Deja vu all over again: As Syrians die, 'flotilla' to arrive in 'besieged Gaza' on Wednesday
Bashar al-Assad must be pleased. As millions starve in Aleppo, Syria, the world is focused on a 'flotilla' headed for the 'besieged Gaza Strip,' which is due to arrive on Wednesday evening.
The all women solidarity ship called “Zaytouna” -- meaning "olives" in
Arabic -- is expected to arrive in the besieged Gaza Strip in two days
after setting off from the shores of Barcelona, Spain last month as part
of the larger Freedom Flotilla aimed at disrupting Israel’s nearly
decade-long siege on the small Palestinian territory, according to a
statement released Tuesday by the International Committee for Breaking
the Siege of Gaza.
The committee said that the 13 women
activists on board are set to arrive in the besieged coastal enclave on
Wednesday evening or Thursday morning after traveling for nearly 2,000
miles, if the ship is not obstructed by Israeli naval forces en route to
the shores of Gaza. The committee called upon
international activists to work on conducting media, political, and
popular campaigns to exert pressure on Israel in order to guarantee a
safe arrival for the Zaytouna solidarity ship and the women aboard.
The
Freedom Flotilla initially consisted of another solidarity ship called
“Amal” -- meaning “hope” in Arabic, but according to the committee the
Amal ship would not participate in the solidarity mission after facing
"unforeseen circumstances" that were out of the control of the
organizers.
'Palestinian' media is reporting that the Israeli Navy has been ordered to stop the ship. And the women on board have been whining to the media that they fear an Israeli 'attack.'
The Zaytouna-Oliva, one of two vessels that set sail from Barcelona
in September in a bid to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, expects
to be 100 nautical miles off the shores of the Hamas-ruled area by
Wednesday morning, according to a South African passenger who talked to Agence France Presse on Tuesday. Leigh-Ann Naidoo told AFP, "We are not worried about what Israel plans on doing."
Spokeswoman
Claude Leotic told AFP, "We fear there will be an Israeli attack" to
prevent the boat from reaching Gaza's shores. As in the past, the
Israeli navy is expected to intercept the boat and escort it to the port
of Ashdod, arresting and deporting those on board.
By the way, there are at least two self-proclaimed Israelis on board. Because after all they're starving in Gaza.
Shocka: Israeli Navy intercepts weapons bound for Gaza
Anyone who thinks that Hamas was going to stop trying to murder Israelis just because Israel destroyed thousands of buildings in Gaza was simply fooling themselves. A commander in Israel's Navy has told the Jerusalem Post that since the end of Operation Protective Edge, the Navy has intercepted several weapons shipments that were included in 'building materials' headed to Gaza.
“We continue to see attempts to smuggle weapons or material to build
them. The sea is a very convenient platform for smuggling.
The terrorists still have one big smuggling tunnel, and it’s called the Mediterranean,” said [Cmdr. Eli] Soholitski.
Asked
if the blockage of smuggling tunnels that linked Sinai to Gaza could
lead to an increase in naval-smuggling attempts, Soholitski answered in
the affirmative.
“In the end, our area of coverage is very big.
This requires us to be professional and ensure that smuggling doesn’t
happen. We need to invest in technological resources to achieve this
and in people. There are no computers that can do this job without the
eyes of a navy controller. Nothing is automatic. People are central to
all of this,” he said.
So much for Israel's 'diplomatic isolation.' The government of Panama consented to the search of the Klos-C, a ship under Panamanian flag that was carrying weapons from Iran to Gaza.
Because a ship is legally an extension of the flag state’s territory,
that state has an absolute right to consent to search on the high seas.
Of course, nations have always been reluctant to allow interference
with their civilian ships. Moreover, flags of convenience like Panama
have about as much taste for allowing foreign security forces peeking
into their ships as the Swiss have for peeking into their banks. So
Panama’s cooperation is laudable. It is a happy example of a registry
state taking actual responsibility for what happens under its flag, and
yet another of many contradictions to the Jewish state’s alleged
“growing isolation.”
Wednesday morning, the IDF intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets to terrorist organizations in Gaza 160 kilometers off the coast of Sudan.
Israel Navy forces identified the target, and upon arrival requested to board. With the full consent of the crew, the IDF soldiers opened a number of containers on board the ship. They discovered a substantial amount of weapons hidden behind bags of cement.
Let's go to the videotape.
So how did they get the full consent of the crew. Apparently, the captain realized he didn't have a choice.
As for the timing and location of the operation, the officer said
that various factors were taken into account, including the height of
the waves, “We were concerned that the ship's crew would think that we
were pirates, and that is why we identified ourselves from the outset as
the IDF, and when the captain looked right and left, he saw two Navy
missile ships, including additional vessels – and it was a show of force
he could not resist, and therefore the boarding of the ship was quiet.”
