Who over reaction? Turkeys?; by ceasing diplomatic relations! Or Israels? By boarding a private vessel on a humanitarian mission in international waters and murdering 9 civilians?

Exactly Ruairi

Humanitarian mission to where? Gaza is not and never has been in a humanitarian crisis, they didn’t need whatever that ship was carrying apart from the terrorists who were about to murder Israeli forces and got themselves killed in the process, would Turkey have apologized to Israel if their men had been killed? I think not, start waking out of your slumber people and see the truth, any trouble in Gaza is their own doing for voting terrorists in to govern them, Gaza is NOT in a Humanitarian Crisis, so they didn’t need a flotilla to bring humanitarian aid, that was just a publicity propaganda stunt by terrorists and terrorist loving fools.

Ruairi, they did not ‘murder’ civilians. They shot armed militants who were beating the hell out of them with metal bars that had been fashioned for the purpose. The ship was full of lethal weapons. If the Israeli soldiers, many badly hurt, had not fired on their attackers, they would all have been killed. If that had happened, would you have been writing comments condemning the IHH or Turkey for their murders? The IDF troops went on board with paint-guns in order to avoid injury to any passengers, but they were immediately set on by men with terrorist inclinations and affiliations. The ship didn’t carry any real aid materials, just some junk that was of no use to anyone. The purpose of the flotilla was not to bring aid to the people of Gaza: if they had called peacefully at an Israeli port, the Israelis would have brought real aid into Gaza the next day, as they do every day of the week. There was no humanitarian mission, the waters were not international but Israeli waters, and the United Nations reported later that Israel’s naval blockade (which exists to prevent arms being smuggled into Gaza – something that has been tried many times) was entirely legal under international, in the same way that the Irish navy patrols our shores to prevent smuggling of drugs or weapons or people. The flotilla had an agenda. That was not set by the dupes who had gone along just to show how right-on they are, but by the Islamist militants who wanted to kill Israelis. On board, they chanted in Arabic: Khaybar, Khaybar, Ya Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sa-ya’ud. I used to teach Arabic at university, and I can assure you that that is an open threat to Jews. That is the reality. It’s time you and others woke up to it and learned how to deal with it.

@denis. Well said sir

@ denis

Funny how you agree with UN decisions when they suit your agenda, but have a facebook ‘like’ called ‘UN palestine vote illegitimate’, isn’t it?

Thought I’d take a quick peek after you repeated all the same tired propaganda soundbites one after the other. Nothing like a nice unbiased opinion is there?

@ paul. The ICRC, the de facto people to know a humanitarian crisis when they see one, have stated that the blockade of gaza caused a humanitarian crisis. Not good enough for you??

Werejammin, think before you write. The Palestinians have rejected UN resolution after resolution. The most important was the 1947 UN General Assembly partition plan that proposed the creation of two neighbouring states, one for the Jews, the other for the Arabs. The Arabs responded by invading Israel on the day it proclaimed its independence. Nothing has been right since then. If the Palestinians (as they came to be known) had accepted the UN plan, there would have been peace. Instead, the Arabs have kept up an unending war against Israel, threatening to take control of the UN-created state and to commit genocide of all Jews living there. Necessarily, this has meant that many resolutions that threaten Israel’s security cannot be accepted by Israel. Don’t think about Israel’s non-acceptance. Recite daily the words of the infamous 1967 Khartoum Declaration by the Arab League: ‘No negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel’ and ask yourself why Israel cannot afford to abide by every ruling that undermines the safety of its citizens. Versions of the Declaration may be found in thew founding documents of Hamas (a branch of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood), Fatah, and Hizbullah.Get hold of a copy of the Israel-Arab Reader and look at these things. You may learn to see Israel in a different light.

Jesus you Mosad lads are detrimented to sway public opinion towards Israel.
That Facebook name your using, is it off one of the Irish passports ye used as your identity te kill yer man? ;-) see a lot of you lads trolling.

@shane. Poor.

So “denis”goes out of his way to defend Israel on any article he can find he’s no more Irish than obama is.

What Shane ? That is a very racist comment. Because someone doesn’t agree with your narrow definitions they must not be Irish ,

What your really saying is Denis must be a Jew or a Protestant really.

What narrow definitians have i giving????just have a quick look at his facebook page there and tell me im mad to think that maybe he mite not be a Irish man.

