DL Adams
The Gaza "Humanitarian Flotilla" controversies of recent days and its smaller followup, the "MV Rachel Corrie" of Irish origins, were events designed to further the ongoing delegitimization of Israel. This off-shore jihad is further evidence of a raging war for public opinion with the media as the main tool of advancement or defeat. It is unfortunate that many in the media, even the longest serving member of the White House Press pool, Helen Thomas, are fellow-travelers and sympathizers with the jihadists but the so-called "Peace Flotilla" has failed in its mission. It failed not for want of effort on the part of the jihadists but perhaps the deployment of too much effort.
Israeli video of IDF naval commandos boarding the Mavi Marmara, the last ship to be boarded (to enforce the legal Israeli blockade of Gaza) in the flotilla, and the savage violence which met them from the passengers on the "peace ship" entirely undermined the usually successful confused public relations and media spin/reportage that portray the aggressors and their supporters as victims. Close behind the release of the Israeli videos showing the soldiers being attacked as they repelled from their helicopters captured video recorded by the passengers themselves that shows them preparing the weapons they would use to attack the Israeli commandos was posted on the internet.
This "peace flotilla" upon which weapons caches were discovered by the Israelis was in complete contravention of a legal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The Israeli footage showed the true motives of the "peaceniks" on the ships, with the captured tapes confirming the point. The shouts of Kyhber, and "go back to Auschwitz" coming from the peace people on the peace ships showed the lie of the entire event. One has to wonder if there were leftist Jews on those vessels, and if there were, would they wonder if they were on the wrong convoy? After all, Israel warned the flotilla that they would not be allowed to land, they warned them that they would not be allowed to break the blockade - Israel kept their promises. The shouts of outrage from the American left and fellow travelers of jihad at the Israeli actions in defending their blockade of a hostile territory now seems completely hollow and bizarre when viewed in contrast with the films from both the Israeli side and the "peaceniks" themselves.
Denunciation of Israel continues apace. It continues from the American left and across the Arab/Islamic world. These denunciations are entirely consistent with the doctrine of Islam in which both the deity of Islam and its prophet hate the Jews for eternity. Falsifying a peace effort that is actually a jihadist support convoy is consistent with the sunna of Mohammed, the perfect example of the perfect human that all Muslims are to follow for all eternity. Mohammed said, "Jihad is deception."
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle called: "War is deceit".
(Hadith, Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 268)
The doctrine of Islam is the foundation of the conflicts now ongoing in the Middle East which ever swirl around the Jewish state. Islam is in permanent jihad-mode against the Jews of the world and all non-Muslims. The great sin in Islam is not murder; it is unbelief.
“They ask thee concerning fighting in the Prohibited Month. Say: "Fighting therein is a grave (offence); but graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and drive out its members." Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter. Nor will they cease fighting you until they turn you back from your faith if they can. And if any of you Turn back from their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this life and in the Hereafter; they will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein.” (Koran 2:217)
Even now a new internal power struggle for supremacy in the Islamic world (the ummah) is arising. The two leading players are Iran and Turkey, the lever is the so-called "Palestinian conflict", and the method is to outdo the other party in being a more effective jihadist (and Jew hater). All adherents of Islam are obligated to participate in Jihad. Many take this responsibility very, very seriously. In the past few days, two individuals were prevented from flying out of New York on their way to join (and fight with) a jihadist group in Somalia. It is good that these two men were prevented from going to Somalia, for if they had gone - what would they do if they were to return to the United States? These are unpopular questions but gaining a more strident quality as more and more Americans understand that the conflicts of the world centered around Israel are driven by ideology not land issues.
Turkish sponsorship of the false peace flotilla and its subsequent condemnations and threats tell us much about Turkish internal politics. Several months ago leading Turkish military offers, both retired and serving, were arrested and accused of plotting a coup. Military coups are not unusual in Turkey, the party in power is always wary of it.
Recep Erdogan the PM of Turkey was the originator of the famous quote that launched the surprising Swiss ban of minarets, "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...: (It is no surprise that he should be supporting jihad vessels pretending to be peaceniks; this time the media play tactic did not work.) But what we see in Turkey now is a serious shift away from the west and away from Israel. Turkey and Israel have had almost normalized relations for many years even involving sales of military hardware. The Turkish/Israeli relationship was hoped by many to be a model of future possibilities but these hopes are all now almost entirely dashed.
Turkey is an Islamic state. The majority of Turks prefer Islam to western values. The military has always been the caretaker and protector of the Kemalist (westernization) revolution of Ataturk. It is understandable that the Islamists who run Turkey should fear a military coup, and that is why the officers were arrested several months ago.
