I'm an Irish Girl, A Dubliner, with the 'Gift of the Gab' ... I like to talk & to tell you things. In Celtic times news, views and comment were carried from place to place by wandering Seanachaí ~ Storytellers ~ who relied on their host's hospitality and appreciation. I will need that from you too, as I venture to share Politics, Poetry, Laughter, Love, Life & everything in-between ... from Bog to Blog!!
Anti Israel Leftists are descending on Israel this week in a "fly-in" as part of a week of ”solidarity” with Hamas and the pretend people, the 'palestinians'. This is happening between July 8th-16th. They intend to cause disruption when they land at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, before continuing with other illegal activities. They are determined to state their destination as Gaza & their activities there as to "Help Hamas" .... Hamas is the terrorist organization that controls Gaza, and rejects the Jewish State of Israel's right to exist. And of Jews to live in their own land!!
On Friday, July 8th 2011 ,they plan to bring 600 trouble makers to Ben Gurion Airport in support of the “resistance to Israel occupation”. One group call themselves “Return to Palestine”. Their agenda is to Replace Israel with palestine.
Israel has the ability and the right to stop and detain members of this hostile group in order to keep Israel safe and to contain this group of extremists and anarchists that are trying to create a new order in the Middle East without Israel. The international community should come together to stop this anti democratic act, but I wouldn't hold my breath! The World we live in is Jew Hating!!!!
One small testament to this fact is that the Flotilla of Fools which was carrying thousands of letters to unknown & unamed citizens of Gaza REFUSED to take a letter from Noam Shalit to Gilad Shalit, who last weekend 'celebrated' FIVE years in Hamas Captivity!!
Details are still sketchy but hopefully all the activists will all be both Detained & Deported for their activities!!
The Fourth of July & American Independance day is here & as if I were still in California it would be a holiday weekend for me, it was however, always a bad holiday for me (for very personal reasons). I am today thinking how bad it must be for Sgt. Shalit, Gilad Shalit, (with much more reason than I), last weekend marked FIVE years in captivity, held by Hamas.
The below Youtube Video is a scene from the made for TV movie 'The Raid on Entebbe' (1977).It is a true Story.And, anyone who knows me knows me, like really knows me, knows that I love watching movies & tonite's movie of choice is ..... that made for TV movie 'The Raid on Entebbe'.
When the PLO hijacked a plane full of Israelis in 1976 and took them to Uganda the Israeli response was both swift and precise. We did not negotiate with our enemies who kidnapped our fellow Jews, nor did we petition an international body, we did what was neccesary. A famous soldier was sadly killed during this operation ~ Yonatan Netanyahu, the only Israeli commando who died during the operation. He is the brother of the present Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu.
It took Israeli commandos 102 minutes to conduct one of the greatest and most daring rescue missions in modern history, in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976. During those brief fateful moments, good triumphed over evil ~ the innocent were saved and the terrorists who threatened them were routed.
It was 11:30 pm Saturday night. The seventh night that over 100 Israelis, non-Israeli Jews, and the twelve-member Air France crew were held in the Entebbe airport since the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terrorists and two West German supporters, members of the Baader Meinhof gang, hijacked a jet while on the ground in Athens. Supporting the terrorists and giving them cover was the Ugandan regime under Idi Amin or simply 'Dada'. In the prior decade, Uganda had received military and non-military aid from Israel prior to severing ties in 1967.
The plane was bound from Tel Aviv to Paris. It was diverted to Benghazi airport in Libya for refuelling and then headed for Entebbe.
The final deadline to meet the hijackers' demands and release forty terrorists held in Israel and thirteen in West Germany, Switzerland, France and Kenya, was steadily approaching. Negotiations managed to postpone the approaching July 1 deadline for three days. On July 1, the non-Jewish passengers were released by the terrorists. The Air France crew chose to stay with the remaining hostages. On July 3, French diplomats involved in the negotiations stated that there was no hope for an agreement. Releasing the terrorists would embolden them to continue such operations. Not meeting the terrorists' demands could result in a massacre.