FACT, Since 1948 when the State of Israel was recognised by the UN, Palestinian Arabs have increased in number from approx 800,000, to approx 7,000,000. In 1948 following the Israeli War of Independence, approx. 700,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees. In the following years, approx. 900,000 Jews from Arab lands became refugees too, ‘encouraged’ to leave those countries. Do they have a right of return?
Today, there is not a single Jewish refugee from that time; there are however hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arab refugees, along with their families. Why? Why hasn’t the Arab League absorbed it’s brother Arabs? Why do they remain living in squalid and disgusting refugee camps?

The real issue between Israel on one side and Hamas and the other Islamist radical groups on the other is not Palestinian land or Arab land, but Islamic land. Islamic doctrine says that any land that has ever been under Muslim rule but is ruled by infidels must be returned to Islamic rule. & that includes most of the Balkans & Spain. Arab states occupy 99 % of the area of the Middle East and all have Muslim majorities and governments. Israel, even with the West Bank included, occupies less than 1 % of the Middle East. But no matter how small, its existence cannot be tolerated by Islamists. Right now in the West Bank, Salam Fayad, the PM, is building the infrastructure of a state for the Palestinian people and there is relative calm there. It will take time but the basis for a future state that is now being created and will hopefully emerge in due course. Gaza on the other hand is in chaos. Hamas is, as their charter points out, not just opposed to Israel, but to all Jews globally. As things stand, negotiations and compromise with Hamas are impossible – you cannot negotiate with people that do not accept your right to life.

There will only be a peaceful solution when there is a 2 state solution, one Palestinian and one Israeli. Israel has accepted that, but Hamas & co haven’t. The UN is useless with regards to the Middle-East. If there was a motion that Israel had killed Princess Diana & Michael Jackson, it would get support from the Block Voting Islamic states. The EU should take the lead in peace talks. There is hope for peace but BOTH sides need to be presssured into making concessions.

Shane is obviously an anti-Semite and should be excluded from this debate for that alone. My name is Irish, and I have the birth certificate to prove I was born in Belfast. How Irish does ‘Shane King ‘ sound? But his feeling that only a Jew could defend Israel is pure antisemitism, and I hope he is hounded out of here by all good-thinking people.

So what’s your connection with Israel denis.

Shane King asks what my connection to Israel is. Why is that important? I’m not a Jew and I’m not an Israeli, but I recognize democracy and human rights and fair play when I see it, and I have seen it in Israel in bucketloads. You, I presume, have never set foot in a country you hate for God knows what reason. What is your connection to the Palestinians, Shane? I first visited Israel way before you were born (I’m guessing here), and I knew right away that it was a good place to be. I was a lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies, and I also have a PhD in Persian Studies, so I guess I know much more about the Middle East than you will ever know. I have lived in Iran and Morocco, I have studied the region, and I have written books and articles on related topics. I know all too well the difference between Israel and any of its neighbours. Let me give you a simple example. In Iran, the country’s native and largest religious minority is the Baha’is. The regime there hangs Baha’is for crimes like teaching morality classes for children. It has destroyed all the Baha’i holy places (all of which I have visited). It has dug up all the Baha’i cemeteries and disinterred the bodies. It forbids young Baha’is to attend university. It plans to destroy the Baha’i community. Baha’is are also considered heretics in every Arab country. In Israel, the Baha’is have been encouraged to build their international headquarters, to construct their three holiest shrines, and to create centres for study, archives, and other purposes. I have visited all these (they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site) on several occasions and everyone tells me they are glad to be in Israel, which protects them. Now, you tell me which of these countries I should love. Which countries should I consider upholders of human rights. Nobody in Israel goes into mosques and explodes bombs, as they do in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Muslims are guaranteed the protection of their holy places under law. In Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi regime has destroyed almost every single historical site with a connection to the Prophet Muhammad, his family, or his companions – because they can’t bear the thought that other Muslims might want to come to these sites and pray while on pilgrimage. Which country would you admire, Saudi Arabia or Israel? That’s my connection to Israel: as a believer in democracy, human rights, free speech and the rule of law, I know no other country in the Middle East that comes even close to it. Do you?

