After all in Israel we have a politician we can be proud of;


Arab lawmaker on flotilla sparks outrage in Israel

By ARON HELLER
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 10, 2010; 4:41 AM

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli-Arab lawmaker's decision to join hundreds of activists on a pro-Palestinian flotilla has elevated her from relative political obscurity, transforming her into the poster child for the growing rift between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority.

Unapologetic for defying Israel's Gaza blockade and being on board the boat where activists clashed with Israeli commandos during last week's raid on the flotilla, Hanin Zoabi has received death threats, was nearly assaulted in parliament and faces high-level calls to strip her of Israeli citizenship.

In an interview, Zoabi said she has no regrets. She says she was on a different part of the ship, far away from the violence that left nine activists dead and dozens wounded after the naval troops rappelled onto the boats in international waters and clashed with knife and club-wielding Turkish activists. She further enraged Israelis by accusing the military of sparking the bloodshed.

"The Israeli military is like a rapist that gets scratched and then blames the victim," she told The Associated Press. "Israel acts like a bully. Its barbaric behavior violates international laws."

Zoabi's participation on the blockade-busting flotilla was widely seen as a provocation in Israel even before the violence. Israel considers Gaza's Hamas rulers to be terrorists, and announced ahead of time that it would not allow the flotilla, led by a Turkish Islamic charity with ties to Hamas, to reach the territory.

But when it emerged that Zoabi was on the ship carrying the Turkish activists involved in the violence, she faced a wave of accusations of treason.

The charges have highlighted the schism between Israeli-Arabs and their Jewish counterparts as Israel is facing widespread condemnation over the incident and is still struggling with the seemingly untenable peace process with the Arabs.

Israeli Arabs make up about one-fifth of Israel's population. Although they enjoy equal citizenship rights, they have suffered from decades of discrimination, high unemployment, poverty and are often viewed through a prism of mistrust.

A Palestinian uprising last decade, as well as wars against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Hamas, have added to the tensions as Arab politicians have sided with Israel's enemies. Just two weeks ago, Israel indicted two prominent Arab activists for allegedly spying for Hezbollah.

The former leader of Zoabi's Balad party, Azmi Bishara, fled Israel in 2007 after police charged him with passing information to Hezbollah agents during Israel's war against the Lebanese militia the previous year.

Ahmad Tibi, an Arab parliamentarian from a more mainstream Arab party, said he too has been subjected to death threats in the wake of the flotilla bloodshed.

He said relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel have yet to heal since the outbreak of the bloody Palestinian uprising in 2000, when 13 Arab citizens of Israel were killed in clashes with police.

"During times of violent conflicts, there is an increase in tensions," he said. "Any time we take a position it is always interpreted as treason, as stabbing Israel in the back."

Zoabi, 41, has irked Israel before by calling it a racist state and boycotting the playing of the national anthem when she was sworn into parliament last year.

But her proximity last week to the Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel sparked unprecedented outrage.

"Go to Gaza, you traitor," lawmaker Miri Regev screamed at her in Arabic in parliament. Another member of parliament, Yoel Hasson, called her a terrorist and suggested she be searched for weapons when entering the building.

"Hanin Zoabi has crossed every possible line," he said. "I told her 'you should be singing the praise of Israel for being a democracy that allows even someone like you to behave the way you are behaving.'"

Another lawmaker, Anastassia Michaeli from the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu faction, had to be physically restrained from lunging at the podium to grab the microphone while Zoabi was speaking.

"Someone who is a traitor and does not identify with the country they represent cannot be in parliament," Michaeli said in an interview. "She doesn't represent the Israeli Arabs - she represents the terror organizations."

On Monday, a parliamentary committee sanctioned Zoabi for her actions aboard the flotilla, recommending that she be stripped of parliamentary privileges, such as her diplomatic passport. Israel's Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, has asked legal authorities to investigate whether Zoabi should lose her citizenship.

Zoabi remained unfazed by the storm surrounding her.

