Netanyahu Defends Flotilla Raid, Gaza Blockade (VIDEO)

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected international criticism of a deadly raid against a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza earlier this week, saying the blockade of the Palestinian territory is needed to prevent missile attacks against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The comments came hours after all remaining pro-Palestinians activists from the aid ships were sent to Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv to be deported.

About a dozen female activists scuffled with security officers at the airport but were quickly subdued by authorities, Israeli officials said. Officials said Wednesday no charges will be filed and the women, along with hundreds of other activists, will be deported as planned.

Israel has come under harsh international condemnation after its commandos stormed a six-ship aid flotilla Monday in international waters, setting off clashes that killed nine activists and wounded dozens. The nearly 700 activists -- including 400 Turks -- were trying to break the 3-year-old Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade of the Gaza Strip by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid.

Turkey's parliament called on its government Wednesday to review all ties with Israel as the country prepared to welcome home Turkish activists who had been detained after Israel's bloody raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Israel rejects claims that Gaza -- which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group seized power in 2007 -- is experiencing a humanitarian crisis. Israel says it allows more than enough food, medicines and supplies into the territory.

Netanyahu insisted the blockade was needed to prevent militants from being able to carrying out attacks against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

"Israel is facing an attack of international hypocrisy," Netanyahu said in a statement broadcast from his office.

He said the flotilla was seeking to flout the blockade, not to bring aid to Gaza.

"If the blockade had been broken, it would have been followed buy dozens, hundreds of boats," he added. "Each boat could carry dozens of missiles."

WATCH NETANYAHU: "That was not a love boat. That was a boat of hatred."

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has appealed to Israel to let a private Irish ship deliver its aid cargo to Gaza but admitted Wednesday that Israel would probably block the ship because part of the cargo was concrete.

The 1,200-ton ship Rachel Corrie carries wheelchairs, medical supplies and concrete. It was named after an American college student crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting house demolitions in Gaza. The ship was supposed to join the aid flotilla but was delayed by mechanical problems. It is currently waiting off the Libyan coast.

Those aboard include Mairead Corrigan, a 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland, and Denis Halliday, who previously ran U.N. humanitarian aid programs in Iraq.

Israel dropped plans to prosecute dozens of pro-Palestinian activists detained after Monday's raid, opting instead to deport them all immediately in an apparent effort to limit the diplomatic damage from the raid.

"Keeping them here would do more damage to the country's vital interests than good," Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein wrote in the order.

By Wednesday evening, the Israeli Interior Ministry said 165 activists had already been deported and another 505 were at Ben Gurion airport waiting to be cleared for flights abroad. Three more activists wounded in the clashes, two of them Turks, were in serious condition and will remain in Israeli hospitals until they can be moved.

In Turkey, Yavuz Dede, the vice-president of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, or IHH, alleged that Israel had failed to account for all the passengers and crew on the six ships, and was deliberately delaying the activists' departure to cover up the missing persons.

"We see this delay in the planes' (taking off) as an attempt to disguise the loss of people," Dede told a press conference at IHH headquarters in Istanbul.

The Israeli Interior Ministry, however, said all those on board the aid convoy had been accounted for.

Turkish and Greek protesters were to fly home on special planes sent by their respective governments, while others from the nearly 20 nationalities on the ships were traveling on commercial flights. More than 120 activists from a dozen Muslim nations without diplomatic relations with Israel were deported to Jordan before sunrise.

A rally for the activists was held in Istanbul's main square.

The commando raid has seriously strained ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey withdrew its ambassador, scrapped war games with Israel and demanded a U.N. Security Council session on the clash as a result. Hundreds of Turks protested Israel's commando raid for a third day Wednesday, and Israeli diplomats' families in Ankara began packing to leave following orders from the Israeli government.

The Turkish parliament in Ankara held a heated debate on whether to impose military and economic sanctions on Israel. Lawmakers of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party objected to the measures, apparently anxious to avoid aggravating the situation, but eventually agreed on a declaration that was approved by a show of hands.

The lawmakers said Israel must formally apologize for the raid, pay compensation to the victims and bring those responsible to justice.

Also Wednesday, Egypt temporarily opened the Rafah border crossing, Gaza's main gateway to the outside world. About 300 Palestinians passed into Egypt, while a smaller number returned to Gaza along with limited humanitarian aid including blankets, tents and 13 power generators donated by Russia and Oman.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, meanwhile, announced his country was breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Israel to lift the Gaza blockade, calling the raid "completely unacceptable."

Pope Benedict XVI urged both sides to resolve the problem with dialogue, not violence, telling pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that he was worried the raid would have "dramatic consequences and generate more violence."

