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1. Lone Jewish High School Student Faces Down Arab Mob in LA
by Hillel Fendel
A loud and angry mob of pro-Arab demonstrators outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles on Tuesday became even more enraged when one, lone Jewish high school student with a yarmulke and a large Israeli flag marched fearlessly alongside them.
Email news readers, please click here to see the video.
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The young man seemed to be unmoved by the angry curses hurled at him by the American-Arab crowd. Though protected by a line of policemen, it appeared he could be attacked at any moment.
Reporters asked him afterwards about his unusual presence, and he explained, “I came out because I want to defend Israel… They [the soldiers attempting to divert the flotilla ships - ed.] were attacked, and they had the right to defend [themselves]. These people [on the boats] were not humanitarians; their ship was armed with knives, batons, and all kinds of things to attack the Israelis with. There is a naval blockade on Gaza, and they [the soldiers] were just doing their job of enforcing it… Hamas is a terrorist organization trying to kill Israelis.”
Asked if he is affiliated with any group, he said, “Just Judaism and Israel, that’s it.”
Asked how he knows that the ship was filled with arms, he said, “I know from the news; I’m an informed person.”
This contrasted with the Arab-Americans who appear at the end of the video. One girl said that a Palestinian state alongside Israel would not satisfy her, as “there should not be an Israeli state! The Israeli state does not even exist!”
Another Arab-speaking American explained, “The only reason Israel is doing this is because they got kicked out from, uh, the German whatever, whatever happened to them. So they’re trying to take out their anger to someone else.” Asked about the Bible and the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel since the times of King Solomon, he lowered his voice and said, “I don’t know about that.”
2. Prime Minister Tells Soldiers: You are Heroes
by Gil Ronen
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the wounded soldiers from the 'Shayetet 13' Naval Commando Unit Tuesday. The soldiers were admitted to Rambam Hospital in Haifa Monday after suffering injuries from a violent mob while gaining control of the Turkish-sponsored terror-sympathizers' flotilla.
Netanyahu cut short a North American tour and canceled a meeting with United States President Barack Obama in order to return to Israel after the bloody maritime incident. Once his plane landed in Israel after the 12 hour return flight, Netanyahu's motorcade headed directly for Tel HaShomer Hospital where the wounded soldiers are being treated.
Netanyahu encouraged the soldiers and their families, saying: “This ship was not carrying people of peace. You are heroes and it is your courageous and single-minded action that saved your friends.”
First Sergeant O. told Netanyahu he was hit by a bullet in the abdomen. “The bullet went right through my stomach,” he said, pointing out the entry and exit wounds.
Netanyahu shook his hand warmly and said: “I am no doctor, but this is a painful and difficult experience, and I imagine you saved many people there – yourself and others.”
Wounded officer, Lt. D., told the Prime Minister that the people on board the ship grabbed the rappelling rope and tried to prevent the soldiers' descent, but the soldiers managed to overcome the obstacle. “I came down and the second I landed they shot me,” he said. “Immediately seven or eight militants jumped on me and started to beat me with metal rods. I was hit in the head and neck. Another man attacked me with a knife. At this point I lost consciousness for 45 minutes and when I woke up there was light already. My friends had come and rescued me.”
Another soldier in the elite unit, First Sergeant Y., told the Prime Minister that he was assaulted as soon as he reached the boat's deck and was thrown off the deck. As a result he is suffering from a seriously fractured skull. “I hope I can recover in time for the next IDF [physical fitness] championship,” he joked nonetheless.
Doctors said that Y.'s speedy recovery is a near miracle and that they believe he will be going home soon.
3. Obama told Netanyahu: Go Home, Don't Explain From Here
by Hillel Fendel
In the hubbub surrounding the “battle of the flotilla,” Netanyahu’s quick reversal of his decision to remain in the United States has been largely ignored. It turns out that Obama told him to leave because he didn’t want Netanyahu to use the White House as a stage on which to present Israel’s side of the story.
The flotilla violence caught Netanyahu in the midst of a diplomatic trip to North America. He was in the Canadian capital of Ottawa at the time, about to leave for Washington for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. The meeting was to have been a way for Obama to make up for the humiliation he dealt Netanyahu on his last visit, when he refused to be seen with the Israeli leader in public.
Netanyahu announced immediately after the flotilla news broke that he would remain in North America and would meet with Obama as scheduled. However, within minutes after media reported Netanyahu would continue with his trip as scheduled, he abruptly announced a change of plan and set off immediately for Israel to “deal with the flotilla crisis.”
