İsrail Başbakanı Netanyahu

” Aşk gemisi değil”

Bir kez daha İsrail iki yüzlülük ve önyargıyla karşı karşıya. Maalesef bu bir ilk değil

Geçen sene İsrail Hamasın binlerce havan ve roket saldırısını durdurmak için harekete geçti. Hamas bizim sivil halkımıza saldırırken kendi sivil halkının arkasına saklandı. İsrail kendini korurken  tarihte görülmemiş tedbirler alarak Filistin halkına gelecek zararı önlemeye çalıştı. Sonuçta ise Hamas değil İsrail BM tarafından savaş suçlusu olmakla suçlandı.

Üzülerek görüyoruz ki aynı olay tekrarlanıyor.

Gerçek odur ki Hamas İsraile saldırmak için İrandan binlerce roket, havan topu ve diğer silahları Gazze şeridine kaçak yollardan sokabiliyor. Bu roketler İsrailin büyük şehirleri Aşdod ve Berşevayı vurabilecek kapasitede. Tekrar üzülerek söylüyorum ki bu roketler bugün Tel Avivi ve yakın bir gelecekte Yeruşalayimi de vuracak kapasitede olacaklar. Elimize geçen bilgilere göre kaçak olarak getirilmeye çalıştıkları silahlar arasında İsrailin en uzak köşelerini bile vurabilecek silahlar mevcut.

Uluslararası kanunlara ve sağduyuya göre İsrail bu silahların Gazzeye girmesini önlemek amacıyla bu silahları getirebilecek gemileri kontrol etme hakkına sahiptir.

Bu sadece kuramsal bir tehlike değildir. Şimdiye kadar İranın Hizballah ve Hamasa gönderdiği yüzlerce ton silahlarla yüklü gemileri durdurduk. Sadece FrancoP adlı gemide Hizballah a gönderilen yüzlerce ton silah ve cephane ele geçirdik. Karin A adlı diğer bir gemi gene İrandan Hamasa gönderilen onlarca tonluk silah taşıyordu. İsrail denizden Hamasa silah ve savaş malzemesi girmesine müsaade edemez!

Daha da ileri gideceğim. İsrail İrana Akdenizde, Tel Aviv ve Yeruşalayimden sadece düzinelerce kilometre uzakta bir liman kurmasına izin veremez. Hatta şunu da söyliyeyim. Mesuliyet hissi olan tüm devlet başkanlarına sesleniyorum. Uluslararası toplum İranın Akdenizde bir limanı olmasına izin veremez. Onbeş sene önce dünyayı İrana karşı uyardığımda kimse dikkate almamıştı. Bugün herkes tehlikenin farkında. Bugün herkesi İranın İsraile bitişik, Avrupanın burnunun dibinde bir limanı olma tehlikesine karşı  uyarıyorum. Bugün bizi eleştiren ülkeler yarın kendilerinin de hedef olacaklarını bilsinler.

Bu ve daha birçok sebepten Gazzeye giden malları kontrol etmeye hakkımız vardır.

Düşünce ve hareket tarzımız ise çok basittir. İnsani yardım ve diğer malzemeler Gazzeye girebilir. Silah giremez. Ve gereken malzemeler Gazzeye giriyor. Her hafta ortalama on bin ton malzeme giriyor. Gazzede açlık yok. Gazzede ilaç eksikliği yok. Gazzede herhangi bir eksiklik te yok.

Bu sefer de, filoyla gelen malları kontrolden geçirip Gazzeye teslim edebilmek için birçok teklifte bulunduk. Mısır da benzer tekliflerde bulundu. Tüm teklifler reddedildi.

Deniz kuvvetlerimizin bu gemilere çıkmaktan başka seçenekleri yoktu. Beş gemide askerlerimize karşı ciddi şiddet hareketleri ve ciddi yaralanmalar olmadı. Fakat gemilerin en büyüğünde başka olaylar yaşandı.

Videolardan görebilirsiniz – ilk askerler gemiye çıktıklarında acımasız bir kalabalıkla karşılaştılar. Bıçaklandılar. Sopalarla dövüldüler. Üzerlerine ateş edildi. Bu askerlerle ben görüştüm. Biri midesinden vurulmuş. Diğeri dizinden. Ölmemek, ve kendilerini korumak için ateş açtılar.

