Gaza Freedom Flotilla Establishes Information Websites

Gaza Freedom Flotilla Establishes Information Websites

There is food in Gaza, but no democracy.

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By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem, Israel ---- June 28, 2011 .... The organizers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla have established two Websites to provide information and daily updates to the media and the general public.

The Gaza Flotilla Website is located at GazaFreedomFlotilla.com and the Justice For Gaza information Website is located at: JusticeForGaza.com

Sources tell the Israel News Agency that the organizers of the second Gaza flotilla who come from Iran, Syria, Turkey, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, IHH, Qatar, Libya, Free Gaza Movement (FGM), European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), US Boat to Gaza, Muslim Brotherhood, were never told that the International Red Cross has declared that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

There is a humanitarian crisis in Syria and Libya, where thousands who have raised their voices for democracy, have been murdered by the dictatorships there. There is a humanitarian crisis in Haiti and in the Sudan - where children are starving to death!

Furthermore, the UN (United Nations) the US, the EU (European Union) and several Western and Eastern democratic nations have voiced opposition to the mission of the Gaza flotilla, namely breaking an internationally legal, military blockade which was created to prevent weapons from getting into the hand of Hamas.

Also - there is no siege. Thousands of tons of food and medical supplies come into Gaza on UN trucks from Israel every day. And the Egyptian border is wide open.

All the same, the flotilla organizers claim that 10 of the planned 15 ships have already been acquired (Hürriyet, June 19; Agence France-Presse and The Toronto Star, June 20, 2011). In reality, the number of boats now available to the organizers may be smaller. According to the various announcements, there will be 500 to 600 passengers and the flotilla will set sail from Greece on June 28. Some of the delegations (from the United States and Canada, for instance) flew to the region to join the ships anchored there (the Canadian delegation arrived in Greece on June 20). Some of the delegations were supposed to receive training in "passive resistance" tactics in view of possible scenarios for the flotilla.

But again, why is there a "flotilla"?

This "peaceful, humanitarian, freedom flotilla" has absolutely nothing to do with peace, humanity or freedom!

Hamas which rules Gaza has declared that they do not want peace with Israel.

They would rather launch rockets and missiles into civilian towns and cities in Israel.
Why?

Are there Israel troops in Gaza?

Only those kidnapped by Hamas. So why then does Hamas want to destroy Israel?

It's called Islamic Jihad or holy war against Jews and Christians.

Why is there a flotilla sailing to Gaza?

Because dictatorial Arab Islamic states want the world media to focus on democratic Israel and not their own totalitarian nations i.e. - Syria, Iran, Libya - where poverty is rampant and a total lack of human rights exists. Where there is no freedom of the press, where women are treated as second class camels and gays and lesbians are murdered.

The Gaza Flotilla is pure Hollywood. Bad Hollywood. A perverted show to take our minds off the starving in Africa and the oppressed in the Middle East who wish for democracy.

In Israel, we have a different kind of Hollywood, a good Hollywood where Sir Paul McCarthy, Paul Simon, Shakira, Elton John, Madonna, Metallica, Paul Anka, Rod Stewart and others who come to perform to bring people together. The Gaza Hate Flotilla is designed to divide people and create tension, if not even war.

One can ask: "Why does Madonna and Shakira perform in Israel but not in Gaza?"

Because Hamas would not allow Madonna, Shakira or any other entertainer to speak and dress freely. Madonna and Shakira would be stoned to death if they performed in Islamic Hamas ruled Gaza!

So let's take a few oil rich Arab nations which pay for the show, professional PR firms such as Fenton Communications to get the word out and some very naive activists who do not read newspapers and take the part of actors.

These activists may see this as a romantic adventure. The rest of the world sees it as a tragedy.

IDF sources are now saying that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that the "peaceful" activists of the Gaza flotilla who plan to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.

According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.

“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told the Israel News Agency. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”

Peace?

