Via Daily Beast:

Al-Qaeda is warning its supporters and sympathizers to prepare for a new war which will pit Israel against Iran.

Al-Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), issued an audio message this month by its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shehri, who tells jihadists that he expects the Iranian Shia regime to try to take advantage of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities by seizing the holy cities of Mecca and Medina after blaming Saudi Arabia for helping Israel attack.

Shehri was held in Guantanamo for six years before being sent back to his native Saudi Arabia and then fleeing to Yemen to help set up AQAP.

AQAP demonstrated that it can reach beyond Yemen to carry out its plans when it dispatched the suicide bomber who tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253 last Christmas.

Via FoxNews:

The State Department is investigating whether to designate the Turkish Muslim charity IHH, which funded and operated the Gaza-bound “aid” ship Mavi Marmara, as a foreign terrorist organization. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a briefing on Wednesday: “I believe we are looking at the IHH, but it’s a long process to designate something a foreign terrorist organization.” Sources also said that sections of the Treasury Department are actively investigating IHH with the intent to designate it as a terrorist organization, despite some opposition from within the administration.

The State and Treasury investigations follow a letter sent to President Obama last month from a bipartisan group of 87 U.S. senators in which they called on the president to keep firm his administration’s support of Israel and to investigate the Turkish group. IHH has links to terrorist groups including Hamas and al-Qaeda.

Via WND:

Four Christians were arrested and thrown out of a public Arab festival in Michigan – and at least two people claim a crowd cheered “Allahu Akbar!” while the Christians were led away in handcuffs for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful dialogue and videotaping the event.

Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and 18-year-old Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18 in Dearborn, Mich., where an estimated 30,000 of the city’s 98,000 residents are Muslim.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce announced the event was expected to draw “over 300,000 people from across the country, Canada and the Middle East.” The festival covers 14 blocks and is free and open to the public.

Qureshi and Mayal are former Muslims who are now Christians. Mayal’s parents emigrated from Afghanistan. Wood is a former atheist. All are from a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics.

In the following video after the arrest, Qureshi said his group took “extra precautions” to prevent disruptions by not handing out pamphlets and to speak only to people “who first approached us”:

Israel was acting lawfully in imposing and enforcing its blockade against Hamas, and by the way, it is Hamas – who the Palestinian Arabs elected – who are the ones intercepting  the humanitarian funds and soft goods contributed by Jew-hating American leftists and Europeans so that they can exchange them to purchase weapons, kassam rockets, mortar shells, plastics, and bullets to kill Jews with.  If Palestinian Arabs are having difficulty getting food and equipment, it’s their own fault.  The other fact is that there is NO occupation of Gaza anymore.  Israel demolished those communities years ago and pulled each and every Israeli citizen out and redeployed all their forces outside the recognized boundries of Gaza territory.  What there is now is an economic blockade. Economic blockades happen in times of armed conflict and are NOT against international law. Jew-haters have been believing the hype too long: those who live in Gaza are no longer occupied and Israel has the right to defend herself and protect her citizens.  How great it would be if we had a President in the White House that cared about protecting America’s borders with the same passion that Israel cares about protecting hers.  Via NewsRealBlog:

Israel’s blockade against Hamas, which Egypt was also instituting at its border, is perfectly legal under international law according to the law of blockade which was derived from customary international law, codified in the 1909 Declaration of London and updated in 1994 in a legally recognized document called the “San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.” As required by this international law, Israel declared the blockade, notified it to all belligerents and neutral states, and blockaded only the area under enemy control. Hamas rules Gaza and is engaged in armed hostilities with Israel, which it has vowed to destroy.

Under international law, Israel can forcibly board a ship headed for the belligerent area controlled by its enemy to search for arms even if the ship’s passengers and cargo were all true peace-loving humanitarians. In this case, the so-called humanitarian flotilla included a number of non-humanitarian Islamic jihadists, some of whom were armed and ready for a fight.  Muslim Brotherhood, for example, was represented in the flotilla.  This terrorist sponsoring organization is not known for its peace loving humanitarians.

Another video as forensic proof that the Free Gaza flotilla’s passengers were intent on killing Jews in a premeditated fashion.  Via WND:

In footage captured on the Gaza flotilla just before its departure this week, one activist described how he had attempted in previous ship convoys to become a martyr and that “with the help of Allah” he would succeed on the flotilla.

“When I went on the first convoy, I wanted to be a Shahid (martyr),” stated the passenger in a pre-departure interview with Press TV.

