Israelis cleverly wreck their rapport with the Turks.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Turks decided to send aid to the Gazans, who are being systematically deprived and starved by the Israelis. They send five ships, inspect four, then a fight breaks out on the fifth, and none is allowed to land. As usual, Israel (the ones with the guns) claim that they have been cruelly victimized: yet all of the dead and most of the wounded are among the Turks and others wishing to give aid to the Palestinians.

Netanyahu's visit to the President has been canceled. It was interesting to watch the Israeli Consul here in Miami fumble around, trying to explain the cruel "victimization" of the unfortunate armed commandos.

As a rule, it has historically been a really bad idea to annoy the Turks. And there are over 50 million of them.

[Michael Tee]

Gotta love the MSM coverage, though.  1% on the massacre itself, 99% on the reaction.  One CNN caption referred to reaction to "the battle" on the refugee ships, oddly reminiscent of Lt. Calley, after lawyering up, invariably referring, not to My Lai, not to the massacre, but to "the Battle of My Lai."  Some fucking battle - - unarmed Turkish relief providers versus heavily armed Israeli commandos.

The "reaction" was hilarious too - - very even-handed.  On the one hand, mobs of Turks or Arabs jumping up and down and screaming incoherently in the streets, on the other hand, well-dressed, university-educated Israelis or their spokespeople speaking near-perfect English and speaking about rights of self-defence (self-defence in committing an act of piracy on the high seas!) and "terrorism" - - the story became the reaction, and not only the crime but the victims and their families were buried in an avalanche of "reaction" stories.

You gotta hand it to the Jews - - we have the best damned PR machine that money can buy.  And the fucking morons that constitute the American public will eat right out of its hand time after time after time after time.  If they could swallow the Gaza massacres without a hiccup, this little misunderstanding will go down like a pina colada on a hot day.   Wanna bet what the net consequences to Israel will be for this cold-blooded massacre of foreign aid workers?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  The Great Satan and the Little Satan, BFF.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I agree that the Israelis seem to win the propaganda war, even when the death toll disparity between the two sides is as unequal as it was in the last Gaza invasion. It turns out that the arms used by the Turks were grabbed away from the Israelis. Otherwise, it was slingshots and fisticuffs.

Nonetheless, history has proven that Turks are people is it singularly unwise to piss off. And there are rather a lot of them.

The very least that they should have done was to deliver the four ships of aid that passed inspection.

This happened on the high seas, by the way, where boarding a ship without consent is basically piracy.

[BSB]

"history has proven that Turks are people is it singularly unwise to piss off"

This should be good. People with long curved knives fighting people with long curved noses.

I love me some drones.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I do not believe that Turkish soldiers arm themselves with scimitars anymore, but in all recent engagements, they have proven that they are soldiers one would be unwise to oppose. As for the Israelis, they are not required to have long curved noses, but some do. I doubt that the two countries will come to blows, as there is no common border, and neither has territorial designs on the other.


But this was most unwise on the part of the Israelis. Boarding an unwilling ship on the high seas is basically piracy. The Israelis claim that they provide all that the Gazans need to survive, but "survive" is about it. Gaza is the sixth most densely populated place on Earth, after Macao, Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar, all of which have people living in high rises.  As a result of this, the Egyptians have opened the gates at Rafah to Egypt for a while, probably with the State Dept's tacit approval that the US will not cut aid to Egypt in retaliation.

[Christians4LessGvt]

XO you are way behind the times. The Israeli/Turk relationship had soured greatly long before this incident. The Turks have cozied up to Iran more recently and it is greatly effecting the relationship Turkey has with Israel, the United States, and probably NATO. The Turks will regret this move because Iran is going down hard and people are not going to forget who cozied up to an Iran reduced to ashes. The ships being sent were warned time and time again to not attempt to cross the blockade. This is nothing but a PR move on the part of the IslamoNazis, their sympathizers, and other anti-semetic forces. Israel should next time warn again and if the warnings go unheeded Israel should blow up and sink the first ship trying to cross the blockade. The IslamoNazis only understand one thing....brute force. I say sink the next ship full of halfwits that do not heed repeated warnings.

