Some Of Israel's Friends Make A Stand

Just a small cross section...as I wrote earlier, the division in the West on Israel reflects the division in Western society, and what's happening now is a catalyst as people are choose whom they stand with.

Sarah Palin:

The media, as usual, seems to be reporting only one side of the Israeli Flotilla incident. Don’t trust the mainstream media to give you both sides of a story fairly… you must seek out fair reporting to ensure you have all the information.

As far too many in the media, and in various governments, rush to condemn Israel, we must put the recent events off Israel’s coast into the right perspective. This “relief” convoy was not about humanitarian aid, as the liberal mainstream media keeps reporting. The whole operation was designed to provoke Israel, not to provide supplies to Palestinians held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Anyone who sees the video of Israeli commandos being attacked as they land on that ship knows the people aboard were vicious thugs, not “peace activists.” The media insults our intelligence with their outright mischaracterization of who these enemies are.

Israel delivers thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies every week to Gaza. These ships could have offloaded their cargoes at a nearby Israeli port if they really wanted to help the people of Gaza. Instead, they chose to incite confrontation and violence. Israel has a right to prevent arms shipments to Gaza that will be used to target innocent Israelis, so they were legitimately checking the cargo on the flotilla. Turkey has chosen to condemn Israel but we should be asking some serious questions about Turkey’s role in this whole affair. Why is a fellow member of NATO sponsoring such a dangerous publicity stunt? As one expert points out: “Three ships of that six-ship pro-terror convoy flew Turkish flags and were crowded with Turkish citizens. The Ankara government – led by Islamists these days – sponsored the ‘aid’ operation in a move to position itself as the new champion of the Palestinians. And Turkish decision-makers knew Israel would have to react – and were waiting to exploit the inevitable clash. The provocation was as cynical as it was carefully orchestrated.”

We can only hope the Obama Administration does not join the anti-Israel chorus in the aftermath of this staged confrontation. Please, Mr. President, we need to let Israelis know we stand with them in their fight against terrorists and those who arm and support them. America and her ally, Israel, stand by waiting for your response.

Marco Rubio, Florida's next Senator:

I am alarmed that our long-standing solidarity with Israel has been thrown into doubt by a White House that seems to be playing a proverbial game of jump ball, whereby the world wonders on which side America will stand. Of course, we should stand with Israel. Doing otherwise sends a dangerously emboldening signal to Israel’s enemies.

Sadly, this recent flotilla event is only the latest example of the extent to which our special relationship with Israel has been diminished under the current Administration. Iran and its terrorist proxies have surely been watching approvingly as Washington continues these misguided policies.

As many in the international community use this flotilla incident to predictably rally against Israel, it is important to stand firmly behind our ally. In no way can the U.S. allow a path to be cleared that would enable the United Nations or any international body to discredit and diminish our democratic friend and partner. If Israel’s right to self-defense is undermined by misguided efforts to lift its legal and necessary blockade of Gaza, which serves to stop Hamas from arming itself with deadly weapons, there will be lasting consequences not only for Israel, but also for the U.S. and the entire world.

Make no mistake: while we await all the facts to emerge about this incident, it is clear the sponsors and participants of the Free Gaza Movement’s Flotilla have been thoroughly documented in their support of violent extremism. A far cry from being “humanitarian relief workers,” the activists on board the Mavi Marmara had a cache of bulletproof vests, night vision goggles and gas masks. This was no humanitarian mission.

Additionally, knowing that the blockade of Gaza exists for a legitimate reason and that Israel already provides avenues for true humanitarian efforts to reach the Palestinian people, this latest incident is a striking provocation by Israel’s opponents.

For the entirety of its existence, Israel has been targeted for annihilation by its enemies and we must never do anything to undermine its right to protect its people. As enemies such as Iran develop nuclear weapons that pose an existential threat to Israel, America has a responsibility to continue serving as its strongest and most steadfast ally.

Ralph Peters

Three ships of that six-ship pro-terror convoy flew Turkish flags and were crowded with Turkish citizens. The Ankara government -- led by Islamists these days -- sponsored the "aid" operation in a move to position itself as the new champion of the Palestinians.