See an excerpt of the interview:

He was referring to several previous attempts by smaller flotillas to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

Continued the passenger: “I wasn’t that lucky. Second time, I wanted to be a Shahid. Didn’t work. Third time lucky, with the help of Allah, I will be a Shahid.”

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces commented on the interview.

“While the Gaza flotilla passengers had presented themselves as peace activists who would not act violently towards Israeli forces, this provides further evidence to the contrary,” said the spokesman.

Activists on a six-ship flotilla that was headed to the Gaza Strip shouted anti-Jewish battle cries and spoke of using “resistance” against Israel, with one participant stating she saw only two possible outcomes for the boat occupants – “either martyrdom or reaching Gaza.”

The main flotilla ship was the MV Rachel Corrie, the namesake of a far-left activist from the International Solidarity Movement who died in 2003 while serving as a human shield to protect a terrorist.

An Al Jazeera news report one day before the raid translated by Palestinian Media Watch documented men on the flotilla chanting, “[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!”

The chant is often used at rallies for Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Islam’s prophet Muhammad in AD 628. The battle marked the end of the Jewish presence in Arabia.

Al-Jazeera also interviewed a woman on the flotilla who said the participants’ goal was “one of two happy endings: either martyrdom or reaching Gaza.”

WND reported the commander of the six-ship pro-Palestinian flotilla announced beforehand participants were planning to use “resistance” and declared the ship’s activists wanted to die as “martyrs” more than they wanted to reach the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas television.

Israel maintains a naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza, fearing if it allows ships to reach the territory, Hamas can obtain weaponry to be used against Israelis.

Israel and the international community numerous times have stopped ships loaded with weapons destined for Gaza.

Despite claims by activists, Israel does not block humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel allows a large number of trucks daily to enter Gaza with food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Israel transfers monthly into Gaza tens of millions of dollars worth of Israeli shekels to ensure the flow of cash in the territory. Israel imposed a blockade on certain supplies it fears could be used by Hamas to build a military infrastructure.

©2002 IDF Spokesman Weapons seized on the Karine A (Jan 4)

A ship carrying weapons intended for the Palestinian Authority was captured in the Red Sea by Israel’s Navy and Air Force. The boat’s cargo included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Senior figures in the Palestinian Authority were involved in the smuggling.

Communicated by the IDF Spokesman:

On January 3rd, the Israeli Navy seized control over the Karine A ship that was sailing in international waters on its way to the Suez Canal.

The shipment included both 122 mm. and 107 mm. Katyusha rockets, which have ranges of 20 and 8 kilometers respectively. It also contained 80 mm. and 120 mm. mortar shells, various types of anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. From Gaza, the 122 mm. Katyushas could have threatened Ashkelon and other coastal cities; while from the West Bank, Ben-Gurion International Airport and several major Israeli cities would have been within their range. The shipment also included rubber boats and diving equipment, which would have facilitated seaborne attacks from Gaza against coastal cities.

Preliminary investigation of the crew members has revealed so far that the commanding officer of the ship is Colonel Omar Akawi. The ship was purchased by the Palestinian Authority, loaded with weapons by the Iranians and the Hizbullah, manned by Palestinian Authority personnel, with the aim of transfering the weapons it carried to the Palestinian Naval Police near the Gaza beaches.

Since October 2000, Adel Mughrabi, a major buyer in the Palestinian weapons purchasing system (with the assistance of the Palestinian Naval Police Commander Juma’a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem), has been in contact with the Iranians and Hizbullah regarding a vast weapons smuggling operation for the use of the Palestinian Authority. This operation included the testing and purchase of ships, forming a sailing crew and appointing a commander for the team, as well as making arrangements as to how the weapons would be stored, loaded onto the vessels, and its journey until delivery to the Palestinian Authority.

Preliminary investigation of the team members arrested revealed that the Karine A ship was purchased by Adel Mughrabi in Lebanon, sailed to Sudan where it was loaded with regular cargo. The crew was then switched with the team members and in November 2001 sailed to Hodeida port in Yemen.

In December 2001 the ship sailed according to detailed instructions from Adel Mughrabi to the beaches of Iran near Qeshm Island. There a ferry approached it, most likely arriving from Iran, from which the weapons stored in 80 large wooden crates were transferred and loaded onto the ship. These weapons were stored in special waterproof containers produced only in Iran, which are floatable and are set with a special configurable system that determines how deep they are submerged, were prepared by Hizbullah personnel for smuggling to the Palestinian Authority. Included in the ferry team which transferred the weapons crates to the ship was also a Lebanese trainer, a Hizbullah operative who trained a diver from the ship’s crew in configuring the floatation devices in Lebanon. The trainer was present for yet another refreshing training session prior to the sailing.