As international attention was focused upon the events, Israeli planes made their way to Uganda flying under radar over the Red Sea, in order to avoid detection by the Egyptians and Saudis. They soon landed and the operation commenced. That night, the weary hostages were sound asleep except for a group of five playing bridge. The hijackers were also within the complex. There were also about eighty Ugandan troops guarding the building. At that moment, three Hercules personnel transports with Israel's elite 'Sayeret Matkal' commandos, along with medical teams, had just landed at the well-lit Entebbe airport without suspicion.
The commandos drove toward the terminal in a Black Mercedes with Land Rover escorts, tricking Ugandan guards to believe that Idi Amin was visiting. Guards soon approached the vehicles and were shot, the ruse was now over. Time was of the essence. A few seconds delay could foil the entire operation. Taking a chance that the airport complex was not booby trapped, they headed toward the hostage compound. Nearby, seven parked Soviet-made MIGS were hastily destroyed, preventing pursuit of the Israeli aircraft after the operation. The commandos were just a few hundred yards away. They burst in, alerting the stunned hostages that they were Israelis and to keep low. Some shouted out the word nes, Hebrew for "miracle".
Over the next 45 seconds, there were bursts of gunfire, and then the firing ended. The hostages were quickly escorted on board the Hercules transports, which headed home to Israel via a brief stop in Nairobi, Kenya, for refueling and medical treatment for some of the wounded. The entire raid lasted fifty-three minutes. It took fifty-three minutes to thwart the plans of the PFLP.
The operation was so daring, the Israeli cabinet repeatedly deliberated, and only decided to proceed at the last minute, within hours of the deadline. The mission's overall commander, Brigadier-General Dan Shomron, later described the daring and extreme difficulties of the rescue mission: "You had more than one hundred people sitting in a small room, surrounded by terrorists with their fingers on the trigger. They could fire in a fraction of a second. We had to fly seven hours land safely, drive to the terminal area where the hostages were being held, get inside, and eliminate the terrorists before any of them could fire." The seven hijackers and approximately twenty Ugandan troops died. Three hostages were killed during the gunfire exchange.
Israeli Commando Surin Hershko was paralyzed when he was shot while on a diversionary tactic. One passenger, Dora Bloch, a Jewish British citizen, who was hospitalized earlier for stomach pains, was murdered the next day by Ugandan soldiers.
The rescue operation, originally named Operation Thunderbolt, was renamed 'Operation Yonatan' in honour of the operation's commander, Yonatan Netanyahu, 30 ~ One of my childhood Heroes ~ who was cut down by a Ugandan sentry as he was about to enter the compound. Netanyahu believed from the outset that the plan was doable and his confidence influenced government leaders and his fellow commandos. On that day, one of Israel's greatest soldiers was slain.
On that day, which also happens to be American Independance Day, the forces that threaten freedom were routed by courage and daring as they were on that Original day over 200 years ago. In the UN General Assembly, some praised the mission, others condemned and criticized. No matter. All words aside, heroic actions spoke on that triumphant day.
And today, from Yoni to Gilad ....
Five years ago, a Jewish son was taken from his parents. The Hamas terror organization kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during an incursion from Gaza into Israel. His captors have denied access to him by the Red Cross in complete violation of the Geneva Convention. For four years a merciless enemy has held captive a young man, a soldier. While Gilad Shalit has become a symbol, there has been no Rescue attempt and only a series of stalled negotiations.
So, Why doesn't Israel go into Gaza and get Gilad Shalit? It is much closer then Uganda. How did we lose the resolve to get Shalit that we had to go all the way to Uganda?
We Know that Gilad is Alive. And there is a media campaign. It is massive ..... massive, but mistaken. It keeps repeating that "the fate of Shalit is in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hands." That's not true.
Gilad Shalit isn't in "Netanyahu's hands." He's in Hamas, Arab terrorists' hands, and they are the ones who have the physical and moral responsibility to free him. It's not up to Israel to bargain and beg for his life. Those Arabs are being strengthened by the International media, because the media blame Israel, and not the Arab terrorists who continue his incarceration and are the guilty ones. Gilad Shalit is not a negotiating tool to be bargained off in a numbers game with Hamas, which they have tried to turn on & off for the last four years ~ NOT ONE Hamas murderer should be released in a trade off for the freeing of Gilad Shalit.
