Once again Israel is getting beat up by that old reliable trinity of Jew bashers; the so-called "international community" headed up by the United Nations, the international press (most of whom are left-leaning), and the Muslim world. There is no question that Israel had every right under international law to stop and board the flotilla of ships bound for the Gaza war zone last Monday. It's also quite obvious that this "humanitarian" flotilla headed for Gaza with a deliberate intention to provoke a confrontation with Israel.
One of the main organizers of this deadly extravaganza, The Free Gaza Movement, (a radical Turkish group with close ties to Hamas, the terrorist group that illegally seized power in Gaza in 2007) let it slip that their intention was every bit as much "to break" Israel's blockade of Gaza as to deliver the relief goods. The entire incident was a set up, staged purposely to paint Israel as the aggressors.
Hamas, you should remember, is the terrorist group that has publicly, and for many years, declared that its goal is to completely and totally destroy the state of Israel. Since they took over Gaza three years ago, both Israel and Egypt have imposed a partial blockade on the Strip in order to prevent Hamas from arming itself with weapons to attack Israel. The same kinds of weapons that they used to ignite a war with the Jewish state in December 2008.
For the record, the Israelis have never attempted to halt any genuine relief goods into Gaza. Not ever. Food, medicine, and electricity continue to flow into that area. The objective now, as it always has been, is to keep Hamas from obtaining dangerous weaponry which would give them the means to start a war. Regarding the Monday raid, the Israeli navy first tried to warn the ships off verbally, then sent in commandos armed with paintball guns. As the commandos descended on board, dozens of "peace activists" waited with sharpened iron bars, clubs, slingshots -- and rifles. It was only after they began to assault the commandos with clubs and knives that the Israelis used live fire resulting in the deaths of nine Palestinian activists.
Officials in the Israel Defense Forces said that when the forces stormed the ship, some participants onboard attempted to grab the Israeli commandos to lynch the forces with rope. "Some of the participants tried to grab our forces while others were standing by with rope," the official said. "The indications are the participants were trying to lynch the Israeli forces." The final straw may have been when an Israeli was clubbed and thrown off the ship by the "humanitarians."
Videos on the internet show the Israeli commandos being viciously attacked as they descended from a helicopter onto the ship. Clearly they were acting to defend themselves. But that doesn't seem to matter to the "international community." It didn't take long after the incident for the United Nations to denounce Israel's actions in this raid. Funny how the U.N. has never, to this day, condemned North Korea's recent and unprovoked murder of 46 South Korean sailors aboard the Cheonan.
It's also disturbing that the Islamic "community" never condemns the radical jihadist Muslims who continue to kill and perpetrate atrocities on hundreds and thousands of their own people, and yet once a Jew kills a Muslim it results in an international outrage. With that position I must conclude that for them it is not about killing Muslims, it's about hating Jews.
The international news reportage has been in complete sympathy with the Pro-Hamas side, of course. They always are. The left-leaning world media blames Israel whenever events such as this occur. As far as the press are concerned, the biggest two villains to world peace are the United States of America and Israel. Amazing. Amazing and quite depressing.
Why would anyone want to be on the side of terrorists? Who would support groups that support terrorists? Well, would it surprise you to find out that the Free Gaza Movement counts among its top supporters the friends and associates of President Barack Obama? That's right, the founders of the Weather Underground terrorist organization, William Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of the radical activist organization Code Pink are among the people who are in support of the pro-terrorist "peace activists" in the Gaza flotilla operation.
Ayers, Dohrn and Evans' Code Pink have led several recent Free Gaza Movement initiatives, including attempted marches into the Gaza Strip. Dorhn was in the Middle East just last month on behalf of the movement. You may remember that Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were close associates for years with President Obama. And Jodie Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama's presidential campaign.
Hope and change.