Comments

[ChimpmasterDJ]

08:43 PM on 06/04/2010

First, let me disclose that I am an unconditional "zionist" because, as a Christian, I have seen Old Jerusalem in Arab hands and in Israeli hands, and I never want to see it again in Arab hands. With that disclosure (that will, no doubt infuriate many) out of the way, I have to say that I am appalled by the depth of depraved stupidity of the Israeli Government. Not only do they stubbornly back themselves into a corner acknowledging no wrong, but they have the monumental chutzpah to accuse others of hypocrisy!

Not only that, but it is now obvious that they lied glibly and profusely, covering up the extent of their mismanagement of the encounter. When will governments ever learn that the cover-up almost always a bigger problem that more than compounds the initial screw-up?

Lastly, it's very much apparent that the extraordinary efficiency of Israeli commandos in conducting surgical strikes, a-la-Entebbe, is several generations in the past, probably never to be seen again.

All in all, dear Bibi, I find you a disgusting shame on Israel, and a real danger to its survival.

[jwcmass]

10:35 PM on 06/04/2010

There are many of us here who are critical not because we hate Israel, but because we see its government leading down a path that poses a mortal threat to its existence.

Just as you wouldn't let a friend drive drunk, our nation (most of us here are Americans) do not want our government to be an "enabler" of destructive behavior.

And the fact is that our highest loyalty must be to the cause of justice and respect for the rights and dignity of ALL persons, Israeli AND Palestinian.

As for Jerusalem, that is a complex issue. THe biggest problem I have is with the attempt by settlers to drive Palestinians out of the city altogether, with policies of home demolitions, illegal evictions, routine denial of Palestinian building permits (roughly 12% are approved) which leads to tremendous overcrowding.

My proposed solution is that West Jerusalem would fall under Israeli sovereignty, MOST of East Jerusalem would fall under Palestinian sovereignty, and the OLD CITY (which is where most of the holy sites are) would have JOINT sovereignty and government. Residents could choose which nation they would be a citizen of, and the holy sites would, as now, be under the cutody of the various faiths.

Access to the city would be open to all, with vigorous security checks at the entrances to ensure no trouble occurs. The security would be jointly Israeli and Palestinian, working together.

Difficult, but possible. And as fair a compromise as I can think of.

[tallen]

11:17 PM on 06/04/2010

The mismanagement was due to faulty inteliligence.
They thought is was full of naive starry-eyed leftists who are usually not violent...not armed jihadists who proclaimed their desire for martyrdom before they left Turkey.

As to Israeli governments.
There has been no Israeli government acceptable to the arabs. Israel has had leftist governments, and right wing governments...none of that really makes a difference to the arabs.

[jwcmass]

12:49 PM on 06/05/2010

First,

If the people on those boats were the heavily armed terrorists you claim they are, there would have been MANY more IDF casualties.

A soldier is most vulnerable when they are being lowered by rope. Also, since SAMs are so readily available, they could have shot a hovering aircraft from the skies.

Now, how many IDF soldiers died? And how many people on the ship died?


As for your statement on Israeli governments, what do you mean by "Arabs"? Are you speaking of foreign governments? Because Israel HAS a peace agreement with Egypt and with Jordan, and both those governments had good relations with the Rabin government.

Or do you mean the Arab citizens of Israel? Again, while the Arab Knesset parties have never been invited into ANY Israeli government, they DID support, from outside the government the Rabin government.

OR are you just trying to avoid the term "Palestinians?" Even there, the Palestinians have had the most trouble with Israeli governments closely tied to the illegal settlements movement, since those settlements are THE biggest obstacle to an immediate peace agreement.

I notice how many who support the settler movement refuse to use the word "Palestinian" -- (ironic since they demand the pre-condition of any PA authority to "recognize" the state of Israel (also ironic since bothe the PLO AND the PA HAVE -- more than once recognized Israel's existence."

[Perry Winkler]

09:14 PM on 06/13/2010

While they may have had right and left wing governments, christian and muslim Palestinians still died, still had their homes razed and still had their land and property stolen from them.

You want them to kiss your feet for that? You are truly insane. The settlements have grown, not shrunk. So all you are saying Left or right they are all equally just thieves and law-breakers

[CigarGod]

05:47 PM on 06/04/2010

U.S.S. Liberty was attacked:
1. By Israeli jets, that had no markings...in violation of international law.
2. Attack was in international waters.
3. U.S. flag was flying.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4113285887114591367#

[Aja Mazin]

03:40 PM on 06/15/2010

please keep educating all of us.
the truth must no longer be hidden.