The officer said that the Turkish captain and the rest of the crew did not know that there were weapons on board.
Rumor has it that this is what the captain said when he was captured.
The operation was performed very close to the ship’s destination,
possibly, in order to avoid potential confrontation with Iranian naval
forces operating in the area. In previous occasions Israeli forces have
struck missile convoys in Sudan, on their long journey north through
Egypt to Sinai. The Iranian Navy is routinely operates in the Gulf of
Aden, Bab-el Mandeb and the southern part of the Red Sea, where the
Iranian Navy’s 29th Fleet recently thwarted two piracy
attacks on an Iranian oil tanker sailing at the Red Sea. Last month,
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that
his naval forces have foiled tens of attacks by international pirates on
the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers. He noted that the Iranian
Navy warships have escorted some 2,000 merchant vessels and freighters in the same period.
According
to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their
warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the
pirates. Linking the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the
Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Aden is an important energy corridor for
tankers transporting oil from the Persian Gulf to the West, via the Suez
Canal.
Hmmm. And they wonder why we don't just let them ship whatever they want into Gaza....
From AP's Dan Williams' Twitter feed (@AlonBD is Alon Ben David, the chief military correspondent for Channel 10 and the anchor of its news magazine).
The Israeli air force did not attack Latakia last night, says @AlonBD, countering allegations from Syria. What about the Israeli navy?
— Dan Williams (@DanWilliams) January 27, 2014
Former Navy chief: 'We have answers to the Yakhont'
Every time I post about Iran smuggling weapons to Hezbullah via Syria, a weapons system that figures prominently in the post seems to be the Yakhont land-to-sea missile, a missile for which Israel is presumed to have no answer. Except that former Israel Navy chief Eliezer Marom says that Israel has defenses in place against the Yakhont.
Describing the Yakhont as the most advanced missile of its kind in the
world, Marom said the West does not know very much about the weapon,
which flies at low altitude “right over the sea,” reaching speeds of
between Mach 2 and Mach 3 (up to three times the speed of sound).
With
most other missiles in the Yakhont’s group achieving subsonic speed at
most, the Yakhont represents a new type of threat, giving the navy
between half and a third of the time to respond compared to other
threats, Marom said.
He warned that no defense is foolproof.
“Israel
has answers for these missiles, and these are being developed all of
the time,” Marom, who completed his term as navy chief in 2011, added.
“The more advanced the missile is, the less percentage of defenses
available. This is a big challenge to the navy.
Additionally, with a range of 300 kilometers, it can reach every location on the Israeli coast.”
Should
Hezbollah come to possess an operational arsenal of Yakhont missiles,
it would be able to target Israeli gas drilling rigs in the
Mediterranean, civilian shipping, and ports.
Err.... Those answers don't sound really definitive, do they?
It's shameful! John Kerry's Magical Mystical Moral Equivalence tour
I'm sorry but because I am in mourning, I cannot post the song you all would have expected me to post after seeing that title. But the cartoon is courtesy of the Jewish Press.
The armed Turkish invaders Kerry has developed such sympathy for were
on a ship funded by a terrorist organization with ties to Hamas and
other jihadist groups seeking to challenge Israel’s navy in order to
help Hamas. If they were victims at all, it was of their own violent
ideology. Though we don’t know yet what motivated the Tsarnaev brothers
to perpetrate the monstrous bombing they are believed to have carried
out and the additional ones law enforcement officials believe they were
planning, the biographical picture beginning to emerge paints at least
the elder of the two as “increasingly militant” in his Muslim faith.
But whether the Tsarnaevs were inspired by Islamic radicalism at all
is beside the point in the case of Kerry’s comments. The victims in
Boston were victims of a brutal and murderous attack; the “victims” to
whom Kerry compared them were in the act of carrying out their own
attack. Kerry’s comments also put Israelis trying to contain a terrorist
enclave next door on the same moral plane as those terrorists and their
allies.
Perhaps Kerry misspoke. If not, his worldview is warped, dangerous,
and dishonorable. The same administration officials who nudged Netanyahu
to apologize to Erdogan should pay a visit to Kerry. The secretary of
state owes a round of apologies thanks to his inauspicious start as
America’s chief diplomat.
It might have been acceptable to compare the IHH terrorists to the Tsarnaevs since both groups were militant Islamic terrorists. But what Kerry said was much worse. By comparing the Boston Marathon victims to the IHH terrorists, he essentially compared the Israeli Navy to the Tsarnaevs. He called the Israeli Navy terrorists. That's why people here are furious with him.
