NOT content with destroying its ‘alliance’ with Turkey by murdering nine of its citizens and wounding many more, the Israeli government has let it be known that its forces will prevent the MV Rachel Corrie, carrying thousands of tonnes of supplies, docking in Gaza.
This is despite the fact that the Turkish government has stated that it is prepared to use its warships to escort blockade busting humanitarian ships of the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ into Gaza.
There has also been a warning from the Irish government that Irish citizens will be aboard the MV Rachel Corrie, one of whom is a Nobel Peace prize winner, Mairead Corrigan, and that they must not be interfered with in any way.
Another passenger is Dennis Halliday, who was the UN’s High Representative in Iraq in the period before the March 2003 war.
The stopping and arrest of the MV Rachel Corrie will have disastrous consequences for the ruling Zionist clique which has been for years displaying the ‘madness’ of those that ‘the gods wish to destroy’.
Yesterday morning the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul said that the Israeli massacre against the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ can ‘not be forgotten’.
He added: ‘From now on, Turkish-Israeli ties will never be the same. This incident has left an irreparable and deep scar’.
Gul added that Monday’s attack by Israeli forces, in which eight Turks and a US national of Turkish origin were killed, ‘is not an issue that can be forgotten. . . or be covered up’.
He continued: ‘Israel has made the biggest mistake in its history. It will realise this better in the future. Turkey will never forgive this attack.’
The bodies of the nine victims were brought to Turkey early on Thursday.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, put President Obama on the spot.
He said: ‘Psychologically, this attack is like 9/11 for Turkey. We expect full solidarity with us. It should not seem like a choice between Turkey and Israel. It should be a choice between right and wrong, between legal and illegal.’
Zionism is however not about to change its spots. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has described the Gaza flotilla attack as ‘perfectly legal, perfectly humane – and very responsible’.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has however warned the Zionist leadership where it is heading.
It wrote: ‘Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn’t he right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn’t it beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at war with us too. Netanyahu said there’s no chance of reaching an agreement with the Arabs. Wasn’t that spot on?. . . This country now has a blind captain in the cockpit, flying his blindfolded passengers with exemplary precision toward the destination he envisioned . . . If anyone was still entertaining a glimmer of hope that our pilot wasn’t totally blind, that he had some special sight-enhancing gadget, along came his declaration that the blockade of Gaza would continue . . . The world is wrong and Netanyahu, with us in tow, is right. We will not lift the blockade. For four years it has yielded not an ounce of benefit, just damage, but what does that matter? Giddyup! Let’s fulfil Netanyahu’s vision. We’ll become an even more despised country and won’t have a single friend left in the world, not even the United States.’
A clash with the MV Rachel Corrie, and any ships accompanying her, will create a situation where Turkey is forced to intervene, the Egyptians and Jordanians have to close the Israeli embassies in their capitals, and a new Intifada will erupt throughout Palestine.
Now is the time for the whole world to insist that the siege of Gaza is broken and that there must be a free passage in and out of Gaza under the control of the Palestinian authorities.
This is also the time for the Jewish working class to grasp that Zionism offers it absolutely no future at all, except to be cannon fodder for US imperialism.
Now is the time to break with Zionism, to bring down the Netanyahu regime and bring forward a government prepared to establish a state of Palestine along with the representatives of the Palestinian people. This will be a secular, socialist state, have Jerusalem as its capital, with all refugees having the right to return, and be a state where Arabs, Jews and Christians will be able to live side by side in peace.