," Erdogan said. "I believe we can make peace between Hamas and Fatah."
Hamas: PA depriving residents of the Gaza Strip of passports
Meanwhile, the Hamas government accused the PA of depriving residents of the Gaza Strip of passports. The government said the ban had been in effect since July 2008, effectively preventing tens of thousands of Palestinians from being able to travel abroad.
"The Fatah government in Ramallah does not care about the suffering of the people in the Gaza Strip, who are already under siege," a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior said. "Every citizen is entitled to a passport, and no one has the right to deprive people of getting passports for whatever reason."
Palestinian passports are normally printed in the West Bank. Hamas said the PA was refusing, for "security reasons," to send thousands of passports to residents of the Gaza Strip who needed to travel.
According to the Hamas government, many Palestinian academics and "respected" figures have been denied passports by the PA government for the same reason.
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Israeli envoys slam German pols for joining flotilla
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
06/07/2010 06:19
"We wanted to bring aid to Gaza. Nobody had a weapon," says Left Party member Inge Höger; other voices in Germany call naval operation "criminal."
Talkbacks (2)
BERLIN - Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yoram Ben-Zeev and Emmanuel Nahshon, the chargé d'affaires at the embassy, took the unusual step last week of publicly criticizing Left Party members of parliament who were aboard the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Nahshon told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the "criticism is not against the party but against those members of the Bundestag. They behaved in a way that is not responsible.
"They found themselves in violence... The aim was to break the blockade. They are more interested in supporting Hamas, rather than concerned about aid for the Palestinian people."
Nahshon, the embassy's No. 2 diplomat, was referring to the two Left Party members of parliament, Inge Höger and Annette Groth. Although the IDF captured the attack of its commandos on video and seized weapons from radical Islamists on the vessel, Groth and her colleagues from the Left Party claim that the video footage was fabricated and denied the presence of weapons.
"The video was pasted together; who knows where it comes from," Groth said.
"We wanted to bring aid to Gaza. Nobody had a weapon," Höger said.
Höger added that the Israeli seizure of the vessel was "in contravention of international law... It was an act of piracy."
Ben-Zeev, in an interview with the large Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, said, "An operation backed by Hamas, which wants to destroy the Jewish state, is not going to help the peace process... Where were these politicians from Die Linke and other Germans when Hamas was firing hundreds of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip?"
Israeli officials in Germany usually try to mediate disputes behind the scenes.
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, a Middle East expert in Germany, told the Post he was "astonished " that the Israeli ambassador issued a stinging criticism of the Left Party.
Nahshon, however, told the Post that this is "exactly where an ambassador should intervene," adding that Ben-Zeev should criticize "anti-Israeli endeavors linked with terror groups."
He termed the attack on Israeli commandos an "organized lynch."
The new chairman of the Left Party, Klaus Ernst, a former Bavarian trade union official who is currently engulfed in a reimbursement scandal, said it is "highly unusual" that Israel's envoy chose to "intervene in the political debate in the media."
Ernst criticized Ben-Zeev's comments and said such statements should instead be articulated by the Israeli government's spokesman
Gregor Gysi, a top Left Party MP from the moderate wing of party, met with Ben-Zeev last week.
"I asked Gysi where the Left Party was when moderate Palestinians were slaughtered by Hamas in Gaza or shot in the legs as punishment. In these cases I never heard from the Left Party that they had humanitarian objections, and certainly not from those who took part in the convoy," Ben-Zeev was quoted as saying in the German media.
Gysi, who was a prominent attorney in the former East Germany and is the son of a German Jew, had blasted Israel's naval operation as "criminal" and stressed that "we can't allow Israel to get away with this."
Von der Osten-Sacken, the Mideast analyst, said that "Gysi unilaterally condemned Israel without having information."
He sees the Left Party as increasingly isolated within German society, largely because the party is now "part of a worldwide jihad movement" that has "aligned with people who want to kill Jews."
Von der Osten-Sacken said there has been a sea change within the party.
"The anti-Israeli faction of the Left Party took over... You have an openly anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic party governing federal states," he said.
The Left Party, which co-governs as part of coalitions with the Social Democrats in state governments in Berlin and Brandenburg, has been plagued by an internal conflict over its hostility toward Israel. Some members of the party, such as Gysi and Petra Pau, argue for a moderate approach to Israel and favor its right to exist. Pau and Gysi have not embraced the growing alliance between Left Party members of parliament and anti-Western Islamic movements.
But according to political observers, the party is increasingly dominated by a pro-Iranian faction with ties to Hizbullah and Hamas.
The foreign policy spokesman of the Left Party, MP Wolfgang Gehrcke, participated in pro-Hizbullah and pro-Hamas rallies, where Israel's destruction was called for. He has compared Israel's policies with those of Nazi Germany.
Christine Buchholz, another Left Party MP, appears to be the first parliamentary member since the Hitler era to justify the murder of Jews and Israelis.
Buchholz led a faction within the party that supported Palestinian suicide attacks against Israel as a legitimate form of "resistance." She and the Left Party Vice President Sahra Wagenknecht criticized President Shimon Peres in January for spreading the "untruth" about Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons.
Buchholz and Wagenknecht believe Iran is not a threat to global security.
