Turkish terrorist organization IHH involved bigtime in the Gaza flotilla fiasco

[Warph]

Poll: Most Palestinians want peace with Israel

Fafo poll conducted in West Bank and Gaza finds that 89% Palestinians support PA legislative elections this year, 84 % believe Fatah will win.

The majority of Palestinians support a peace agreement with Israel and believe that the Palestinian Authority should use non-violent means to achieve their political goals, a new Fafo poll revealed.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas


Fafo, a Norwegian based international multidisciplinary research foundation, found that 73 percent of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza were in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, but stressed that a settlement freeze should be a precondition to talks.

The poll also revealed a rise in Palestinian support for halting rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, rising from 53 percent in favor of a halt in 2009 to 61 percent in 2010.

Most Palestinians who agreed to answer the poll said they had more confidence in the Fatah leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, than that of Hamas, and revealed that support of Hamas in Gaza was relatively lower than it was in 2008.

Also, over 89 percent of Palestinians are greatly in favor of new legislative elections this year, but only if it were held in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the participation of Hamas.

The poll also found that if the elections were held this year, 84 percent believed that the Fatah would win. However, three of ten poll respondents believed that neither Abbas nor Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were qualified to lead the Palestinian Authority, and claimed they would not vote.

The poll, which has been conducted in the PA for the past three years, found that after the Gaza War in December 2008, support for the Hamas party surged, but has gradually dropped since.

The respondents were randomly selected individuals aged 18 and above.

Of the 960 respondents in the West Bank in February 2010, and 933 respondents in Gaza during May 2010, the poll found that Palestinians were split over a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, the poll found.

Interviews took place at 66 fieldwork points in both areas, yet researchers limited their results saying that "These are people who refuse to answer the question, claim they do not intend to cast their votes, or do not know which party (or candidate) to support."

[Anmar]

yes, most palestinians want peace, and most israelis don't.  what else is new?

[Warph]

yes, most palestinians want peace, and most israelis don't.  what else is new?

What's new, clown.... I'm glad you asked.  Check this out on Gaza City:

It began with an innocent trailer on YouTube -- a plug for a club called "Roots."  The scene showed well-fed women wearing traditional Muslim head coverings but otherwise garbed in chic clothing enjoying themselves at the club's "fine dining restaurant, banquet hall and terrace cafe."  What was startling was the club's location: in the heart of Gaza City.

Gaza, the territory which, to judge from international news media reports, is the most impoverished place on the planet earth.  Gaza, which is supposedly suffering from such terrible shortages that "activists" from around the world have no choice but to ram blockades to bring in desperately needed goods.  Gaza, which has managed to capture the sympathies of the United Nations, Europe - and even the White House.

The YouTube image of plump, fashionably garbed Gaza women enjoying a night out on May 10, made many people wonder if perhaps all those news media accounts of Gaza poverty were not quite accurate.

And then people started asking: if the Arabs of Gaza are starving, as the news media have suggested, how is it that not a single resident of the territory has died from malnutrition.  Not one!  How do we know?  Because you can be sure that if even one Gaza Arab died of starvation, it would be front page news around the world, for starters.

But leave it to the New York Times to (inadvertently) blow the lid off the entire myth of Gaza's poverty.  In its June 13 "Week in Review" section, the Times featured six "slice of life" photographs from Gaza and in its online version, a full twelve.  The contrast between these photos and what the UN and the news media have been claiming for years is startling.

We see a traffic snarl.  Several of the cars appear to be late-model BMWs.  In the background one can see modern, colorful stores.

A family at the beach.  Nobody starving here.  Smiling women, children in clean, modern clothing, a table with a platter of food.

Gaza fishermen at work.  In rowboats?  Homemade rafts?  Hardly.  They clearly have relatively modern fishing trawlers.

A couple emerging from a mall in what the caption calls "a wealthy neighborhood of Gaza."  There are wealthy neighborhoods in Gaza?  Nobody at the White House seems to know that.

The caption to photo number nine announces:  "The opening of a new shop in Gaza City selling wedding and engagement dresses."  In the windows, one can see some very fancy wedding gowns.  In Israel, brides often cannot afford to buy a wedding dress and have to borrow from what is known as a "gemach," a community charitable society.

Maybe it's time for a flotilla of aid for poor Israeli brides.

And on and on it goes, with each photo providing more evidence that the dramatic claims about impoverished Gaza, which are routinely used to bash Israel and justify billions in Western aid to Gaza are, at the least, vastly overstated.  

See for yourself:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/13/weekinreview/13gaza-ss-12.html

[srkruzich]

Oooops.....

[Warph]

US Warns Lebanon: Don't Send Flotilla to Gaza

IsraelNationalNews.com
by Hana Levi Julian
Published: 06/24/10, 11:28 AM
Last Update: 06/24/10, 11:51 AM

The United States has warned Lebanon to steer clear of the current effort by various elements to escalate tensions with Israel by attempting to violate its maritime sovereignty over Gaza waters.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the U.S. State Department urged Lebanon to "behave responsibly" and not to try to send aid to the Hamas terrorist-ruled Gaza region by sea. Instead, organizers who are planning an "aid flotilla" similar to the one sponsored last month by the terror-linked Turkish organization IHH, were told to send their aid via the approved overland routes.

The Beirut-based group said that one of the two boats it plans to send to Gaza from Lebanon has already received approval from the government to set sail for Cyprus.

In order to reach Gaza, however, the boats must also receive approval from the Cypriot authorities prior to departure from their local port. But organizers said they might avoid this problem by simply changing course on their way to Cyprus and heading directly for Gaza.

"Direct delivery by sea is neither appropriate nor responsible, and certainly not effective under the circumstances," the U.S. statement said. "We, along with our partners in the Quartet, urge all those wishing to deliver goods to do so through established channels so that their cargo can be inspected and transferred via land crossings into Gaza."

The Quartet – comprised of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – has repeatedly called on Hamas to officially recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and uphold prior agreements.

"There is no need for unnecessary confrontations, and we, along with our partners in the Quartet, call on all parties to act responsibly in meeting the needs of the people of Gaza," the statement continued.

Lebanese and foreign journalists have said they are planning to be aboard the two vessels, along with the activists and the alleged aid. According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the two groups behind the operation are Journalists without Borders and the Free Palestine Movement. The ITIC added, however, that the vessels were purchased and the flotilla was organized with backing from Syria and the Lebanese Hizbullah terrorist organization. "Neither of them wants to expose its true identity," said ITIC.

Israel has warned that it will act to prevent the flotilla from reaching Gaza if the organizers fail to heed its warnings and those of the international community.

"Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the existing naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip," wrote Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, in a letter last Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "While those who organize this action claim that they wish to break the blockade on Gaza and to bring humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, the true nature of the actions remains dubious," Shalev added. "The organizers of these boats have made repeated assertions to the media that they wish to be Shahids [martyrs]."

The Lebanese government has said, meanwhile, that it does not allow vessels to set out from its ports to any destination under Israeli sovereignty, since the Jewish State is considered an enemy nation. In addition, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the waters off the Lebanese coast, and it is not clear what role the UN vessels might play in preventing an attempt by flotilla organizers to send the boats to Gaza, whether directly or via Cyprus.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

.....Warph