Saldırganların bu şiddeti önceden hazırladıkları barizdir. Gemiye binerken yanlarında bıçaklar, demir sopalar ve diğer silahları da getirdiler. BU saldırganların aşırı radikal bir gruba ait olup uluslararası terörü desteklediklerini, ve şimdi de Hamas adındaki terör örgütü için çalıştıklarını biliyoruz. Saldırırken Yahudilere karşı savaş çığlıkları atıyorlar. Bunu videolarda görebilirsiniz.

Bu bir aşk gemisi (Love Boat) değildi. Bu bir nefret gemisiydi. Gemidekiler barış insanları değildi. Bunlar şiddetli terör taraftarı insanlardı.

İsrailli askerlerin hayatlarının tehlikede olduğu aşikardır. Önyargısız bir izleyiciyseniz videoları seyredince bu basit gerçeği göreceksiniz. Fakat üzülerek belirtiyorum ki uluslararası kamuoyunda çoğu kimsenin hiçbir delile ihtiyacı yoktur. İsrail, suçu ispat edilene kadar suçlu kabul edilir.

Bir kez daha, İsraile kendisini koruma hakkı olduğunu söylenmesine rağmen bu hakkını kullandığında suçlu ilan ediliyor. Bilinir ki kullanılamıyan bir hakkın hiçbir değeri yoktur. Bütün dünya biliyor ki kendimizi savunma hakkını –  son çare olarak, şehirlerimize roket saldırıları olduğunda, askerkerimiz ölüm tehlikesinde olduklarında – kullandığımızda bnu tüm uluslararası standartlara uygun bir şekilde yaparız.  Dünya liderleriyle konuştum, şimdide dünya kamuoyuna soruyorum. Siz ne yapardınız? Şehirlerinizin sivil halkınızın çocuklarınızı üzerine yağacak binlerce roketin düşmana ulaşmasını önlemek için ne yapardınız? Askerleriniz ne yapardı? Eminim ki kalbinizde bu sorunun cevabını biliyorsunuz.

İsrail olarak olan can kaybından dolayı üzüntü duyuyoruz. Ancak kendimizi savunduğumuz için hiçbir zaman özür dilemiyeceğiz. İsrailin,  düşmanlarının eline öldürücü silahların geçmesini önlemeye hakkı vardır. İsrail askerlerinin kendi hayatlarını ve vatanlarını korumaya hakları vardır.

Söyliyeceğim size size imkansız bir talep veya istek gibi gelebilir fakat gene de söyliyeceğim. İSRAİLE ÇİFTE STANDARTLA  BAKMAYIN. Diğer tüm devletler gibi Yahudi devletininde kendini korumaya hakkı vardır.

Teşekkür ederim.

Çeviri: Hastürk

Melanie Phillips

As the international community rushes to condemn Israel for the violence on board one of the ships in the Gaza flotilla, which left a reported 10 people dead and dozens injured, it is now obvious that the real purpose of this ‘armada of hate’ was not merely the further delegitimisation of Israel but something far worse.

Gaza’s markets are full of produce, thousands of tons of supplies are travelling into Gaza every week through the Israeli-controlled border crossings, and there is no starvation or humanitarian crisis. It was always obvious that the flotilla was not the humanitarian exercise it was said to be. Here is footage of the IDF offering to dock the Marmara — the main flotilla ship — at Ashdod and transfer its supplies and being told ‘Negative, negative, our destination is Gaza’.

And now we can see that the real purpose of this invasion — backed by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a radical Islamic organization outlawed by Israel in 2008 for allegedly serving as a major component in Hamas’s global fund-raising machine — was to incite a violent uprising in the Middle East and across the Islamic world. As I write, reports are coming in of Arab rioting in Jerusalem.

The notion – uncritically swallowed by the lazy, ignorant and bigoted BBC and other western media – that the flotilla organisers are ‘peace activists’ is simply ludicrous. This research by the Danish Institute for International Studies details the part played by the IHH in Islamist terror in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. According to the French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere testifying at the Seattle trial of would-be al Qaeda Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressamin, the IHH had played ‘[a]n important role’ in the al Qaeda Millenium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles airport. It was also involved in weapons trafficking, and played in addition a key role in galvanizing anti-Western sentiment among Turkish Muslims in the lead-up to the 2003 war in Iraq. ‘Peace activists’ these people most certainly are not.