The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, a pro-Israel organization and think tank, along with the editors of Bahamas magazine, a pro-Israel magazine critical of rising modern anti-Semitism in Germany and radical Islam, issued a statement on Sunday, calling for a protest against the Left Party.
The demonstration, under the slogan "Against the alliance of the Left Party warmongers and Hamas: Solidarity with Israel!" is slated to take place on Saturday in front of Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, the Left Party's national headquarters in Berlin
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Osama bin Laden and top aides are hiding in Sabzevar, Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis June 8, 2010, 12:16 AM (GMT+02:00)
Osama bin Laden stayed out of sight for years
Osama bin Laden's hiding place was pinned down for the first time Monday, June 7, by the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassa Monday, June 7, as the mountainous town of Savzevar in the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, 220 km west of Mashhad. He is said to have lived there under Tehran's protection for the last five years, along with Ayman Al-Zawahiri and five other high-ranking al Qaeda leaders.
debkafile's intelligence sources disclosed Monday night that Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan and his intelligence chiefs are well aware that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are hiding in Iran. The leak to the Kuwait paper was intended to show the Obama administration that the Turkish leader's ties with Iran had grown intense enough for him to be fully in the picture of Iran's secret sanctuary for the authors of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Savzevar, a small town of about a quarter of a million inhabitants, is connected by road to Tehran and Mashhad and has a small airport. A center for producing grapes and raisins, its location is remote and difficult to access because it is enclosed by lofty mountains and a salt desert 50,000 square kilometers in area.
On May 13, American intelligence sources reported in detail that senior al Qaeda operatives living in Iran had been allowed to leave the country through Syria to orchestrate terrorist attacks on American targets. Among them was Saif al-Adel, who is believed to have been assigned with planning an attack on the world soccer games opening in South Africa on June 12.
Those sources noted that Saif al-Adel had received his instructions directly from Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri but did not reveal knowledge of their presence in Iran.
debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose that the purpose of airing their precise whereabouts at this time, aside from implicating the Turkish leader, was first, to warn al Qaeda's leaders that their hideout was blown and they had better move on - which would make them easier to catch; and, second, to nudge US president Barak Obama into a decision to go after them.
A rare opportunity may now be building up to capture the world's most wanted terrorist, debkafile's counter-terror sources report. Last December, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the United States has not had any good intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts in years. Until recently, the elusive master-terrorist was generally thought to have gone to ground in the wilder parts of Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
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Israel, Turkey, Gaza in covert sea war. Hamas frogmen thwarted
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 7, 2010, 11:11 AM (GMT+02:00)
Turkey buries victims of Kurdish PKK attack, suspects Israeli hand
The Israeli commando raid on a Turkish ferry heading to break the Gaza blockade, in which 9 activists were killed, is turning out a week later to have kicked off a semi-clandestine sea war between Israel, Turkey and the Gaza-based Hamas, debkafile's military sources report. Monday, June 7, Hamas frogmen were on their way to a large-scale attack on an Israeli target when their boat was intercepted by Israeli commandos and four or five armed Palestinians killed. Turkey is investigating suspicions of Israel's hand behind a deadly Kurdish terrorist attack on its Iskenderun base on May 31.
Our military sources disclose Iskenderun's quietly growing role in the last two months as a military hub in potential confrontations by Syria and Hizballah with Israel. In mid-May, Turkey moved anti-air missile batteries into the port to defend targets in Syria and Lebanon against potential Israeli air strikes from the eastern Mediterranean. This is the first time Ankara has provided Syria and Hizballah with an air defense umbrella and come down on their side in their conflict with Israel.
Some hours after Israeli commandos clashed with armed men aboard the Mavi Marmara, Kurdish PKK rebel fighters attacked the Turkish naval base at Iskenderun on the Syrian border, killing seven Turkish seamen and injuring another six. If Ankara can prove its suspicions, it will be able to claim that Israel is involved by proxy in terrorist attacks on Turkish soil. Diplomatic relations still in force despite the frictions between the two countries will then be severed, one step before a declaration of war.
Following the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's fiery abuse of Israel, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said Sunday, June 6: "We have been working hard, especially to ascertain what happened in the Iskenderun incident." Local media have suggested he is looking for Israeli covert invovlement in the planning and execution of the deadly attack on the Turkish naval base in revenge for the violence on the Marmara against the Israeli naval boarding party.
Early Monday, June 7, an Israeli Navy Commando force intercepted a large group of armed Palestinian frogmen, members of the Hamas sea commando, on their way from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli shore to the north early Monday, June 7. Palestinian sources confirmed at least four wet-suited terrorists were killed, and another four were missing in the wake of a shootout in the Nahal Aza area of the Gaza Strip near Nuseirat between their boat and Israeli troops.
The IDF spokesman reported there were no Israeli casualties. debkafile's military sources report the Hamas seaborne unit aimed to prove itself capable by striking an Israeli target of retaliating for the thwarting of the Turkish-led campaign to break the Gaza blockade.
Shortly afterwards, a Palestinian Qassam missile squad was spotted on land near Jebalya preparing to fire into Israel. It was knocked out by the Israeli Air force.
debkafile: Cross-fire from Gaza on Israeli border patrols is frequent, almost daily and Hamas still launches several Qassam missiles and mortar bombs into Israel every week, but attempts attacks by Hamas or related groups from the sea are a new development.
