Turkey Readies Indictments of Israelis Over Gaza Flotilla

Turkey continues pressing ahead with a potential indictment of top Israeli military leaders over the Gaza flotilla that had nothing to do with humanitarian aid and everything to do with seeking a violent confrontation with Israel.

Turkish newspapers are noting that Ankara's prosecutor is preparing a 144-page document that accuses top Israeli officers, including former army chief Gabi Ashkenazi, of ordering intentional killing, wounding of Turkish nationals on Mavi Marmara; charges still need to be approved by Istanbul district prosecutor.

According to the Turkish daily Sabah, Ankara's chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya is due to file a 144-page indictment targeting Ashkenazi, former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, former Israel Navy chief Eliezer Maron, and former head of Israel Air force's intelligence wing Avishai Levy over the raid on the Mavi Marmara, which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish nationals.

The report indicated that Turkey intended to charge the former officials for ordering IDF troops to intentionally kill, wound, and abduct Turkish activists, as well as encourage their torture and loot their belongings.

Turkey issued warrants against all four former Israeli officers, and they could be arrested on arrival in Turkey, the report added.

Israel's raid of the Gaza-bound flotilla proved a watershed moment in Israel-Turkey relations, with the once staunch allies trading blame over responsibility for the incident.

Turkey has insisted that Israel apologize for the raid and its consequences, as well as pay reparations to the families of those killed; Israel has, thus far, refused to do so.

Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara as part of Israel's right to conduct a blockade of Gaza and were met with violence, including individuals carrying knives who assaulted the commandos. It was once those commandos were threatened that they responded with deadly force. Evidence shows that the people on board the Mavi Marmara, including those from the group IHH, had every intention of creating a violent confrontation. That will likely be ignored by the Turkish officials pushing this indictment.

Other ships in the flotilla were raided but no confrontations occurred on them.

The whole purpose of the flotilla was meant to confront Israel over its ongoing sea blockade of Gaza to prevent Hamas from being supplied with weapons and personnel.

That's despite the fact that the UN found that Israel was legally within its rights to enforce the blockade and that its actions were within Israel's legal rights. It hasn't stopped Turkey's leaders from pandering to the Islamists by pushing for indictments and straining its relations with Israel.

Tit For Tat Continues Between Turkey and Israel

Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan continues courting Islamists and anti-Israel supporters throughout the Middle East with his statements calling on the UN to impose sanctions against Israel for its role in the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident and its general position towards the Palestinians.

Speaking to Time magazine, Erdogan criticized the UN for leveling sanctions on Iran and Sudan, while avoiding implementing trade measures against Israel - a move, Erdogan said, could have helped solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Erdogan was not optimistic about the Quartet efforts, saying that if it was truly interested in improving Israeli-Palestinian relations, it would pushed for imposing sanctions on Israel.

"Until today, the UN Security Council has issued more than 89 resolutions on prospective sanctions related to Israel, but they've never been executed. When it's Iran in question, you impose sanctions. What happens with Israel then?" he asked.

The Turkish prime minister made "a call out to humanity", saying that the Palestinians cannot be left to struggle any longer and countries that do not recognize their demands for statehood "will never be able to settle their accounts with history."

It's rather cynical and hypocritical of Turkey to claim that sanctions should be imposed against Israel for Israel's self-defense as a sovereign nation when Turkey engages in the same kind of actions against the Kurds. Moreover, Turkey has repeatedly invaded Northern Iraq to attack Kurdish groups that it believes are supporting the PKK. Its repeated human rights violations are legion and yet the UN takes no action against Turkey.

If there was a call out to humanity, sanctions would have been dropped on Turkey and Syria years ago for their despicable treatment of Kurds who are the forgotten people of the Middle East - and whose land claims span across Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.

Fact is that Iran and Syria's sanctions are well deserved - openly firing on crowds of peaceful protesters for months on end in Syria for instance. The violent crackdown by the Iranian regime against all opposition shows a level of violence that is simply not present in Israel. Israel's actions have been to defend itself against incessant terror attacks and the persistent threat of attacks.

