Bookworm
For once, Israel is trying swiftly to retain some semblance of control over the message. Using facebook, the Navy is disseminating videos of the incident. I’ll show them here, followed by the IDF’s narrative, which the IDF included with the YouTube footage. This video narrative begins yesterday, when the IDF carefully warned the flotilla about the borders it was crossing and the risks it was taking: Israel Navy: “Mavi Marmara, you are approaching an area of hostilities which is under a naval blockade. The Gaza area coastal region and Gaza harbor are closed to all maritime traffic. The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod port. Delivery of supplies in accordance with the authorities’ regulations will be through the formal land crossings and under your observation, after which you can return to your home ports on the vessels on which you have arrived.”
Response: “Negative, negative.”
Early this morning, IDF Naval Forces boarded six ships attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip. This happened after numerous warnings from Israel and the Israeli Navy that were issued prior to the action. The Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid supplies which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.
During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, as well as live fire.
According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.
The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla before leaving their ports as well as while sailing towards the Gaza Strip. In these warnings, it was made clear to the organizers that they could dock in the Ashdod sea port and unload the equipment they are carrying in order to deliver it to the Gaza Strip in an orderly manner, following the appropriate security checks. Upon expressing their unwillingness to cooperate and arrive at the port, it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod.
IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.
Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course.
Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed.
The ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla had publicly insisted on their non-violent intentions, however their violent attack on the IDF soldiers was clearly premeditated. They had knives, metal rods, firebombs and other items ready to use.
Early this morning, IDF Naval Forces boarded six ships attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip. This happened after numerous warnings from Israel and the Israeli Navy that were issued prior to the action. The Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid supplies which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.
During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, as well as live fire.
According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.
The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla before leaving their ports as well as while sailing towards the Gaza Strip. In these warnings, it was made clear to the organizers that they could dock in the Ashdod sea port and unload the equipment they are carrying in order to deliver it to the Gaza Strip in an orderly manner, following the appropriate security checks. Upon expressing their unwillingness to cooperate and arrive at the port, it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod.
IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.
Early this morning, IDF Naval Forces boarded six ships attempting to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip. This happened after numerous warnings from Israel and the Israeli Navy that were issued prior to the action. The Israel Navy requested the ships to redirect toward Ashdod where they would be able to unload their aid supplies which would then be transferred over land after undergoing security inspections.
During the boarding of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.
As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, as well as live fire.
According to initial reports, these events resulted in the deaths of nine demonstrators and seven naval personnel were injured, some from gunfire and some from various other weapons. Two of the soldiers are moderately wounded and the remainder sustained light injuries. All of the injured, Israelis and foreigners have been evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
Reports from IDF forces on the scene are that it seems as if part of the participants onboard the ships were planning to lynch the forces.
The interception of the flotilla followed numerous warnings given to the organizers of the flotilla before leaving their ports as well as while sailing towards the Gaza Strip. In these warnings, it was made clear to the organizers that they could dock in the Ashdod sea port and unload the equipment they are carrying in order to deliver it to the Gaza Strip in an orderly manner, following the appropriate security checks. Upon expressing their unwillingness to cooperate and arrive at the port, it was decided to board the ships and lead them to Ashdod.
IDF naval personnel encountered severe violence, including use of weaponry prepared in advance in order to attack and to harm them. The forces operated in adherence with operational commands and took all necessary actions in order to avoid violence, but to no avail.
Please help get the real facts out here by sending these videos along through blogs and emails. Also, please read JoshuaPundit on the subject, before this debacle. He fully understands how this was a set-up and how Israel tried desperately to avoid precisely this outcome. Soccer Dad also explains that this flotilla had nothing to do with humanitarianism, and everything to do with boxing Israel into an impossible situation.
UPDATE: This video nicely explains how urgent Israel’s security needs are:
There should be no doubt that Israel acted within her legal and ethical rights.
Also, Israel Matzav has footage showing the savage glee with which these “peace” activists attacked Israeli forces, who arrived armed with paintball guns.