Behind the scenes, it was Obama officials who caused the turnabout. Globes cites sources in both Jerusalem and Washington who say that Obama officials gave a clear message to Netanyahu’s people: “Don’t come.”
Officials in both Washington and Jerusalem deny that this was the case.
Some sources said that it was precisely the high-profile nature of the visit that scared the Americans. The White House did not wish Obama to be seen sharing the stage with the leader of the country that was under international attack for having “attacked peace activists.”
Netanyahu, for his part, was looking forward to explaining to the world from Washington that the violent activists on the boat in question were “terror activists” with ties to Hamas and Al-Qaeda, who attempted to lynch the minimally-armed soldiers as they rappelled down down their helicopter.
4. Turkish Rabbi Assumed to Fear Defending Israel
by Hillel Fendel
Turkey’s Chief Rabbi publicly condemned Israel’s action vis-à-vis the Gaza-bound flotilla – proof, some say, that Turkish Jews feel at risk.
Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Haleva publicly criticized Israel’s actions vis-à-vis the Gaza-bound flotilla, which he called a “provocation,” and said that Israel should have acted differently. His interviewer, from the hareidi-religious radio station Kol BaRamah, was clearly shocked, saying, “You are outright pro-Palestinian! How should Israel have acted differently when its soldiers fell into a lynch mob?” The interviewer then said, “We must say ‘thank G-d’ that you are not engaged in advocacy for Israel on the world arena.”
Rabbi Haleva also said that the Jews in Turkey are not scared, that the increasing Turkish hostility over the past year or so did not originate with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that he is hopeful and confident that everything will soon quiet down.
Most see Rabbi Haleva’s words as proof that Turkish Jews are scared of the Islamic regime, and that the Jewish community there is reacting as Jews did in Communist Russia and other anti-Semitic environments. Turkey announced Wednesday it is beefing up protection for Jews in the country in wake of spreading anti-Semitic protests.
Rabbi Pinchas Goldshmidt of Moscow writes that Rabbi Haleva should not be criticized, but should rather be assumed to have either been pressured to say what he did by Turkish authorities, or to be expressing the fears of his Jewish community – or both. “Those among us who remember the Jewish communities behind the Iron Curtain,” he explains, “and those who are familiar with the history of Jewish communities in various Muslim countries, know for certain that [Rabbi Haleva spoke under pressure and/or out of fear… It is important that this be known in the world."
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry has instructed the families of Israeli diplomats in Turkey to leave the country immediately, for fear that anti-Israel rage will lead to violence.
The Jewish community in Turkey has traditionally been treated well. It began in 1492, when a large number of Spanish Jews found refuge there after being expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. After World War II, having been basically protected from the Nazis, some 100,000 of Turkey’s Jews were permitted to leave for the Land of Israel to fulfill their age-old religious yearnings.
Turkish olim (immigrants to Israel) founded the city of Yahud, as well as Kerem Ben Zimra and Kibbutz HaGoshrim, and were instrumental in starting Kibbutz Nachsholim, Kizbbutz Gvulot, Tzipori and other locales in Israel.
At present, there are estimated to be some 26,000 Jews in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul, where some 20 synagogues are active. Istanbul has a Jewish elementary and high school, and Izmir has a Jewish elementary school.
Eliyahu Birnbaum, head of the Strauss-Amiel Rabbis Training Center for the Diaspora reported in 2008 that the Jews in Turkey are fearful, their synagogues are highly protected, especially following the two terror attacks since 1986 [in which nearly 30 Jews were killed in total], and no longer speak their native Ladino language.
5. Flotilla Reporters Feeding Frenzy at State Dept. Briefing
by Hana Levi Julian
Reporters at Tuesday's State Department briefing on the U.S. involvement in Sunday night's Muslim militant ambush of Israeli Naval commandos on flotilla vessels heading to Gaza appeared to be seeking anything but the objective facts in the incident.
Among the items found on the Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, were bulletproof vests, military-grade night vision equipment, a rifle scope, an assortment of knives, electric saws, metal rods and clubs. The violent confrontation left nine militants dead and seven IDF soldiers wounded, including two in serious condition. A total of 380 Turkish nationals, who were passengers in the six-vessel flotilla -- including many militants on the Mavi Marmara -- are expected to be sent back to Turkey by Thursday. More than a hundred Arabs have already been deported to Jordan, from where they traveled to their ports of origin.
State Department spokesman Phillip J. Crowley faced a barrage of questions Tuesday, many of them pointed and some of them almost outright hostile, according to a transcript of the briefing. The questions and behavior of the journalists, most of them seasoned reporters from respected media outlets, makes it clear why coverage around the globe may not be fair, accurate or objective.
