Obama, Turkey and Israel

On Monday, nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed and others injured when Israeli soldiers took control of six boats forming a flotilla about 70 miles offshore in international waters. The flotilla was headed towards the Gaza strip for the ostensible purpose of delivering aid. The real purpose was to challenge Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza strip and, thereby, create an international incident. The "flagship" of the flotilla was dispatched by our NATO "ally," Turkey. Israel's blockade is meant to stop the well documented and deadly flow of military equipment and terrorists into Gaza from the sea.

With those basic facts in mind, here are a few thoughts.

- The Obama administration response to the above incident has been jaw dropping, with the worst being that Obama and Clinton have allowed a UN Security Council statement to go forward that all but condemns Israel and ignores the obvious - that responsibility for this incident lies directly on the shoulders of Turkey and their Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. There were numerous legitimate ways to deliver aid to the Palestinians. Instead of choosing any of them, Turkey chose to bless an attempt to bust through Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip. This was a blatant attempt to create precisely the type of incident that occurred. The fact is that Israel had every right to board those ships - and indeed, to sink them if they tried to run the blockade, which is no doubt why Israel chose to board the ships before they reached - and tried to run - the blockade.

- If Israel is guilty of anything, it is of not boarding the boats with sufficient overwhelming force / firepower such that there would be no question in the minds of the pro-Palestinian activists on the boats that any acts of aggression on their part would be suicidal. The Israelis went in with with no one pointing guns out of the helicopters to cover their descent and, equally as mystifying, armed with paintball guns and sidearms when they should have had Uzis, bayonets and stun grenades. The first rule of force is that any show of weakness invites a violent response - and a body count. The second rule is that overwhelming force and an obvious willingness to use it invites peaceful attention.

- At about the 1:20 mark in the video above, Clinton states that the Palestinians have a "legitimate need" to receive humanitarian assistance. No, they don't. The Palestinians have no right foreign aid of any sort. Indeed, if anyone was serious about peace in the Middle East, the first thing to do would be to cut off all aid to the Palestinians. All foreign aid does at this point is subsidize Hamas and the PLO, allowing them to pursue the destruction of Israel as opposed to creating a viable nation state.

- If anyone in the U.S. actually believes that Israel and Turkey are allies of equal importance, they are either ignorant or pro-Islamic ideologues. While Turkey was a secular nation for much of the past century, with the rise of Salafi Islam, Turkey itself has become infected. Let there be no doubt, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is moving the country into the Islamist camp "as fast as he can drag it" there. Turkey is at best a nominal ally of the U.S. at this point.

- According to the Washington Post:

The U.N. Security Council early Tuesday condemned "those acts which resulted in" the deaths of at least nine civilians aboard an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, and called for a "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent" investigation into why and how the Israeli military acted to stop the ships from reaching their destination.

Why did Obama agree to a UN Security Council statement that did not begin with an affirmation of Israel's right to blockade the Gaza strip, a condemnation of Turkey and those entities responsible for trying to break the blockade rather than to deliver aid through normal channels, and recognition that Israel acted with restraint in an attempt to defuse the situation without having to sink the ships? This is so overboard in its anti-Israeli bias that I cannot think of any similarly egregious act in America's history vis-a-vis Israel.

- If you want to know how peaceful the "aid" and the passengers were, you will not find it in the MSM or in the speeches of our politicians. According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel's search of the ships and passengers found individuals with links to terrorists as well as military equipment. This from the Jerusalem Post:

Dozens of passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship are suspected of having connections with global jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations, defense officials said on Tuesday, amid growing concerns that Turkish warships would accompany a future flotilla to the Gaza Strip.

According to the defense officials, the IDF has identified about 50 passengers on the ship who could have terrorist connections with global jihad-affiliated groups.

During its searches of the Mavi Marmara on Tuesday, the military also discovered a cache of bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles, as well as gas masks. On Monday morning, at least nine foreign activists were killed during the navy’s takeover of the Mavi Marmara, which was trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The group of over 50 passengers with possible terror connections have refused to identify themselves and were not carrying passports. Many of them were carrying envelopes packed with thousands of dollars in cash.

The military is working to identify the passengers and is looking into the possibility that some of them have been involved in terror attacks. Some of them are apparently known Islamic extremists. . . .

- Lastly, Clinton's call for a "two-state solution" at this point is simply ridiculous. It defies reality to believe that any such "solution" is possible so long as Islamists are determined to see the destruction of Israel. The current international tune is little more than an effort by Islamists to destroy Israel's legitimacy as a nation. And Obama is not merely playing right along, he is in large part directing the tune. I have wondered over the past year and a half whether the U.S. would survive Obama. Now I wonder if Israel will also.