UPDATE 2: A “peace” activist stabbing an Israeli soldier in the back:
UPDATE 3: Melanie Phillips explaining that this whole flotilla debacle was a slo-mo Islamist terrorist attack.
UPDATE 4: When I first heard that there were 10 dead, and knew nothing more, I sent an email to friends snarkily saying that I bet the flotilla started out with dead bodies in the freezer to “reveal” to reporters at the appropriate time. (And yes, I know it was in bad taste to say that.) Turns out I wasn’t far wrong, as some on the flotilla boarded intending to die.
UPDATE 5: Bruce Kesler on the disproportionate force that saw Israeli troops armed with paintball guns trying to confront activists armed with knives, iron bars and (as I mentioned above), the desire to die for propaganda purposes.
UPDATE 6: Power Line has more on the Israelis’ efforts to avoid bloodshed — and the “peace” activists’ determination to shed blood, their own and the Israelis’.
UPDATE 7: Michael Rubin explains why Obama’s response to this situation will have lasting consequences in the Middle East:
So why is it decision time for Obama? Israel feels itself increasingly in an existential crisis. Not only is Iran nearing a nuclear-weapons capability, but it has become increasingly vogue to delegitimize Israel. In the wake of the Gaza ship incident, Israel is going to see whether it has any allies left who will recognize its dilemma, recognize its security concerns, and support it as the crisis grows. Israel knows it can’t trust Europe. Indeed, Europe finances many of the groups which, if they don’t seek Israel’s destruction directly, nevertheless indirectly support terrorism.
If Obama decides it is in America’s interest to make an example of Israel after the Gaza flotilla incident in order to win goodwill in Cairo, Beirut, Tehran, and Ankara, then he must also recognize that the leadership in Jerusalem is going to conclude that it cannot trust the United States to safeguard its security, and that therefore it must take matters into its own hands on any number of issues, not the least of which is Iran’s nuclear program. In effect, if the White House decides to come down hard on Israel now, it is the same as giving a green light for Israel to strike Iran. That is not advocacy; it is just the realism about which President Obama is so fond.
UPDATE 8: Before this whole poisonous stunt reached its blood conclusion, Omri Ceren, at Mere Rhetoric, wrote an exquisite satire, showing life under the “cruel conditions” this flotilla was ostensibly sent to relieve. There is no doubt but that this had nothing to do with humanitarian efforts, and everything to do with creating precisely the situation we see today.
UPDATE 9: J.E. Dyer, one of my favorite military analysts, riffing off of a Hot Air post, has one of the best summaries I’ve seen to date putting together all of the known information and coming up — credibly, not reactively — with the same conclusion I’ve reached reactively: namely, that this was a Hamas terrorist attack, using useful idiots as props, covers and propaganda tools. Israel’s behavior, from the git-go, weeks earlier, was honorable to the point of stupidity.
UPDATE 10: “Peace” activists throw an Israeli soldier into the Mediterranean. Do you think they hoped he’d just safely float away?
UPDATE 11: Jonathan Schanzer explains that the “peace” flotilla wasn’t just an ordinary cruise, put together by some useful idiots. Instead, it was carefully organized by a known terrorist organization:
The Turkish organizers of the Gaza Strip-bound flotilla that was boarded this morning by Israeli commandos knew well in advance that their vessels would never reach Israeli waters. That’s because the organizers belong to a nonprofit that was banned by the Israeli government in July 2008 for its ties to terrorism finance.
The Turkish IHH (Islan Haklary Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi in Turkish) was founded in 1992, and reportedly popped up on the CIA’s radar in 1996 for its radical Islamist leanings. Like many other Islamist charities, the IHH has a record of providing relief to areas where disaster has struck in the Muslim world.
Read more here. Melanie Phillips offers similar information about the Turkish terrorist genesis.
UPDATE 12: The White House, which should be totally au courant with all the info about terrorist ties, useful idiots, and armed “peace” activists, is playing coy, which is the worst possible response, since it tacitly concedes that it doubts Israel.
Read following comment to Bookworm piece-see this today when our enemies present the "illegal" mantra:
SADIE
As the UN gathers today for the umpteenth time to condemn Israel – a little reading material for them between rants.
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.
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