Turkish warships harass Israeli freighters. Israeli missile boats off Cyprus

Increasingly assertive Turkey is setting the scene for clashes in the eastern Mediterranean. Since Thursday, Sept. 29, Turkish warships have been harassing Israeli merchant vessels in waters off Cyprus, DEBKAfile's military sources report. They come close enough to establish wireless communication and caution the Israeli vessels they are in contravention of international law and ordering them to change course. The Israeli crews mostly ignore these "orders", treating them as Ankara's latest bid to assert Turkish naval mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean. But the situation is getting explosive enough to spark a major incident. Over the weekend, Israeli Air Force planes circled near the sites of the incidents but not directly over the Turkish vessels. At the same time Israeli missile ships sailed close to Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone waters, where the Houston-based Noble Energy began drilling for natural gas on Sept. 19 in the face of Turkish threats. The rig is situated 160 kilometers south of Cyprus adjacent to Israel's Leviathan gas field. Western naval sources tracking the new Turkish and Israeli deployments reported Saturday, Oct. 1: "Turkey and Israel are in a constant muscle-flexing contest in the eastern Mediterranean. They are metaphorically shaking fists in each other's faces and raising the risk of a confrontation that could quickly veer out of control." Last week, Ankara retaliated for Cypriot and Israeli deep sea gas explorations by sending an exploration ship of its own escorted by a frigate and a submarine to Cyprus. Ankara sources also disclosed that Turkish F-16 fighters had been deployed in the northern part of the island. Voicing concern over Turkey's assertiv

Turkey is trying to reinstate the Ottoman Empire on a volunteer basis by getting to Arab states to look to Turkey as a military savior from Israel.

The Islamists have taken over Turkey and are using Islam as a reunifying cry. The Palastinians mean nothing to most Turks, they are only a way to stick a thorn in Israel and highlight the growing anti-semantic feeling in Europe, and elsewhere.

The fact that Turkey has not been already booted from NATO is telling as they are playing with fire that will eventually burn someone. They have betrayed us & the West and why that remain in NATO can only be to destabilize the Western powers.

As the West continues to kiss Islamic ass, and reward them for hating us, this will continue to be a problem, as almost the whole Western Civilization is on the verge of a mighty economic collapse, which will probably trigger the start of a war of us from Islam both within and out.

As our economies continue to weaken, we will not have the money to assist Israel and protect ourselves, as we increasingly pull back home. The fact that a large fifth-column of illegals and Islam is already here will mean even that will not help.

Illegals here will continue to destroy us from within as well as pandering to them and every other PC notion of surrender. Its going to be a bumpy ride folks. October is here and the stock market is weak as well as most of the world economies. The Euro is practically dead and is only going by kiting future checks to create fake money to try to stem the flow. It will fail to achieve this goal eventually annd the dominoes will fall.

The following was abstracter from the 1911 Encyclpaedia Britanica, written before World War One when the area was still under Turkey.
Population.—The inhabitants of Palestine are composed of a large number of elements, differing widely in ethnological affinities, language and religion...
There are two classes into which the population of Palestine can be divided—the nomadic and the sedentary. ....
The pure Arab origin of the Bedouins is recognised in common conversation in the country, the word " Arab " being almost restricted to denote these wanderers, and seldom applied to the dwellers in towns and villages.... The sedentary population of the country villages—the fellahin, or agriculturists—is, on the whole, comparatively unmixed; but traces of various intrusive strains assert themselves. ... there is a remarkable correspondence of type between many of the modern fellahin and skeletons of ancient inhabitants ... New elements no doubt came in under the Assyrian, Persian and Roman dominations, and in more recent times there has been much contamination. The spread of Islam introduced a very considerable Neo-Arabian infusion. Those from southern Arabia were known as the Yaman tribe, those from northern Arabia the Kais (Qais). These two divisions absorbed the previous peasant population, and still nominally exist; down to the middle of the 19th century they were a fruitful source of quarrels and of bloodshed. ... In the 19th century the short-lived Egyptian government introduced into the population an element from that country which still persists in the villages. These newcomers have not been completely assimilated with the villagers...

