Hard Core of Islamist Activists Seized Ship Long before Israel

This surprisingly candid BBC Panorama documentary lays out the events surrounding the Mavi Marmara Turkish Flotilla designed to break the Gaza blockade, and the Israeli seizure of the ship.

The facts are presented with compelling video evidence and they are quite damning, but not for Israel as the media onslaught portrayed. Rather for the organizers, Turkey, and the IHH (now designated a terrorist supporting entity by Germany).

We learn..

• The Organizers were prepared to break the siege at all costs, sanctioned violence.
• Islamists seized the Ship before Israel arrived.
• Islamists prepared for martyrdom, violence, and an assault on the IDF.
• Turkey  was complicit.
• The so called AID was a farce, cover for a violent confrontation.
• The IHH set out to create a staged media disaster against Israel.
• Hundreds of passengers were used as pawns.
• Islamists sought to 1st lynch, then murder IDF troops.

Here is the video in 2 parts

Part 1

Part 2

The world rushed to judgment

But as usual the real story is a familiar one. Radical Islam, terrorists, violence, lies, manipulation.

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Youtube Eyeblast Revolution

Our enemies are liars & propagandists. In Israel we face the contemptible yet all too vogue wave of moral equivalence that is sweeping the Liberal world. The Jew and Israel is judged by a twisted double standard – While the hate monger, the gay beater, the Islamofacist who denies nearly every freedom imaginable is cheered and admired from afar, granted almost heroic status. The challenge to confront this is immense.

The world delights at condemning Israel.

The nations of the world literally line up, they get in line and wait one after the other to condemn Israel at every opportunity. Truth is irrelevant, we saw this at Jenin, we saw it when shells hit a beach in Gaza, we saw it when Hezbollah organized propaganda for eager willing media in Lebanon during 2006 hostilities. We saw it with Mohamed Al Dura – Lies beget more lies and the media perpetuates a narrative written by peoples, groups & organizations that are not only in theory supposedly outcast by humanity, but literally illegal! The word of the terrorist carries more weight in this twisted landscape than the word of a free, democratic, lawful state like Israel.

It seems as if whatever propaganda our foes engineer is celebrated in an orgy of media & editorials, backed up by instantaneous international condemnation. Mind boggling, the only explanation is hatred. Can we fight back? Not conventionally. Our guilt is pre-determined irrespective if we were even at the scene of the crime. If the truth finally emerges, the lies or slander is never retracted. Fighting against this wave seems insurmountable.

We can chip away

We have to be quicker, more clever, and just as devious. Our own Propaganda can as exhibited below accomplish that task, because it carries with it something our enemies propaganda lacks, a core of truth. The Latma spoof: We Con the World in 4 days has well over 1 million views, and that is just at the original upload spot at YouTube.

The IDF video (graphic) showing the brutal beating of our soldiers by ‘peace activists’, was the top video at youtube for a few days running. Garnering nearly 2 million views and that is without the airing in international media. Sadly the long delay getting it to that air, cost us dearly in Israel. Lesson learned.

We may not be able to out lie our opponents.

It is not in our nature, but we can outsmart them. We can outflank them. If anything the latma spoof has  proved we must not only be on offense militarily to protect the State, we must do so in the PR realm as well. We are just as passionate, and just as dedicated as our foes and our cause is eternally more just. There is no reason to be losing this battle for PR supremacy. The world may delight at condemning us, but the spoof should prove to one and all that we should delight at condemning them too.

The Truth will not set us free, broadcasting it out in a clever nimble way however just might.

UPDATE: Youtube responding to anti-Israel pressure from WarnerBros music pulled the We Con the World video after 3 million+ views due to what they claim is “copyright infringement”. Of course we all know in the blogging world that parody clearly falls under copyright fair use clauses.

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Classic!

Last year Keep America Safe launched with great fanfare, sporting founding luminaries and heavyweights such as Liz Cheney & William Kristol. Now, The Weekly Standard tips that a new organization called Keep Israel Safe is now raring to go..

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained an advance copy of a web ad with which a new organization, Keep Israel Safe, is launching in the near future. Keep Israel Safe is obviously patterned after Liz Cheney’s Keep America Safe (of which—full disclosure!—the boss is a director). Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, the video resembles some of KAS’s successful ads. It will be interesting to see who’s behind this new pro-Israel effort. For now, if you go to KeepIsraelSafe.com, you get a notice that the website is coming soon (within the next 24 hours, I’m told).

Here’s the debut video.