And Bostonians should be furious with him for comparing their citizens who were murdered and wounded to a group of terrorists on the high seas. But for some reason, this story doesn't seem to be getting as much play in the US as it is here.
Really cool video: Israel's new unmanned naval vessel
The Israeli Navy has a new, unmanned naval vessel at its disposal. It's called the Protector.
The Protector unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is an Israeli-developed unmanned vessel using cutting edge technology. Nine meter long, weighting about 4,000 Kg (8,800 lbs) and reaching a speed of up to 92 Kph (57 mph), the Protector USV is based on former models of unmanned, autonomous, remotely controlled unmanned surface vehicles.
Highly maneuverable and stealthy, the Protector can conduct a wide spectrum of critical missions, without exposing personnel and capital assets to unnecessary risk. Though autonomous, the device can easily be controlled from a shore several miles from the Protector.
Deployed by the Israeli Navy since 2009, the weapon system carried by the Protector USV is based on Rafael‘s Typhoon remote-controlled, stabilized weapon station, capable of operating various small caliber guns. The highly accurate, stabilized weapon station has excellent hit-and-kill probability.
The high-tech equipment installed on the unmanned vessel, such as highly accurate, stabilized weapons station, search radar and a targeting system with day and night capabilities enables the Protector USV a wide variety of operational functions.
I mentioned Russia's alleged (one of my friends has expressed doubts) presence in Syrian territorial waters. That's not all the Russians are doing in our region this week. I think you'll like their other activities a bit better.
THE “Admiral Kuznetsov” class aircraft carrier is currently off the coast of Malta and heading for eastern Mediterranean from their base in the Barents Sea.
Informed sources have said that the Russian navy and Israeli military will hold joint exercises next week close to Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone.
The exercises are slated to begin on the 28th November and last a week.
Commentators say that Russia is determined to send the message that they have invested interests in the region and will secure them.
It is understood that the aircraft carrier is carrying 24-fixed wing planes and a number of helicopters. It has also been reported in the press that the Russian navy may request to use port facilities at Limassol.
The IHH may announce on Friday that the Mavi Marmara isn't coming according to Israel Radio. They are couching it in terms of seaworthiness but I don't buy that.
Iranian warships to cross Suez Canal Tuesday morning?
Israel Radio reported Monday evening that those two Iranian warships had moved their Suez Canal departure up from Wednesday morning to Tuesday morning. But the ships are apparently playing a cat and mouse game with both the US and Israel, and it remains to be seen whether they will actually depart Tuesday morning.
On Monday, the Haaretz report indicated that Canal officials said “the [two Iranian naval] ships, a frigate and a supply vessel, are close to the southern entrance of the canal.”
A little later, Israel’s freewheeling DebkaFile website reported here that five U.S. warships have been deployed “in recent days”, some at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal, and others along the length of the waterway.
In fact, a U.S. fleet has reportedly been gathered near Ismailiya since early February, as large-scale popular protests against Husni Mubarak and his regime continued in cities throughout Egypt.
According to DebkaFile, an American aircraft carrier escorted by a missile cruiser and a fast supply ship on Thursday “headed south through the canal. By Friday morning, they were through and taking up position opposite the Kharg cruiser and Alvand missile destroyer … A battle of nerves is therefore underway.”
While DebkaFile has repeated its earlier report that “the Kharg was carrying long-range surface missiles for Hizballah”, part of the Haaretz report was much less alarmist, and said that the two Iranian ships “are not thought to be carrying arms shipments for Syria or Hezbollah, as was another Latakia-bound cargo ship stopped by the Israel Navy in November 2009, which turned out to be carrying hundreds of tons of weapons destined for Hezbollah warehouses.”
However, the same Haaretz report also stated that “Although the British-built Alvand is the Iranian navy’s flagship and is armed with Chinese-made missiles, Israeli military officials were confident yesterday that in the event of a confrontation the Israel Navy could sink it without advance preparation. ‘If the navy were to make a positive identification, it could be sunk almost immediately’, one senior official said last night. ‘We’re not even dealing with it, because [the Iranians] are only creating a provocation. From the military and marine perspective, the moment the ships enter the Mediterranean, they’re entering a trap’.”
The DebkaFile report said, in a similar tone, that the position of the U.S. warships “raised the possibility that the moment they venture to sail into the Suez Canal, the two Iranian warships will be boxed in… and called upon the allow their cargoes to be inspected as permitted by the last round of UN sanctions against Iran in the case of suspicious war freights.”
Whether it happens before, during or after their passage through the Suez Canal, the Iranian warships can expect to be hailed, intercepted, and inspected.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