After completing the loading process of the weapons onto the ship, the ship had to divert to Hodeida port in Yemen due to technical problems. After crossing the canal, the ship was supposed to meet with three smaller ships that were purchased in advance and to unload the weapons onto them. According to the plan, the smaller ships were to leave the weapons near El Arish in Gaza, where the weapons were to be taken by the commander of the Palestinian Naval Police Juma’a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem.

Weapons Seized on the Karine-A Ship
Statement by IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz regarding interception of ship Karine A – Jan 4, 2002
Reaction of FM Peres to seizing of the Karine A – Jan 4, 2002
Address by PM Sharon following the seizing of the ship Karine A – Jan 6, 2002
DM Ben-Eliezer: PA invests in terrorism, not welfare of Palestinian people – Jan 6, 2002
DM Ben-Eliezer to Solana and Moratinos: Karine A managed and funded by Palestinian Authority in cooperation with Iran – Jan 7, 2002

Seized Weapons Ship Linked to Palestinian Authority -
U.S. State Department, Jan 10, 2002
U.S. Seeks Explanation from Arafat about Arms Smuggling – U.S. State Department, Jan 11, 2002

Prison interview with Palestinian ship captain smuggling 50 tons of weapons (Fox News) – Jan 7, 2002
Selected Photos

The deaths of those aboard the “Free Gaza” Mavi Marmara lay entirely in the bloody hands of the American lynch mob known as “Free Gaza”, who counts as among its affiliated activists the former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both friends of Barack Hussein Obama, as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace.  Via Discover the Networks:

Free Gaza
405 Vista Heights Road
El Cerrito, CA
94530
Phone: 510-232-2500
URL: www.freegaza.org

• Coalition of groups and individuals seeking to “break the siege of Gaza”
• Seeks to draw attention to Israel’s alleged transgressions chiefly by publicizing the blockade that it imposed on the Gaza Strip after the January 2006 election of Hamas as the Palestinians’ ruling party
• Demands that “Israel must withdraw its military presence from all territories occupied since June 5, 1967″

Founded in 2008, Free Gaza (FG) is a coalition of groups and individuals seeking to “break the siege of Gaza”; “raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip”; and “pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.”

Among FG’s more notable group members are the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions. FG’s individual activists hail from numerous countries and represent various religious backgrounds.

In Free Gaza’s reading of history:

• Israel’s creation in 1948 was a “catastrophe” for the Arab world, causing “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians” to be “forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland”;
• Israel continues, “[i]n contravention of International law, human rights, and basic principles of morality … to deny these refugees and their descendants their right to return home”;
• the very existence of a Jewish state is the result of a grave ”historic injustice”;
• the “illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, home and heritage is at the heart of the Middle East conflict”;
• Israel is guilty of “land theft” and an “ongoing ethnic cleansing that has squeezed Palestinians in the West Bank into ghettos and bantustans surrounded by 27-foot walls, sniper towers, and military guards”; and
• Gaza is essentially an “open-air prison” with an “impoverished and overcrowded population.”

Among FG’s foremost demands are the following:

• “Israel must withdraw its military presence from all territories occupied since June 5, 1967 and revoke all legislation, regulations, directives and practices that apply differently to different populations living in those territories.”
• “Israel must demolish all barriers built to restrict passage in all territories occupied by Israel since June 5, 1967.”
• “[A]ll Palestinian refugees and exiles and their heirs [must be permitted] to return to their homes in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories; to recover their properties, and to receive compensation for damage, dispossession and unlawful use of such property.”

FG seeks to draw attention to Israel’s alleged human-rights transgressions chiefly by publicizing the blockade that it imposed on the Gaza Strip after the January 2006 election of Hamas as the Palestinians’ ruling party. On August 23, 2008, two FG boats — one of them a 66-foot yacht named The Dignity – sailed from Cyprus to Gaza, where they docked and symbolically “broke” the Israeli “siege” when their passengers disembarked. The Israeli navy, seeking not to ignite international disapproval by intercepting the boats, made no attempt to stop them. The passengers, who were greeted by crowds of thousands in Gaza, claimed to be the first people to freely enter Gaza in 41 years (since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war).