And this flotilla was but the latest jihadi attack, deploying the Islamists’ signature strategy of violence and media manipulation. Here from MEMRI (viaJust Journalism) is a clip showing the hysteria against Israel being whipped up on board before the ships set sail, with the chanting of intifada songs about ‘Khaybar’ – the iconic slaughter of Jews by Muslims in the 7^th century which is used as a rallying cry to kill the Jews today — and threats of ‘martyrdom’. This was not merely a propaganda stunt, but a terrorist attack.

This is what the Jerusalem Post reported earlier today about what happened last night:

According to the IDF, the international activists ‘prepared a lynch’ for the soldiers who boarded the ships at about 2 a.m. Monday morning after calling on them to stop, or follow them to the Ashdod Port several hours earlier.

… Upon boarding the ships, the soldiers encountered fierce resistance from the passengers who were armed with knives, bats and metal pipes. The soldiers used non-lethal measures to disperse the crowd. The activists, according to an IDF report, succeeded in stealing two handguns from soldiers and opened fire, leading to an escalation in violence.

Also in the Jerusalem Post, David Horowitz wrote:

Benayahu said soldiers, who had been dispatched to block the flotilla because of fears that it was carrying weaponry and other highly dangerous cargo into the Hamas-controlled Strip, were attacked with knives and bars and sharpened metal implements.

Benayahu said two pistols that had been fired were subsequently found aboard the one ship, the Marmara, on which the violence erupted. And, most dramatically, he said that one IDF soldier had his weapon snatched away by one of the ‘peace activists’ on board, that this weapon was then turned against the IDF soldiers, who came under fire, and that they had no choice but to shoot back in self-defense.

… What seems urgent now is to make publicly available footage that shows exactly what did unfold. In early afternoon, video footage screened on Israel’s Channel 2 appeared to show one of those aboard the Marmara stabbing an IDF soldier. Any such footage should have been made available hours earlier. Critically, if footage showing a soldier’s weapon being snatched and turned on the IDF troops exists, it should be broadcast, and the sooner the better.

Some of this footage is now available on the web but much of it is hard to follow: as ever, the Israelis have been far too slow in making the most telling images and information available in comprehensible form (including in English rather than in Hebrew, for heaven’s sake!). This clip appears to show masked and armed flotilla activists beating Israeli soldiers (although here is the BBC reportaccompanying that footage, in which the voiceover appears to be claiming, perversely, that the people in masks were Israeli soldiers. That said, the report on Radio Four’s World at One was fair and balanced).

This clip shows an Israeli soldier being stabbed. This IDF clip and this one show attacks on the commandoes including throwing one off the deck, attacking others with a metal pole and a firebomb and an attempted kidnap of another.

It is also becoming clearer as the day wears on that, far from storming the boats in order to attack those on board, the Israelis were hopelessly ill-prepared for the violence they encountered. Israel’s Channel 10 and IDF radio have reported that the Israeli naval commandos were equipped with paint ball rifles to ensure minimum casualties among the flotilla terrorists, with their hand guns to be used only as a last resort. The terrorists tried connecting the steel cables from the overhead helicopters to the boat’s antenna, in order to cause the helicopters to crash. Only when the terrorists beat the soldiers with iron rods, stabbed them with knives and tried to lynch them did the soldiers respond. The Israeli commandoes were pushed down stairs, thrown overboard, and shot at.

Here is a report by an Israel army radio reporter on board:

‘The activists had many things ready for an attack on the soldiers,’ Lev-Rom said, ‘including, for instance, a box of 20-30 slingshots with metal balls; these can kill. There were also all sorts of knives and many similar things. These are what they call “cold” weapons, as opposed to live fire.  It was quite clear that a lynch had been prepared.’

Lev-Rom said, however, that it appears the army, ‘even though it prepared for many different scenarios, was not ready for this one. The army seems not to have known what type of people were there and what type of weapons they had. It was hard for Israel to conceive that the ship, sponsored by the country of Turkey, would have such weapons. Israel was prepared to deal with anarchists, and instead had to deal with terrorists – that’s the feeling here.’

Here** is an even more vivid account showing how unprepared the Israeli soldiers were:

Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.

However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other ‘don’t shoot, don’t shoot,’ even though they sustained numerous blows.

