Sunday, June 06, 2010

Netanyahu: The Truth is Slowly Spreading Around the World


Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
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The truth about the flotilla clash is slowing sinking in to people’s minds around the world, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet on Sunday morning. As he was speaking, a leading Turkish newspaper published photos of brutal beatings of Navy commandos by Turkish terror activists. The photos were a gruesome confirmation of the IDF’s documented evidence that the soldiers boarded the Mani Mamara ship virtually unarmed and were assaulted as they climbed down from ropes attached to a helicopter.

The Hurriyet newspaper showed some of the soldiers after being brutally beaten, some of them knocked unconscious under merciless attacks of Turkish citizens using metal clubs.

The Turkish daily claimed that the IDF did not publish the pictures that could easily be seen by enemies as a degradation of the Israeli armed forces. However, they also clearly contradicted flotilla organizers’ claims that the Navy commandoes attacked them as they boarded the ship.

Unlike the activists on the five other boats on the flotilla, approximately 50 men on the Mamara were trained for hand-to-hand combat and planned the ambush of the Navy soldiers. A member of the Free Gaza movement, which organized the flotilla, obtained from a source in the IDF the detailed plan of how the Navy commandoes were to take over the vessel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking to the Cabinet, compared the flotilla clash with Saturday’s peaceful interception of the Rachel Corrie ship that was turned away from Gaza by the Navy. He revealed that the Mamara ship, unlike the other five, was boarded in a separate city and “in effect, did not undergo strict security checks.

“Yesterday, the entire world saw the difference between a humanitarian flotilla and a hate flotilla by violent, terrorism-supporting extremists,” he stated.

“In both incidents, Israel used an identical procedure: We proposed that the ships unload their cargo in Ashdod port, where it would undergo a security check to prevent the entry of weapons to Hamas, after which the civilian goods would be delivered to Gaza. To the previous flotilla, we even proposed that its cargo be checked by international organizations in El Arish.

“Make no mistake. Regarding yesterday's ship and five of the six ships in the previous flotilla, this process ended without casualties or untoward incidents. Only on one ship, on which dozens of thugs from a terrorist organization – or, to be more precise, an extremist, terrorism-supporting organization – had prepared in advance, armed with axes, knives and other 'cold' weapons, were our soldiers compelled to defend themselves against a tangible danger to their lives.

“This truth is gradually spreading around the world. It must be understood that this was not a unique incident. This is a continuous process that enemies of Israel have been orchestrating for years in order to deny Israel's right to defend itself.

“I would like to emphasize: We will not allow the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza. We will not allow the free flow of war materiel and contraband to Hamas…. On the other hand, we would like for goods that are neither war materiel nor contraband to enter Gaza.” (IsraelNationalNews.com)

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