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh welcomed the FG visitors, meeting with most of the entourage and granting its prime organizer, Jeff Halper, honorary Palestinian citizenship, complete with passport. Afterwards, Halper acknowledged: “This trip [which cost $300,000] wasn’t humanitarian; it was political.”

Another noteworthy participant in FG’s maiden voyage was Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Booth characterized Gaza as a “concentration camp” and a “humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur.”

Two months later The Dignity made its second trip from Cyprus to Gaza, this time carrying 26 FG activists and some medical supplies. The yacht arrived at a Gaza port on October 29, 2008 – again with no resistance from the Israeli navy.

One of those aboard the vessel was Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian Authority presidential candidate who told reporters: ”We will not leave Gaza, we will not abandon Gaza and it is approved today that the Palestinian resistance groups are mightier than the Israeli occupation and those who support it.” His cousin, Marwan Barghouti, was the founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Another participant in FG’s October 2008 voyage was Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who used the occasion to call for the United Nations to expel Israel from Gaza. (On a separate occasion, Maguire took part in a stone-throwing protest against Israeli police near the Security Fence in the village of Bilin.)

FG made another voyage to Gaza in November 2008, when its members accused Israel of conducting “chemical warfare on Palestinian fishermen.” One of the participants was Clare Short, the former UK Secretary of State for International Development. Short warned that Israeli aggression might eventually cause the “end of the human race”; she called for a boycott of Israel as long as its “apartheid wall” continued to stand; she affirmed that “the Palestinian people are entitled to resist occupation”; and she declared that “U.S. backing for Israeli policies of expansion … and oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of bitter division and violence in the world.”

On December 29, 2008, The Dignity, bound for Gaza, was loaded with 3.5 tons of Cypriot-donated medical supplies and 16 radical activists, including former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney. At the time, a major Israeli military offensive was taking place in Gaza, in retaliation for Hamas’ relentless rocket attacks against southern Israeli cities. (In a press conference held in the Cypriot port of Larnaca just before departing, the FG group referred to Israel’s military operation as a “blitzkrieg.”) Because of the tense situation, on this occasion the Israelis diverted The Dignity before it could arrive in Gaza.

Other notable individuals who joined McKinney on the interrupted boat ride included:

• Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera reporter and a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay. A four-page U.S. government statement accused al-Hajj of having delivered money — some $473,000 — to Al-Haramain, a Saudi “charity” with ties to al Qaeda. Al-Haramain then funneled the money to Chechen jihadists. Moreover, Al-Hajj’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, admitted that his client had met with Osama bin Laden‘s “Deputy in Sudan,” al-Qaeda founder Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim, who was implicated in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tazania and later was sentenced to 32 years in prison for stabbing a Manhattan prison guard in the eye.
• Renee Bowyer: In an article she penned for Alex Cockburn‘s CounterPunch website, this Australian writer justified the kidnappings of two Israeli soldiers on grounds that they were acts ”directed specifically against a … military regime which has caused so much bloodshed in Gaza and … in the West Bank as well.”
• Caoimhe Butterly: This daughter of a UN economist says she was raised in a culture of liberation theology. She opposed sanctions against the Taliban after 9/11, and in April 2002 she was one of a group of foreign activists who showed solidarity with Yasser Arafat in the latter’s besieged compound. She also spent a year trying to disrupt Israeli counter-terrorism activities, and she worked with Zapatista anarchists in Mexico.
• Darlene Wallach: A Jewish member of the International Solidarity Movement, Wallach once said: “I don’t see how Israel is any different to [sic] Nazism during World War II … There is nothing that the Palestinians do that in any regard I can condemn. I cannot condemn suicide bombings.”

Other high-profile participants in past FG expeditions to Gaza include:

• Huwaida Arraf, founder of the International Solidarity Movement
• Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist and onetime captive of the Taliban, who converted to Islam in 2003 and stood for election in the UK as a member of George Galloway‘s RESPECT Party

FG also counts among its affiliated activists the former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace.

Much of this profile is adapted from the article, “To Gaza, With Love,” published by FrontPageMag.com on December 30, 2008.

The premeditated nature of the violence perpetrated by the Jew-haters on board the Mavi Marnara. Via Honest Reporting:

Since when do “peace activists” have access to sophisticated night vision equipment, rifle scopes and bullet proof vests? These photos taken by the IDF of items found on board the Mavi Marnara would indicate that the portrayal of non-violent humanitarians interested only in distributing aid to Gaza is thoroughly inaccurate.