And Turkish decision-makers knew Israel would have to react -- and were waiting to exploit the inevitable clash. The provocation was as cynical as it was carefully orchestrated.

Purely by coincidence, dozens of "peace activists" waited with sharpened iron bars, clubs, slingshots -- and rifles. Of course, the nine dead in the melee were all Israel's victims.

The first wave of Israeli commandos reportedly were armed only with paintball rounds for crowd control. Inspect those videos of maddened peaceniks assaulting the soldiers as they landed on deck. You don't see any Israelis pointing rifles -- they're fending off blows.

But the claims of pro-terrorist "peace advocates" are given instant credence.

Rush Limbaugh

Is anybody still surprised a community organizer with strong personal and political ties to anti-Israel leftists will not step up — will not organize support — for America’s best ally in the Middle East if not in the world? This whole thing with this “flotilla” is a Turkish setup designed to provoke exactly what has happened. The Israelis are out there playing by the rules. You know, what’s the old saying? “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth puts its pants on,” and the lie on this thing got halfway around the world.

This was not some innocent bunch of people going in. This is an arms mission. Make no mistake about it. Humanitarian aid? There might be some crackers and cheese getting off that flotilla, but make no mistake: There are some armaments there. This is Turkey attempting to establish itself as the Muslim leader. Islamists have taken over Turkey. They’re in NATO, and this is all designed to make Israel provoked and to cause this kind of response, and the world is condemning Israel!

Even, over the weekend, the United Nations Security Council gets together to suggest a condemnation of Israel. The Turkish government is demanding that we condemn Israel at the same time. Egypt is going the other way. There’s also another thing happening here regarding Israel and Egypt and the Middle East, and that is Egypt’s call some months ago (maybe weeks) “nuclear-free Middle East.” The United States at the United Nations sandbagged the Israelis and is supporting this effort, which, of course, has one objective, and that is to de-nuke Israel.

Now, Israel for 60 years has not admitted that they have nukes. It’s just assumed that they have a couple hundred warheads, but they’ve never confirmed it. Everybody just assumed so. Meanwhile, we’re told the Iranians have enough plutonium now for two bombs. They are continuing to ratchet up and nobody’s doing anything about them ratcheting up and demanding that they shut it down, not nearly as seriously as they’re going to hammer Israel.

Now, Obama is demanding that Israel tell him exactly what happened. (paraphrasing) “I want those details of what happened on that flotilla and I want them now!” You know what Netanyahu ought to do? Netanyahu ought to say, “I want the details of the 32 people Chicago killed over the weekend and I want to know what you’re doing about it — and I want to know what role you’ve played, what the Chicago police did and the Chicago government.” I know it will never happen, but that’s my reaction.

Now, we haven’t even gotten to the Israeli situation yet. This is key as well. The media is not telling the truth about this, either. You remember, ladies and gentlemen, some years ago the war was going on between the Hezbollah’s militants in Lebanon launching rockets into Israel and Israel was retaliating. You remember all the Photoshopped pictures of so-called damage to civilian populations and civilian buildings, public buildings that the Israelis were responsible for? It turned out that many of those Reuters photos had been doctored and Photoshopped to make the damage look like it was five or ten mimes worse than it is, and the media couldn’t wait! They all jumped on the bandwagon to report this stuff.

It’s the same thing happening now. Not one shred of truth is being reported about this flotilla, who the people on the flotilla were or what their purpose was. Their purpose was to get this provocation. They know full well Israel is not going to respond to anything ’til they know what happened, while the Islamists have their PR campaign ready to go before the flotilla even set sail. Before the flotilla even left Turkey they knew exactly what to say, they knew exactly what was going to happen because they provoked it.

This is not about a nuclear free Middle East. We’re what looking at here is another all-out assault on an Israel-free Middle East.

John Bolton on Greta Van Susteren's Show


VAN SUSTEREN: Joining us live is former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton. Ambassador, good evening. This event, this tragedy, this violence, catastrophe, however you want to characterize it -- an isolated event that we're going to sort of move carefully through, in a few days, it'll be over, or is this sparking a bigger problem?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: There's a lot more coming here. This is part of an overall effort to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip. I think we have to understand not just an Israeli blockade. It is an Egyptian blockade too. The Egyptians don't like Hamas any more than the Israelis do.

