Turkey Prime Minister Regeb Tayyab Erdogan have finally realised that it is better to be the leader (Head) of the Arab and Muslim Worlds than a tail to America, the West and Israel. It seems that democracy helps to strengthen the position of governments facing challenges. That is why America, its European allies and Israel don’t like democratically elected Hamas, Ahmedinejad and now Erdogan. The Americans and their allies love to support and deal with weak prostrated autocrats, like Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Mubarak Egypt and Jewish Israel have been strangling Gaza since Hamas won the election on January 2006.
But following the Israeli massacres of Turks on the freedom flotilla, Mubarak temporarily lifted the sanctions afraid that the Egyptians may cut his arm that has been choking Gaza. The West wanted Turkey, a member of NATO, to be a barrier between Europe and the Arab and Muslim Worlds. But Erdogan didn’t want to play this role and preferred a return to the days when the Ottoman Empire was the dominant power. Following the collapse of Saddam Iraq, Iran and Turkey are filling the vacuum to the disadvantage of the US-supported Israeli Nazi-Style hegemony and atrocities. The Americans have to do a serious re-thinking about their interests in the area before they lose Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the anti-Israeli camp. Right now, Israel is desperate so are her supporters in Washington. An attack on Iran may help to divert attention but not necessarily from Israeli violations and crimes and not without the deadly consequences.
May be because the US kills democratically while Israeli killings and violations are carried out in self defence. The Israelis and the American zombies should open their eyes as only a fool thinks others are fools. Things have changed for everyone.
After over fifty years working as a White House correspondent, 89-year old Thomas decided that enough is enough with the Jewish control of US foreign policy and that it is about time for the Israleis to get the hell out of Palestine and return to Germany, Poland and the USA. It seems that people got tired defending Shlomos cimes and atrocities.
This is for Helen Thomas
Enough is Enough
The Jewish Nazi crimes developed a loud cough
Terrorist Netanyahu cooks Obama
A kosher plan, stinking and tough,
Fried in the oily water of the mexican gulf
Helen Thomas reached her limit
With Goldman Sachs preparing the trough
To place gallons of American blood in it.
The Pharoah must have obtained the Israeli approval before opening the Rafah gate.
There is a mounting pressure on all pro-American Arab governments.
FACTBOX-Details of activists aboard flotilla
01 Jun 2010 12:23:25 GMT
Source: Reuters
June 1 (Reuters) - Israel detained or deported on Tuesday hundreds of activists who were aboard Turkish-backed aid ships it seized en route to Gaza, and faced a U.N. call for an impartial investigation into the deaths of nine people in the takeover.
Some 700 activists were processed in and around Israel's port of Ashdod, where the six ships of the blockade-running convoy had been escorted. úAmong the activists were many Turks but they also included Israelis and Palestinians as well as Americans and many Europeans.
Here are details about some of the activists:
TURKEY:
-- Bulent Yildirim, president of the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), was aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish cruise ship which carried 581 people and was part of the convoy. At least nine activists on the Mavi Marmara were killed when Israeli marines boarded the ship.
SWEDEN:
-- Bestselling Swedish author Henning Mankell was among the Swedes who joined the international flotilla attempting to break the blockade, but he was not aboard the Turkish aid ship raided by Israeli commandos and is the only Swedish activist named so far. There was no information on whether he was being deported or detained. Sofia, the ship which Mankell was aboard, docked at the Israeli port of Ashdod.
-- There were eleven Swedes with the flotilla. Four are at Tel Aviv airport and will be deported during the day. Six Swedes are being detained, two of whom were onboard the Turkish ship. There was no confirmation on whether the final person is being deported or detained.
-- Sweden summoned Israel's ambassador on Monday to explain the deaths of nine activists during the raid on a Turkish aid ship, describing the incident as unacceptable.
GERMANY:
-- Annette Groth and Inge Hoeger, two female German members of parliament from the opposition Left Party who were on board the Marmara ship, have now returned to Germany, according to their parliamentary group.
