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By JPOST.COM STAFF 06/07/2010 15:55 Israel must send Turkey a clear message that if Turkish warships are sent to accompany the next flotilla trying to break the embargo on Gaza, these will be considered acts of war by Israel , Uzi Dayan, former deputy Chief of General Staff, told Army Radio Monday morning. "If the Turkish prime minister joins such a flotilla,” Dayan said, “we should make clear beforehand this would be an act of war, and we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it.” “If Israel doesn't make this clear beforehand,...

WASHINGTON—Turkey moved closer to severing its relations with Israel, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly apologize for his government's high-seas military action against a pro-Palestinian flotilla this week in order to avert a formal diplomatic rupture. Senior Israeli officials responded Friday that their government would never apologize for an act of "self defense" and acknowledged that Israel could be on the verge of losing its closest military and economic ally in the Middle East. Such a development, these officials said, would raise new strategic and diplomatic challenges for Israel if Ankara reorients itself away from its historically pro-Israel and...

A statement from the Turkish government promises “unprecedented and incalculable reprisals” against Israel for the Israeli Navy’s seizure of the Marmora, a Turkish vessel, which was leading a fleet of ships through the Gaza blockade over the weekend. The statement has received the support of Hezbollah, an arm of the Iranian government, and Hamas, the Palestinian network. Such measures will not be confined to diplomatic censure. Reports from Ankara, the capital of Turkey, state that the government, which remains under the control of the Justice and Democratic Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP), is planning to continue pounding the Israeli blockade...

All 680 activists will be released, including two dozen Israel had threatened to prosecute on charges of assaulting troops. Israel will immediately deport hundreds of foreign activists seized aboard a six-ship humanitarian aid flotilla seized in an Israel Navy raid en route to the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided late Tuesday. In the face of mounting world criticism of Monday's assault, Israeli officials said all 680 activists held would be released, including two dozen Israel had threatened earlier to prosecute charging they had assaulted its troops.

Turkish FM: Citizens killed in Israeli raid on Gaza-bound ships. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that four Turkish citizens are among those that were killed in Monday's Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound aid ship the Mavi Marmara. Nine aboard the ship, which was part of a larger aid flotilla sent to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, were reportedly killed when Israeli soldiers boarded the ship early Monday.

Anti-Israel protests continued during the night in Turkey over the raid on the humanitarian convoy. Earlier there had been demonstrations in cities across Europe including Paris, Stockholm, Rome and Athens, where police in some cases used teargas against protesters. ...snip In London, too, there were angry scenes.

Much regret is being expressed about the deaths of the “activists” who were among those attacking Israeli naval commandos with knives, clubs, iron bars, chairs, and snatched handguns on the Mavi Marmara early Monday morning. The ship was one in a six-ship flotilla of Muslim and radical-Leftist anti-Israeli activists that was approaching Gaza with the expressed aim of breaking Israel’s naval blockade of the Strip and bringing purportedly badly needed humanitarian supplies. The Mavi Marmara was also known by the Israeli authorities to be the largest and most hostile ship in the flotilla.Yet, either out of poor intelligence or naiveté...

Israel: Hamas Gaza Terror Flotilla Organizers Not Humanitarian, Wanted Violence, Massacre For PR By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- May 31, 2010 …. The Israel Navy this morning blocked the Hamas backed "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", a group of ships carrying up to 800 people from entering the Gaza Strip. Israel was well aware that this was not a humanitarian love boat trek but rather an exercise in Islamic digital PR. The organizers of the Palestine Flotilla to Gaza consisted of some of the worst global terror groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda and their fund raisers the Turkish...

Via the IDF’s blog. Ed already posted video taken from above the ship as Israeli troops rappeled down but this one’s shot from alongside so there’s more detail. Have a look as the Forces of Peace shift into full-on mob mode, dragging the soldiers to the ground before they’re even on the deck and swinging for the fences with huge metal poles. Some of the IDF personnel involved later described it as a “lynching,” which sounded dubious to me at first but not anymore. That’s what it looks like. “They beat us with metal sticks and knives,” he said. “There...

UN Urges Inquiry Into Israel Convoy Raid 1 June 2010 Israeli army footage claiming to show the violence on board the flotilla - the captions and circled points on this video were inserted by the Israeli army The UN Security Council has issued a statement calling for an impartial inquiry into Israel's raid on a flotilla of Gaza-bound aid ships. The statement said the inquiry should be "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent". The statement was reached after hours of discussion as the council deliberated through the night. At least nine activists were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ships in...

These words are being written before the dust has had a chance to settle on Monday night's naval commando raid of the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla of terror supporters. The raid's full range of operational failures still cannot be known. Obviously the fact that the mission ended with at least six soldiers wounded and at least ten Hamas supporters dead makes clear that there were significant failures in both the IDF's training for and execution of the mission. The Navy and other relevant bodies will no doubt study these failures. But they point to a larger strategic failure that has crippled...

All right. Israel stopped the so-called peace activists who tried to enter its territorial waters and deliver arms to terrorists. Israel's semi-unarmed commandos were attacked in a premeditated fashion by armed "peace activists". The world, as usual, is already condemning Israel. Israel now has 600 "peace activists" prisoner. What should be done with them? Conventional wisdom says that they get released so that they may do this again and continue to spout more lies about Israel. After all, Israel can't afford to further anger the countries these people are citizens of, can it? My humble suggestion: Hold kangaroo courts and...

In the aftermath of a major incident involving a camouflaged Turkish ship headed for an Israeli blockade in Gaza waters, a purge of Jews has begun in Europe as the outrage grows among pro-Jihadist groups that dominate many governments in the EU. An Israeli armed naval boat, right, escorts a ship from the Gaza-bound flotilla, center, with Israeli troops on board into the port of Ashdod, Israel, Monday, May 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit). Astute Blogger reports, It is being reported that in their bloodthirsty search for vengeance after the interception of the "aid flotilla" to Hamastan, any Jew is...