[Firbolg]

08:48 PM on 06/03/2010

““Israel dropped plans to prosecute dozens of pro-Palestinian activists detained after Monday's raid, opting instead to deport them all immediately in an apparent effort to limit the diplomatic damage from the raid.
"Keeping them here would do more damage to the country's vital interests than good," Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein wrote in the order.”
He got that right!
Israeli has some excellent lawyers who have not had their ethics compromised and the last thing the authorities want is to have them turn a spotlight on the legality of the attack on the flotilla and end up fending off counter-claims of piracy, kidnapping and murder.
That would be too much to hide even for the recent influx of Hasbara bloggers and scribes!

[MMIIXX]

08:36 PM on 06/03/2010

Kiwi: "Israelis fired at will"

The New Zealand woman detained in Israel after a raid on an aid flotilla has described a "lot of noise, a lot of chaos and a lot of gunfire".

Nicola Enchmarch, who was with the aid organisation Viva Palestina, told the BBC the Israeli commandos were "very, very aggressive" and "didn't care who they were firing at".

Enchmarch was among the hundreds of activists deported from Israel on Wednesday and spoke at Istanbul airport after being released.

More...
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-israelis-fired-3578764?ref=emailfriend

[MMIIXX]

08:33 PM on 06/03/2010

Keith Olbermann: Gaza Flotilla Fallout - 06/02/10

Keith Olbermann Interview With Former Chief Of Mission To Iraq Edward Peck: Gaza Flotilla Fallout - 06/02/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKNI5q38ABs&feature=player_embedded#!

[gussiejives]

07:09 PM on 06/03/2010

Oh, that's the way you want to play it, Bibi? Other countries are the hypocrites?

[jwcmass]

10:27 PM on 06/04/2010

It's called projection.

For those who don't knwo what that means, it is a psychological term where a perosn who has a trait "projects" that trait onto others. (And are seeimgly blind to that trait in themselves.)

[Henri101]

06:06 PM on 06/03/2010

Bibi, an arrogant, disrepectful, isolationist.

[StevelK]

03:05 PM on 06/03/2010

I don't know who annoys me more, the Obama loyalists who blindly support everything the administration does, or the Israel supporters who think that in every possible circumstance that Israel is the innocent victim of unwarranted attack from the rest of the world.

[caffeineod]

01:37 AM on 06/04/2010

well, people are not dying by the thousands for supporting Obama....Israel is the worst mistake of the 20th century and, for many reasons, demographics included, will probably not exist as we know it today 50 years from now. good riddance....zionism is racism

[nexxtep54]

01:03 PM on 06/03/2010

As the days pass I'm leaning more and more to believing those big walls are to keep people locked in, not out.

[Perry Winkler]

09:32 PM on 06/13/2010

I would agree with you had they been built on Israeli property rather than on Palestinian property.

[nexxtep54]

12:58 PM on 06/03/2010

Day after day,
Alone on a hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
And no one seems to like him
They can see the he's just a fool
But the fool on the hill sees
The sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round.

[Henri101]

12:30 PM on 06/03/2010

This man has now started killing the American taxpayers who consistently have provided assistance to Isreal. Bibi seems to be a mad-man.

[Henri101]

12:27 PM on 06/03/2010

Bibi is a self-promoter who seems to thrive on confrontation for political gains. The good people of Isreal should not allow this man to tarnish their image; please vote this man out of office.

[robertdaniel]

10:54 AM on 06/03/2010

As long as Israel refuses to go along with an independent investigation into what exactly happened--by an organization like, say, INTERPOL--people will suspect them. They should welcome such an inquiry. If the argument will be that NO ONE can learn the truth because they are all prejudiced and only Israel can judge, they will lose. Israelis is not the only "righteous" people.

[bayviking]

10:20 AM on 06/03/2010

How can you say Israel was defending itself when they were attacking an unarmed passenger ship? It was the passengers that were defending themselves against an armed act of piracy oin international waters. Concrete, steel, food, wheelchairs, beds. This was the payload and Israel knew it because they had infiltrated the boat with spys.

[Berettasskeeter]

11:02 AM on 06/03/2010

Israel did not attack the vessel! They put a force aboard to stop and search it. It was the Israeli's who were attacked!
Semper fi

[jwcmass]

10:50 PM on 06/03/2010

Beret,

You might have a point if this occurred in Territorial waters of either Gaza or Israel.

But it happened in International Waters. That is an act of piracy.


Bear in mind none of these ships or the passengers on these ships attempted to board and take over an Israeli vessel.

It was the IDF that initiated the attack.

And whatever semantics you wish to use, it IS an attack when you foricbly board and take over a ship.

If it is piracy when the Somalis do it, then it is piracy when the Israelis do it.

[ThinkTwiceWriteOnce]

09:16 AM on 06/03/2010

“Warning: the Internet may contain traces of nuts”

[Firbolg]

08:54 PM on 06/03/2010

Not bad for your 2nd comment on HP ever.
However, you should try harder. There is room for improvement.