The Navy commandoes were prepared to mostly encounter political activists seeking to hold a protest, rather than trained street fighters. The soldiers were told they were to verbally convince activists who offer resistance to give up, and only then use paintballs. They were permitted to use their handguns only under extreme circumstances.

The planned rush towards the vessel’s bridge became impossible, even when a second chopper was brought in with another crew of soldiers. ‘Throw stun grenades,’ shouted Flotilla 13’s commander who monitored the operation. The Navy chief was not too far, on board a speedboat belonging to Flotilla 13, along with forces who attempted to climb into the back of the ship.

The forces hurled stun grenades, yet the rioters on the top deck, whose number swelled up to 30 by that time, kept on beating up about 30 commandoes who kept gliding their way one by one from the helicopter. At one point, the attackers nabbed one commando, wrested away his handgun, and threw him down from the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below. The soldier sustained a serious head wound and lost his consciousness.

Only after this injury did Flotilla 13 troops ask for permission to use live fire. The commander approved it: You can go ahead and fire. The soldiers pulled out their handguns and started shooting at the rioters’ legs, a move that ultimately neutralized them. Meanwhile, the rioters started to fire back at the commandoes.

It is becoming ever more clear that Islamist terror attacks like this are fiendishly staged theatrical events in which the western media – and beyond them, western governments — play an absolutely essential role in the drama. If those media and governments refused to swallow the lies and instead called operations like this and the players behind it for what they actually are, such terrorist operations would not happen. The Islamist strategy of war against Israel is carefully calibrated to deploy the most effective weapon in its armoury in the cause of jihadi violence – the western media. Right on cue, western governments accordingly deliver their own script in condemning the victims of terror for defending themselves. And so, courtesy of the west’s fifth columnists, yet another nail is driven into the west’s own coffin.

Let’s see whether this time the western elites show any signs of waking from their lethal trance.

Update: I am told that the Jewish Chronicle website was taken down earlier (now restored) by a massive denial of service, apparently to shut down its balanced coverage of the Ashdod flotilla incident. The JC’s teccies, and the server hosts, say this hasn’t been caused by just one or two people — it’s clearly now co-ordinated and growing.

**Update 2: The journalist who wrote this account, Ron Ben-Yishai, cannot be accused of being an Israel government stooge: it was Ben-Yishai who in 1982 was first into the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra and Shatila in Beirut and blew the whistle on the massacre there that had been perpetrated by the Phalangists while Ariel Sharon looked the other way.

By AL BAKER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night. Although the device had apparently started to detonate, there was no explosion, and early on Sunday the authorities were still seeking a suspect and motive.

“We are very lucky,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a 2:15 a.m. press conference. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.”

A large swath of Midtown — from 43rd Street to 48th Street, and from Sixth to Eighth Avenues — was closed for much of the evening after the Pathfinder was discovered just off Broadway on 45th Street. Several theaters and stores, as well as the South Tower of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, were evacuated.

Mr. Bloomberg was joined by Gov. David A. Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and other officials at the early morning press conference to give a chronology of the vehicle’s discovery, its disarming, and the investigation that has been launched. The mayor and police commissioner had returned early from the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington.

At 6:28 p.m., Mr. Kelly said, a video surveillance camera recorded what was believed to be the dark green Nissan S.U.V. driving west on 45th Street.

Moments later, a T-shirt vendor on the sidewalk saw smoke coming out of vents near the back seat of the S.U.V., which was now parked awkwardly at the curb with its engine running and its hazard lights on. The vendor called to a mounted police officer, the mayor said, who smelled gunpowder when he approached the S.U.V. and called for assistance. The police began evacuating Times Square, starting with businesses along Seventh Avenue, including a Foot Locker store and a McDonald’s.

Police officers from the emergency service unit and firefighters flooded the area and were troubled by the hazard lights and running engine, and by the fact that the S.U.V. was oddly angled in the street. At this point, a firefighter from Ladder 4 reported hearing several “pops” from within the vehicle. The police also learned that the Pathfinder had the wrong license plates on it.

Members of the Police Department’s bomb squad donned protective gear, broke the Pathfinder’s back windows and sent in a “robotic device” to “observe” it, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the police department’s chief spokesman.

