Arlene Kushner On The Flotilla, The Flytilla, And More

From Arlene Kushner

July 6, 2011

"Never Ending"

It gets a bit better, or a bit worse, but the situations Israel must cope with are unending. In a way, it's a sign that we're out there and going strong.

Preparations are being set in place now for the 500 to 700 "visitors" who intend to arrive in Ben Gurion airport on Friday, seeking, they claim, the opportunity to go as "tourists" to PA areas to show solidarity with the people. Calling their operation "Welcome to Palestine," activists speak of a plan to spend time with Palestinian families.


They will come unarmed, and hope to make create provocations that make Israel look bad in the international media. Those who are identified by Israel -- via security watch lists -- as provocateurs will not be permitted into Israel; anyone being sent back who opts to riot or carry on will be arrested.

The activists will be coming in the main from Europe. A number of European nations and airlines have received alerts from Israel regarding the situation.

A special operations room will be set up in the airport on Thursday night, and continue as long as necessary. From there, representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the Aviation Authority, the Internal Security Ministry, the police, the Prime Minister's Office will oversee what is happening -- mentoring airport employees and intervening as necessary.

As I write, the police are evaluating intelligence on what is likely to transpire in the next few days. Said Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beitenu), "Israel won't allow...hooligans to infiltrate by air. We will not host law-breakers."

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Meanwhile a French vessel -- a yacht called "Dignity," carrying eight passengers -- has set sail in the Mediterranean, presumably headed for Gaza. It apparently departed from somewhere in Greece, although no port has been indicated, and one source said "near Greece."

And after meeting with extensive delays, a second ship, the Juliano, flying the Swedish flag, has left Athens with 20 passengers on board, and will be joining the "Dignity."



The most disturbing factor with regard to the Juliano is that a major spokesman for this vessel is a former Israeli, Dror Feiler. Shameless is the adjective that comes first to my mind. "We are at sea," he has declared. "All roads lead to Gaza. It will be a small but high-quality flotilla."

High quality? This would not seem to be a major threat, but the Israeli navy is preparing to stop these vessels, in any event.

On Monday, Greece stopped a second ship -- the "Tahrir" -- sailing under the Canadian flag and carrying 50 passengers.

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There is evidence of growing international support for Israel's position with regard to stopping the ships attempting to break the naval blockade of Gaza. Bundestag MP Philip Missfelder, who serves as the foreign policy spokesman for the single largest bloc in the German parliament, said yesterday that the Flotilla activists "endanger peace efforts. [Their action] is part of the asymmetrical warfare against Israel."

"This is not about humanitarian help, rather a confrontation with Israel....I welcome that the Greek authorities have decisively intervened..."

What particularly caught my eye was the phrase, "asymmetrical warfare against Israel." Acknowledgement, at long last, that this is not a case of big bad Israel picking on poor defenseless Palestinian Arabs.

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Then this interesting note on the Flotilla situation:

According to Haaretz, a Swiss company, Interbulk, had sold 3,000 tons of cement to a Swedish delegation involved with the Flotilla ship "Free Mediterranean." The cement was scheduled to be transferred to the ship, but Interbulk -- citing a force majeure -- has withdrawn from the deal and will be returning the price of 25,000 Euros, which had been raised in Sweden over the past year.

Force majeure -- which means a superior force -- is in the nature of a legal term that implies "it's out of our hands" and can exempt a party from fulfilling a contract. Cited were such things as a letter from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discouraging nations from cooperating with the Flotilla.

Actually, two things are worth note here. One, is that, indeed, the tide seems to be shifting.

The other is the implication with regard to the concrete. It never would have made it to Gaza, in any event. For ostensibly "humanitarian" materials on the Flotilla ships -- which would have been unloaded in Ashdod once the ships were stopped -- would have been checked by Israeli authorities before being sent through the land crossings into Gaza. The concrete, I am quite certain, would have been blocked as "dual use" material. The activists might well have claimed that the concrete was for housing. But Hamas also uses concrete for rocket bunkers. The only time Israel allows concrete, in controlled quantities, through the crossings is in conjunction with carefully delineated and approved projects, such as an UNRWA school.

And here we have concrete (forgive the awful pun) evidence of why there must be a blockade.

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For the record: according to YNet, the Juliano, mentioned above, was supposed to carry concrete, but the Greek company that had contracted to provide the material reneged, saying it had been pressured. It's difficult to say if we're looking at two versions of the same incident, or if, indeed, two ships were scheduled to carry concrete.