Some of the larger villages—notably Bethlehem—which have always been leavened by Christianity, and with the development of industry have become comparatively prosperous, show tangible results of these happier circumstances in a higher standard of physique among the men and of personal appearance among the women. ... The population of the larger towns is of a much more complex nature. In each there is primarily a large Arab element, consisting for the greater part of members of important and wealthy families. Thus, in Jerusalem, much of the local influence is in the hands of the families of El-Khalidi, El-Husseini and one or two others, who derive their descent from the heroes of the early days of Islam. The Turkish element is small, consisting exclusively of officials sent individually from Constantinople. There are very large contingents from the Mediterranean countries,- especially Armenia, Greece and Italy, principally engaged in trade. The extraordinary development of Jewish colonization has since 1870 effected a revolution in the balance of population in some parts of the country, notably in Jerusalem. There are few residents in the country from the more eastern parts of Asia—if we except the Turkoman settlements in the Jaulan, a number of Persians, and a fairly large Afghan colony that since 1905 has established itself in Jaffa. The Mutawileh (Motawila), who form the majority of the inhabitants of the villages north-west of Galilee, are probably long-settled immigrants from Persia. Some tribes of Kurds live in tents and huts near Lake Huleh.
...
There must also be mentioned a Bosnian colony established at Caesarea Palestina, and the Circassian settlements placed in certain centres of Eastern Palestine by the Turkish government in order to keep a restraint on the Bedouin: the latter are also found in Galilee. There was formerly a large Sudanese and Algerian element in the population of some of the large towns, ... the Algerians however still maintain themselves in parts of Galilee.

The most interesting of all the non-Arab communities in the country, however, is without doubt the Samaritan sect in Nablus (Shechem); a gradually disappearing body, which has maintained an independent existence from the time when they were first settled by the Assyrians to occupy the land left waste by the captivity of the kingdom of Israel.

END TIMES PING LIST PING

Some added paragraphing:

They come close enough to establish wireless communication and caution the Israeli vessels they are in contravention of international law and ordering them to change course.

The Israeli crews mostly ignore these “orders”, treating them as Ankara’s latest bid to assert Turkish naval mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean. But the situation is getting explosive enough to spark a major incident.

Over the weekend, Israeli Air Force planes circled near the sites of the incidents but not directly over the Turkish vessels.

At the same time Israeli missile ships sailed close to Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone waters, where the Houston-based Noble Energy began drilling for natural gas on Sept. 19 in the face of Turkish threats. The rig is situated 160 kilometers south of Cyprus adjacent to Israel’s Leviathan gas field.

Western naval sources tracking the new Turkish and Israeli deployments reported Saturday, Oct. 1: “Turkey and Israel are in a constant muscle-flexing contest in the eastern Mediterranean. They are metaphorically shaking fists in each other’s faces and raising the risk of a confrontation that could quickly veer out of control.”

Last week, Ankara retaliated for Cypriot and Israeli deep sea gas explorations by sending an exploration ship of its own escorted by a frigate and a submarine to Cyprus. Ankara sources also disclosed that Turkish F-16 fighters had been deployed in the northern part of the island.

The F4E won’t be used as fighters, and I don’t think the Turkish pilots will be calling in sick.

I’m not saying the Turks are great fighters, but they are not Arabs.

Yes the Israelis did a lot of upgrades for the Turks in prior days, and that gives them an understanding of Turkish capability. Not a bad thing to have in your pocket.

Per being a smart move for Turkey? Well, that is in the eye of the beholder I suppose, and the beholders in this case are Islamists who care more about positioning in the Islamic world than in the Western world.

I don’t think air or naval threats are too worrisome, but a large ground war against a determined, larger foe would be hard for Israel to stop conventionally. Especially if Egypt jumps in. Look out if Turkey “solves” the Syrian issue, by moving in to oust Asad and set up a peace keeping force.

Out of curiosity, how would the Israeli-Cyprus gas fields involve Russia? I’m unaware of any direct connection there.

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