[Michael Tee]

<<Israel should next time warn again and if the warnings go unheeded Israel should blow up and sink the first ship trying to cross the blockade. >>

Turkey, a NATO member, has warned Israel that the next Turkish humanitarian aid ship will sail with a Turkish naval escort.  To blow up and sink the aid ship will require that the Israeli warships also have to deal with the Turkish naval escort.

 I notice the U.S.A., the great "protector" of the Jews, used its veto power to stop the UN Security Council from censuring the State of Israel, let alone from taking any punitive action against it.  The whole point of the Security Council was to provide a forum where international disputes like this one could be ironed out through discussion rather than by resorting to force.  But the U.S. in its wisdom decides to frustrate the very purposes for which the UN came into existence, to ensure that no solutions other than violence are in the cards.

Short-sighted and stupid pursuit of Jewish votes and money has trapped American legislators (and even the Jewish state which depends upon them for support) in a cycle of pointless violence, no end in sight.  WTF is wrong with these people?

[Christians4LessGvt]

the next Turkish humanitarian aid ship will sail with a Turkish naval escort. 

There is a blockade....if Turkey wants to go to war over the blockade....so be it.

[Amianthus]

I notice the U.S.A., the great "protector" of the Jews, used its veto power to stop the UN Security Council from censuring the State of Israel, let alone from taking any punitive action against it.

Hmmm. Just like France and Germany stated they would use their veto when the US wanted to bring up Iraq prior to the Iraq war.

What's good for goose, after all.

[Michael Tee]

<<Hmmm. Just like France and Germany stated they would use their veto when the US wanted to bring up Iraq prior to the Iraq war.>>

No, not just like it at all.

When the U.S. wanted to get Security Council authorization for the use of force against Iraq, they were told by France at least (I'm not sure if the Security Council seats had been increased at that time) and probably others as well, that they wouldn't go along.  Accordingly, the U.S. never brought its motion for use of force before the Security Council.  The U.S. frustrated the founding principles of the UN (peaceful discussion and resolution as an alternative to use of force) by not bringing their motion forward, where the parties could at least have publicly debated the need for use of force.

In the case of this latest Israeli massacre, there was actual exercise of a veto by the U.S.., this time not to stifle debate, but to stifle remedial action to an atrocity, again frustrating the founding principles of the UN, but this time in a totally different way.  Both times promoting violence rather than debate as a solution to differences that arise between nations.  Consistent only in American promotion of the use of force as an alternative to peaceful resolution.

[Amianthus]

Yeah, and I'm sure the then-recent oil contract France had signed with Saddam had nothing to do with it...

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is a blockade....if Turkey wants to go to war over the blockade....so be it.

------------------------------------------------
The Turkish government was elected by the Turkish people. Turkey is a democracy. The people of Turkey have far less patience with Israeli cruelty than the Turkish government.

You seem to believe every morsel of bullcrap the Israelis feed you. The Israelis screwed up bigtime here.

There is a distinct possibility that while all this flap is going on over innocuous food and building supplies, the makings of some serious rockets are crossing into Gaza from Egypt.

The blockade has no legal standing. No one has any right to board an unwilling ship on the high seas.

  You seem to want a war with a billion and a half Muslims over the delivery of food and building supplies. That is idiocy. The Israelis are stupid, but you seem intent on trying for the imbecility of Moe, Shemp, Larry and Curly Joe all rolled into one.

[sirs]

No one has any right to board an unwilling ship on the high seas.

Nice to know that Pirates, of all stripes, have someone on their side

[Michael Tee]

<<Yeah, and I'm sure the then-recent oil contract France had signed with Saddam had nothing to do with it...>>

Yeah, oil can only motivate the French and other lesser breeds, unlike the Americans who NEVER would base their policies on it.

[sirs]

I hope no one got any whiplash from that deflection effort