Inside, they discovered three canisters of propane like those used for barbecue grills, two five-gallon cans of gasoline, consumer-grade fireworks — the apparent source of the “pops” — and two clocks with batteries, the mayor said. He said the device “looked amateurish.”

Mr. Browne said: “It appeared it was in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned.”

Bomb squad officers also discovered a two-by-two-by-four-foot metal box — described as a “gun locker” — in the S.U.V. that was taken to the Police Department’s firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx to be destroyed, Mr. Kelly said. It was not immediately known what, if anything, was inside it.

Officials said they had no reports of anyone seen running from the vehicle. Mr. Kelly said police were scouring the area for any additional videotapes but noted that the S.U.V.’s windows were tinted, which could further hamper any efforts to identify those inside. Some of the surveillance cameras nearby were located in closed businesses, and the mayor made clear it would take time to review all available tapes.

“We have no idea who did this or why,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Kevin B. Barry, a former supervisor in the New York Police Department bomb squad, said that if the device had functioned, “it would be more of an incendiary event” than an explosion.

The license plates on the Nissan were registered to another vehicle — a Ford pickup truck that was taken to a junkyard near Bridgeport, Conn., within the last two weeks, according to a law enforcement official. The previous owner of the Ford was interviewed Saturday night by the F.B.I., but it did not appear he was regarded as a suspect. Still, the junkyard was considered a primary target of the initial investigation.

The S.U.V.’s standard vehicle identification number had been removed, Mr. Bloomberg said, and investigators were scouring it to see if the number appeared elsewhere.

The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the episode and had pledged federal assistance in the investigation.

Times Square on a Saturday night is one of the busiest and most populated locations in the city, and has long been seen as a likely target for some kind of attack.

A maze of metal barricades kept pedestrians south of 43rd Street. In the center of Times Square, dozens of police and fire vehicles were parked on Broadway and Seventh Avenue, but in Times Square between 42nd and 43rd Streets, tourists milled or sat at tables, much as they do on any other Saturday night. On Eighth Avenue at around 11:30 p.m., people carrying theater playbills were directed west on 44th Street out to Eighth Avenue.

On Eighth Avenue police officers used large pieces of orange netting to corral pedestrians and separate them from traffic.

Many people stayed to watch after being shut out of Broadway shows or prevented from getting back to their hotels, trading rumors about what was happening. Many guests at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel at 1535 Broadway were being kept in an auditorium at the hotel, Mr. Kelly said.

Some theaters were evacuated, but many were not, according to a spokeswoman for the Broadway League, the trade group of theater owners and producers. The spokeswoman, Elisa Shevitz, said she would not have all the details about how many theaters were affected until Sunday.

For some Broadway shows the curtains went up 15 to 30 minutes late. Shows that started late included “Red” and “God of Carnage” — which are both playing at houses on the block of 45th Street where the bomb was found — and “In the Heights.”

Onlookers crowded against the barricades, taking pictures with cellphones, although only a swarm of fire trucks and police cars was visible.

Pota Manolakos, an accountant from Montreal, was not able to return to her room at the Edison Hotel with her husband and 6-year-old son for several hours.

She said she asked a police officer what was going on, and the officer told her: “Lady, take your kid and get out of here. There’s a threat, take your kid and get out of here.”

“We have nothing with us except for what we have on,” Ms. Manolakos said.

Gabrielle Zecha and Taj Heniser, visiting from Seattle, had tickets to see “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theater on 45th Street but could not get into the 8 p.m. show because the area was blocked off. But they made the best of the spectacle. “It’s a whole different kind of show,” Ms. Heniser said, adding, “It’s almost the equivalent of a $150 show.”

A group of people on a high school senior trip from Jacksonville, Fla., said they were stuck for about an hour and a half in the Bubba Gump restaurant at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.

“A lot of people were getting tense who were there longer than we were,” said Billy Wilkerson, 39, a police sergeant in Jacksonville and a chaperone for the trip. “It’s so good to get out, but it was exhilarating.”

He said he was impressed by his New York counterparts. “I just sat back and learned a lot,” he said.

Fabyane Pereira, 35, a tourist from Brazil, said the episode would not deter her from another visit. “I feel sorry for America,” she said. “I’m at your guys’ side.”

In December, the police closed Times Square for nearly two hours as they investigated a suspiciously parked van, delaying the rehearsal of the New Year’s ball drop. However, the van turned out to contain nothing but clothing.