Sunday, June 06, 2010

Rhetoric ramping up-Flotilla activists: Go back to Auschwitz


YAAKOV LAPPIN
06/06/2010 05:13

Turkish organizer: Everything is heading toward Islam.

Radio messages sent from the Turkish Gaza flotilla to the navy contained chilling anti-Semitic language, the IDF revealed on Friday when it released audio recordings of communications it had with the vessels.

“You are approaching an area which is under a naval blockade,” a navy radio operator said in a message broadcast to the six protest ships. “Shut up. Go back to Auschwitz,” a male voice said in reply. The message was broadcast to the navy from one of the ships, the IDF confirmed on Saturday.

“We’re helping the Arabs go against the US. Don’t forget 9/11, guys,” a man said later on during the radio exchange.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office, which made the recording available on its Web site, said the transmissions were first thought to have originated from the main protest ship, the Mavi Marmara, but that they could have come from one of the other five vessels in the flotilla.

“The Israeli navy ship attempted to make contact with the Defne Y [one of the protest vessels] on channel 1-6. Other ships from the flotilla responded on the channel, without identifying themselves,” the IDF said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has released footage of statements made by Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH Turkish Islamist organization, which organized last week’s blockade runners.

Yildirim, who delivered a fiery speech in Gaza in February 2009 filled with references to “martyrdom,” addressed his listeners as the “people of paradise.”

“Raise your fists to the skies and repeat after me: What can the enemy do to me? I carry paradise in my heart... If they kill me – that is martyrdom for the sake of Allah. Allahu akbar,” he said.

“Last night, everything in the world has changed, and everything is progressing toward Islam,” Yildirim added. “Anyone who does not stand alongside Palestine – his throne will be toppled. All the peoples of the Islamic world would want a leader like [Turkish Prime Minister] Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

Last week, another video taken from the Mavi Marmara was released by the IDF Spokesman’s Office, in which a passenger was heard passionately discussing his desire to “be martyred.”

“When I went on the first convoy, I wanted to be a shahid [martyr],” the man says in the video. “I wasn’t that lucky.

Second time, I wanted to be a shahid. Didn’t work. Third time lucky, with the help of God, I will be a shahid.”

Comment: Language matters and these are words of an "idealogue". I watched and listened as these statements were made and contrary to many in the West who think these mean little other than to instill fear are unfortunately incorrect. For any number of reasons, psychological to religious, there are tens of thousands of people in the world who believe in this view of the world. No amount of talking, dialogue, appeasement can shift their position and they are committed to its completion. Their values fly in the face of what we, in the West, believe.Unless we acknowledge this soon and stand up for our beliefs their words will ring true. We better understand that all of the talk and appeasement has strengthened their point of view and we are perceived as weak-it is only a matter of time! The question for us is simple: do we believe in our own way of life and are we willing to stand against those who do not?

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