Aid ships head from Turkish port to Gaza

Aid ships head from Turkish port to Gaza

english.aljazeera.net

Two boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists have reached international waters of the eastern Mediterranean and are making their way towards the Gaza Strip, in the latest attempt to break the Israeli blockade against the territory.

The Tahrir, or Canadian Boat to Gaza, and the MV Saoirse, the Irish boat to Gaza, left the port of Fethiye in southwest Turkey on Wednesday after Turkish authorities gave them permission to sail to the Greek island of Rhodes.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
ustogaza.org

Regardless of what your opinion is on these aid flotillas you have to admit this is a pretty bold move considering the tension in the region. If anything were to happen this could get real ugly. The people on those boats must be crazy!

The other link I provided at the bottom actually discusses the passengers origin in more detail.

I am pretty confident that there is no way Israel will allow these ships anywhere near Gaza. I predict a redirection to an Israeli port where the people will be detained and the aid will be disposed of because it will most likely be on the list of banned items.

english.aljazeera.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

To make things more interesting, they are associating themselves with OWS:

Ann Wright retired US army Colonel and former US Diplomat says, “We carry inspiration from the Arab Spring and the worldwide “Occupy” movements that are demanding freedom and justice. Where governments fail, civil society must act. As Americans we are fed up with our government’s unquestioning support of Israel no matter how violent, illegal and oppressive its actions. We will not stand by and watch $30 billion of our tax money committed to buying Israel weaponry used to carry out this illegal occupation of Palestine including the blockade of Gaza.”

From the bottom link in my OP.

Here we go, mon ami.
I like your threads.
Israel poised to hit Iran and turkey decides to push the Gaza thing again.
Greece is going to drop out of the Euro and Israel is backing Greece in the Turkey-Cyprus issue.
New connections between Syria and Pakistan nuclear programme.
How many more monkeys can they fit in this barrel? We get the point already, PTB, just tell us how many of us you want to die. Don't bother with the explanations as we've already heard all that nonsense with Iraq and Afghanistan.

will there be a turkish military escort, like turkish officials said a couple of weeks ago ?

reply to post by Aestheteka


So much crazy stuff happening lately that I can't help but share with my fellow ATS members. It usually leads to interesting discussions.

There is so much going on that there is a major update every hour in one form or another.

I hope these people make it through to prove a point. Maybe the Turkish Navy might decide to tag along.

reply to post by icepack


They don't mention the Navy, but they mention the Coast Guard:

The Turkish coast guard briefly escorted the ships before the Tahrir and Saoirse took a turn towards Gaza.

I personally doubt the Turkish Navy would challenge the Israeli Navy over an aid Flotilla, but things are so out of control right now nothing would surprise me.

Should be there by Friday.

No Turkish navy helping them apparently, as always, Erdogan was full of it in his threats.

Check this out:

Aid ships in new bid to run Gaza blockade: activists

This part is what made me wonder about last time.

The organisers of the latest flotilla said they had organised their effort in secret, in a bid to prevent Israeli interference. "The 'Freedom Waves to Gaza' organisers chose not to publicise the effort in advance given Israel's efforts to block and sabotage Freedom Flotilla II last July," the group said.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
Regardless of what your opinion is on these aid flotillas you have to admit this is a pretty bold move considering the tension in the region. If anything were to happen this could get real ugly. The people on those boats must be crazy

If they want to be "bold" let them sail into Pyongyang where people are really starving to death. But I suppose if they did that they might actually be putting themselves at risk.

This is getting as convoluted as a day-time soap opera.

Ostensibly well-meaning civilians, some of whom are American, are going to - once again - force the Israeli hand by challenging it's blockade thanks to Turkish maritime support.

The EU, already showing signs of popular rejection of Israel's case justifying their behavior, is in turmoil over financial matters engendered by the banker's paradigm of reality. The Greek people now find themselves understanding what happened in Iceland from a new and more personal perspective.

American financial firms are lamenting their bet that someone in the EU banking system would have flinched over Greece by now... their loses will not be easily counted.

Israeli hawks are proudly flexing their muscles and carrying on in the usual style. Palestine has joined UNESCO and tied the hands of American charity because of legislation set in place as a threat against such developments.

From this sea of confusion; what shall rise?