Both this ad, and the Keep America Safe web ads I have seen are reminiscent of the McCain presidential run video ads, high quality pulling no punches. Here’s one of my favs from MAC’s run for comparison sake slamming Obama..

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Because You Need It!

I’m reflecting on the non stop media sensation regarding the liquidation of terrorist filth in Dubai recently. I’ve been struck by a number of things. Firstly, there’s the usual outcry of manufactured rage from our European pals, whom it seems are always outraged over something or other while the rest of the world simply yawns & proceeds to ignore them – Such is the importance of the EU these days.. (Yawn).

Isle of Outrageous

The British media is particularly incensed, and why shouldn’t they be? This is bread & butter for them. British media no longer does news, now they do who’s wife is screwing whom in various football leagues, along with top stories on which latest celebrity daughter was seen puking outside the nearest pub. This is what passes for important news & events in Britain these days. In light of that depressing reality opportunities to take potshots at anyone or everyone is now a British media cornerstone – Anything to take people’s minds off how shoddy the UK has become overall.

So whether it be whipping up faux rage on Israel (a brit favorite) or seizing on total invented nonsense like calling the Vancouver Olympic games the ‘worst in history’ (from the Guardian, a joke of a newspaper if you ever saw one) – If the British media can invent a sensation based on nothing at all, believe you me they will. Anybody know what color panties Carla Bruni wore yesterday!? Quick! We need confirmation, check the frontpage of any British newspaper.. (Yawn).

Der Spiel.. er Spiegel

Our natural & steady allies in Germany (the product of slaughtering Jews, complete with cattle cars & ready bake ovens) have devoted 5 pages in Der Spiegel on the Mossad Operation Gone Awry. Other than the fact that the operation was successful, everyone got away, no one has been identified, and the Hamas cockroach on our most wanted list is now quite dead.. This was a real botch!! *eye roll*

Der Spiegel is quick to point out how the vaunted reputation of the Mossad is now tarnished complete with this gem at the end for added dramatic effect..

The Mossad, which is presumably no longer able to use 11 of its agents, is already searching for new recruits. There is a job application form on the agency’s Web site (www.mossad.gov.il), under the keyword “career.” The areas where potential intelligence agents are needed, according to the site, include computer technology, logistics and “special projects.”

Wow, that is dramatic. We’re in emergency mode over here in Israel! We need recruits it seems, too bad the Mossad revamped its website & opened it up to recruiting online several years ago, but why let little things like facts ruin a good Israel smack-down story right? It fits the narrative more eloquently to pretend this is an emergency recruiting rush to shore up the non-botched operations we are running. (Forgive me, while I *eye roll* again.)

Well oiled German machine a ‘Team Effort’

The piece in Der BS’er is written up by no less than 6 people! – I guess when you need to cram that much bullsh*t into such a small place it takes a lot of guys to do the hauling.. Either that or they break it up into small bits to keep that illustrious German economy hauling along, seeing as it is one Fraulein away at any moment from imminent & total collapse these days.. But I digress, there’s another country that needs an Israeli whipping boy much more than the sour krauts – Illustrious Dubai! Yes, that ocean of insolvency in the sand!!

Someone toss Dubai a quarter, they need to call 911..

Mere weeks after topping world wide headlines for days on end, Bankrupt Dubai needs all the help it can get. People are scratching their heads wondering how they managed in Dubai to piece together all that security camera footage so quickly!? Is that a real mystery these days? What else is there to do in Dubai right now? Those guys are splicing & dicing the video footage like there’s no tomorrow! Because, well.. there isn’t. Of course these guys are working the video like gerbils on speed! Anything to hold on for dear life to that paying government job on the isle of insolvency.

More striking was the fact that in all those hours upon hours of footage one sees massive brand new airports filled with absolutely NO ONE but alleged Mossad agents! It’s like one of those new fangled zombie movies, albeit after the zombies have eaten away the entire population food source and are just roaming around, looking for that one guy running around without shoes, but sporting a flashlight and a shotgun…

Dubai 2.0

Scouring the footage also reveals half a dozen spiffy hotels complete with shooting water fountains, marble floors.. and not a single patron anywhere in sight! One of the alleged Mossad agents supposedly called in to the front desk to verify if room 237 across from the Hamas target was ‘available’.. Silly goose, of course it is. The vacancy rate in the multi-billion dollar oil money funded hotel is at 99%. PLEASE – JUST CHECK IN!! Kill anybody you want!

Drowning in Red Ink Special!

