By Mr. Curmudgeon
The world is shedding tears over Israel’s armed interdiction of a “relief” flotilla heading for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. At least 10 so-called activists were killed while resisting Israeli Navy commandos, who boarded flotilla vessels by repelling down ropes hanging from Blackhawk helicopters. The ships were stopped to enforce a naval blockade of Gaza established by Israel and Egypt in June of 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza. The blockade exists to prevent the importation of weapons and funding for terrorism.
On hearing news of the Israeli action, “dozens of journalists, aid workers and right activists held a rally outside the National Press Club office in Islamabad [Pakistan], chanting: ‘Death to terrorist Israel’ and ‘Palestinians are our heroes,’” the Hindu Times reported.
The group responsible for organizing the international “Freedom Flotilla” is Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which was outlawed in Israel due to its close ties with Egypt’s radical Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorist organization Hamas. The IHH is a member of the Union of Good, an umbrella organization of more than 50 Islamic “charities” around the world.
In 2002, the Israeli Defense Forces launched Operation Defensive Shield, which was the largest military operation into the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War. Its purpose was to disrupt the high number of suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians. Captured documents showed that a man working for the Union of Good Islamic charities was making payments to the families of suicide bombers. His name is Izzat Shahin, who was appointed the IHH representative for Judea and Samaria in 2009.
A 2006 report by the Danish Institute for International Studies found, “Terrorist infiltration of IHH extended to its most senior ranks…. IHH President Bulent Yildrim had directly conspired in the mid-1990s to recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of a coming holy war [jihad]. In particular, some men were sent into war zones in Muslim countries in order to acquire combat experience.”
The report further stated that the IHH is notorious for smuggling “caches of firearms, knives and pre-fabricated explosives. An examination of IHH’s phone records in Istanbul showed repeated telephone calls in 1996 to an Al Qaeda guesthouse in Milan [Italy] and various Algerian terrorist operatives active elsewhere in Europe – including the notorious Abu el-Ma ‘ali, who has been subsequently termed by U.S. officials as a junior Osama bin Laden.”
It is a tribute to Israel’s patience and decency that the entire flotilla was not sent to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
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