printFor the first time in a very long time Israel has beaten the global Palestinian PR machine. It posted footage of the mob lynching to which their Navy SEALs had been subjected right away; and they’ve galvanized a superb spokesman in the person of Michael Oren (whose son is in a similar unit). No longer are we faced with bumbling, heavily accented tough men and women who know how to pick up arms in defense of their existentially imperiled nation, but know not how to speak to the left-liberal degenerates of the world.
This has changed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau has just outlined clearly (an act beyond the ken of his ruffian predecessor) the events of May 31 upon the Turkish flotilla headed for Gaza. He spoke of the hypocrisy of the international community in no uncertain terms, and made clear that Israel would vigorously inspect and interdict cargo headed for its shores—all the more so when the cargo carriers refuse to go through its approved channels. Dah!
Such are the capabilities of news media these days that footage and transcripts of Netanyahu’s live address are not available as I write (11:16 Pacific Time, June 2). Will post these as soon as they materialize on the internet.
HERE is the Israeli PM’s masterful, measured address: “Once again Israel faces hypocrisy and a biased rush to judgment. this is not the first time. … Israel cannot permit Iran to establish a Mediterranean port a few dozen kilometers from Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Here’s our policy, it’s very simple: Humanitarian and other good can go in; weapons and war material cannot. … Each week an average of 10,000 tons of good enters Gaza. The offer to delivery the good this time was rejected. Navy personnel had not choice but to board these vessels. On 5 of the ships Israeli personnel met with no serious violence. On the larger ship, something very different happened. … Met with a vicious mob [footage in the background]; stabbed, clubbed, and fired upon. One soldier was shot in the stomach, one in the knee; they were going to be killed. The attackers had prepared their violent action in advance.” …
UPDATED I: I know these are Jews, so the anti-Semites find it hard to see them as human, but as I said in the related post, “What if these were your Navy SEAL sons?”
Heather Robinson of the Washington Examiner echoes the sentiment:
“They jumped me, hit me with clubs and bottles and stole my rifle,” one of the commandos said. “I pulled out my pistol and had no choice but to shoot.” The fact that several of the commandos were injured, two of them gravely, attests to the fact that the “peace activists” posed a serious threat.
(Anyone who would argue that the commandos used “disproportionate” force should consider what he or she would do if faced with the very real prospect of being lynched).
UPDATE II: Myron, what’s with the allusion about Captain B. Netanyahu’s military past being vastly different from his heroic late brother’s, Yonatan Netanyahu? Writes Wikipedia:
Netanyahu joined the Israeli Defense Forces in 1967 where he served as a commander in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, taking part in many missions including the hostages rescue mission from the hijacked Sabena Flight 572 in 1972.
How many American presidents had the right stuff for a Special Ops unit? As for his “ideas”; he’s big on Maimonides. To quote:
Benjamin Netanyahu: “It is not enough to be a Thatcherite, a Jew should go even further and become a Maimonidite.”
UPDATE III: “Love Boat” security cameras capture the “flotilla Rioters [as they] Prepare Rods, Slingshots, Broken Bottles and Metal Objects to Attack IDF Soldiers.”
UPDATE IV (June 3): Better close-up footage of IDF soldiers being beaten with pipes and chains and shot at by the terrorists. Anyone who casts these hapless soldiers as aggressors is mindless or blinded by hatred for the Jew Among Nations. In fact, the IDF should conduct an inquiry as to why, one after the other, the soldiers slid into the midst of a lynch mob.
Netanyahu: The right person, in the right job, at the right time.
I find no flaws in his logic.
It would have been better, PR-speaking, if the flotilla had been engaged in territorial waters; however, everyone involved knew that the flotilla was not headed towards Brazil and was slightly off course. It seems that most Americans slightly to the right of academia-media-leftists understand Israel’s problem. Naturally, the deaths of the “peace activists” on the Love Boat – require a full Goldstonian “UN inquiry” but if America itself wipes out wedding parties in Afghanistan, even most American leftists are apathetic (provided Obama is President).
In spite of his defective (MIT) education, Netanyahu’s English is superior to the Bushian Bragadoccio and the Obamian Cutie-nuanceness. Perhaps deep down, he actually has ideas and beliefs and remembers how his brother died on July 4, 1976. [He himself was a military man
Of course, “world opinion” is upset when Israelis damage “peace” such as when they fought Black September, prevented Syrian takeover of Jordan, destroyed the peaceful Osirak reactor of Iraq, and now prevent a Hamas harbor in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Gaza population (82,500 before Israeli independence, 240,000 in 1950, and around 1.5 million today – victims of so-called “genocide”!) is a perpetual pawn to be used by “world opinion” against Israel.
http:// israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000636
Wow – what a leader. His defense of his people and nation was firm, stalwart, and unapologetic. He refused to make concessions in matters of life and death, and he went on the offensive, calling out the “international community” for their hypocrisy. Nor did he try to paint the international community as something noble but misguided, he portrayed them for what they are, an international lynch mob out to get Israel just like Rhodesia, South Africa and Serbia.