But for the Palestinians failing to accept a true 2-state solution, Israel would not have needed the kinds of security measures that led to the flotilla incident. They would not have needed to enforce a blockade to prevent shipments of weapons and terrorists into Gaza. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and condones such attacks on Israel, but that's somehow's Israel's fault in Erdogan's distorted worldview.

Critics Complaining Israel Using Protesters Own Video As Proof

Cry me a river for the Foreign Press Association which is busy complaining that Israel is using the activists' own videos against them.

Israel's army has been using confiscated videos to justify its deadly raid against a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, and the Foreign Press Association wants it to stop.

The organization, which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, says the military seized video and equipment from dozens of reporters on board the main ship.

The FPA demanded Thursday that the military stop using the captured material without permission and identify the source of the video already released. The material appeared Wednesday on the army's YouTube site labeled as "captured."

The activists were busy preparing for a violent encounter with the Israelis on board the Mavi Marmara and made numerous videos in preparation for the flotilla of ships attempting to run the Israeli blockade.

The Israeli military boarded four other ships in the flotilla without incident. Only those on board the Mavi Marmara engaged in violence - attacking the Israelis who attempted to stop the ship without violence and with nonlethal paintball guns. When the Israelis were attacked with deadly force and with deadly intent did the Israelis resort to using deadly force.

Apparently the activists dislike the fact that their own propaganda is being used against them. The Foreign Press Association is busy providing cover, where none should exist.

Too bad.

Had the activists on board not engaged in violence, this situation would have ended without the loss of life, but that was never the intention of those on board the Mavi Marmara. They wanted a violent encounter to further their propaganda.

They thought they could win a propaganda coup, but now find that Israel is releasing all manner of video showing just what those activists were up to- and it was evil.

Meanwhile, Turks continue holding rallies in support of Hamas.

Tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul Thursday for prayers for activists killed in Israel's raid on aid ships bound for Gaza, condemning the Jewish state and shouting support for Hamas.

"Damn Israel! Israel is the angel of death!" chanted the crowd which overflowed the sprawling courtyard of the Fatih Mosque, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags.

The Turkish government sanctioned the flotilla that was intercepted by Israel and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is moving squarely into the Iranian camp and Turkey is sliding towards Islamization after decades of pursuing a secularist agenda. Erdogan is content to move towards a cozier relationship with Iran because he sees Iran having greater longevity than US or Israeli commitments. Turkey isn't about challenging Israel's hegemony as commentator David Ignatius claims, it's about picking sides and choosing the Iranians over Israel and the West. Erdogan is busy spreading the Islamist agenda, and feeding the anti-Israel sentiment is a way to stay in power in the Middle East, particularly when Iran is leading the way on anti-Israel sentiment.

UPDATE:
Even some newscasters are wondering why their media outlets are running stories that are clearly biased in favor of terror groups:

I’m writing for some clarification about how we are supposed to cover the Gaza flotilla story. If we, as a news organization, are supposed to be acting as a public relations arm of Hamas, or Hezbollah, both internationally recognized terrorist organizations, or if we are supposed to be jumping on the bandwagon of 1930’s style anti-Semitism that’s presently sweeping much of the world, then we are doing a fine job. If we are supposed to be acting as a news organization that covers the story objectively, then our coverage is a travesty and an embarrassment.

I just finished watching XXXX’s piece on yesterday’s 5pm newscast, so I could better understand the grotesquely distorted and biased voice-over that ran on this morning’s show. XXXX interviewed former diplomat Edward Peck, who was onboard the “Gaza Flotilla,” without describing his views on the Middle East. Some perspective would have helped. Among other things, Peck spoke these words, later famously used by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright:”We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye…and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards.”

The Jihad Against Israel Continues In Ways Large and Small

A top terrorist in Israeli jail complains that Israel is thwarting the prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit. Of course, he then turns around and says that not only that he should be among those released, but that he will go back to continuing the jihad against Israel's existence.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is putting spokes in the wheels of the prisoner exchange deal, Hamas official Abdullah Barghouti said at the Nazareth District Court Sunday.