Everything Denis has said here is discredited, not by me, but by an Israeli apology! If any of the nonsocial story you came out with about the Israelis not being armed & the boat being full of weapons; well the Israelis would not have apologised!
Their apology highlights your lies. How ironic

@Sean Mac An TSionnaigh. Sean, lad, your naivety shocks me. The events on the Mavi Marmara are well documented, and there is overwhelming evidence that Israel was not to blame. You may not have noticed, but this apology came during a visit to Israel by Barrack Obama. In politics, there is always give and take. At the moment, Obama badly wants to keep Turkey happy, because of the war in Syria and the risk of it spilling over. By pressurizing Bibi Netanyahu to make this apology, Obama will have helped smooth relations with Turkey’s Erdogan. In return, Netanyahu may have demanded something from Obama, possibly with regard to Iran. This is how politics works. Again, I say there was nothing to apologize for. In fact, Turkey should have apologized for Israel for letting the Mavi Marmara sail (it was most emphatically not on an aid mission) and for allowing members of an extremist Islamist group to commandeer and take control of the vessel, as has been attested by the Mavi Marmara’s first mate. The apology is a political gesture. You should note that Israel always shows willingness to bend over backwards to facilitate peace. It has pulled out of Gaza, Lebanon, and Sinai, and it has handed over 90% of the West Bank to Palestine Administration control. It is the real facts that matter, not the apology.

I see TFM is still being allowed to copy/paste and plagarise to his/her hearts content.

Its laziness like that which gives the israeli propaganda machine such a bad name. If you’re going to try out-Gorebbels Goebbels you’ll need to follow the fascist work ethic properly.

Thanks for your posts.

Are you paid to write that shit?

Pity all your friends in that part of the world do not abide by ALL U.N resolutions. Then there might be a chance of some peace.

The Mavi Marmara incident had nothing to do with UN resolutions. The Palmer Report was not a resolution. It simply affirmed that Israel’s naval blockade was and is legal under international law. As regards resolutions, why did the Arabs respond to the UN resolution that created two states in 1947 by invading Israel on the day of its independence, and why do they continue to say and write the words of the 1967 Khartoum Declaration: ‘No negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no peace with Israel’. Then ask who does or does not carry out UN resolutions such as number 242.

How declan? By posting the full propagandabot shopping list of excuses for israeli crimes against humanity?

Nothing we haven’t seen a hundred times before on these pages.

Laziness

If youve seen it ‘hundreds’ of times I would have expected a well rehearsed reply. Is it laziness from yourself?

Always disappointing when anything said against Israel gets turned on its head and called anti-Semitic. My five cents worth. Oíche mhaith mo chara.

Your the first to bring up anti semitism I think . seems like a common thread with the anti Israel activists. They sneer “Oh you will accuse me of anti semitism” Yet it is ye bringing it up, ye belittling it, ye linking Israel with anti semitism.
Not every criticisim of Israel is anti Semitic but most anti semitics are anti Israel. Those that hold Israel to a standard they hold no other nation are anti Semitic.

Sorry lads i just can’t take ye seriously its probably one lad with multiple profiles,we can see what ye are all about on the profiles ye only comment on things to do with Israel.alot of ye knock around on YouTube aswell but ye get marked as spam alot or jeered off.

James. Did I belittle anti-semitism above? No. I made a comment that some commentators here are quick to play the anti-Semitic card. I’m not anti Israel. I’m pro human rights, whether they be Jews, Muslims, Catholic, Protestant, atheist.

Fact versus conjecture. I read cant take seriously as I cant offer anything in reply.

Ah lads yer all gas.

Clifford, stop clearing your browsing history so you can continuously red thumb. Too obvious.

Really? Is that how its done? And where did you learn this?

B-Lowe me

You are coming across as a idiot! Denis has run circles around you and al, you can do is insult people.

Denis has used the same scripted responses that they always use,have a look around YouTube in the comments sections of videos you will see the same answers.lads the truth is 3/4 of the people of Ireland don’t support Israel, ye can get together and come here as part of the Israel/Ireland group and knock out the facts sheet but ye will never win us over ye are so quick to use the anti-semit card its gas.

