Israel Today reports that the Obama Administration has demanded that Israel apologize to Turkey for last Summer’s raid on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged ship leading a “Freedom Flotilla” of “peace activists,” which attempted to break the blockade on the Terrortory of Hamastan (a.k.a. Gaza).
This motley crew of Hamasophiles included not only the IHH, a group that apparently has ties both to Turkey’s ruling AKP political party and Al-Qaeda, but was also part of a movement aided by Obama allies such as Code Pink and his friendly neighborhood (retired) terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.
Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former mayor of Constantinople Istanbul oft heard raging against conquest and occupation, called the operation an act of piracy. While he as Prime Minister arguably committed an act of war by encouraging a ship flying his nation’s flag to violate territory controlled by another, Erdogan’s self-righteous chutzpah was undiminished, and, like a man who kills his parents and pleads for mercy because he is an orphan, Erdogan demanded an apology and compensation from Israel for the “victims'” families.
Now, Obama is demanding that Israel apologize to Turkey, because our interests are being harmed by deteriorating relations between Israel and Turkey. They are, but because Turkey has changed, not because Israel has. The rise of Erdogan’s Islamist APK party, aided by Obama-and-EU-backed “reforms” that weakened the military’s role in safeguarding their country’s secular character, has led Turkey steadily down an anti-Israel path from the time he was first elected in 2002. However, in classic Obama fashion, the president fails to recognize the culpability of the Islamist aggressors. Rather, he blames those who dare assert their rights against them, believing that the path to peace is through obeisance and surrender.
To recap, here is what Obama claims Israel must apologize for:
On May 30, 2010,the Mavi Marmara was stopped by the Israeli navy attempting to violate the Gaza blockade. It contained no actual humanitarian aid, and was sent as part of a tactic to secure unrestricted supply lines to Hamastan in the future. (Alas, the revolution in Egypt very well might have that effect anyway)
Ordinarily, Israel escorts such ships into an Israeli port, checks for contraband, offloads aid, and delivers it to Gaza by truck. When Israel’s navy stopped and boarded the ship for inspection, as they had every right to according to international law, they were ambushed by armed terrorist supporters. The soldiers, under orders not to use lethal force unless their lives were threatened, were armed only with non-lethal weapons and sidearms. An IDF patrol boat caught the brutal attack on video, and the ship’s own security cameras document the preparation of the ambush.
Some of these individuals, armed with pipes, knives, axes, chains, slingshots, and pistols taken from some of the first soldiers to board, came in search of martyrdom. For instance, this man, disappointed at his failure to die during two previous attempts, told a journalist he hopes to finally achieve martyrdom this time out. Others, like this charming individual pictured below, were also far from peaceful.
Ultimately, the boarding party was forced to open fire, with the last boarder, known only as St-Sgt. S, killing six and stabilizing the situation after the many of his comrades had been wounded. Ultimately, nine from the flotilla were killed.
Israel later released the ship back to Turkey, and Sefic Dinc, a particularly ethical Turkish journalist who was aboard the Mavi Marmara to cover its exploits, wrote a book largely confirming that Israel’s account of the incident was true.
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