-- Germany's foreign ministry said five of 11 Germans on the flotilla had returned home. All five were well, but the ministry could not comment on the remaining six for now.
IRELAND:
-- There are seven Irish nationals in Israel, two of whom agreed to leave the country voluntarily. Three Irish campaigners were named as Fintan Lane, Fiachra O'Luain and Shane Dillon.
-- There are several activists aboard the MV Rachel Corrie, a converted merchant ship that is to reach Gaza waters by Wednesday. They include Northern Irish Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Community of the Peace People in 1976, Denis Halliday, former U.N. assistant secretary-general; Derek and Jenny Graham, members of the Free Gaza Movement; and Caoimhe Butterly, a Dublin-born human rights activist who was shot by a soldier during an Israeli attack on Palestinian militants in Jenin in the West Bank in 2002.
BRITAIN:
-- The Palestine Solidarity Campaign NGO confirmed that their director of campaigns and operations, Sarah Colborne, was one of those on board the flotilla.
-- A spokesman for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that Hassan Ghani, a reporter for Press TV, an Iranian state-run English language television network, was on board, as was Ali El-Awaisi.
Sources: Reuters bureaux
Pakistan TV anchor, producer go missing
Israeli attack on aid flotilla sets off protests
By Mahtab Bashir
ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of demonstrators on Monday took to streets in the federal capital against a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla of aid-carrying ships bound for Gaza, among them Turkish vessels.
Israeli forces on Sunday stormed Freedom Flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza.
A private TV channel anchor, Talat Hussain, and producer Raza Agha have gone missing after the attack by the Israeli forces on an international flotilla carrying aid to besieged Gazans, killing at least 20 people and injuring several others.
About 1000 protesters took to the streets in Pakistani capital Islamabad to protest the Israeli action and demanded international community to break diplomatic relations with the Zionist state. The protesters termed Israel’s raid international terrorism and called upon the government to condemn the incident in strongest terms. “Israel, make no mistake, do not test our patience,” chanted the crowd.
The activists of various religious parties, traders, parliamentarians, journalists, members of civil society organizations, and people from all walks of life participated in the protest demonstration. They condemned the killing of up to 20 people after Israeli commandos intercepted a flotilla of ships taking aid to the Gaza strip.
PPP’s MNA Faranaz Ispahani, Senator Mushahid Hussain and MNA Marvi Memom of PML-Q, Senator Enwar Baig, Akhunzada Chattan, JI Leader Liaqat Baloch, Traders’ leader Ajmal Baloch, President Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalist Ashfaq Sajid, and representatives of civil society led the protest.
Carrying anti-Israel banners and placards, the angry protesters chanted slogans against the barbarism committed by Jewish state. They called upon the international community and United Nation to take every possible step to prevent Israeli’s inhuman activities.
The protesters made it clear to Israel to stop its aggression against Muslim world and Palestine otherwise warned for similar response.
Stringent security measures were adopted to maintain law and order situation.
Pro-Palestinian activists,, pray Turkish ship ...
Pro-Palestinian activists, wearing life jackets, pray on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara as they sail in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea as part of a humanitarian convoy late May 30, 2010. Picture taken May 30, 2010. Israeli commandos stormed Gaza-bound aid ships on Monday and at least 10 pro-Palestinian activists on board were killed, unleashing a diplomatic crisis and charges of a "massacre" from the Palestinian president.
31 May 2010 14:51:43 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Recasts following new details)
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, May 31 (Reuters) - Israel could pay a heavy price -- including damage to peace efforts with the Palestinians -- over the killing of 10 international activists on a Turkish ship trying to break a blockade of Gaza.
Foreign anger at the boarding of the pro-Palestinian flotilla was loud even among Israel's allies and may drown out its argument that such action was needed to keep Gaza's Hamas rulers isolated and peacemaking efforts afloat.
Islamist Hamas's rival for Palestinian loyalties, secular president Mahmoud Abbas, was quick to condemn the naval attack as a "massacre" -- an ill omen for the U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel on which he embarked three weeks ago.