For the so called peace, freedom and humanity in the flotilla does not exist when confronting a navy from a democratic state that has every right to defend herself from bombs and missiles which are being smuggled into Gaza to murder Jewish children. These so called peace activists should be volunteering to feed children in Haiti - not trying to divert media attention away from Syria, Libya and Iran.

These activists should be addressing Hamas and its fund raiser Iran in calling for freedom and democracy in Gaza.
The food, water and medicine is there.
It is the truth and democracy that is missing.

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel by the Leyden Digital PR SEO New Media Group - Israel, New York, Hartford.

Howard Jacobson: Why Alice Walker shouldn't sail to Gaza

By Howard Jacobson, Special to CNN

June 24, 2011 -- Updated 1108 GMT (1908 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• British Jewish author Howard Jacobson on Alice Walker's decision to join flotilla to Gaza
• Walker fails to give a single convincing reason for joining flotilla, says Jacobson
• Jacobson: If the blockade is lifted there is a fear that more lethal weapons will be acquired
• As a writer, Alice Walker must understand the symbolic significance of words, he says

Editor's note: Award-winning British Jewish writer of "The Finkler Question," Howard Jacobson writes a response toAlice Walker's decision to support and join an international flotilla of boats sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory. He explains why he thinks her actions will not help the situation.

It should not need arguing, this late in the ethical history of mankind, that good people can do great harm. One of the finest and funniest novels ever written -- Don Quixote -- charts the damage left in the wake of a man who would make the world a better place.

Human beings are seldom more dangerous than when they are sentimentally overcome by the goodness of their own intentions. That Alice Walker believes it is right to join the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza I do not have the slightest doubt. But beyond associating her decision with Gandhi, Martin Luther King and very nearly, when she talks about the preciousness of children, Jesus Christ, she fails to give a single convincing reason for it.

"One child must never be set above another child," she says. A sentiment that will find an echo in every heart. But how does it justify the flotilla? Gaza is under siege, Israelis will tell you, because weapons are fired from it into Israel, threatening the lives of Israeli children. If the blockade is lifted there is a fear that more lethal and far-reaching weapons will be acquired, and the lives of more Israeli children endangered.

You may want to argue that had Gaza been treated differently it would have responded differently, but if the aim of the flotilla is to ensure that one child will not be set above another it is hard to see how challenging the blockade will achieve it. All an Israeli parent will see is a highly charged emotionalism disguising an action that, by its very partiality, chooses the Palestinian child over the Israeli.

Human beings are seldom more dangerous than when they are sentimentally overcome by the goodness of their own intentions. 
--Howard Jacobson

The boat on which Alice Walker will be traveling is called The Audacity of Hope. Forgive me for seeing a measure of self- importance in that reference. It will be carrying, Alice Walker tells us, "Letters expressing solidarity and love." Not, presumably, for Israeli children. Perhaps it is thought that Israeli children are the recipients of enough love already. So what about solidarity? It is meant to sound innocuous. "That is all."

Alice Walker makes plain, "its cargo will be carrying." But what will these letters of solidarity be expressing solidarity with? Solidarity is a political term implying commonality of interest or aspiration. So what interest or aspiration do Alice Walker and her fellow travelers share with the people of Gaza? A desire for freedom? Well we all aspire to that. A longing to live in peace?

If they have such a longing we must be solid with them in that too, though the firing of rockets from Gaza is not, on the face of it, an expression of such a longing. And what about the declared hostility of Hamas to the very existence of Israel? Hamas, we are often told, is the elected government of Gaza, a government that fairly represents the wishes of its people. In which case we must assume that Hamas's implacable hostility towards Israel fairly represents the implacable hostility felt by the people of Gaza. Are Alice Walker's letters of love and 'solidarity' solid with the people of Gaza in that hostility?

"If the Israeli military attacks us, it will be as if they attacked the mailman," she says. Wrong on a thousand counts. As a writer, Alice Walker must understand the symbolic significance of words. The cargo is a cargo of intention. It is freighted with political sympathy and attitude. It means to blunder into where it isn't safe, clothed in the make-believe garments of the unworldly, speaking of children and speaking like children, half inviting a violence which can then be presented as a slaughter of the innocents.