Barghouti, who is serving 67 life sentences for murdering 66 Israelis and being an accomplice in the murder of others, is one of the prisoners Israel is refusing to release in an exchange deal that would bring IDF soldier Gilad Schalit back home. Schalit has been in Hamas captivity for almost four years.

Israel brought Barghouti to court to ask to extend the conditions of his solitary confinement.

Upon arrival, he confidently told reporters, “If there is a deal, I would be set free along with Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa’adat.” Marwan Barghouti and Sa’adat are other ‘high-value’ prisoners convicted of multiple counts of murder.

Barghouti also said, “After my release, I will continue to fight for Palestine, so long as the occupation continues.”

Why is Israel contemplating any such prisoner release under those terms? It shouldn't. It further shows the fallacy of the equality of any prisoner swap - where Israel releases hundreds of terrorists for one of its own citizens in return. It's an unconscionable decision to make and while it is heartbreaking for the Shalit family, the release of hundreds of terrorists only emboldens and strengthens the very terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction and who was responsible for Shalit's captivity for so long.

Israel should make no deal under these circumstances.

Hamas should be forced to release Shalit unconditionally and immediately. Where is the international pressure to force his release? It's all on Israel to conduct a prisoner swap, even if it means releasing terrorists from Israeli jails who have the blood of Israelis on their hands and that many will go back to carrying out the jihad against Israel's existence.

Meanwhile, you've got Turkish leader Erdogan claiming that the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb, which Israel labeled as national heritage sites, will never be anything but Islamic sites. In fact, he claims Rachel's Tomb was never Jewish in the first place. Really? Ever read a Bible? Those sites are specifically mentioned and the Jewish connection stretches back more than 3,000 years to those sites. They were Jewish sites long before Islam was founded. It's yet another sign of Islam's intention to wipe any and all Jewish historical traces from the landscape.

This is the enemy that Israel faces - and Erdogan is from the relatively Westernized Turkey. If he's pushing this meme, what does it say about the more extremist groups throughout the region that deny Israel's very existence.

Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah and the PA say that Israel is pursuing a religious war. That's nothing short of projection given that Fatah's (and Hamas') charter are explicit in their calls for jihad and the obliteration of Israel. Israel can and must protect itself from such threats and cracking down on rioters who stone visitors to the Temple Mount is not engaging in a religious war; those rioters, however are - pursuing jihad by any means necessary and hoping to inflame an already explosive situation.

The riots on Friday at the Temple Mount came specifically after the usual Friday sermons calling for such violence. It's not a coincidence. It's planned:

Eighteen policemen were lightly wounded in their attempt to restore order on the Temple Mount after Arab youths emerging from Friday prayers started hurling rocks down onto those worshiping at the Western Wall.

Having restored calm by use of stun grenades, and following helpful intervention by other Muslim worshipers to defuse the clash, police eventually withdrew in coordination with the Waqf to allow older worshipers to leave the Temple Mount.

Eight of the injured policemen were hospitalized in light condition. Five suspects were arrested during the riots.

Ron Krumer, a spokesman for Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center, confirmed an Arab woman was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet and hospitalized in serious condition. Palestinian medics reported 13 injuries.

Police denied using rubber bullets to disperse the riot.

Najeh Btirat, a Waqf official, said the clash followed a mosque sermon on the issue.

"The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About 300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, he said.

Rock-throwing then spilled over into Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter. Police deployed stun grenades, restoring calm.

Throughout the afternoon, stun grenades fired by security forces could be heard exploding in the Muslim Quarter. The faces and bloodshot eyes of Arab medics, who could be seen running through the alleyways, clearly reflected the usage of tear gas. Crowds were milling around waiting for something to happen.

Those sites are being preserved - with a shared Jewish and Muslim heritage, and that's simply unacceptable to the Islamists who want to eliminate the Jewish ties to them.

It's unacceptable that opinion continues to run against Israel for trying to protect the rights of Jews to visit and practice their religion at Judaism's holiest locations even as Islamists deny the history that Jews have ties to those locations at all. This is revisionist history in action and it must be confronted.