War? Perhaps... although the profit of the fear of war may be enough to enjoin the true manipulators of global affairs ... it all depends on whether they themselves are as fearful as we are.... and I suspect they're not.

Is now the time when all will turn on Israel, and if so, is this not a self-fulfilling prophesy? Or a manufactured event to guarantee certain opportunities arise?

Some days, being conspiracy-curious can be a real mind bending experience.....

reply to post by Maxmars


Wow! Awesome post

You summed it all up pretty well.

Nothing we can do but sit back and watch and see what happens. Maybe all or nothing.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


A quick prediction.

The ship Saoirse with the journalists on board will be witness to the the Tahrir doing a provocative action forcing the Israelis hand. They will film it all while doing nothing...maintaining their innocence.

This will be in the news in the next few days.

I hope I’m wrong.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Anything's possible.

We will see in a few days.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Everyone uses propaganda. From every Gov't to the OWS movement. I know it when I see it.

It used to be my job. Though I preferred to use the truth to advance the cause. Even when we did tactical call outs, we tried to press the positive. Those didn’t always turn out so well. There are always die-hards.

That's why I love ATS.

No more bullets...just debate.

Israel offered help and aid for the victims of the Earthquake in the Eastern of Turkey. Thus I think Israel kind of earned plus points and looks like the good guy atm. Don't think Israel will do anything this time, but we'll see I guess..

To be frank they seem like useful idiots without a cause, putting themselves in harms way. One day they are protesting against "the illegal occupation" of palestine(which officially does not exist) and the next day they are protesting "the occupation of gaza(run by hamas)".

Then they protest the fact they can't cause trouble in Israel without consequences.

Absurd!!

Originally posted by SirMike

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
Regardless of what your opinion is on these aid flotillas you have to admit this is a pretty bold move considering the tension in the region. If anything were to happen this could get real ugly. The people on those boats must be crazy

If they want to be "bold" let them sail into Pyongyang where people are really starving to death. But I suppose if they did that they might actually be putting themselves at risk.

They might also end up on the menu.

reply to post by EarthCitizen07


No, Israel doesn't officially exist. Palestine has existed for a very long time indeed.

It's also been muslim for the last 1300 years.

Palestine joined the Islamic Empire following the 636 CE Battle of Yarmouk during the Muslim conquest of Syria. In 661 CE, with the assassination of Ali, Muawiyah I became the uncontested Caliph of the Islamic World after being crowned in Jerusalem. In 691, the Dome of the Rock became the world's first great work of Islamic architecture.

The Jews are quite a recent addition to the topography

in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The British government issued the pro-Zionist Balfour Declaration of 1917 during World War I. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922. The Arab Palestinians revolted in 1920, 1929 and 1936. In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory. The Arabs rejected the UN partition plan, and a civil war began immediately, with the State of Israel was declared in 1948. The 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes were unable to return following the Lausanne Conference, 1949. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel captured and incorporated more Mandate territory, Jordan captured the region today known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt. In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the rest of Mandate Palestine from Jordan and Egypt, and began a policy of Israeli settlements

History of Palestine

I wonder if this is at all connected with Turkey allowing these ships to leave from their ports. We all know Israel told Greece no. Turkey doesn't give a rats arse what Israel thinks.

Just another carefully thought out move by Turkey.

From Today’s Zaman: Turkey, Israel to face new crisis over Göktürk project

Turkey and Israel, two countries that have had strained relations since an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killed nine Turks last year, are likely to face a new crisis over Turkey’s Göktürk electro-optical satellite project, which will pave the way for the Turkish military to gather its own intelligence. The project will enable Turkey to acquire high-resolution images for military intelligence in Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East. It will also strengthen Turkey’s hand in fighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Concerned that the satellite will gather images of its territory, Israel has pressured France, which is working on the construction of the satellite in cooperation with the Italian-based company Telespazio, to stop the project. Given the possibility that its efforts in France may yield no results, Israeli officials are also lobbying in Ankara. Once the satellite is launched in 2012, Turkey will be able to sell the images it obtains to other countries as well. Israel is currently attempting to negotiate with Turkish officials in order to ensure Turkey does not sell images of Israel to other states and Palestine. However, the response from Turkish officials was clear: “We will decide how to use the images taken by our satellite.”

There is always a lot more going on than they tell us. I bet that Turkey is seeing how far they can push Israel by not actually really doing anything.