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Sun, Dec 26, 2010 | By Crethi Plethi

The MV Mavi Marmara welcomed home by pro-palestinian Turks and foreign activists (IHH website, dec 26, 2010).

Israel Will Not Apologize, Turkey’s Government Sounds Just Like Hamas

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Israel will not apologize to Turkey over the raid on the Freedom Fleet flotilla and the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara headed for Gaza in may to break the Gaza blockade, CNN reported on Sunday.

“The ones who need to apologize is the Turkish government for supporting terror regarding the IHH, Hamas and Hezbollah,” he told during a meeting with Israeli ambassadors from around the world. “There will be no apology, and if there is one, we are expecting it from Ankara and not vice versa,” he said.

The Turkish IHH, which organized the flotilla in close cooperation with the Turkish government and played a major role in attacking the IDF aboard the ship, supported the global jihad in the past. Reliable information indicates that alongside its extensive humanitarian activity, in the past IHH had ongoing relations with Al-Qaeda and global jihad networks in the Middle East and beyond, and for that reason was in the crosshairs of previous Turkish regimes. Its ties to terrorism were manifested chiefly through the provision of logistic support for transferring weapons and funds to terrorist operatives, including terrorists planning a terrorist attack in the United States. [The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Sept 26, 2010]

Turkey’s Government Sounds Just Like Hamas

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized Israel a day earlier for not reciprocating his country’s “efforts” to remedy relations, despite Turkey’s “wish to reconcile with Israel,” according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. As in the past months since the Freedom Flotilla incident, Turkey’s foreign minister continued to press for an apology from Israel over the incident.

“We are having difficulty, when we don’t receive the same will from the other side,” he said. “If our friendship with Israel is going to continue, an apology and compensation are the only possible ways for it.” On Saturday, Davutoglu said that Tel Aviv’s attempts to lay blame were unfounded. “Turkish citizens were killed in international waters,” he told reporters, according to the Anadolu report. “Nothing can cover this fact. Turkey cannot be blamed.” [CNN, Dec 26, 2010]

This “blame-Israel-for-everything” policy is exactly the same policy Islamic terrorist organizations like Hamas are using, only this time it’s the Turkish government using it. First demonize and provoke Israel by using hate speech, terrorist attacks or in the case of the Mavi Marmara flotilla turn a [government’s] blind eye to an Islamic Jihad organization to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, knowing very well that an Israeli response will come, and then blame Israel for it.

The Turkish government was deliberately heading for a confrontation with Israel, as they didn’t even try to stop the Freedom Fleet flotilla and to bring the relief items in cooperation with the UN and Israel to Gaza. After the Mavi Marmara incident Turkey demanded an Israeli apology without acknowledging the responsibilities of the Turkish government and the lack of cooperation with Israel to prevent all this from happening in the first place. It’s a well known tactic to keep repeating that “Turkish citizens fell victim to Israeli agression” and that Turkey is “willing to solve” the dispute, but that “Israel is unwilling” to cooperate.

In this case, as so often when it comes to Israel, is cause and effect mixed up. Another example of the Islamist anti-Israel nature of the Turkish AKP government.

The Mavi Marmara Returned Home

Also today, the Mavi Marmara “finally returned home after 219 days since the incident on may 31. Tens of thousands of people attended a welcome ceremony for the ship,” according to a press release from the Turkish IHH [Insani Yardim Vakfi – Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief – Dec 26, 2010].

The Mavi Marmara was accompanied by 80 small boats and people were waving flags of Palestine and Turkey to welcome the ship. Turkish citizens as well as hundreds of activists from 50 different countries participated in the event. Photo’s of the 9 “activists” who died during the Israeli raid were displayed at the ship. People were shouting slogans condemning Israel and showing banners protesting against the blockade of Gaza. IHH President Bülent Yildirim spoke at the welcoming ceremony and the family members of the 9 dead “activists” attended the ceremony as well as Archbishop Hilarion Capucci^[1] (retired titular archbishop of Caesarea for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church), the Swedish-Israeli “leftist activist” Dror Elimelech Feiler^[2], Free Gaza legal advisor Audrey Bomse, Muhammad Sawalha (former Hamas commander and a signatory of the pro-Hamas Istanbul declaration), Mazen Kahel (from the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza) and Mavi Marmara “activist” Demetris Pleionis. [IHH website, Dec 26, 2010]

Note:

[1] On August 18, 1974 Capucci was arrested by Israeli police for smuggling weapons into the West Bank in a Mercedes sedan for Palestinian terrorists. He participated in the aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip and was a “passenger” on the Mavi Marmara.

[2] Dror Elimelech Feiler’s father met with PLO representatives in Rumania in 1978 while this was still illegal at the time. Dror Elimelech was also one of the first “refuseniks” to serve in the disputed territories. He is chairman of the Swedish organization Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (JIPF) and the European organization European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP). He was aboard the Mavi Marmara involved in the Gaza flotilla clash.