Erdogan plans to sail to Gaza (WW3??)

[The Village Idiot]

Looks like the Turkish PM really wants a war.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=177567

excerpt

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may personally try to break the Gaza blockade by sailing there, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday.

The paper said the report was based on Turkish sources “in the know.”

According to media reports, Erdogan may also consider sending Turkish Navy vessels to accompany future protest ships that head to Gaza.


 To protest against Monday’s Israel Navy raid, Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations and spoken of reducing economic and military ties. It has rejected Israel’s explanation that its soldiers acted in self-defense after activists attacked them with clubs and metal bars.

Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador to the US, wrote in an article for The Washington Post that the incident enraged his country because “this was not an attack by a sworn enemy but by a friend with which Turkey has worked long and hard to develop constructive strategic and economic collaboration.”

He added that “this was the first such attack against civilian Turkish citizens by a foreign military force in our republic’s 87-year history.

“It will be up to Israel to decide how it reconstitutes its standing as a good bilateral partner and responsible member of the international community,” Tan wrote.

In the article, he reiterated what Turkey has said to Israel through the week: that to restore the relationship between the countries, Israel “can start by bringing an end to its blockade on Gaza.”



excerpt

[Randy]

Looks like the Israel just needs to start sinking any ships failing to heed their warnings....

Erdogan appears to want to join St Rachel in the Order of the Sacred Pancake.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The Turks really should mind their own damn' business, but the Israeli position is weakened by their own past conduct in a couple of ways.  One, Gaza and the West Bank have a very ambiguous status that up until now the Israelis have seen it as in their own best interests to leave in the grey rather than resolve one way or the other.  Two, their execution of the blockade has no clear contraband list and they have used it to randomly yank the chain of the Palestinians just to show they can, at times keeping out deadly war materials like chocolate or notebook paper for no readily-apparent valid reason.  The goal of keeping out war materiel is perfectly understandable and supportable, the problem is that the Israelis have tried to use the blockade as a (largely-counterproductive) tool to try to flip Palestinian sentiment against Hamas by restricting import of simple consumer goods and run-of-the-mill commodities.

[Thor]

That ship may have been full of "civilians", but I'll wager a bet that a good many of them have close ties to Al Qaeda, Hamas, or some other terrorist group. I'll even bet that some of them have attended terrorist training camps. It seems to me that there was a hidden military contingent onboard. There's a lot more to this ship than meets the eye or what the press is allowing us to know.