But In the Arab and Muslim world there's a lot of determination to break that blockade, so other ships are on the way. I'm sure more is coming.

VAN SUSTEREN: There were nine people from Turkey, Turkey is ally of Israel and quiet friendly with Israel and now that is a strained relationship. What does that mean for the whole region?

BOLTON: I think what's going on with Turkey is less the loss of Israel's sole Muslim ally than it is Turkey slipping away from the west. Even since the end of World War I and the Ottoman empire, the idea of Turkey has been a secular democratic state.

I think with the government we have in place now and have had for the last six, seven years is going in the wrong direction and I think that could be one of the most significant outcomes of this whole crisis.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now we have nine dead and international condemnation of Israel. Is this now an invitation to many of the haters of Israel to give more violence towards member, to fight them more?

BOLTON: Absolutely. But they don't need that much of an excuse. This happens in the West Bank all the time, these kinds of clashes, different circumstances. But every time I happens it is an excuse to you go and beat up Israel in the U.N. Security Council and beat them up in the U.N. Human Rights Council. I'm sure Israel's opponents will take full advantage of it.

But consider the alternative that people are calling for, including some of America's closest allies, which is to end the blockade. If you did that you would have Hamas getting weapons of the kind Hezbollah already has in Lebanon. The threat to innocent Israeli civilians would rise dramatically.

VAN SUSTEREN: How do you characterize the U.S. response?

BOLTON: Weak. The United States could have said clearly on Memorial Day we are not going to accept a statement by the Security Council critical of Israel as the one that turned out. It was watered down to be sure.

If I had been there and had my discretion, I would have said I'm not going to negotiate this. It is fundamentally unacceptable. You don't condemn something and then call for an investigation. If you want to have an investigation, that's one thing, but too many people had already made their minds up.

VAN SUSTEREN: It is clear this is a provocation, at least to me. They intended to provoke. They knew they were going to meet resistance. The Israelis weren't going to say fine, come on in. Another ship is on the way. It doesn't look like this is a good situation.

BOLTON: I don't think Israel will make the same mistake. I think they didn't put sufficient people on the ship immediately. It allowed their people to be isolated. I think the people on those six ships had different motivations. I think some were innocent, naive --

VAN SUSTEREN: How could they? You know there's a blockade. You know there's a situation. It's not like everyone heard about this yesterday. Everyone knew this was going on.

BOLTON: Some people hug trees some people get on boats like this. But there was another layer of people there, very cynical, very tough who did want to provoke the confrontation. They got what they wanted. I don't think they reckoned the cost, but others will follow them.

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't care what your thinking is getting on that ship. No matter how much you want peace, how much you want to help people, it was clear there was going to be a problem.

BOLTON: I don't think it was clear to the Israelis.

VAN SUSTEREN: There's always a risk.

BOLTON: I think in the implementation of the operation there was failure. But there was no failure on Israel's part in carrying out its strategic objective.

General Jack Kemp, former British Commander in Afghanistan:

“Israel has a democratically elected government and like every other democratically elected government in the world, Israel should carry out its own investigation.”

“I believe Israel should do it rapidly and comprehensively and should be completely up front if it has made mistakes – mistakes should be admitted by Israel, but I don’t think it should be subjected to an independent inquiry any more than other Western countries are.

“Look at what appears to have been a very serious military error made by the German army in Northern Afghanistan last year when something like 50-150 civilians were killed in an air strike.”

“Where was the independent inquiry about that? Where were the calls for an independent inquiry about that? Why is it that Israel is subjected to that kind of call when other democratic countries aren’t?”


Pastor John Hagee

No major statement...but being a man of action, he's mobilizing the troops in Christians United For Israel to descend on Washington en masse this month and hold Congress' collective feet to the fire.

Based on his past success in this area, he'll have a definite impact.

Like I said, people are choosing sides, and an event like this helps sort things out.

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