How can one compare the life of a soldier with the release of such evil to the world? Will Hammed Ibrahim, military leader of Hamas in the 'West Bank', who killed & organized attacks that killed 76 people, be freed? Or Abdullah Barghouti, "the engineer" who prepared all the explosives that caused bloodshed in Jerusalem between 2001 and 2003? His targets included the Sbarro restaurant, the University Cafeteria at Mount Scopus. He killed at least 46. What about Sayed Abbas, who masterminded the suicide bombing in a Natanya hotel in 2002, in which 30 Israelis were killed during the Passover seder, including many elderly Holocaust survivors and their families?
Having said that I am TOTALLY for Gilad being freed NOW. Not one day more in Captivity, four years is too long. One day more is too much. But, I dont believe in a negotiated exchange.
Different tactics now need to be tried. Like turning off the electric supply to Gaza. Like turning off the water supply. It is supplied by Israel. Like enforcing a total embargo by land and by sea. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. By shutting down the Temple Mount to Arabs. By putting the PA hierarchy in Ramallah under seige. By assassinating the Hamas leadership, one after the next after the next. Same with convicted Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails. By returning Israeli's to their surrendered homes in Gush Katif and other sites in Gaza. By using the combined forces of the IDF & IDA to go get Gilad. Oh! Yes. There's lots of ways to get Gilad back without releasing 1000 terrorists.
Why are 'palestinian' supplies allowed in to Gaza? Why are "ambulances" allowed out?
Independance day came for the Entebbe hostages ... Freedom must come too for Gilad Shalit. Shut Gaza down with one simple demand ~ Give Gilad Shalit Back ALIVE. And NOW!!
Hine ma tov uma nayim shevet achim gam yachad ~ English translation ~ Look how good and how lovely it is for Jews to dwell together in unity!
This day in History .... July 3rd, 1904 ~ Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl ~ visionary of modern political Zionism (חוֹזֶה הַמְדִינָה- Hozeh HaMedinah), and Austro-Hungarian journalist died at the age of 44.
Theodor Herzl has been credited as being the founder of Zionism. He wasn't. Zionism began in Torah. The History of the Jewish people is in fact the history of Zionism. What Herzl could be credited with, however, is the founding of Modern Political Zionism. By this definition he deserves inclusion in this history of Israeli heroes.
He was born in Budapest in 1860, and educated in the spirit of the German Jewish Enlightenment, as a secular Jew, though his grandfather had been a friend of Rabbi Yehudah Alkalai, a Zionist of an earlier era. In 1878 the Herzls moved to Vienna, where Theodor Herzl studied law in the university of Vienna, graduating in 1884. However, rather than studying law, Herzl became a writer, a playwright and a journalist, acting as Paris correspondent for influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse.
In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was falsely accused and convicted of treason. Mobs shouted “Death to the Jews” in France, the home of the French Revolution and Herzl became convinced that the Jews needed a country of their own.
Herzl witnessed the Dreyfus affair as a newspaper correspondent. According to conventional accounts, his Zionism resulted from contemplating the persecution of Dreyfus. According to some others, he may have been more influenced by the election of the anti-Semitic Karl Luger as mayor of Vienna. Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor, which assimilation would not solve, and which it was futile to combat. Despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, he published The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat) in 1896 in which Herzl claimed that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they stopped being an anomaly among nations. He asserted that the scattered Jews are one people, whose plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state guaranteed in international law.
Herzl proposed to collect funds from Jews around the world by a company which would work toward settling Jews in Palestine. and securing a state. Eventually this idea was transformed into the Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund and other organizations. He also continued to publish & issue Zionist literature.
Herzl's ideas were rejected in Western Europe. Herzl was turned down by Jewish magnates such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild. Herzl then appealed to the people, organizing the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 2931, 1897. The congress was historic not just for founding the Zionist movement, but because it was the first time an organized body , representing at least the Jews of the Western world, had been convened since the exile nearly 2000 years ago.
Herzl's ideas found mass support from the poor Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia. At Basle, the Zionist movement resolved to " establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.” The Basle congress also resolved to set up a political organization and financial institutions to carry forward the Zionist idea. The World Zionist Organization was established, and Herzl was elected president. Herzl wrote in his diary, "At Basle, I founded the Jewish state... If not in five years, then certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it."