"I understand that the rage stems from racism. Israeli society lives in a ghetto mentality," she said. "I despise the Israeli parliament and its political violence."

Zoabi, a former school teacher, comes from a political family. Her great-uncle, Seif al-Din Zoabi, was mayor of the Arab-Israeli city of Nazareth and a member of the Israeli parliament shortly after it was established. Another relative, Abed al-Aziz Zoabi, was the first Arab to serve as a deputy Cabinet minister.

Her departure from her mainstream lineage reflects the shift in Israeli-Arab politics. Zoabi rejects Israel as a Jewish state and thinks Jews should not receive preferential treatment.

"I feel very loved on the Arab street and around the world," she said. "In Israel, among the Jews, I am the most hated person around."


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Althought those idiots who shot Robin might hurt this decent and stable human being. But hurting her will have its own cost too. from Art to .... they're destablizing their own state.

The Orwellian language of the capitalist media sometimes appears to be a form of self-parody:

"Although they enjoy equal citizenship rights, they have suffered from decades of discrimination, high unemployment, poverty and are often viewed through a prism of mistrust."

True, Tell No Lies, they're all equal but, some are more equal. And when i saw your note, on the first glance, in its own way, what you had written brought my attention techniqually first to the People of Puerto Rico and then, Platform of the Black Panther Party.

I am not saying that covering such hideous brutal course of actions of imperialism's chained dogs and monsters are not a part of our agenda, be it what they might do to peoples in India and Nepal up to, Philippine and, Israel.

But in over two decades here, i have seen anti war demos quite a lot. What people's resistence within the borders may lead to, here is, in reality, our definite and final agenda.

Two more news:

From one side, althought the Turkish Islamic Charity group is NOT related with Al Quada (that was anyways Frankestein's own built puppet) but still ....

Islamic charity at center of flotilla clash known for relief work and confrontation

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 10, 2010; A08

ISTANBUL -- Across from a car-repair shop in this working-class city sits the home of IHH, an Islamic charity. One side of the building is painted with wistful-looking orphans; the other is surrounded by banners celebrating the group's recent effort to challenge the blockade of Gaza. One reads: "Israel, murderers, hands off our boats!"

The dual message of aid and confrontation defines the charity, which has grown in nearly two decades from a handful of Muslim students to a multimillion-dollar operation.

The group is under unprecedented scrutiny after a bloody clash May 31 involving Israeli soldiers trying to stop an IHH-led aid flotilla. Israel accused one of the charity's leaders this week of being connected to al-Qaeda, a charge the group denies.

Analysts in Turkey said it is unlikely that authorities would permit an organization linked to al-Qaeda to operate in Istanbul. IHH reflects something else, they said: the rise of a powerful religious middle class in a country where secularism was once strictly enforced.

With an Islamic-rooted party in power, Muslim organizations "have found a more congenial and welcoming atmosphere in which to work," said Ilter Turan, a political scientist at Istanbul Bilgi University.
Terrorist links denied

IHH, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, was formed during the war in Bosnia, when Turks were horrified by televised images of massacred Muslims. For years, the Istanbul-based charity has battled allegations of extremist ties.

French counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière wrote that the charity's members planned in the 1990s to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya, according to a 2006 paper by Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. terrorism investigator. Calls were made in 1996 from IHH's headquarters to an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Milan, according to the report. And Bruguière testified during a 2001 trial related to a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport that IHH was involved in weapons trafficking, Kohlmann wrote.

An IHH board member, Murat Yilmaz, denied in an interview that the group was involved with terrorism. As for the phone calls, he said, "Our organization had people from all over the world coming in and out" at the time.

A think tank with ties to Israel's Defense Ministry, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, said recently that there was no known evidence of current links between IHH and "global jihad elements" but that "its activities in the past may indicate its nature."

Not so, IHH says.

"We are for humanitarianism. Nothing else," Huseyin Oruc, the group's vice president, said in an interview.

