Major Avichai Adraee, Head of the Arabic Desk of the Foreign Press Division. Good, isn't he? To the point and on the ball.
On one of my Friday posts I linked to a video of pro-Palestinian activist Sylvia Hale, co-founder of a well-known Australian publishing company and a former New South Wales state parliamentarian (Greens, naturellement), telling the Israel-bashing faithful about her forthcoming trip to Gaza along with fellow Aussies bent on breaking the so-called "siege of Gaza". There's a "Free Palestine" poster on the lectern in front of her, and on the wall behind is a big "Boycott Israel" banner. The video is eleven minutes long, so here's an alternative four-minute quickie, if you'd rather:
Want more? Here's fifteen minutes' worth - Ms Hale addressing diehards of the Trotskyite organisation known as Socialist Alternative, who lap up the canards (watch those grey heads nod) about "war crimes," "ethnic cleansing," and the "right of return" of the "expelled" (sic!) refugees:
Read more about that meeting here: http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6924:palestine-supporters-meet-in-sydney&Itemid=386
Evidently, the true facts of the "violence" aboard the Mavi Marmara last May, so well captured in the video by that peerless poster boy, the Elder of Ziyon (to which I also link on that Friday post), have made not an iota of an impact on our intrepid lady traveller. Not to mention other facts, both historical and current.
Here is Ms Hale, who was a Marrickville councillor for several years, attempting to justify the Marrickville Greens' reprehensible adoption of BDS, and condemning the attempt to "silence dissent" by those who campaigned against Marrickville's loathsome and discriminatory policy:
Also bound for Gaza aboard the flotilla are Sydneysiders Vivienne Porzsolt and Michael Coleman:
In the course of an excellent article (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/gaza-flotilla-blind-to-hamas/story-e6frg6ux-1226080858425 - hat tip: reader Shirlee) about what he aptly terms "this latest anti-Israel provocation," Arsen Ostrovsky of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council notes:
No, Gaza will not be free so long as Hamas continues to control the Gaza Strip. But then again, there was not a single mention of Hamas in their press release. Why?
If they need a reminder as to Hamas's raison d'etre, then look no further than Hamas's charter, which mixes genocidal anti-Semitism against Jews with calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in its place....
The Australian contingent has also said they are "committed to peace and non-violence", but how do they square that with Hamas's record of violence, including the firing of some 13,000 rockets and mortars into Israel since 2001? Since the end of the Gaza War in January 2009, there has been on average no less than a rocket a day fired by Hamas from Gaza.
Where were Sylvia Hale and co when Hamas deliberately fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus recently, killing a 16-year-old boy?
They have also been conspicuously silent while Hamas has regularly tortured fellow Palestinians who have sought to exercise their freedom of speech to speak out against Hamas's crimes, while at the same time brutally suppressing the rights of women, gays and Christians.
Of course there is no mention about the plight of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who tomorrow will mark five years held hostage by Hamas without so much as a visit from the Red Cross and in breach of every imaginable Geneva convention.
At the time of the flotilla incident last June, the so-called "peace activists" rejected a request by Shalit's father to bring his son a letter and small care package. Apparently this did not coincide with their "mission".
Will the Australian contingent perhaps call on Hamas to release Gilad? Or do his rights not matter either?
It is noteworthy that in March this year, Israel intercepted the cargo vessel Victoria, transporting 50 tonnes of advanced Iranian weapons bound for Gaza. If Hale and the Greens had their way and the naval blockade was lifted, these weapons, and many more, would end up in the hands of Hamas and be used for acts of terror against Israeli civilians.
Were it not for the incessant rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas against Israel and the need to prevent weapons being smuggled to the terror group, there would of course never have been a blockade in the first instance.
Every responsible world leader has warned their citizens against participating in the upcoming flotilla, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urging those who may wish to provide goods into Gaza to do so through the approved channels.
One such channel, in addition to the already established channels through the Ashdod port in Israel and the UN, is the recently opened Rafah crossing in Egypt, which borders Gaza.
Even Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says the flotilla organisers should reconsider their plans in light of the opening of the Rafah crossing.
Other than seeking to provoke Israel into another potentially deadly confrontation, there is no humanitarian or legal rationale for a flotilla, given the ample avenues available for goods and supplies to be delivered into Gaza....
Israel has never blocked the transfer of humanitarian goods into Gaza and today permits almost all goods to be imported into the strip, except only items that may be used for military or terrorist purposes.
Only a few days ago, Israel approved the transfer of $100 million worth of construction materials for the building of 1200 new houses and 18 schools in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
One place where there is a pressing humanitarian crisis is for example Syria, where the Assad regime has now killed in excess of 1400 pro-democracy protesters since uprisings began in March this year, including the brutal torture and murder of a 13-year-old boy earlier this month. One would be forgiven for asking, where is the flotilla to Syria?
Or what about the wave of violence currently being unleashed against Coptic Christian communities across the Arab Middle East? Or in Saudi Arabia, where the regime has just arrested a woman for daring to defy the government's ban on women driving? And how about Iran, which continues to repress and persecute its local Baha'i minority?
It is a sad reflection on the moral turpitude of those participating in this provocative mission that the only flotilla they deem worthy of joining is one which is destined for Gaza, where they will serve the publicly declared goals of its Hamas rulers: violence, Israel's destruction and the suppression of the human rights of Palestinians.'