Herzl presided over six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1903, setting up the Jewish Colonial Trust, the Jewish National Fund and the movement's newspaper Die Welt. After Herzl's death, the movement continued to meet every year except during war. In 1936 the centre of the Zionist movement moved to Jerusalem.
Despite his Zionist intentions, Herzl had some strange ideas ... The Kishinev Pogrom in 1903 caused Herzl to realize the urgency of finding some shelter for the Jews of Russia. He travelled to Russia in 1903 & entertained a British idea of "Uganda" as a temporary refuge ~ a "night shelter" for Jews, at the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903. Herzl made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, which was settlement in "Eretz Yisrael" . However, the proposal aroused great anger, not surprisingly ... it always made me laugh out loud!!
So, Herzl was not the founder of Zionism, Ha'Shem is ... but he did manage to raise it's status & encouraged the first trickling of Jewish immigration as the move towards the formation of Nation States occurred on the anti-semetic European continent.
Even after the Jewish state was established, however, Herzl’s prophecy of an end to anti-Semitism went unfulfilled. He believed that once Jews won recognition as a nation, the individual Jew would finally be able to live in peace & the Diaspora become assimilated. Yet what actually happened was quite different as we know. And in fact, the fashionable portrayal of Israel by many Europeans as the principal threat to world peace, a “Nazi state,” the archenemy of human rights ~ this is precisely the kind of demonization previously directed at individual Jews. And because individual Jews living in Europe are an easier target for violence than Israel, the terror war against Israel of the last four years has awakened the spectre of classical anti-Semitism throughout Europe, giving rise to a renewed wave of violence against Diaspora Jewry.
It would seem, then, that we have come full circle ~ the old anti-Semitism now takes the form of anti-Zionism. In fact, the present wave of anti-Semitism in Europe has proven once and for all that there is no difference between the two, that the perceived distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is an illusion. As far as the world is concerned, the Jews are Israel and Israel the Jews. But this means that every Jew, in turn, must define themselves with respect to the Jewish state of Israel, either for or against. And, the embracing of Zionism should lead to Alyiah, at least in my opinion.
Some Irish Friends Support Israel !!! (Toda Paddy Savage for the Photo)
I have spent Shabbat in the Sunshine enjoying Israeli Strawberries sooooo ..... a quick blog today!!!!
IN THE SUMMER OF 2010, anti-Israel extremists and Turkish jihadists organized a flotilla to violate Israel's legal naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. The Israeli Navy redirected five of the boats to the Israeli port of Ashdod without incident. However, those on the sixth boat refused to cooperate. When Israeli officers boarded the ship, the Turkish jihadists brutally attacked them with knives, metal bars, and guns.
Nine jihadists were killed. This year, the same anti-Israel extremists are planning another international flotilla, purportedly to bring humanitarian goods to Gaza. International leaders, from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to EU spokespersons, have urged the organizers to cancel the flotilla and instead use legally approved channels to deliver any goods to Gaza.
Ten Flotilla Facts .....
1. The flotilla campaign is not a humanitarian effort. It is a crude political stunt by provocateurs who want to force Israel into a violent response.
2. The flotilla organizers blatantly violate international law by trying to breach Israel's legal maritime blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. As long as Hamas remains committed to armed conflict with Israel, Israel has the right to impose a blockade to prevent the importation of weapons.
3. Flotilla organizers intend to aid and support Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to the murder of Jews and the "obliteration" of Israel. Hamas is a proxy of the brutal Iranian regime. Providing material support for Hamas violates U.S. criminal and civil law, according to the U.S. State Department.
4. Flotilla organizers are not "nonviolent human rights activists." They belong to extremist organizations that oppose the existence of the Jewish state and support terrorist groups that are dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel, such as Hamas.
5. If flotilla organizers were sincere about wanting to help Palestinians, they could easily send aid through approved Israeli and Egyptian entry points, as U.S. State Department officials have repeatedly said.
6. Gazans do not face a humanitarian crisis. They have ample supplies of basic necessities and consumer goods, are currently experiencing an economic boom, and have a higher standard of living than people in most of Africa and parts of Asia.
