Israel's Final Mistake

The fact that Israel would intentionally squander its good relations with Turkey amounts to a heavy tonnage blow in all respects, toward any kind of realistic peace process.

Courtesy: Zee News India

(SALEM, Ore.) - The widening gap in relations between Turkey and Israel is part of an evolving scenario that could swallow any hope of ending human rights abuse in the region. All politics between Turkey and Israel aside, the battle in this part of the world isn't a religious one, it exists because of Israel's continual land theft in Palestine and human rights abuse of non-Jews.

The real snapping point with Turkey was Israel's crushing attack on the civilian population of Gaza in the winter of 2008/09 known conspicuously as 'operation cast lead'. With Israel's name for their killing game boastful - like a John Wayne wannabe on too much bad booze, it is surprising to many observers that the rift between the Erdorgan government and Netanyahu regime remained out of sight as long as it did. Those days quite obviously, are now well behind us.

Lost Alliance

The 1990's saw increasing cooperation between Turkey and Israel and it wasn't until 2007, after the reelection of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Islamic Justice and Development Party, that the relations reached critical levels. In a Ha'aretz article this week, Amos Harel wrote:

"Turkey's announcement on Friday that it is suspending all military cooperation with Israel, in the aftermath of publication of the Palmer Report and Israel's refusal to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals aboard the Mavi Marmara in May 2010, is a further deterioration in a relationship that has been on a downward spiral for several years."
- (Turkey’s cut of military ties with Israel was a long time coming - Ha'aretz)

The fact that Israel would intentionally squander its good relations with Turkey amounts to a heavy tonnage blow in all respects, toward any kind of realistic peace process.

U.S. Commitment to Israel

The truth is that the United States stands ready in the United Nations, to invoke what is known as super veto power and override all war crimes charges that Israel encounters, and there are many charges, all still mostly unaddressed due to the American politician's unwavering commitment to protect Israel even when attacks like the one on Gaza leave more than 400 children dead in a three week period.

Even as Israel commits heavy handed human rights violations against Palestinians regularly, even as Israel uses U.S. supplied planes and drones to bomb Gaza's civilian populace almost daily.

But let those Gazans fire a single rocket and the press channels light up like the 4th of July with yet another chance to brand the Palestinian resistance fighters, who have lost almost everything to Israel already, as 'terrorists' for fighting back. For Israel, the opportunities to exploit people, kill with illegal weapons, and specifically target civilians always, have never been so ample, thanks to U.S. Congress.

The Mavi Marmara Incident

From: Recognizing the Mavi Marmara Dead and All of Gaza's Heroes

Armed with the knowledge that it can duck and evade even charges of that severity, Israel next struck a passenger ship on the high seas called the Mavi Marmara which was a Turkish ship, whose crew had a stated intention of delivering relief supplies to Gaza, the narrow strip of land surrounded by Israel to the north and east, Egypt to the south, and a Mediterranean Sea to the west.

The Israeli offensive attack on the Mavi Marmara happened 30 May 2010 in international waters, not within Israel's boundary. It involved numerous helicopters and warships and among the crimes Israel remains accused of, one it faces in numerous cases during cast lead, involves explicitly denying medical care to the injured, an outright violation of numerous international laws under the 2003 Geneva Accord and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

One thing American readers need to understand, is that in Turkey, the media is not getting the nod from Jewish Israeli censors as it does in New York and Hollywood.

In fact a movie we have written about in the past, Valley of the Wolves - Palestine, involves so many Israelis being murdered and splattered that it would take some work to count them all.

The movie is specifically about a Turkish character who many compare to 'Rambo', who avenges the people aboard the Mavi Marmara by tracking down the Israelis who were responsible, pretty serious tones.

Above: entire movie w/ subtitles. Below: 3 of our reports on the film: Turkey's Rambo Takes on Israel - Salem-News.com Valley of the Wolves - Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com Valley of the Anti-Semites? - Belén Fernandez Salem-News.com

Our writer Ken O'Keefe was aboard that ship that night in 2010 and he tells the story, along with Kevin Neish of Victoria, B.C., in the Salem-News.com video: Mavi Marmara Witness.

The American media paid little attention to the story at all. Groups like al Jazeera, Russian TV and Press TV have given the story great coverage, though that is seldom seen here in the U.S.

The Israelis enlisted the help of groups like The BBC, to alter the UK's perception of the story in an apparent act of pro-Israeli political engineering.