And while Washington has yet to join in the censure from Europe and across the Middle East, President Barack Obama will have to balance relations with Turkey and other Muslim allies of the United States against Washington's ties with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a visit to Canada when the Israeli raid took place, cancelled a planned White House meeting with Obama on Tuesday and would leave later on Monday for home, Israeli officials said.
The relationship between the two leaders has already been strained by Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank -- where Palestinians also seek statehood -- and Obama has urged Netanyahu to ease access to Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Netanyahu's White House invitation was widely seen in Israel as an attempt by Obama to mend fences -- and shore up U.S. Jewish support for Democratic candidates in a November mid-term election -- after a frosty Oval office meeting in March.
But Oussama Safa of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies predicted Obama might "ante up the pressure against the Israelis" to accommodate Palestinian demands -- though the Netanyahu government has said the Gaza blockade will remain.
Another delay in negotiations that have been stop-start for almost two decades would hold little real impact. Abbas, with his truncated West Bank mandate, is too beholden to Israel and the United States to close the door on rapprochement.
But the possibility of a fallout with Turkey, whose flag was flown on the flotilla and which recalled its Tel Aviv envoy in protest at the naval raid, could deepen Israel's own isolation even as it tries to present Iran as the main regional threat.
FOR HAMAS, HEROES
Turkey, a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, said it would seek a resolution against Israel -- a poke in the eye for Israel and the United States, which would prefer to see the Council sanction Iran for its nuclear programme.
Rising Iranian power has stirred concern among many Arabs, to Israel's advantage. But the Palestinian crisis makes such sympathies fickle, as Israeli Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer discovered while on a official visit to Qatar.
"I see all the looks that I'm getting," Ben-Eliezer told Israel's Army Radio by telephone.
Hamas, which has largely fallen from world headlines since its war with Israel some 18 months ago, welcomed what it described as a win-win situation from the violence at sea.
Hamas government head Ismail Haniyeh said of the activists: "You were heroes, whether you reached (Gaza) or not."
Israel insisted its commandos opened fire when they were attacked by gun- and knife-wielding activists aboard one of the flotilla's six vessels. At least seven marines were wounded.
But, as with its crackdowns against a Palestinian uprising in the early years of the past decade, Israel will face tough questions abroad about the wisdom of using military force for what are essentially policing missions -- especially when the nationalities of the dead are made public. Nahman Shai, a former Israeli military spokesman turned opposition lawmaker, likened the confrontation to the police killing of a dozen Arab citizens of Israel who demonstrated in solidarity with the Palestinians in late 2000.
"The difference is that this time foreigners are involved, which means a much wider impact," Shai told Israel Radio. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Yara Bayoumy in Beirut; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
---
Gaza blockade illegal, must be lifted-UN's Pillay
05 Jun 2010 11:51:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
* International law bans starvation of civilians - Pillay
* Investigation needed into Israel's Monday raid - Pillay
(Adds Pillay comment, background)
KAMPALA, June 5 (Reuters) - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Saturday Israel's blockade of Gaza was illegal and should be lifted, and reiterated calls for an investigation into Israel's raid on aid supply ships this week.
"International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and...it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians," Pillay said.
"I have consistently reported to member states that the blockade is illegal and must be lifted."
She said that even if the blockade were proven legal under international law, Israel's military operation against the flotilla on Monday had to be analysed alongside its obligation to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israeli forces again seized a ship bound for Gaza on Saturday, boarding the an Irish-owned Rachel Corrie five days after Israeli commandos shot dead nine Turkish activists in a raid on a Turkish aid ship headed for Gaza.
Asked if the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Pillay said the Council had in the past imposed sanctions and referred the situation in Sudan's Darfur region to the ICC.
Pillay, a former ICC judge, was in Kampala to jointly attend a review conference of the court, the world's first permanent war crimes court, and conduct a fact-finding human rights mission in Uganda, one of five 'situations' the ICC is investigating. (Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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