What will the world look like as the Turks and the Iranians try to outdo one another as jihadists? It will likely look uglier and uglier and the conflicts and violence that are centered on the very existence of the tiny state of Israel will likely grow. Not only are these two states vying for the uber-jihadist award, now Egypt has leapt into the fray announcing in a judicial decision that all Egyptian men married to Israeli women will lose their citizenship. This Egyptian ruling is similar to the 1935 “Nuremberg Race Laws” of Nazi Germany that prevented marriage between Jews and Germans. Delegitimizaton of Jews is not a new tactic:
“After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dozen supplemental Nazi decrees were issued that eventually outlawed the Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as human beings.”
(HistoryPlace.com).
One suspects however that (both) couples in Egypt affected by this new attempt at delegitimization of Israel and the Jews will soon leave Egypt for better horizons in Israel.
When one understands that Egypt and Israel are not supposed to be countries in conflict - after all a peace treaty was signed between the two states three decades ago - the bizarre situation becomes an illustrative moment. This peace treaty is a hudna (a purposeful pause in hostilities until such a moment when the Islamic signatory can cancel the treaty by attacking the other party). Though there is a peace treaty in place, Egypt is an Islamic state, the hatred and enmity toward the Jews is endemic and foundational in Islam; no treaty can remove it. (Please see "Al-Yahud: Eternal Islamic Enmity and the Jews".)
What is particularly important about the false "Gaza peace flotilla", the determined Israeli reaction to stop it, the violence perpetrated by the peaceniks against the Israeli commandos, and the upping of the ante of Israel hatred in action and words by the "usual suspects" is that this particular flotilla failed in its mission. The propaganda mission of the flotilla failed because Israel defended its blockade and did not cave in to global pressure from the Islamic states or their many apologists particularly in the United States. The condemnation against Israel this time from leftists and jihad fellow travelers was loud, vociferous as during past events of jihad and provocation but also strangely muted; there are only so many spins one can spin when the footage shows clearly that the event was a staged provocation against Israel.
Islamic jihad continues apace and is likely to be ratcheted up. Iran, Turkey, and now Egypt are in competition to see who can hate Israel the most - clearly Iran is winning this particular vile game. [Note: On June 5, 2010, the UK-Guardian reported that Iranian government authorities are threatening to send Iranian military forces to “escort” the next Gaza flotilla. This would be a serious provocation and direct aggression against Israel, would challenge Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza by a hostile nation and could well lead to war.] But in the Islamic world it is not a game at all; it is at the very foundations of existence - hatred of the Jews (and to a slightly lesser extent all non-believers) is fundamental to Islam.
It is difficult to baldy lie when video from Israel and from the "peaceniks" themselves contradict the falsehoods of Israeli aggression and unprovoked violence on the flotilla. This tactic has worked for many decades for the jihadists and it helps that American and western media outlets are sympathetic to them and hostile to Israel. The internet has changed the equation for the dissemination of information. No longer will spin from one or two or even five biased sources be the story itself as so many alternative sources of information now exist. Now, when the biased viewer wants confirmation that what they want to have happened did happen (but not really), they always know where to go for the “story”; but when one wants the truth, there are places to go for that as well. It seems a long time coming, but the power of the internet to disseminate information and provide a balanced narrative for those who care to see it may be in play for perhaps the first time.
It is difficult to approach those fellow travelers of jihadists in the western leftist post-modernist, moral relativist camp about anything that does not fit their world view. Israel does not fit their world view. It is impossible to approach jihadists with such a story because their doctrine prevents them from seeing the truth. But, it is now possible to approach the great American middle who want the truth but haven't quite known where to look to access it. There are many outlets now carrying this story and the videos have been posted across the web; the truth is out and the lies increasingly difficult to defend.
The reaction to Helen Thomas and her angry, ignorant recent assertion of Jew-hatred has not been supportive of her. Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack on the Israeli navy commandos by the "peaceniks", "That was not a love boat. That was a boat of hatred". There now appears to be a new Israeli vigor in engaging the jihadist and defending their right to exist in both deed and word. The old false spin of Israeli excesses and Palestinian victimhood has been seriously set back by the events of recent days; the old paradigm is perhaps shifting, cracking just a bit. And when the old paradigm falls away finally we can speak the truth and understand that the threat to Israel is truly the same threat to Americans and that which befalls Israel is also our fate. In a war of existential stakes such as the one we are now engaged in -befuddlement by media lies and post-modern, amoral agitprop is not an option.
Amidst the calumny of angry rhetoric and silly lies, ugly spin, jihad terror, and jihad propaganda perhaps there is some light now among all the dark clouds of war.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor DL Adams is an analyst and historian.
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