7. Hamas brutally repressive regime, not Israel, has caused the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
8. If flotilla participants really were peace and human rights activists, they would go where they are urgently needed today to Libya and Syria, where peaceful demonstrators face ruthless repression, torture, and murder.
9. Flotilla organizers violate one of the most basic rights: A nation's right and responsibility to protect its people from enemies intent on murder.
10. International leaders, from the UN secretary-general to the U.S. State Department, oppose the flotilla as unnecessary and as a dangerous provocation.
I've had this Information in my Inbox for almost one week now ... it is IMPORTANT INFORMATION. And it has become very public in the last 48 hours, Baruch Ha'Shem !!!!
* The second flotilla is coordinated by Muhammad Sawalha, a senior Hamas activist. Many of the participating organizations can be directly linked with the Union of Good (UoG), a coalition of European charities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which in 2008 was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury for transferring funds to Hamas. The UoG was initiated by Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood on a global scale, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000.
* Other main organizers include the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM), as well as far-left socialists from Europe and the United States. According to the flotilla's main organizers, its prime aim is to create provocations and harm Israel's image.
* Following Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which ended in January 2009, a series of international conferences was held in Turkey to restructure the struggle against Israel. A conference in February 2009 featured 200 radical Islamist scholars who came to meet with senior Hamas officials to plot a new, "third jihadi front" (in addition to Pakistan and Iraq) centered on Gaza. The conference gave birth to the infamous, pro-Hamas Istanbul Declaration, which also provided justification for attacking foreign navies which might try to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza.
* In general, the same organizers stand behind the second flotilla, with several changes. The most important may be the IHH decision not to send the Mavi Marmara, the ship which brought the first flotilla its publicity following violent clashes between IHH activists and the IDF in which nine Turks were killed. Rather than take a leading role, it appears that the IHH will settle this time for sending activists to sail on other ships.
* Thus, the flotilla is far from being a peaceful, humanitarian effort to support the Palestinians in Gaza. It should instead be seen as a major, pro-Hamas effort to delegitimize Israel by a "red-green alliance" of leftists and Islamists.
The Second "Freedom Flotilla" is a joint and coordinated effort of several groups working to delegitimize Israel on a global scale. The claim of the organizers that they are seeking to relieve the siege of Gaza and to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid rings completely hollow, given the vast economic improvements the territory has been witnessing. Indeed, the New York Times reported on June 25, 2011, that "two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza this month." The report from Gaza continues with a description of a "second shopping mall" about to open and "hundreds of homes" under construction. The motivation behind the flotilla is thus clearly political. All the groups involved have separately sent ships and land convoys aimed to "break the siege" of Gaza in order to hurt Israel's image.
Muhamad Sawadhla in London
The latest campaign is coordinated by Muhammad Sawalha, who, according to Israeli sources, is a senior Hamas activist who helped establish its operational infrastructure in the West Bank in the late 1980s. He found asylum in Britain in 1990 and is one of the central leaders of Islamist, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas activities in Britain. Many of the participating organizations can be directly linked with the Union of Good (UoG), a coalition of European charities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which in 2008 was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury for transferring funds to Hamas. Other main organizers include the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM), as well as far-left socialists from Europe and the United States. According to the flotilla's main organizers, its prime aim is to create provocations and harm Israel's image.
Origins of the Flotilla Campaign
The first group to send ships to Gaza may have been the ISM, which in August 2008 sent two small Greek-registered fishing boats from Cyprus to Gaza with 44 people on board, calling itself the Free Gaza Movement (FGM). The ISM was founded in 2001 by a Jewish American, Adam Shapiro, and his American wife of Palestinian origin, Huwaida Arraf, after the outbreak of the Second Intifada. Together with its Palestinian partners, ISM sponsored protests in the West Bank and Gaza, where it was known for welcoming any violence that occurred during its protests and for encouraging its volunteers to compare Israel with the Nazis. In March 2003, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was found hiding in an ISM compound. By 2004, ISM's own publicity material had shown its willingness to work with the National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of Palestinian factions that included Hamas and the PIJ. In more recent times, Huwaida Arraf went on to serve on the advisory board of Kinder USA, a charity that an FBI analyst believed was involved with raising funds for Hamas.