From the outset, the spokesman reiterated in response to a question a statement made earlier in the day by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the Obama administration supports the U.N. Security Council's call for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” of the incident.
He added that Israel is “in the best position to conduct an investigation of what transpired” – a response that prompted one journalist to comment derisively, “The fox [is] watching the hen house here.”
Crowley responded, “There were Israeli forces that carried out this action, and we think that that means that they're in the best position to investigate what instructions were given to those forces, how they viewed the situation as they approached the flotilla, and what transpired on board that ship." But Crowley's further explanation, “We support an Israeli investigation, but we're open to different ways of ensuring a credible investigation, including international participation,” was ignored.
The spokesman's responses appeared to please no one, and the briefing rapidly descended into a near free-for-all.
The same journalist charged, “A foreign military boarded a ship in international waters, assaulted its passengers, handcuffed and beat some of those passengers, many of them humanitarian activists, and you're saying you're not prepared to send U.S. investigators.”
The spokesman refused to be baited, however, responding mildly that “you're making some presumptions... in your question. You characterized what happened on the ship. We are still trying to ascertain precisely what happened on that ship.”
Further demands by the journalist to know whether the American government would send the FBI were deflected by the spokesman, who responded that he was “not prepared to say what role the United States would have at this point.”
The next question dealt with the “essential” medical equipment the flotilla was allegedly bringing to Gaza. “These ships had aid, medical equipment including wheelchairs, building equipment,” noted a reporter. “How essential is it right now that this equipment get to the Palestinians?” he asked. “How important is it that these materials are now sort of confiscated and not within the hands of those who desperately need it? Is this useful right now?”
But rather than refer the journalists to the lists of the thousands of tons of humanitarian aid – including medical equipment and other supplies – delivered weekly through the Israeli land crossings to Gaza, Crowley sidestepped the question.
“I can't say right now what the status of the material that was on the ship," he said. "Certainly, again in the [U.N.] presidential statement, there was an encouragement, which we absolutely support, that that material be provided to the people of Gaza,” he commented. “We have pressed the Israelis to expand the amount of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and we will continue to work with the Israelis every day to try to make that happen,” he added.
Two more ships are currently heading to Gaza apparently in hopes of repeating Monday's scenario – a point which the reporters raised as a concern regarding Israel's plans for stopping the vessels.
“Is the United States offering any words of caution to Israel that if you're going to try to stop it this time, do it differently,” asked one reporter.
On this point as well, Crowley took a side-step, saying that Secretary Clinton “did express that for the United States, for Israel, for other countries, we should be extremely cautious in both what we say and what we do in coming days, in light of what's transpired... I don't think anyone wants to see a repeat of what happened [Monday].”
As the briefing drew to a close, the spokesman stated for the record that “We certainly understand that Israel has a right to self-defense. Given the situation in Gaza, it has been subject to rocket attacks in the past. There is a state of hostility between Israel and Hamas... That said, there is also a clear humanitarian need to provide material to the people of Gaza to help them subsist and rebuild, and we recognize that as well. As the Secretary and others have said, the situation in Gaza is unsustainable. We want to see how we can provide greater assistance to the people of Gaza but clearly, while protecting Israel's legitimate right of self-defense.
“Israel has a right to be concerned about the nature of materials that is moving into Gaza,” he added. “At the same time, we've long called for an expansion of humanitarian goods to the people of Gaza to help improve their situation on the ground.”
6. Turkish Cyber Attack Against Israeli Web Sites
by Hana Levi Julian
A Turkish Internet group carried out a cyber attack against an Israeli Web site Tuesday afternoon, hitting the Likudnik web site, apparently in response to Israel's success in heading off the attempt by Turkey to isolate Israel in the United Nations.
The unofficial home site of the Likud party, Likudnik displayed on Tuesday afternoon a large, dark photo of what appeared to be a wounded man on a stretcher carried by IDF soldiers, with a knife sticking out of his chest. Curses against Israel in English and Turkish were printed in bright green and red lettering, and the Turkish and Palestinian Authority flags flanked the page, along with the words, “1923 Turk Grup.” At the bottom of the page was written in bright red lettering, “JOAK GRUP KOMUTANLIGI.” A loud, ominous music bed with Arabic lyrics sung in a deep male voice accompanied the image.
Despite a report by the Istanbul-based Today's Zayman boasting that the Turkish hacker group had simultaneously struck other web sites in Israel as well, including "state, company and bank web sites," a quick check around the Internet by Israel National News made it clear that either the Likudnik had been the sole target, or had been the only site affected.