Israeli authorities accused Oruc this week of planning to smuggle al-Qaeda operatives into the Gaza Strip through Turkey. They presented no evidence, and Oruc said he was not asked about that allegation when Israeli authorities questioned occupants of the Mavi Marmara ferry after the clash. "It is a big lie," he said.
The Palestinian cause

In the group's two-story headquarters, IHH members -- mostly men in their 30s and 40s dressed in jeans or casual business attire -- oversee operations in dozens of countries. The group provides humanitarian aid such as freshwater wells and medical care, as well as Islamic services such as training for prayer leaders. A world map on one wall depicted Palestine, but not Israel.

The group takes in $100 million a year in cash and in-kind donations, Oruc said. Analysts said that reflects the generosity of religious Muslims in Turkey who have benefited from the country's economic boom.

"Twenty years ago, pious Muslims in Turkey were 99 percent the underclass. The seculars were the upper class," said Mustafa Akyol, a columnist with the Star newspaper. That has changed.

A major focus for IHH is the Palestinian cause, which is popular in Turkey. IHH says it has spent about $25 million over four years in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, an Islamist group considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. IHH is banned in Israel because of its aid to Hamas. The charity is not on the U.S. terrorist list, although U.S. officials have expressed concern about its contacts with Hamas officials.

IHH's financial heft transformed a more modest effort by European and U.S.-based pro-Palestinian groups to challenge the economic blockade of Gaza. While the other groups managed to get small boats and load them with aid, IHH spent $1.8 million buying the Mavi Marmara, a used 250-foot passenger ferry, from the Istanbul municipal government, according to accounts from the charity and IDO, the city's water transport company.

Israeli officials have speculated that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped promote the flotilla, which included two other IHH boats. In a ceremony before the ships set sail from Istanbul late last month, IHH's president, Bulent Yildirim, thanked supporters -- including the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, according to the IHH Web site and press reports.

But the Turkish government has denied that it was directly or indirectly involved in organizing the flotilla. A group of AKP deputies who were scheduled to take part in the trip dropped out at the last minute, reportedly under pressure from the government.

Years ago, the government and Turkey's powerful military were wary of conservative Muslim organizations. Now, after a series of reforms that have permitted more religious freedom, the groups operate with fewer constraints.

The melee on the Mavi Marmara, in which Israeli commandos came under attack with clubs and pipes and nine civilians were killed, has elevated the profile of IHH like never before. Contributions are expected to increase.

"Our budget will be billions now," Oruc said.

Correspondent Janine Zacharia in Jerusalem contributed to this report.


.... but still due to the war fabricated into Balcan nations had caused its initiation. For Bosnia.

and ....

Turkey's foreign policy moves raise concern in West and at home

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Monday, June 7, 2010; A01

ISTANBUL -- The women wore veils. The men donned green Hamas headbands with swirling Arabic script. They gathered by the thousands in a sunny, working-class plaza in Istanbul, bellowing: "Damn Israel!"

The Saturday demonstration seemed incongruous with the image Turkey has long had in the West as a secular friend of Israel and the United States.

But in recent days, public anger has flared over Israel's bloody seizure of a Turkish-flagged aid ship headed to the Gaza Strip, which is under an Israeli blockade. The incident occurred as Turkey has been strengthening ties with Muslim governments in the region -- becoming more vocally pro-Palestinian and trying to head off new U.N. sanctions on Iran.

That has prompted worried speculation at home and abroad: Is Turkey turning away from the West?

Turkey's Islamic-oriented government says no. And some analysts say the question is too simplistic. With a growing economy and self-assured leaders, this NATO member is emerging as a regional power with a more independent foreign policy, they say.

"They want to be the big kid on the block," said Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "They have essentially a very inflated sense of their own importance."
'Zero problems' policy

Turkey's leaders have dubbed their foreign policy "zero problems with neighbors." The country has dramatically improved relations with such one-time rivals as Syria, which used to harbor Turkish Kurdish guerrillas, and Iran, once feared for its potential to export Islamist radicalism.

