The true nature of the IHH

Not really to aid the Palestinians...

“Israel will not apologize to Iran for a May raid on a Hezbollah-led convoy that killed nine Hezbollah activists and talks to mend ties have so far fallen short, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.”

Can you imagine the preceding sentence being reported with a straight face? It’s from last week’s Reuters dispatch–though I substituted the words “Turkey” and “Turkish” with “Iran” and “Hezbollah.” But go ahead, play this Mideast Mad Libs game with other terrorist groups, such as Hamas, and see if it looks any less ridiculous.

So why are we seriously discussing the idea of an official Israeli apology to Turkey over stopping the IHH–the Turkish “humanitarian” organization that directed the violent, pro-Hamas flotilla last spring that led to clashes aboard the Mavi Marmara?

The answer is, the media are still unwilling to cover the story and the organization honestly. A recent incident involving the IHH should have changed that–but, not surprisingly, it was completely ignored. On December 15, a ceremony was held to celebrate renovations made to a building in the northeastern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya. The building, which was used to launch rockets at Israel, was damaged during the IDF’s counteroffensive in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. Interestingly, the construction was funded by the IHH, and supervised by Hamas.

IHH’s man in Gaza, Muhammad Kaya, gave a stirring speech, as senior members of Hamas looked on. Here, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, part of an Israeli NGO, is what Kaya said:

“We [IHH] represent Turkey, and our interest and goal is not to feed the Palestinian people and bring them food, but to help them stand on their feet in face of the occupation’s oppression and support them in confronting their enemies. We are certain that if the force on this land [i.e., the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip] submitted to imperialist dictates money would flow in from every side, but this force refused [to surrender to all the dictates] and stood firm in the face of challenges.” He added that “We the Turkish Muslim people will continue to stand at the side of the Palestinian people. Our spirit is with theirs, our money is [placed] with theirs, we will remain at their side and support them.” He then thanked those who had helped rebuild the building and said that “the day will come when Palestinians will build their houses in Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Haifa.”

All of this is telling, but the first sentence–that IHH’s goal is not to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, but rather to help them confront their enemies–and the last sentence–that all of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, is occupied territory and must be Judenrein–are admissions by IHH that they are, in fact, what Israel and her allies said they were: terrorists, just as the behavior of the “activists” aboard the Mavi Marmara indicated.