The flotilla is engaged in an entirely political act ... to call it by any other name is the grossest hypocrisy
--Howard Jacobson

RELATED TOPICS

• Alice Walker
• Gaza
• Middle East

Even before the deed, Alice Walker has her language of outraged moral purity prepared -- "but if they insist on attacking us, wounding us, even murdering us..." The Israeli response is thus already an act of unprovoked murder, no matter that the flotilla is by its very essence a provocation. Whatever its cargo, by luring the Israeli military into action which can be represented as brutal, the flotilla is engaged in an entirely political act. To call it by any other name is the grossest hypocrisy.

Alice Walker might be feeling good about herself, but by giving the Palestinians the same old false comfort we've been doling out for more than half a century, and by allowing the Israelis to dismiss it as yet another act of misguided and uncomprehending adventurism -- further evidence that its fears go unheeded - her political gesture only worsens the situation. The parties to this conflict need to be brought together not divided: but those who speak disingenuously of love will engender only further hatred.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Howard Jacobson.

Israel PM vows to end jailed terrorists’ privileges

By HERB KEINON AND TOVAH LAZAROFF  
06/23/2011 22:51 

Noam Schalit asks why it took Israeli governments five years to make move; Hamas rejects Red Cross call for sign of life.

Talkbacks (37)

Israel will revoke benefits and privileges from “terrorists” sitting in its jails in response to Hamas’s refusal to let the International Red Cross visit kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a dramatic announcement Thursday night.

He was speaking two days before the fifth anniversary of Schalit’s kidnapping by Hamas on the Israeli side of the Gaza border on June 26, 2006.

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A Netanyahu spokesman would not clarify which prisoners the prime minister had in mind, but it was broadly assumed that he was referring to Palestinians convicted or being held on terror-related charges or suspicions.

Gilad’s father Noam said in response, “We want to know why Israeli governments waited five years [to take such a step], during which time Gilad languished in a Hamas jail.”

Speaking at the closing event at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that as a result of Hamas’s renewed declaration Thursday that it won’t allow a Red Cross visit, “I have decided to change Israel’s policy toward terrorists sitting in Israeli jails.”
                                           


Earlier in the day the International Committee of the Red Cross had called on Hamas to provide some proof that Schalit, now 24, is alive, as there has been no sign of life in over two years. It also called on Hamas to allow it to visit Schalit.

For several weeks a legal team inside the Prime Minister’s Office has been trying to come up with an initiative to impose harsher prison conditions that would hold up before any appeals to the High Court of Justice.

A number of more stringent measures are under discussion, which are expected to cause a great deal of anger among the prisoners, butthey have not yet been revealed.

In his speech Thursday night, Netanyahu said that while he was committed to upholding Israeli and international law and conventions, “we are not committed to anything beyond that. As such, the exaggeratedly good conditions in the Israeli jails will end.”

Netanyahu said that a number of steps would be taken, which he didn’t spell out in their entirety. However, one example, he said, was that he was stopping the “absurd practice” of allowing “murderers in jail” to sign up for advanced academic degrees.

“There will be no more masters [degrees] for murder, or doctors of terror,” he said, to loud applause and cheers from the conference attendees. “That party is over.”

“I believe that if we all place public, political and public diplomacy pressure on Hamas, we will advance Gilad’s release,” Netanyahu said.

He praised the leaders of the US, France, Britain and Italy, who in recent days demanded that Hamas let the Red Cross visit Schalit.

Earlier in the day ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said, “The Schalit family have the right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their son.”

“The total absence of information concerning Mr. Schalit is completely unacceptable,” Daccord said.

“Because there has been no sign of life from Mr. Schalit for almost two years, the ICRC is now demanding that Hamas prove that he is alive,” he said.

“Hamas has an obligation under international humanitarian law to protect Mr.

Schalit’s life, to treat him humanely and to let him have contact with his family,” Daccord said.