The new policy is based, in part, on expanding business ties. Turkey's former state-dominated economy has grown rapidly, with the emergence of dynamic export centers -- termed the Anatolian Tigers. Turkey's trade with its neighbors grew more than 20 times from 1991 to 2008.

The nation's ambitious leaders have sought to use their growing regional heft to play a bigger role globally. Turkey mediated between Israel and Syria, before Israel's brief war in Gaza during the 2008-09 winter ended talks. More recently, Turkish and Brazilian diplomats sought to send some of Iran's low-enriched uranium abroad for processing, in a deal aimed at averting new U.N. sanctions pursued by Washington.

Barcin Yinanc, associate editor of Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review, said it was inevitable that Turkey would play a greater international role, given its geopolitical position and new stature as one of the 20 leading industrialized countries.

But previous secular governments, which launched the economic liberalization, moved more cautiously on foreign policy, Yinanc said.

"The difference with this government is they have an ideological color," she said.

That seems evident on the Palestinian issue. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an increasingly outspoken critic of Israel. He lambasted Israeli President Shimon Peres during a conference in Switzerland on Jan. 29, 2009, winning applause at home and in the Middle East.

Erdogan's picture was hoisted in the streets of Gaza after he accused Israel of carrying out a "bloody massacre" in seizing the Turkish ship. Nine activists on board, mostly Turkish, were killed when Israeli commandos opened fire. The Israeli government said its commandos fired after being attacked by the passengers.

Erdogan and his allies "have this affinity to Palestine," Yinanc said. "And basically their concrete constituency is a religious constituency, which is usually anti-Israeli."

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party has religious roots, but it also draws conservative entrepreneurs and liberals with its free-market policies and drive to pass democratic reforms in order to win entry into the European Union.

Turkey's relations with Israel have deteriorated dramatically, with Turkish leaders threatening to cut ties to a minimum.

A recent report on Turkey's zero-problems policy noted that it contained inherent contradictions, given the pervasive conflicts in the region.

"Ankara will not be able to improve relations with some players without hampering its ties to others," said the report, by a group of Turkish and foreign academics working with the Washington-based Transatlantic Academy. But it said that if the net effect in the region was positive, the policy would be "an asset to the EU and United States."

Historically, Israel and Turkey were close, sharing military aid and a suspicion of Arab countries. But with Turkey improving ties with its neighbors, it no longer needs Israel's support, analysts said.
Religious-secular divide

There is more going on, however, than just the Turkish government's realignment in its neighborhood. Its citizens are more connected to the world, including Muslim causes abroad. The government has become more sensitive to public opinion. And voters feel more empowered, particularly religious ones.

Since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded Turkey on the remains of the Ottoman Empire, the country has had an official policy of "laiklik" (secularism). The powerful, pro-Western military launched coups against leaders seen as straying from Ataturk's legacy. The army's power, however, has declined.

The country "was secular but in a forced way," said Barkey, the Carnegie scholar. "The majority of the population was far more conservative, far more pious than the authorities."

Sumeyye Cakir, a 25-year-old housewife wearing a pink, flowered head scarf, said that years ago she would have been afraid to attend a demonstration like the one in the Caglayan neighborhood on Saturday, organized by a small religious party.

"But now our government is more democratic," she said, standing at the edge of the crowd waving Palestinian flags. Loudspeakers blared a song with the refrain "Intifada, intifada."

Hifa Gulru Caglar, a 21-year-old Turk studying in Romania, drove 12 hours to take part in the protest. A visitor asked what contributed to the pro-Palestinian fervor, which wasn't as evident in the past.

"Twenty years ago, there was no Internet," Caglar said. "We had no access" to information from Gaza.

For all its newfound independence in foreign policy, Turkey is still strongly tied to the West. The European Union is still its biggest market. And Turkish troops have played an important role in NATO operations in Afghanistan.

"We are a country that wants to maintain its ties both with the West and East," Erdogan said in October. "There is no such thing as breaking from one side and shifting to another one."

washingto post 2010