The equipment, along with the clubs and knives found by the IDF on board the Mavi Marnara is evidence of the premeditated nature of the violence perpetrated by those on board.

The photo above shows one of the electric saws used to saw metal rods off of the Marnara’s deck. These rods were used to attack the Israeli soldiers boarding the ship.

The photo  shows one of the electric saws used to saw metal rods off of the Marnara’s deck. These rods were used to attack the Israeli soldiers boarding the ship.

Activists even threw stun grenades as this footage shows.

In addition, large quantities of cash were found on board ready to be transferred to Hamas upon landing in Gaza. The Turkish IHH organization responsible for the Mavi Marnara is an open supporter of Hamas and has been implicated in the recruitment and funding of Islamic terrorism, including al-Qaeda. (See here for more information.)

Via JihadWatch:  More detail on the Jihad Flotilla. “AP INTERVIEW: Turkish aid group had terror ties,” by Alfred De Montesquiou for Associated Press, June 2:

PARIS – The Turkish Islamic charity behind a flotilla of aid ships that was raided by Israeli forces on its way to Gaza had ties to terrorism networks, including a 1999 al-Qaida plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, France’s former top anti-terrorism judge said Wednesday.  The Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, had “clear, long-standing ties to terrorism and Jihad,” former investigating judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Bruguiere, who led the French judiciary’s counterterrorism unit for nearly two decades before retiring in 2007, didn’t indicate whether IHH now has terror ties, but said it did when he investigated it in the late 1990s.

“They were basically helping al-Qaida when (Osama) bin Laden started to want to target U.S. soil,” he said.

Some members of an international terrorism cell known as the Fateh Kamel network then worked at the IHH, he said. Kamel, an Algerian-Canadian dual national, had ties to the nascent al-Qaida, Bruguiere said.

Among Kamel’s followers was Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who was arrested in the U.S. state of Washington in December 1999 on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport as part of an al-Qaida plot.

“IHH had a role in the organization that led to the plot,” Bruguiere said, reiterating sworn testimony he made in a U.S. Federal Court during Ressam’s trial. Ressam is serving a 22-year prison sentence.

Know the facts before you judge Israel.

1. A maritime blockade is in effect off the coast of Gaza. Such blockade has been imposed, as Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza, which has repeatedly bombed civilian targets in Israel with weapons that have been  smuggled into Gaza via the sea.

2. Maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognized measure under international law that may be implemented as part of an armed conflict at sea.

3. A  blockade may be imposed at sea, including in international waters, so long as it does not bar access to the ports and coasts of neutral states.

4. The naval manuals of several western countries, including the US and England recognize the maritime blockade as an effective naval measure and set forth the various criteria that make a blockade valid, including the requirement of give due notice of the existence of the blockade.

5. In this vein, it should be noted that Israel publicized the existence of the blockade and the precise coordinates of such by means of the accepted international professional maritime channels. Israel also provided appropriate notification to the affected governments and to the organizers of the Gaza protest flotilla.  Moreover, in real time, the ships participating in the protest flotilla were warned repeatedly that a maritime blockade is in effect.

6. Here, it should be noted that under customary law, knowledge of the blockade may be presumed once a blockade has been declared and appropriate notification has been granted, as above.

7. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no boats can enter the blockaded area.  That includes both civilian and enemy vessels.

8. A state may take action to enforce a blockade. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate a maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked under international law. The US Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations sets forth that a vessel is considered to be in attempt to breach a blockade from the time the vessel leaves its port with the intention of evading the blockade.

9. Here we should note that the protesters indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade by means of written and oral statements. Moreover, the route of these vessels indicated their clear intention to violate the blockade in violation of international law.

10. Given the protesters explicit intention to violate the naval blockade, Israel exercised its right under international law to enforce the blockade. It should be noted that prior to undertaking enforcement measures, explicit warnings were  relayed directly to the captains of the vessels, expressing Israel’s intent to exercise its right to enforce the blockade.

11. Israel had attempted to take control of the vessels participating in the flotilla by peaceful means and in an orderly fashion in order to enforce the blockade. Given the large number of vessels participating in the flotilla, an operational decision was made to undertake measures to enforce the blockade a certain distance from the area of the blockade.

12. Israeli personnel attempting to enforce the blockade were met with violence by the protesters and acted in self defense to fend off such attacks.

Read more at IMFA.