FGM members would later join the first flotilla in May 2010 on the Rachel Corrie, sponsored by the Perdana for Global Peace Foundation (previously the Perdana for Global Peace Movement), an organization established by the anti-Semitic/anti-American former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The ISM/FGM had received a large donation of 300,000 euros for the voyage. The Rachel Corrie, however, fell behind the original fleet due to mechanical problems.
Other groups and activists usually come from the European and American far-left, such as Dr. Paul Larudee, another ISM and FGM co-founder who now heads an American network called the Free Palestine Movement (FPM); anarchist ex-Israeli Dror Feiler or Greek socialist Professor Vangelis Pissias.
However, the more important group in organizing the flotilla is the one affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, and its Palestinian branch, Hamas. Following Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which ended in January 2009, a series of international conferences was held in Turkey to restructure the struggle against Israel. The relationships between Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas have been widely documented in the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs monograph Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in Gaza acted as the main axis for this activity.
A conference held in February 2009 featured 200 radical Islamist scholars who came to meet with senior Hamas officials to plot a new, "third jihadifront" (in addition to Pakistan and Iraq) centered on Gaza. One of the participants in the conference, the Saudi scholar Mohsen al-Awajy, told a BBC reporter ..... "Gaza is a gift....Gaza gives us power, it solves our differences. We are all now in a unified front against Zionism." Thus, Gaza's status is raised as an Islamist symbol for jihad against Israel. The conference gave birth to the infamous, pro-Hamas Istanbul Declaration, which also provided justification for attacking foreign navies which might try to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza.
In March 2009, the first of three Gaza Lifeline/Viva Palestina land convoys arrived in Gaza. It was led by former British MP George Galloway, under the auspices of a charity he established named Viva Palestina. He was joined with others who, according to Israeli sources, are affiliated with Hamas, particularly Zaher Birawi. Another two land convoys made their way to Gaza in July 2009 and January 2010. While the Hamas government was the recipient of all vehicles, goods, and cash in the first convoy, the second exposed a deeper connection to the Union of Good (UoG), a coalition of European Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated charities initiated by Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood on a global scale, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000. The UoG serves de facto as an important financial arm of Qaradawi's Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups around the world, and was designated as a terrorist organization in 2008 by the U.S. Treasury for transferring funds to Hamas. The official recipient of the second convoy's aid was a Gaza-based NGO named Expertise for Consulting and Development, or CODE. On its website, CODE noted that it had previously received funding from the UoG for several projects.
A much more obvious connection to the Union of Good can be easily made with the largest coalition involved in organizing the Freedom Flotilla ~ The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG). The campaign was formulated in late 2007 or the beginning of 2008 during one of the Palestinians in Europe Conferences, an annual gathering which has been taking place since 2003, initiated by the London-based Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), which in December 2010 was deemed "illegal" by the Israeli defence minister as a "European Hamas affiliate." The campaign currently lists an address in Brussels. However, its president, Dr. Arafat Shukri (aka Arafat Madi), is also PRC's executive director, and until recently, both PRC and the ECESG also shared the same address and contact details. Furthermore, the campaign's website (www.savegaza.eu/) is registered under Shukri's name and PRC e-mail address. Another founding member of the campaign is Dutch-based activist Amin Abu Rashed, who took part in the first flotilla. Abu Rashed was described in the Dutch media, quoting an intelligence source, as "leader of Hamas in the Netherlands."
Out of 33 NGOs participating in the campaign, almost half are known to have strong connections with the UoG and the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), an umbrella of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. The campaign has also acquired the support of far left European politicians, groups, and individuals.
Audacity of American Leftists
The Turkish charity IHH was a very important organizer of the third land convoy, which took place in January 2010. IHH is also a member of the Union of Good. The third convoy, it must be noted, ended with a violent conflict with Egypt, which insisted that the cargo enter Gaza through the Egyptian port of El-Arish in Sinai. The convoy held several demonstrations in Aqaba, Jordan, some held under the flag of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, another key organizer. At one of them, Turkish IHH leader Yildrim spoke, saying: "Up until now the world thought only Israel was a war criminal. But Egypt has proved it is also complicit in this crime. By preventing us, Egypt has proved it is an Israeli-guided state. We will not remain silent against Egypt and will besiege Egyptian embassies and consulates for days if needed....They are proposing the aid convoy to enter Gaza through Israel. In other words, they have sold Gaza to Israel." Five days later, the convoy returned to Syria by land in order to sail to El-Arish.
