Gaza Flotilla on the rocks?

Gaza Flotilla on the rocks?

As Ynet news reports it, the Gaza flotilla is off to a rocky start. French ship Dignity which departed for the rendezvous with vessels participating in the Gaza flotilla on Saturday has apparently decided to skip the Athens stop and is en route to Gaza. Flotilla organizers refused to officially confirm the ship is approaching the region and are maintaining secrecy.

Jordanian activists said they purchased an additional ship for $805,000 which could carry as many as 200 activists. It was said it will carry 35 Jordanian activists. The organizers said that the flotilla will set sail on Thursday but noted there may be delays.

The Irish ship is apparently docking at an undisclosed port in the Mediterranean to avoid delays in Greece.

The American ship and the Greek-Swedish ship are delayed in Greece.

According to the organizers, the Italian ship Stefano Chiarim will carry the most passengers with 65 people; Canadian ship Tahrir will carry 48 passengers and the American vessel, which is currently detained in Greece, will carry 40 passengers.

An additional seven ships are expected to depart from Spain, France, Ireland, Greece, Sweden and Norway.

The organizers are disappointed in the limited turnout. Less than 300 are expected to board the flotilla ships, 36 members of the press.

Confrontation looms on the horizon. The Israeli military, which argues the strict blockade imposed in 2007 is necessary for security reasons, specifically to stop the Hamas government in Gaza from acquiring weapons, has been holding drills for special commandos and snipers to prepare to intercept what some commanders have called the “hate flotilla,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Canadian department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has since added this warning: “The border around the Gaza Strip is under the control of Israeli and Egyptian authorities. Canadians who break the laws of another country are subject to the judicial system of that country. DFAIT can neither offer protection from the consequences of such actions nor override the decisions of local authorities.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similar statements Thursday calling it “unnecessary” and “unhelpful” to be “entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a number of governments have warned the flotilla not to start. The US government has warned its nationals against taking part in the protest.

Israel has strongly urged Turkey to block the flotilla from leaving. The United Nations has said that aid shipments should be sent through formal UN structures.

We will see...

//rb

Erdogan strongest leader in Middle East

Erdogan strongest leader in Middle East

Haarethz New had an article by Anshel Pfeffer that says Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of Turkey is the strongest leader in the Middle East.

The thousands of refugees who fled Syria in the past week are providing Erdogan with an opportunity to determine the fate of Syria.

The political earthquake in Arab countries has yielded additional unexpected benefits for the Turkish prime minister. In the short term, the thousands of refugees who fled Syria in the past week created a logistic and humanitarian headache for Ankara, and may even be increasing fears of renewed tension with the Kurds. However, they are providing Erdogan with an opportunity to determine the fate of Syria.

The regime in Damascus, in the first three months of the revolution being fought against it, contained events within the country's borders. It cut off Western media and expelled their correspondents, greatly undermining the ability of the few opposition groups - inside Syria and in exile - to close ranks against the government and to begin to offer an alternative to the Assad dynasty.

The coming months will see the government in Damascus grow weaker, with more soldiers refusing to fire on civilians and ethnic groups increasingly joining the revolution. The refugee camps on Turkish soil will serve as a breeding ground for the new Syrian opposition; only factions friendly to Ankara will be permitted to grow. If that happens as expected, the new Syria will be a vassal state of Turkey.

Syrian opposition groups are planning to ignite a new wave of protests in Arab capitals to push President Bashir al-Assad from power by harnessing international anger at the state's brutal attack on demonstrators, according to the Telegraph in the UK.

The protests are planned for the first week of July in the hope of persuading Arab governments to turn against the regime, Wissam Tarif, a prominent activist said.

Meanwhile, refugees who have set up camps inside Syria near Turkey are forming "people's committees" and arming against further government retaliation.

More than three months of protests have shocked the Syrian regime, which until March thought it had escaped the "Arab spring"

While the uprising has not overthrown the country's leader, or divided Syria like Libya, it has paralyzed the nation.

Activists blame Russia and China for opposing resolutions to put pressure on the regime at the United Nations, and the Arab League, which has failed to condemn the regime's actions as it did with Libya.

Arab League. Amr Moussa, secretary-general, said members were "worried and angry" at events in Syria, and that the situation was unsustainable.

Netanyahu on Jerusalem Day: This city is ours!

Israel today Magazine has a good article on 44th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

As Israel marked the 44th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel would never allow the city to be again divided.

"Forty-four years ago, IDF soldiers realized the prophets' vision and returned Jerusalem to its proper place," Netanyahu said, referring to the liberation of the eastern half of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War.

Speaking at Jerusalem's Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, which has long been at the forefront of religious Zionism, Netanyahu continued:

"Jerusalem will never be divided. There's nothing more holy to us than Jerusalem, we'll protect Jerusalem, it's unity, and we'll build and develop it."

US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders have been pushing hard to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks based on Arab demands that Israel return to its pre-1967 borders.

For its part, the Palestinian leadership insists it will never sign a peace deal with Israel that does not include the full surrender of the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.

Read more:

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/22811/language/en-US/Default.aspx