In one example, The BBC allowed an Israeli Defence Forces 'commando' to claim in the first 17 seconds of a popular weekly program, Panorama, that those aboard the Mavi Marmara "wanted to kill every single one of us" when in fact, O'Keefe personally disarmed one Israeli soldier and helped take a submachine gun from a second militant. Both men were taken to the ship's doctors, treated and released. The bottom line is that Ken had a fully loaded Israeli weapon that he took from a commando, and that he, nor anyone else from the Mavi Marmara used these primed and loaded weapons against the Israelis. No Israeli soldiers died, nine peace activists on the Mavi Marmara died, scores were seriously injured from gunfire and to this day, one of the men hurt remains in a life-threatening coma. One was a 19-year old American citizen. What Israel did was commit an irreversible error in judgment.

The elimination of the story altogether is the specialty of American media and press, and of course almost all of the coverage the story did receive was carried with a clear pro-Israeli slant.

In the Middle east, particularly Turkey, the way people feel about Israel is marginalized at best. Nobody likes to see a government continually erode a civilian population into non-existence and it is no stretch to say that is Israel's very aim - the elimination or full removal, of all of the Palestinian people. These are human beings whose families have lived on the same land in some cases, for hundreds of years.

A Country Held as Prisoner

The utter stone cold misery of Israeli apartheid

Gaza is one part of historic Palestine that existed on the land now claimed by Israel until 1948, where people of all faiths lived in harmony for hundreds of years, following the crusades.

Among its 1.5 million inhabitants are more than 800,000 children and they are deprived of almost everything essential to live; like adequate food, supplies to rebuild the homes and businesses Israel targets regularly, and medicine.

The people of Gaza are under the political arm of Hamas, a legitimately elected militant Islamic party that is designated 'terrorist' even though the revoked suicide bombing years ago. Their primary defense when they use them, are rockets, and everyone has heard of the 'rockets fired from Gaza'. By any account, a total of 28 Israeli citizens have died as a result of rocket attacks.

Israel has killed that many civilians in a single location many times, that many people at once.

There are no punishments or sanctions for Israeli soldiers who hurt, abuse or kill Palestinian children, and as Uri Avnery wrote this week in a chilling article from Israel, that the Israeli army is working with 'settlers' who are hardcore armed religious zealots, in preparation for a mass killing of Palestinians. Uri wrote that the word in Israel, is that Israel's attack will be masked as a reaction to an accusation of Palestinians firing from a crowd:

"One of the scenarios the army is preparing for, it was stated, is for Palestinians shooting at soldiers and settlers 'from inside the mass demonstrations'. That is an ominous statement. I have been at hundreds of demonstrations and never witnessed anyone shooting 'from inside the demonstration'. Such a person would have to be insanely irresponsible, since he would expose all the people around him to deadly retaliation. But it is a handy pretext for shooting at non-violent protesters."
- (Israel's Settler Army and Government Poised to Commit a New Outrage - Uri Avnery Salem-News.com)

This girl, attacked in her home by an Israeli drone attack, can only be helped so much by doctors... who don't have an x-ray that finds plastic shrapnel, one of the devious, illegal tricks of the U.S. funded Israeli military.

This tactic would not be anything new, it was employed a few years ago during the attempted overthrow of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The CIA is said to have been involved, along with the State Dept., and FOX News, (seriously) and they all tried to put distance in after it was determined that 'pro-Chavez' demonstrators had not fired against a mob representing Venezuela's very angry wealthy citizens.

That is how FOX delivered 'the news' that day though. They actually took shots of pro-Chavez protesters firing back at a sniper who was shooting and killing people from both crowds, and stated clearly that the 'pro-Chavez' side started everything, when in fact they had not.

Wikipedia states:

"The opposition blamed the deaths on a number of Chavistas filmed firing pistols from a bridge, a narrative which was at first largely accepted by the international media and provided justification for the coup. Chavez supporters and others claimed that unknown snipers were responsible for most if not all of the deaths, in a manner consistent with longstanding plans to justify a coup, but the issue remains controversial."
- (2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt - Wikipedia)

President Chavez was returned to Venezuela and re assumed his office where he continues to serve very successfully, to this day.

Palestine Cheated - then and now

The people of Palestine were guaranteed a right to their land for having assisted the British forces in securing Jerusalem from the Turks, ironically, during World War One, and that promise to give Arabs autonomy by Sir Lawrence himself, was quickly voided by something known as the Balfour Declaration in Great Britain, which was a significant step in the eventual creation of Israel.

The ensuing years saw the formation of Israel, and the Israeli government remains very intent on taking land from the remaining Palestinians.