When the convoy finally arrived in El Arish, the Egyptian authorities said that 59 of its vehicles must enter Gaza via an Israeli crossing rather than through Rafah. Some convoy participants responded to the Egyptian decision by rioting. They broke down the gates of the port and attempted to drive their vehicles out, but were contained by the police. Then they blockaded the port, waving Hamas banners; fought the police with sticks and projectiles; vandalized port property; and took security officers hostage. For its part, Hamas called a demonstration in Rafah in support of the convoy and against Egypt. This cost a 21-year-old Egyptian border guard his life. Several of the convoy's participants were arrested, but were released following the intervention of Turkish MPs. Part of the convoy was also allowed into Gaza. However, when Galloway got back to Rafah he was deported and declared persona non grata in Egypt.
This incident harmed the Gaza Lifeline/Viva Palestina convoys, but also brought a change in strategy for its partners. Soon after, Muhammad Sawalha, one of the main organizers of the convoys, revealed in an interview to Hizbullah's Al-Intiqad magazine their plan to send a sea convoy (the May 2010 flotilla), adding, "this time we want to confront the Zionist enemy directly." And indeed, in many Islamist websites, the flotilla was referred to as Gaza Lifeline No. 4.
The Second Flotilla ~ What Has Changed?
In general, the same organizers stand behind the second flotilla, with several changes. The most important may be the IHH decision not to send the Mavi Marmara, the ship which brought the first flotilla its publicity following violent clashes between IHH activists and the IDF in which nine Turks were killed. Rather than take a leading role, it appears that the IHH will settle this time for sending activists to sail on other ships.
This decision apparently brought about a reshuffle in the organization of the flotilla structure, bringing the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood even closer into the picture. Its Gaza Lifeline Committee, which operates under Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood-controlled professional associations, recently purchased a ship for 560,000 euros. Wael al-Saqa, head of the committee, said the ship is able to carry up to 200 people, and is planned to carry Arab participants in the flotilla.
As for the overall organization, Muhammad Sawalha now appears as the flotilla's coordinator under his title as Vice-Chairman of the International Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG). The ICBCG is a UK-registered group, listing Sawalha as its sole official. The campaign is now also the official coordinator of the Miles of Smiles land convoys, the third of which recently arrived in Gaza. Miles of Smiles is another UoG-affiliated operation, mostly identified with Interpal, a major UK-based charity and member of the UoG, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury in 2003 as well. Yet a further connection may be seen in the British coalition involved in the flotilla, Britain2Gaza, which is another UK-registered group which has both Sawalha and Hamas-affiliated Zaher Birawi, a convoy and flotilla spokesman, as its directors.
Sawalha signed the Istanbul Declaration of February 13th, 2009, which provides important insights into his motivation to take a leading role in the flotillas. Among other points, the declaration states .....
The obligation of the Islamic Nation to open the crossings ~ all crossings ~ in and out of Palestine permanently, in order to allow access to all the needs of the Palestinians ~ money, clothing, food, medicine, weapons and other essentials, so that they are able to live and perform the jihad in the way of Allah Almighty.
Another prominent figure is Walid Abu al-Shewarib, who was previously hailed for the role he played in helping to organize the first flotilla. An official Europol document, said to be based on German information, describes him as "a Hamas member who is a leading member of the association Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (IGD, Islamic Community in Germany), considered to be the headquarters for the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany." He is also managing director of the Islamisches Kultur und Erziehungszentrum Berlin (Centre for Islamic Culture and Education), regarded as the point of contact for Hamas in Berlin.
In the last few weeks, the ex-Israeli activist Dror Feiler has been constantly speaking with the Israeli media. When it first seemed that the IHH would not take any part in the second flotilla, he told Ynet News ..... "We must remember that the Turks aren't participating so Israel won't be able to claim that this is an Islamist flotilla, so there are benefits." Feiler may be one of the flotilla's organizers, but he seems to misread the background of his own colleagues. The Islamist, pro-Hamas character of this flotilla is much deeper than the IHH alone.