The Israeli PM made his case clearly, calmly, and without and hesitation. Sometimes people rise to the times in which they live. I believe we are starting to witness this with Mr. Netanyahu.
Leadership is everything in crisis:He has been on the button from start: even ignoring obama when necessary.
Good luck to israel!
And,
Good luck to America.
May the rest of us survive the looming times ahead.
I didn’t know that Benjamin Netanyahu himself was injured in a hostage rescue. I knew of course what happened to Yonathan. Anyway, my point was that Benjamin Netanyahu knows the stress and danger facing those Seals, Special Ops, etc. involved in a complex operation in the presence of hostile combatants and non-combatants. Obama knows only blather. Bush only knows empty machismo.
My complaint is that since Reagan (relatively speaking, a philosopher-king compared to the pygmies since), America has had ambitious political hacks with no underlying philosophy. Maimonidies is not a bad philosopher for Netanyahu to emulate. As I read the Torah, I get surpised how even English/American “common law” is based upon the old Torah and its interpretations (such as the “Castle Rule” self-defense on Exodus 22-2, etc.).
As I can read and understand Afrikaans, maybe the Afrikaans speakers among your readers can read this. Peaceful anti-Israel ralliers molested the guests of a Starbucks café in Bonn (the former West German capital). When one of the guests (recognisable by his American accented English as an American) asked them to stop, he was attacked and beaten unconscious. The personnel of the Starbucks refused to intervene, to help the man, to restrain the attacker (because it was partially the victim’s “own fault”) or to call the police. The victim was taken to a hospital where the doctor thought that he had been “very lucky”. Interviewed by the blog later, the victim commemnted that “No American or Israeli should feel safe at any Starbucks.”
Sorry to need a second comment, but this is too interesting to be missed: The MSM totally ignored the incident at Starbucks and largely the rally, but I found a report in English (without the Starbucks incident) at the Demotix “citizen journalism” website. It pays to go to the report from the same rally at Cologne and have a close look at the photos — and the Hamas flags.
What a great leader. If only we had one like him here in South Africa. Well done sir. It is great to see you stand for what you believe in and not play the puppet to the international community.
Those whom Evil would destroy, it first designates as ‘evil’.
It is no small triumph of the Left that it has staked out both the vocabulary and the attendant high dudgeon in characterizing such as national self-interest (our borders) and defense of the nation (Israel’s peaceful survival) as evil.
In the flotilla affair there is of course a need to respond in defense of Israel’s actions; VP Biden, bless his little heart, managed to the best of his capabilities but much more is required. It’s no longer enough to come to the defense of Israel. Every reaction condemning Israel, knee-jerk or premeditated, no matter the source, must itself come under scathing attack, decisively, unequivocally, and without compunction. Call them out, repeatedly, for what they hate, would appease, and assist in – Jews, murderous hatred of Jews, the annihilation of Jews.
Obama certainly pales to impotent irrelevance when compared to Netanyahu.
No matter what Biden or Clinton may say to U. S. media, official U. S. policy condemned the raid, as evidenced by U. S. support of the U. N. Security Council resolution http://www.rferl.org/content/UN_Security_Council_Condemns_Deaths_In_Israeli_Flotilla_Assault/2058376.html
The U. S. had several choices in this matter: It could have exercised its veto, abstained, or voted for. It chose the latter.
If a U. S. vote in the U. N. Security Council does not indicate official policy (folks like Biden appear to want it both ways) then what is the point of participating in that body?
I have for years deeply admired Benjamin Netanyahu. To try to compare him to anyone else is wrong. He is in a class by himself.He truly is the sovereignly appointed leader of Israel.Yes,God knew what he was doing with him. I have always recognized that Bibi was a very special man. Compared to Israel’s leadership, the USA with this administration, is as helpless as the fish in the Gulf of Mexico.Martin Berrow
For someone to question Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to stop the Flotilla and suggest that Israel was usurping their power against peaceful protesters, they first would be a flaming fool. Second, they would be obviously anti semetic. Its just that simple.Martin Berrow
Israel is losing this PR campaign in a big way. The world does not like what it is seeing.
Memo to Erudites:
And now, for something completely different… some Jewish people with a great sense of humor. This would probably resonate with some younger people far more quickly and effectively than Mr. Netanyahu’s masterful speech. A parody of “We Are The World” entitled “We Con The World.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg
If my comment doesn’t appear Ilana, I’ll assume it didn’t tickle your funnybone quite like it did mine!
Can’t WAIT ’til your new book comes out! Do a book signing in California somewhere… I’ll get there one way or the other.
Keep up the great work dear…