The Turkish Flotilla Incident -- Behind the Scenes!

Robert Stearns of Eagles Wings hosted today a conference call with Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Israel's Minister of Public Affairs, about the recent Turkish Flotilla incident near Israeli waters. On the line were over 500 concerned Christians, of whom I was one.

The incident was simply an act of provocation to make Israel look bad before the world's stage. Therefore, be armed with these facts, despite sympathetic news stories towards those who would destroy Israel.

9 FACTS ABOUT THE GAZA FLOTILLA INCIDENT

1. A state of armed conflict exists between Israel and the Hamas regime controlling Gaza. Under international law, Israel has the right to protect the lives of its civilians and has undertaken measures to defend itself, including the imposition of a maritime blockade to curb the smuggling of weapons by Hamas.

2. Five of the six flotilla vessels offered passive resistance to the Israeli boarding parties, and the redirection of these vessels to Ashdod was accomplished in a peaceful manner. This indicates clearly that Israel had no intention of harming any flotilla protesters.

3. However, the activists on the sixth ship 'Mavi Marmara' violently attacked the Israeli landing party with knives, iron bars, hatchets, chains and other weapons. Some activists also discharged firearms and explosives, and threw an Israeli officer over the side of the ship.

4. The premeditated nature of the violence was evidenced by the clubs, knives and bullet-proof vests that were found aboard the ship, and the coordinated actions of the attackers.

5. Having expected behavior in keeping with the flotilla's numerous declarations of 'peaceful intent', the soldiers were instead confronted with a rapidly deteriorating 'lynch' situation.

6. After several Israeli personnel were wounded, some critically, the landing party was forced to act in self-defense. Regrettably, nine of the attackers were killed.

7. The organization responsible for the ship, the IHH, promotes an extreme anti-Western agenda which has been implicated in the recruitment and financing of Jihadist terrorists worldwide, including al Qaeda. Large quantities of cash were found on board, some in the pockets of the attackers and most in courier belts ready for transfer to the Hamas.

8. The flotilla's cargo is being off-loaded in Ashdod and the humanitarian items transferred overland to Gaza in accordance with standard operating procedures. On 1 June, the Israeli Cabinet decided that the participants of the flotilla are to be repatriated as expediently as possible.

9. Israel does not prevent aid from reaching Gaza via established land-based crossings and there is no lack of humanitarian aid to the Strip. Israel repeatedly proposed that the flotilla organizers land in the port of Ashdod and transfer their aid to Gaza through the existing overland crossings. Had the aid been delivered directly to Ashdod in the first place, as Israel offered, the entire tragic incident could have been avoided.