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In his latest piece -- "An Obama peace plan?" -- Barry Rubin takes a very jaundiced look at what the plan entails. Focus has been on the suggestion that negotiations be based on the '67 lines with agreed-upon swaps. However, says Rubin, there's a whole lot more than this that is problematic:

"The false assumption on which the 1990s peace process was based is precisely the same as Obama’s flawed premise: The Palestinians are eager to get a state of their own; consequently they are willing to make concessions, they will live up to their commitments, and international security guarantees can be relied upon as a fail-safe. Let’s take these one at a time:

"• Palestinians eager? They aren’t eager. Many Palestinian leaders frequently say that it is it’s worth decades of not getting a state and continuing to fight in order to get everything in the end. They also say the current generation has no right to close the door to total victory and Israel’s destruction by future generations. They mistakenly believe time is on their side; indeed, Obama tells them so.

"• Consequently are they willing to make concessions? Neither Palestinian public opinion nor the political balance of forces allows for the more moderate sector of the leadership (which is very small) to make the needed concessions and compromises.

"• They will live up to their commitments? Let’s look at the commitments: Systematically stopping and punishing terrorism? No. Preparing their people for peace? No. Ending incitement against Israel? No. Refraining from violence? No.

"• International guarantees? Worthless. There is a long list of examples, including most recently the failure to stop Hezbollah’s return to southern Lebanon and the end to Syrian-Iranian arms smuggling to the group, as pledged by the US and UN after 2006. The Obama administration is particularly unreliable..."

It's well worth reading the entire article:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=227751

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You might also want to see an extensive briefing that Pinchas Inbari, a seasoned journalist and Arabic-speaker, has done for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on the question, "What Are the Palestinians Planning after September?"

Inbari's answer is that they are planning the Third Intifada, but of a sort that is different from the previous two. Can the Palestinian Arabs carry out their extensive plans? he asks rhetorically.

"Probably not." he concludes. "The plans are too large and presumptuous for them. Nevertheless, it is crucial to be aware of this far-reaching scheme."

This "far reaching scheme" involves pushing Israel back to the 1947 (Resolution 181) partition lines and then lobbying for return of refugees, so that Israel is destroyed.

One of the more interesting points Inbari makes is that the PA will not go along with "agreed upon swaps" because this would entail transferring areas in Israel where Palestinian Arabs with Israeli citizenship live to the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state. But they prefer to retain these Israeli Arabs in their current status as a fifth column.

See this, inform yourself about Palestinian Arab thinking, but do not become unduly alarmed. The briefing is featured on the JCPA website: http://www.jcpa.org/.

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At the same time, then, you might do well to familiarize yourself with the arguments of Ruth Gavison (Israel Prize winner and law professor); Yaffa Zilbershats (authority on international and constitutional law); and Nimra Goren-Amitai (research scholar) regarding the fact that "There's no right of return":

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=227929

This authoritative backgrounder will prove exceedingly helpful as we see the Palestinian Arabs attempting to push for that "right."

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Prime Minister Netanyahu is on a trip to Romania and Bulgaria to make the case against unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. In Bucharest, Romanian prime minister Emil Bloc said in a statement after meeting Netanyahu that he opposed such a unilateral declaration.

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I love this: PA prime minister Salam Fayyad has now declared that the severe financial difficulties of the PA does not mean it is not ready for statehood.

It's all because pledges to the PA for assistance have not been fulfilled, you see.

Obviously, the financial problems of the PA cannot in any way be connected -- perish the thought! -- to what has just been charged by the chair of the PA workers' union, Bassam Zakarneh. In an interview in Al Quds Al-Arabi (London) Zakarneh said:

"We've discovered that some ministers and officials are receiving financial aid in their wives’ names. Most of the aid authorized by Fayyad to the ministers and officials is in the context of support for the poor and families of martyrs. The money is paid to the wives [of the ministers and officials]. Fayyad is continuing to give financial aid to all those who are close to him. He’s doing so under the pretext of social aid.”

Additionally Zakarneh charged that Fayyad maintains control over public funds, sharing information with only one or two others, and that Fayyad refuses to dismiss ministers who have been involved in corruption scandals.

Understand, please, that Fayyad is the darling of the Western world because he's said to be clean and have integrity.

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Yesterday was, in a manner of speaking, my birthday. My tenth. It is just ten years ago that I made aliyah, and not once, but twice, as I was sharing this fact with native Israelis yesterday, they said, then it's your yom holedet -- your birthday. That struck me as right, because I have become someone different here in Israel. And it is with unmitigated joy -- the numerous frustrations and difficulties not withstanding -- that I celebrate. I am home.

With this, I share a very moving video of an interview with Uzi Narkiss, who was a commander in 1967, talking about how Israel took the Old City. Beautiful:



(With thanks to my friend Malka)

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.

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