From the Jul-02-2011 Salem-News.com report: Vittrorio Arrigoni 'Stay Human' - the Story in Gaza from Beyond the Grave

Israel's Human Rights violations are rampant. The waters off Gaza are heavily patrolled by armed Israeli naval gunboats which spend most days (literally) attacking Gaza fishing boats, sometimes kidnapping and shooting, even murdering crew members attempting to earn a living in their traditional trade within Gaza's bown coastal waters. This was the main project of activist Vittorio 'Vik' Arrigoni who hailed from Italy, the grandson of Italian resistance fighters who defeated the fascists and Nazi's in WWII.

He gave a voice to these forlorn fishermen and women of Gaza. Vik was murdered in Palestine, so he is no longer there to help, and the groups that are, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPS Gaza) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

This brutal treatment of unarmed people at sea that Israel conducts with impunity, day after day, thanks to its protection from the U.S. government and Congress.

Turkey's former alliance with Israel may have been one of the only things that allowed Israel the positioning to wield such brutal force on its neighbors. This it seems, is highly regrettable to many Turks and the years of codling Israel and snuggling up close in military operations is long behind in the past. With regard to the Israeli perspective, another writer with Ha'aretz, Zvi Bar'el, today wrote:

"The expulsion of Israel's ambassador from Ankara and downgrading of diplomatic ties to the level of second secretary could turn out to be the lightest of the sanctions Turkey intends to impose on Israel. Supporting legal actions against Israel by families of the victims of the 2010 naval commando raid of the Mavi Marmara, in both Turkish and international courts, and appealing to the International Court of Justice against the blockade of the Gaza Strip could prove to be much more powerful. The former could affect the foreign travel plans of Israeli officers and decision makers, while the latter would move the Gaza issue from the local arena, where Israel maintains a relative advantage, to the international stage, which has not as yet interfered in Israeli policy vis-a-vis Gaza."
- (World will likely support Turkey’s moves against Israel - Ha'aretz)

Instead of earning the 'rogue nation' slot, Turkey is playing it cool with the U.S. and it is likely that they will see continued international support for the strong words and promise of action against Israel.

One thing that causes Turkey to lose points with many in the world, but gain them in the U.S., is Ankara's willingness to assume a critical position toward the Assad regime in Syria. Syria remains on good terms with eternally demonized Iran, though its levels of restraint toward protesters has at times, been non-existent. Regardless, Turkey's public comments toward Assad and its cooperation with the NATO mission to kill Libyans, and work with Libya's 'provisional government', as well as its support of the revolution in Egypt.

Then there is the fact that Turkey agreed to the deployment of early warning radar, a component in a NATO missile-defense system with an undeclared purpose of 'protecting' Europe from missiles that in theory could be fired from Iran; that earned more good favor with the west and the U.S. in genera.

As The Guardian states, these moves demonstrate that the fears of Ankara turning away from the West and toward the East - that is, toward Tehran - hold little water. Turkey is playing center field, they are presenting an obstacle that even Israel doesn't know what to do with.

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 82 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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You know who you are September 6, 2011 4:39 pm (Pacific time)

(QUOTE:Nero)"2nd rate Israel Military" Yep, you just said it all "SECOND RATE" So leave the Military activities to the big boys that reside in the "FIRST RATE" Category. Give up, and go back farming, Tourism, and dealing in the illegal diamond trade.

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Nero September 6, 2011 2:23 pm (Pacific time)

I could care less about Israel, but I agree with their policies dealing with the biggest enemy planet earth has ever had. My prayers are they wipe them out and then come here and help us clean up our mess. If Turkey does try to breech their security it's over for Turkey. They, like Syria, Egypt, Iran, are all 3rd rate military, and 2nd rate Israel would erase them within hours, just watch. We may get some minor fallout here, but so what, it's good for neutralizing bacteria and other critters that have gotten in our food chain.

Tim King: Hey Nero, do you order the 'Scumbag Special' when you buy lunch?  

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Jimmy September 6, 2011 12:01 pm (Pacific time)

Ralph, I am a US Citizen, and I do not stand with Israel, only my opressive government does.

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COLLI September 6, 2011 7:35 am (Pacific time)

It may be as simple as the fact that Israeli supporters are just not throwning as much money at Turkish politicians as they are at U.S. politicians!

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Ralph E. Stone September 6, 2011 7:30 am (Pacific time)

While Israel has erected a wall or fence, which cuts deep into Palestinian territory, joining large Jewish settlement blocks to Israel, further confining the Palestinians to isolated enclaves. Israel continues to establish new settlements (called outposts), demolishing homes and uprooting plantations in the process. While Israel has walled-in the Palestinians, it has in turn is guettoised itself. If the General Assembly votes to grant Palestine's petition for statehood and the U.S. uses its veto, the U.S. will continue to fuel Arab anti-U.S. sentiment, but it will also further isolate Israel from the rest of the world. Who besides the U.S., is allied with Israel?

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