Humble Opinions

Weapons found on the Mavi Marmara

The May 31^st “Free” Gaza Flotilla incident has, for the most part, disappeared from news headlines, except for the occasional Turkish demand for Israel to apologize for its soldiers defending themselves in the deadly ambush meant to murder them. And I thought Israel was supposed to be the country with Chutzpah… Anyway, today I saw this headline: Lawyers ask ICC to prosecute Israel. Apparently, the lawyers representing the 9 Turkish terrorists who were killed upon the flotilla are asking international courts to prosecute Israel for war crimes due to the outcome of the humanitarian aid-disguised provocation. Wow.

It seems quite a lot of people in the world suffer from a severe case of short term memory. They have apparently forgotten that the IDF released video clips clearly depicting the Turkish “activists” on the flotilla smashing Israeli soldiers with metal pipes, throwing stun grenades at them, stabbing them, and attempting to steal their firearms. The IDF also released a huge collection of photos (1, 2) revealing the insane amount of knives, swords, pipes, clubs, and other deadly weapons that were on the flotilla in preparation of their well-planned, premeditated ambush.

Let’s for a moment play out this fantasy court case of Israel being tried for war crimes because of this incident. The way I see it is as follows: First, it would be a surprise if the prosecuting lawyers actually made it to the courthouse - remember, their memory is shockingly short lived. Assuming they arrive, they would make their case by stating Israeli soldiers killed 9 Turkish citizens who were peace loving activists, trying to get some basic life sustaining supplies to the starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel would respond by showing statistics of the enormous amount of supplies that regularly flow into the Gaza Strip, proving there is not an ounce of humanitarian crisis in the strip, as well as reiterate the repeated offer they made to the ship to transfer their cargo into Gaza under their supervision after it was checked for weapons. They would proceed to display the videos and pictures mentioned above, proving the flotilla was nothing more than a political stunt that forced IDF soldiers to defend themselves from being killed.

Israel’s victorious judgment would make global news headlines for approximately 1 day, and would pretty quickly be replaced by more headlines of Turkey demanding an Israeli apology over the war crimes it committed on the humanitarian aid flotilla. Granted, Israel is all too familiar with this simulation, and will thus ignore whatever ridiculous nonsense is launched its way. Israel clearly explained the causes for these unnecessary casualties shortly after the event, and that’s about the best it can do other than be better prepared for the next stunt the Arab world tries to play against it.

On the topic of news headlines, check out some of these recent headlines from the last week:

• Israel’s Stanley Fischer wins best bank governor of the world award
  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967328,00.html
• Warrent Buffett says he’ll invest more in Israel
  Buffett: “If you are looking for brains - stop in Israel, there is no need to go further…”
  http://www.israel21c.org/201010148450/briefs/buffett-thinks-hell-invest-more-in-israel
• Israel to give Intel NIS 741M grant
  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3964054,00.html
• Jerusalem named top travel culture, sightseeing destination
  http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=190921

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