The hackers condemned Israel in a statement posted on the site and vowed to continue their attacks.
The 1923 Turk Group is an Internet organization that specializes in hacking Israeli government and other local Web sites, as well as those of organizations and countries that support the Jewish State. The group also hacks other sites that it deems socially or morally inappropriate, according to the Internet hackers' forum “Hack This Site,” which adds that the group is a “cyber army of Turkia (Turkey) and all Turks” who are allegedly sworn to “protect the Turkish flag in this cyber world.”
The Today's Zayman site also reported that Turkey sent three air ambulances to Israel to pick up its citizens that participated in the flotilla. One of the first to be released reportedly was a mother, Nilufer Cetin, and her one-year-old baby. Cetin told reporters she agreed to be extradited after being told jail conditions would be “too harsh” for the baby.
The “activists” were arrested after Muslim extremists attacked Israeli soldiers who boarded vessels in the flotilla as it was on the way to carry out its expressed goal of violating an embargo of Israel's territorial waters around Gaza.
The Turkish government was one of the main sponsors of the six-vessel flotilla, along with the radical Islamic organization, IHH, also based in Turkey.
Although various self-styled “peace activists” from several countries rode on five of the ships, the sixth -- the Mavi Marmara -- was packed with armed Muslim militants who planned an attack on Israeli naval personnel.
When the ships were stopped and boarded after ignoring numerous warnings to halt, the Israeli soldiers were ambushed by militants wielding metal rods, daggers, and long, sharp knives. Several grabbed guns from the soldiers and shot them, seriously wounding two. A third soldier was stabbed in the stomach, and several were thrown overboard. Soldiers also reported live gunfire coming from below deck as well.
Turkey, together with other members of the Arab bloc, called for a resolution on Monday condemning the Jewish State. However, due to video evidence of the events filmed by a helicopter hovering over the vessels and that of a cameraman in an Israel Navy ship alongside, the U.S. and Israel managed to deflect the attempt. Instead, the U.N. passed a watered-down version of the resolution, which called for a "partial investigation" of the incident.
7. Israel Pulls Diplomats Families Out of Turkey
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Foreign Ministry has ordered families of diplomats in Turkey to leave the country immediately as anti-Israel rage boils over following the flotilla clash. The ministry said there is no sign of a break in diplomatic relations between the two nations, although Ankara has recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
Turkey has led the anti-Israeli broadside even before Israel stopped the flotilla from trying to reach the Hamas-controlled Gaza coast, where the Oslo Accords have retained Israeli sovereignty.
Ankara assisted the Muslim-based IHH organization that sponsored the flotilla with the aim of breaking the embargo on Hamas, which over the past several years has smuggled in to Gaza long-range missiles, hundreds of tons explosives, arms, ammunition and terrorists.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned before the flotilla began its voyage that Israel should allow it to reach Gaza and cancel the embargo against Hamas. “Tensions should be avoided and the siege on Gaza lifted,” he told reporters lat week. The Turkish government promised reprisals if the Israeli Navy were to stop the flotilla, and it has carried through on its vow with international media and diplomatic condemnations of Israel.
Similar to virtually every other country in the world, Turkey made no mention of the documented violence and lynch instigated by Muslim militants, many of them from Turkey.
“Turkey now is one of the sides in the Middle East conflict. It is quite clearly opposed to Israel,” said writer Sami Kohen, a veteran Turkish political analyst and columnist, quoted by the Christian Science Monitor. “This event is almost a climax in this shift.”
He added, “There is now more reason for Turkey to take a more active part in the events of the Middle East, since it has suffered personally from this attack. Now it can justify its anti-Israeli positions, which get a good deal of sympathy in the Arab and Islamic world.”
Turkey had been a diplomatic friend of Israel for two decades until last year’s Operation Cast Lead war against Hamas terrorists coincided with the changing diplomatic winds that have catapulted Iran into a position of possibly becoming dominant in the Middle East.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) has simultaneously broken off participation in annual military drills with Israel while increasing defense ties with the Syrian-Iranian axis.
The country’s Today’s Zayman news site reported Tuesday that the government may even cancel defense contracts with Israel worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, the trade ties with Israel work both ways, and Turkey may not want to lose its benefits, at least not for the time being. Turkey has bought defense products from Israel, but the Jewish State in return imports military textiles from Ankara.
Turkey, a popular destination for Israeli vacationers, has suffered a sharp drop in Israeli tourism since the flotilla clash Monday. In addition, El Al and the Turkish airline Atlasjet have postponed the launching of new flights, using Atlasjet planes, between Istanbul and Ben Gurion International Airport.