In rejecting the ICRC call, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told news agencies, “The ICRC should have talked about the suffering of 7,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israel.”

Dozens of families of the Palestinian prisoners threw eggs and stones at the ICRC headquarters in Gaza City Thursday, damaging a guard’s cabin during a protest against the ICRC demand to visit Schalit.

Vice-President of the French Senate Monique Papon announced on Thursday that she supports the efforts to secure Schalit’s release.

“Our thoughts are with his family,” Papon told a Knesset delegation in France.

MK Daniel Ben-Simon (Labor) said this was the first time Schalit was discussed by the French Senate.

MKs Carmel Shama-Hacohen (Likud), Anastasia Michaeli (Israel Beiteinu) and Ronit Tirosh (Kadima) also visited the Senate with Ben-Simon.

In New York, in a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, B. Lynn Pascoe, under-secretary for political affairs, said, “We urge humanitarian access and his immediate release, and hope that prisoner exchange efforts bear fruit. This would impact favorably on the situation of several thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the broader political atmosphere.

UNSCO uses its contacts with all parties to support efforts in this regard.”

In Israel this weekend, members of Schalit’s family as well as their friends and supporters plan to rally on his behalf at a number of events.

On Friday evening there will be a rally in front of Netanyahu’s Caesarea home.

On Saturday, there will be a noon rally at Kerem Shalom, close to the spot where Schalit was kidnapped.

Starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, celebrities, actors and politicians will participate in a 24-hour event, in which one by one they will enter a cell which has been built in Herzliya. Each one will sit alone for an hour in the cell in solidarity with Schalit. Among the participants is former hostage Hezi Shai.

On Thursday, Gilad’s parents Aviva and Noam went to Haifa to watch their oldest son Yoel graduate from the Technion.

Lahav Harkov and Reuters contributed to this report.

IDF Holds 5 Day Drill Simulating Mass Missile Attacks Across Israel

• Published 08:44 19.06.11
• Latest update 08:44 19.06.11

IDF holds drill simulating mass missile attacks across Israel

Home Front Command launches fifth major drill to prepare civilians in case of attack; sirens to sound across country on Wednesday, when citizens will be requested to retreat to nearby shelters.

By HaaretzTags: IDF Gaza rockets Hamas Green Line Hezbollah Iran Syria

Municipalities, government offices, schools and kindergartens are to practice evacuating their buildings. Rescue services will also practice the evacuation of a geriatric hospital near Tel Aviv and of a factory housing hazardous materials.

On Wednesday, all of Israel's 7.7 million citizens will be asked to participate. Sirens are scheduled to sound twice across the country, in the morning and in the evening, and residents have been asked to rush to protected rooms and shelters, where they are to stay for 10 minutes.

Israel has been holding similar nation-wide drills over the past five years, in response to critics who said the government and the Israeli military's Home Front Command had been ill-prepared for the 2006 Second Lebanon War, in which the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement fired thousands of missiles at northern Israel during 33 days of heavy combat.

"The national exercise is aimed at preparing for extremely severe and tough scenarios," Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio.

Israel's "power of deterrence" and its ability "to deal a tough blow" would make anyone think twice before pondering an attack against it, he warned, but added that his country "must be prepared, also for difficult scenarios" in which hundreds of missiles hit the country at the same time.

Dedicated to Lior, David and Amanda Leyden

Dedicated  to  Lior,  David  and  Amanda Leyden

CNBC: Civil Lawsuit Filed Today Against Gaza Flotilla Ships by Terror Victim

Civil Lawsuit Filed Today Against Gaza Flotilla Ships by Terror Victim

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Audacity of Hope is one of the ships that could be seized A civil lawsuit has been filed today against 14 ships, including at least one American-registered vessel named The Audacity of Hope, which are set to participate in a reprise international flotilla against Israel. 

Dr. Alan Bauer, a Harvard-educated biologist and terror victim injured in a 2002 Jerusalem bombing, is the plaintiff in the suit that was filed in Federal Court in New York City.