Is that your bag with your rocket launcher Mr Spy Man? No problem, Mahmoud – snap snap.. Bellhop that up to room 237. Here are your complimentary breakfast buffet coupons Sir. There is a 10 dollar surcharge for any brain matter or blood spatters in rooms, shall I tack that on now or later? You know what, 1st assassination in light of the economic times is on the house, just please I beg of you tell all your friends!!! Let them know there’s always action in Dubai..

Frankly I don’t care if that credit card is forged and you are wearing what is obviously a silly disguise, take as many rooms as you like, here in Dubai we need all the help & sensationalism we can get right now.. We’re going to milk this till the camel milk runs dry.

Over Here in Israel

No one really cares, another dead terrorist? Good. EU Media is up in arms!? What’s New?

Haaretz will whine about needing to see heads roll, or how if Livni was in charge the pomegranate trees would bloom 365 days a year. Better yet, blame it on Bibi - If your toilet backed up its because Netanyahu is leading in every poll. *Yawn* It’s not Haaretz’s fault, just like in Britain, newspaper circulation is down – And nothing sells papers like a little Jew bashing, just ask Aftonbladet in Sweden – Clearly we killed this Hamas man in order to sell his kidneys on the black market. (Insert latest Eye roll here..)

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UPDATE: Soccerdad has linked over, & he has more on the rage that has developed. His post and links are a little less snarky too lol.

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Under Berlusconi Italians Are Strong Friends of Israel

Berlusconi - a valued friend

I’ve posted about Italy previously, in relation mostly to Italian elections out of concern that the election of Prodi over Berlusconi would harm Israeli / Italian relations.. That’s precisely what happened when Prodi won. His large Communist block was viciously anti-Israel and Italian Anti-Semitism spiked. My efforts then got me onto the frontpage of Libero.it, Italy’s largest web portal, a nice honor which warmed my heart further.

Thankfully for Italian Israeli relations Prodi is gonzo, and Berlusconi is once again leading Italy.

Which means we have a close friend restored to the Italian driver’s seat. Both commercial & military cooperation will continue to flourish benefiting both countries. But now via Haaretz we are learning that there are added benefits to this strong relationship & they are far from trivial. Specifically in the form of Italy stepping forward to heal the massive rift that has opened between Israel & Sweden over the libelous, absurd, world famous, and very anti-semitic ‘Organ Harvesting’ article in the Aftonbladet Swedish tabloid (I refuse to link to this trash).

Is the crisis in relations between Israel and Sweden coming to an end? That is what Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, would like to believe.

In a telephone conversation with Haaretz, Frattini said he recently met with his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, and the two agreed that at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers later this week, they will work to pass a resolution making it clear that the EU, under the Swedish presidency, strongly condemns anti-Semitism and will take action against any manifestation of it on the continent.

Frattini said he intends to demand that the meeting’s summary statement explicitly condemn the article published in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which claimed that Israeli soldiers harvested the organs of dead Palestinians. He said his proposed statement would declare articles of this sort to be “acts of blatant anti-Semitism.” “There are limits to freedom of the press that stem from respect for the truth and the duty of every journalist to prove his claims,” Frattini explained.

The accusations in the Aftonbladet article are “terrible conclusions, lying and hurtful, and they have the power to assist all those who seek to incite against Jews or who oppose the existence of the State of Israel,” he added. However, Frattini stressed, “the state cannot intervene in the work of the press. The journalists are the ones who must set limits for themselves and must find the right balance within the framework of the journalistic code of behavior.” [...]

This Italian initiative is the strongest European condemnation we have seen of this affair to date, and make no mistake – Our friends in Italy have gone to bat for us here in Israel in a big way. Nothing remotely of the sort has come out of Sweden, they’ve been on the fence for far too long.

If Italy’s Foreign Minister in conjunction with Sweden can pull this off, the affair will hopefully be behind us all. This will benefit both Israel & Sweden, and the friendship we have come to rely on from Italy especially under Berlusconi is solid & valued. We are short on allies, Italy is one of them.

Grazie Berlusconi, Grazie tanto Italy!
(I hope I got that right..)

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Dumbest Man on TV?

If you ever watch him on MSNBC you already know, Olbermann is an idiot. He’s over the top, partisan, often factually incorrect, and instead of allowing the natural events of the news to stir interest & curiosity in the viewer he usually prefers to showcase himself. In short, he is the exact antithesis of the classic definition of a newsman.

That’s why I found this so alluring, not only does Olbermann compare the greatest technological achievement of mankind in its time, to the election of Obama! Which is absurd in itself to the point of mockery, he also seemingly alludes to his own ‘greatness’ at the same time.

