The Gaza convoy and Israel - an alternative view from that of the BBC and most mainstream media

The BBC (and others) have a set narrative on the Middle East and that is that the Israelis are at fault. The Israelis have taken Palestinian land and if they would return to the 1967 borders all will be well. This narrative ignores first the wars started by Israel's neighbours pre 1967 when the issue could logically not have been the expansion beyond 1967 borders. This narrative also ignores the fact that Israel's neighbours include organisations dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews inside (and maybe outside) Israel.

The BBC have decided to push the 'disproportionate force' line, John Humphrys' interview with Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor on this morning's Today programme was reminiscent of previous interviews with poor Ron when the BBC's impartiality was also severely lacking. So here are some facts that you will not find on the BBC but that you need to be aware of before you believe the BBC narrative.

Here is the transcript of an interview with Dr. Abd Al-Fatah Nu’man, a Gaza-based Yemeni professor of Islamic law, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 28, 2010:

'there are people armed with faith and resolve, who chant – even while hearing the threats: “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” A woman stood on the deck, and said: “We await one of two good things – to achieve martyrdom or to reach the shore of Gaza.”

This scent is a message to the Islamic nation worldwide: Islam is coming, and Gaza is the spearhead that sets the nation in motion.'

This reference to Khaybar is not mere rhetoric, for as this article explains:

'when modern-day jihadists invoke Khaybar, they are recalling an aggressive, surprise raid by Muhammad which resulted in the final eradication of the once considerable Jewish presence in Arabia. To the jihadists, Khaybar means the destruction of the Jews and the seizure of their property by the Muslims.

...

Khaibar is the name of last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army and it marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia in 628'

Here are some of the flotilla chanting the above lines, now you know what the lines mean do you have more of a feeling for the mindsets of, at least some, of the flotilla?

And here is some video of an Israel naval commander suggesting that the ships unload in Ashdod port...


So to the 'action' itself. It seems that the Israelis went in expecting a collection of peace-activists and so were carrying as their weapons of choice 'paintball guns' (or as John Humphrys called them this morning machine-guns). On landing on the ship via ropes from helicopters the first commandos were attacked by the people on the ship, with poles and other objects and you can see one soldier being pushed over the side of the boat... Here's some video of that and you can see at around 0:43 members of the flotilla beating an Israeli commando with what seem to be metal batons...

Here's video from the helicopter seemingly shot at around the same time...


This next video includes some close-ups of what seem to be the same metal rods as in the above video, as well as other weapons and footage of injured Israeli commandos.


Here's some more video footage of the weapons found on the Mavi Marama blockade buster ship


And here is some video of an Israeli commando being stabbed by someone on the Mavi Marama


And here is some video of an inrterview with two Israeli commandos...


Now I could try and explain what really happened in this story but I see that Melanie Phillips has beaten me to it. Here are a few extracts but do read the whole of her article:

'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.

...

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 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.

But it is this paragraph from Melanie Phillips' piece that sums up the reality of the situation:

'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.'

So what's NotaSheep's opinion? Well this flotilla was clearly a provocation and a trap laid by the flotilla's organisers and one that Israel fell for. Israel tried to go in softly, expecting peace activists, but were instead seemingly met by Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) activists and others. Some people are saying that the Israelis should have knocked the ship's rudder out and towed the ship to Israel but I fear that whatever Israel did the activists would have engineered a confrontation. Maybe it would have been best if Israel had decided to let the flotilla land in Gaza and unload their cargo. On the upside nobody would have been injured or killed (this time) and the activists would have had to forego their propaganda coup but on the downside this would have lead to more and more flotillas any one of which might have been carrying the lethal weapons that Hamas crave. The bottom line is that Hamas and much of the Middle East want Israel destroyed, gone forever. It's not about a return to 1967 borders, it's about delegitimising Israel and its very right to exist. The Palestinians were given a country, it's called Jordan. However the Islamisation of much of the world continues apace and as I blogged earlier this year:

'About five years ago I started warning Jewish friends and colleagues that our time as welcome citizens of the UK would not last for ever and that we should all start planning our exit strategies; I gave it 10 years before we would need to take action, nothing that I see around me leads me to believe that I was wrong then. And with the economy in free-fall, civil unrest will increase and the usual scapegoats will be attacked - blame the bankers had unfortunate connotations for Jews in Europe in the 1930s and will again in the 2010s.'

I stand by my other prediction that Israel will no longer exist by 2020, whether it has been destroyed by Iranian bombs or overrun by Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria; Israel as a Jewish homeland will be gone and the 300 million Arabs will have got their way and ended the right of 6 million Jews to live in their homeland, a homeland that comprises around a third of one percent of the Middle East. In the past Israel could rely on American to protect it from the worst of the attacks in the United Nations and as a deterrent to aggressors. However with Barack Hussein Obama in the White House I sense that Israel's aggressors do not feel that deterred any more and that the end game is approaching.