"The audacity of this flotilla is outrageous," said Ms. Darshan-Leitner. "First, the stated need for these ships is entirely unnecessary given that humanitarian aid can come to the Gaza Strip through the now open Egyptian border. Secondly, invoking the name of President Obama's book for media attention proves that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt, not a humanitarian mission. Finally, this action is entirely illegal - no U.S. citizen or entity is permitted to make a naval advance against a country with which the United States is at peace." 

The grounds for the lawsuit are based on Neutrality Act of 1794 that mandates no naval expedition can be made against a friendly nation by ship whose voyage is paid for by funds raised on U.S. soil. 

"Hopefully, this civil lawsuit will deter the participants in this publicity stunt," said Ms. Darshan-Leitner, "but if they decide to go forward, and the Court finds in favor of Dr. Bauer, the owners of these ships risk losing possession of their vessels." 

Click here for the PJTV interview of Ms. Darshan-Leitner, more information on the global satellite network operator Inmarsat which is providing services to the vessels in the flotilla, and a number of actions the public can take to express their concerns about the flotilla.

Jewish Lobby? US Jews Help Save Pro-Hamas Gaza Flotilla

Jewish Lobby?  US Jews Help
Save Pro-Hamas Gaza Flotilla

 


by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  

American Jews comprise more than 25 percent of the pro-Hamas flotilla that aims to challenge the IDF on the high seas and reach Hamas-backed Gaza, throwing cold water on the allegation of a unified pro-Israel “Jewish lobby” in the United States. 

"It's important that Jews are in this boat ... The Jewish lobby in this country is so powerful," New York Jewish labor attorney Richard Levy told media agencies. 

Comments by the Jews reflect mis-information that is omnipresent in mainstream media, particularly when referring to the supposed “blockade” on Gaza in order to prevent the smuggling of advanced weapons, explosives and terrorists whose aim is to attack Israel civilians and soldiers. 

Israel imposed a partial blockade after Hamas’ terrorist militia ousted the rival Fatah faction in a bloody war more than four years ago. Thousands of tons of humanitarian aid were allowed through land crossings, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last year canceled the blockade on all goods except for material that can be used for the Hamas terrorist infrastructure. 

The maritime embargo remains in effect because of the ease with which Hamas can use fishing boats to bring into Gazaweapons from Iran and Syria. 

The American Jews on the flotilla, like millions of other people, still refer to the “Israel blockade,” which Levy said is “morally and juridically unsupportable.” He then made an inexplicable connection to “slaughter,” stating that “no more people should be slaughtered in the name of the Jews." 

The Americans hope to sale from Greece on "The Audacity of Hope” this week with the announced intention of breaking the maritime  embargo, but Israeli military commanders have said that the goal of the pro-Hamas organizers behind the flotilla is to try  to force the IDF into a clash, similar to last year's confrontation with Turkish-based IHH terror activists. 

The Americans undoubtedly are not looking for a fight but are part of a larger community of American Jews who are unfamiliar with Israel but whose idea of the Jewish state is one that adopts Christian values of “turning the other cheek.” 

Jewish activist Leslie Cogan told the French news agency AFP, the flotilla is "a cargo of friendship, a cargo of peace." 

Last week, Jewish anti-Zionists in London rallied in memory of the nine IHH members who were killed by Israeli Navy commandos last year after brutally attacking the soldiers, who reached the deck of the Mavi Mamara ship virtually unarmed except for paint guns and small revolvers. 

After last year’s clash on the high seas, the leader of the German-Jewish organization Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East said the group actually wants to “preserve” Israel. 

"Some see what we are doing as a betrayal. But the question is what do they really know about the whole thing. Some people don't want to be educated," Kate Katzenstein-Leiterer told the German news agency DPA. 

In contrast to the American Jews’ efforts for the flotilla, pressure from French Jews prevented the departure of a ship toGaza, according to the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman. 




Editor's Note:  Please forward the below Website to all friends and associates.
www.FreeGazaPalestine.com