He famously likes to liken himself to Walter Cronkite, using Cronkite’s sign off lines & mannerisms liberally in his nightly ’showpieces’.. Here he elevates idiocy to all new levels equating himself to Cronkite in an offhand manner the night Man left the atmosphere and landed men on the Moon, complete with incoherent analogies. A double shot of idiocy from the king of the morons himself.. Is it any wonder MSNBC has become the clown network?

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Who’s in control here? It is no longer clear

It might seem like I’ve been beating a dead horse covering the polling situation in Israel for well over a month now, slamming our big media endlessly for what I have called ‘agenda ridden polling’ and pushing their own views to shape public opinion in their own image, within Israel and abroad.

I apologize if it is tiresome, but I’ve been doing so because it has become more than clear that entirely unqualified & unelected media have had a skewing effect on state affairs for some time now in the realm of national decision making. It needs to stop and now MKs from both Israel Beitenu & Likud are proposing legislation to curtail influence by law. This is a small measure of vindication and allows me to get away with yet another post on this topic..

JPOST: ‘Ban publishing exit polls before voting ends’- Shelly Paz
(reproduced in full, I normally don’t do that but I digress on this topic)

MK Yisrael Hasson (Israel Beiteinu) will hold a special session of the Economic Affairs Committee on Wednesday to discuss banning the publication of exit polls while the ballot boxes are open for voting. Hasson chairs the panel.

“The meeting was set following the profound questions that have arisen regarding the media’s conduct and its influence on several crucial events in the Israeli reality; the disengagement [from Gaza in 2005], the Goldwasser-Regev-Kuntar swap deal [in July] and the Kadima primary last week,” Hasson said on Sunday.

It was important to examine whether the media had became the decision-maker, he said. “In other words, to check whether the watchdog of democracy has turned against the landlord.”

Hasson’s initiative is a result of allegations against the Israeli media and the way it covered the primary, accusations that went as far as to say that new Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni won the race thanks to media coverage that was clearly biased in her favor.

It has also been claimed that the publication of exit polls while the ballot boxes were still open, as well as in the days immediately before the primary, influenced the final result.

Also on Sunday, Likud MKs Gilad Erdan and Moshe Kahlon announced on they would soon introduce a bill that would ban the publications of polls in the two weeks before general elections and party primaries.

“Some would say that the intensive coverage of abducted soldiers increases the pressure on the decision-makers, who give in and agree to pay high prices, but that is impossible to quantify,” Erdan told The Jerusalem Post.

He added that he expected decision-makers to be able to withstand such pressure. “However, the general public can be influenced by polls, trends and the general mood that is created by the media.

“The media creates trends and they obviously affect the voters, who lie to pollsters and don’t feel comfortable revealing their real choice, and sometimes they are even discouraged by the polls and don’t even bother to go and exercise their rights at the ballot box,” Erdan said.

Dr. Yariv Ben-Eliezer, director of media studies at the Lauder School of Government at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, said that banning the publications of polls and surveys one or two weeks prior to primaries and general elections would help restrain the media’s eternal struggle for ratings.

“It’s not an exact science, but in general, the function of the media is to report, and when a TV channel or a newspaper commissions a poll, they’re not reporting anymore, they’re creating the news, and that is a failure of the media – where it deviates from its proper role,” Ben-Eliezer said.

Once the media commissioned polls and published them, it no longer reflected reality as it was but rather shaped it. “People are influenced and they can be affected by it [polls], and they may want to join what seems to be the stronger [political] group. I don’t say they do it intentionally, I believe that this is a result of the fight for ratings,” Ben-Eliezer said.

Indeed, Israel is a small country. A vibrant Democracy needs a vibrant free media, but at what point does it become clear that media, ‘elites’ & select opinion is now driving the national agenda? With today’s power in media that point in Israel has not only been crossed it has become untenable, this past week bordering nearly on criminal behavior with the Kadima Primary fiasco.

Crossing the line?

Now our national media pushes an agenda, and then when it is done doing so our media figures drop all pretense entirely and simply get themselves tacked onto party lists where they have already engendered favor through bias in reporting, and become Knesset MKs! Shelley Yacimovich of the Labor party, who was a vocal & visible journalist / activist put into Knesset this past session is a prime example. A number of Haaretz journalists have also recently left to pursue local & national politics as well, it kind of reeks.

Of course, journalists are free to enter politics by all means, but it seems that politics has also been entirely too free to enter Journalism here as well.. It’s time to reign them in because the people need to elect its governments and drive popular issues, not a handful of talking heads. This phenomenon has pushed Israel’s decision making farther to the left overall, while its electorate is solidly majority center and center right. The right is slandered, smeared & deligitimized by a cadre of illegitimate media, oh the irony.