@shane. Nobody used the anti semitic card as you call it. Using blanket statements and spurious youtube references against very calm reasoned facts doesn’t make for a good debate. I dont think anyones mind will be changed when it refuses to listen with an open one. I only got interested in the question of israel/ palestine when I saw a pslestine supporters demonstration outside the mansion house a few years ago. I asked what was going on and was told that israel had no right to exist. I replied well arent they as entitled to a home as much as the next man. I was told that I had obviously been ‘brainwashed by some f@#@ jew’
That to me wasn’t an adequate response so I went to the library and picked up some books. and here we are :)

@brian. Who doesnt want peace in the region?

Brian, no it’s question of how the anti-Israel lobby are going to handle this.

Everyone wants peace in the region.
But unfortunately there not goin to have it. :-(

Who said anything about not wanting peace?

Israel has one of the most powerful military machines in the world. Why would Hamas & their pay-masters in Iran continue to antagonise it by firing rockets at its civilians unless they wanted a reaction?
Hamas deliberately and cynically engineer conflict as a way of diverting attention away from Syria and Iran. It fires missiles from within inhabited civilian areas specifically to force retaliation that will cause casualties. Those casualties are then held up to the world as examples of Israeli aggression, and those who want to find fault with Israel are given a cause to promote.

It’s kind of funny how the Eirigi/32CSM/Palestinian solidarity bandwagon crowd resort to accusing those who make their slogans about “apartheid” or “genocide” look ridiculous by using facts in their comments of being “Mossad spys or Israeli plants” imagine that!! not everybody believes your lies.

True Tom the anti Israel eirigi and all do spout alot of BS but now to be fair im normally pro Israel (not on settlement expansion thats just wrong) but on defence from hamas and iran im very pro Israel but….. now in fairness what happened that night was avoidable. Sure the commandos were attacked and rightly shot back but what were they expecting on boarding? Flowers??

Thing is they had other ways to stop or disable boat. Boarding should be last resort.

If you see flag protests in belfast do you walk into middle of them with tri colour and expect nothing to happen?

They are right to apologise because they were wrong to board it.

This from pro westerm person

@werejammin: im sure the turks considered all this before accepting the apology. They have. You should too.

Everything you have said is completely false. Read my reply to Ruairi O’Sullivan above. There was no piracy: the UN declared Israel’s blockade as 100% legal under international law. There was no kidnapping of anyone, as the non-militants will attest. No-one was taken prisoner. But armed men working for a major Islamist/terrorist organization, who had armed themselves beforehand an d had issued repeated threats to Jews were far from being the innocents you would like them to have been. Israeli soldiers were nearly beaten to death and their attackers suffered the consequences. Your entire understanding of this incident betrays a serious lack of knowledge (or willful ignorance) of Middle East history, and deliberately ignores the wars and terrorist attacks on Israel for over 60 years, which make security the uppermost concern for ordinary Israelis who try to live their daily lives without being murdered in their beds (like the Fogel family in Itimar). Israel treats thousands of Palestinians in its own hospitals every year. Israelis bear no malice towards the Palestinians, but they have a right to prevent arms smuggling that brings in weapons that are so often used against Israeli children. Do you want to prevent Israelis keeping their lives safe from the monsters who prey on them? If that’s your intention, you are scarcely fit to be considered a proper human being.

Denis I think a better question to ask is how many dead jews would keep them happy. The usual rampant moral relativism is par for the course in our fair isle.

Jeez, get off your moral high horse there love! You keep building settlements on occupied land, what do you expect??? Your country is a terrorist nation, not in the same league as North Korea or Iran, but a terrorist nation all the same.

@lord. Nonsense it is yer talkin.

Nope, the truth, Cliff old bean.

Their good on picking up the way that we text an all. He never used words like “yer” till i typed it haha.

There’s three of them here now how do ye organise what article to go on lads do ye give each other a txt,or do ye just know when anything about israel pops up.

@ leonard. Yeah im doing great here in tel aviv. Id have gotten away with it too if it hadnt been for you pesky kids ;)

Don’t let your tin foil hat slip Shane, Your another mad conspiracy theorist

Where are the Journal mods ? Some serious sectarian and personal attack comments. Clearly yer moderation policy is flexible.

*you’re

Have i attacked anyone????

Spelling corrections equal automatic invalidation. You can do better than that.

Nothin sectarian here. Just tryin to blacken someones name are ye?

He attacked me by calling me a conspiracy theorist with a tinfoil hat,omg like im totally offended why isn’t the author doing something :-(

Were you being anti something , Jason ? !!

No.