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No Credibility, No Mandate, No Sweeping Adoration.

The tally is in and Livni has won by a mere 431 votes, instead of 49% to 37% as projected by every single outlet of big media in Israel last night, Livni’s lead is actually 1 measly percentage point. 43.1 to 42% - Shocking. It smells so corrupted I feel the need to shower. Worse, there were ‘voting irregularities’ last night in the arab sector (as usual) pushing Livni which may have clinched it for her – on top of her poll closing shenanigans.

A trend is developing, big media is pumping agenda driven polls in election after election to push their own horse. We saw it with Olmert, we saw it with Livni, and now we saw it even in the exit polls which declared Livni the winner before voting even ceased, studios closed down for the night, reporters went home and they drove Mofaz home as well in disappointment – but that wasn’t the story it seems.

Shocking Win

These results combined with the blatant manipulation by media, the blatant manipulation by Kadima to force polls open even longer at the last minute for their Princess Livni is a travesty and a mockery. Forget the fact that Israel’s new PM is decided by less than 20,000 people / votes – Now it is not even decided by those 20,000 it seems out of our 7 Million, it is decided by someone else entirely like some third world country, a true Banana Republic.

Livni has no mandate that much is clear. She is not the adoring savior shoved down our throats by our media with fictitious massive 20% victories over her rivals, and 20% electoral projected landslides in national elections, she will not sweep anything in national elections as I posted previously and that is precisely why we will be denied them. She has a zero success rate and that was proven again last night beyond her Foreign Ministerial failures.

Enough with this farce

Where does Kadima go from here? Our PM refuses to vacate, his replacement is coronated like a queen, negotiations & concessions steam forward with no mandate, now not once but a second time it seems, state affairs are not dealt with.. We are ruled it seems like a brothel – By a bunch of greedy corrupt prostitutes and their media pimps. Now Shas & Labor have seemingly even dropped their pre-requisites for remaining in the coalition, meaning nothing has changed at all.

Now that it is proven Livni is far from a winner the left’s GoldenGirl clearly cannot deliver, and the last thing that can be allowed is elections to drive this failure reality home.

Update: Lonely Planet

I’m feeling kinda gothca’d, which is why I seem to be the only person beefing about this, the media in Israel is seemingly skipping right over the whole debacle above. Contrast this to the Bush Kerry results 4 years ago where similar exits told a similar story and there was shock afterward, there was quite a bit of talk in the media about jumping the gun. Following some Clinton miscalls in this US election cycle, media again in the US looked at the need to restrain themselves..

Where are the opinion pieces in Israel with similar tones? The election was called across the board and was overshot by about 10% – a full 1/4 of the vote, it certainly affected the vote itself as well. If I find some dissent I will link it. Further, if I was feeling like a bastard I would contrast YNET political reporting last night which was gloating & filled with exhilaration, with the muted fare available today..

Link Update:
Thank Goodness SD does the phenomenal groundwork here, I thought I might be losing my mind. The Nissenbaum shot and the WP quotes are instant classics.

UPDATE Sep 19: Mofaz’s Exit from Politics

Mofaz has dropped a shocker, his exit from politics. Many are carrying on with the same scorn he received in the campaign, calling him sore loser etc. But I see it differently, he was indeed robbed, a victim of racism and ugly class rivalries in Israel amongst other things, and if he stays he benefits not himself so much, as Livni who’s party and who’s own experience looks paltry without him..

The Jerusalem Post analyzes the situation today, they’ve clearly been reading some high quality material ; )

[...] The Kadima establishment, they lamented on his behalf, had set him up to fail. Livni was the golden girl, to be crowned come what may. After decades of military and public service, he had been misrepresented throughout the campaign as a murky political operator and Likud hawk, and his popularity relentlessly undermined by skewed and baseless polls.

On primary day itself, when he still had a good chance of victory, the Mofaz camp further complained Thursday night, he was quashed by a combination of disqualified ballots, extended voting hours and the reprehensible broadcast of exit polls falsely showing an overwhelming Livni victory – an appalling breach of democratic norms that could only have persuaded those Mofaz supporters still waiting to cast their ballots that they were wasting their time and should head home. [...]

Phew, it is not such a lonely planet after all..

Big thanks for making Kadima Primary day the Hashmonean’s biggest traffic day in a while. I also saw that Jameel had an excellent post on the polling fracas, nice one – Both the Jpost full article and the Muqata look at polling are worthy reads.

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