Turkish Overture in B-flat

Turkey working to prevent Lebanese sail to Gaza

According to Israeli officials, Ankara deems additional flotillas pointless after partial lifting of blockade on Gaza. 'Turkey wants to lower its profile, let diplomacy take its course,' official says

Officials in Jerusalem were surprised to learn that Turkey is working to prevent Lebanese ships from attempting to sail to Gaza in violation of an Israeli blockade on the Hamas-run territory, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Tuesday.

Israeli officials estimate that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who visited Damascus and Beirut last week, asked the Lebanese government to prevent the flotilla's departure as part of Ankara's efforts to ease tensions with Israel.

WTF? There is so much going on here... it's now Ankara, officials and the FM, not Erdogan, there's no demand of an apology from Israel, and Turkey just put the kibosh on the entire Free Gaza movement.

I'm guessing that in spite of Turkey's announcements that everything is fine and dandy, the warming relations with Greece and the multimillion dollar losses (real and potential) in revenue actually do matter to Turkey. In related news, while Israel lifted the travel advisory to Turkey, Israelis are staying away in droves. And NATO's pretty pissed that Turkey is sharing miltech with non-NATO countries.

Turkey has been described as a bridge between East and West. Right now, it's looking a little like this:

Not Even a Phone Call...

Jewish eastern Jerusalem houses gain approval

July 12, 2010

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Jerusalem municipal committee approved the construction of 32 homes in a Jewish neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem.

The district planning and construction committee on Monday approved the construction for Pisgat Zeev a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington with President Obama, who is opposed to building in eastern Jerusalem.

So, without fanfare, screaming mobs, 45-minute tirades or rip-shit anger, Israel continues to assert its sovereign right to do whatever the hell it wants in its own capital, fuckyouverymuch.

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A Turkish Bath

Get this: Turkey is again demanding an apology from Israel for killing nine morons who brought knives to a gun fight.

This isn't the first time they're demanding an apology. What part of "no" didn't they understand the first time around?

Listen, Erdogan, habibi, whatever it is you think you're going to gain out of this, you're already losing. That $2B in exports to Israel? Gone. Those tanks you want to stop Iran's expansion of the Emirate when he finally drinks the Kool Aid? Not happening. Modernizing those jets? Nuh-uh. Oh, and that $400M in chump change from the tourism industry? Israeli's are going to Greece instead. Now here's the biggie: energy, agriculture and irrigation projects estimated at $20 billion are at risk.

So, if we don't apologize for enforcing a legal blockade of our own territory, they're going to cut ties with Israel. They will no longer buy our military technology, host our tourists, sell Israel water and random consumer goods or work with us on a host of infrastructure projects. Oh and they'll piss off the US and a couple of other NATO allies in the process.

Yeah, that'll show us.

Pass the Kool-Aid.


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Lebanese Flotilla, Rhymes with 'Shatila' (UPDATED)

Sabra and Shatila, forever ingrained in every Israel-basher's memory as Israel's failure to protect avowed enemies from a little payback action from Lebanese Christians.

So now it seems some Lebanese women are going to send their own aid flotilla to the poor, poor Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering under the lash of Israel's Occupation. (But didn't they evacuate in 2005? Hey, shut up with that..)

Uh, hello? What about the Palestinians in Lebanon? You know, the ones who are still living in all those refugee camps, the ones who, two generations later, are still living off the UN? The ones that Lebanon refuses to integrate into their society, their fellow ethnic Arabs, what about them? Are you telling me that they have to sail hundreds of kilometers to find some Palestinians to fawn over? Is anyone going to call them on this?

This just in (6/18/10 7:14AM): Lebanon Postpones Granting Rights to 1948 Refugees - Again

B'tzelem's New Math

B'tzelem reported on the conditions in the Gaza Strip, using some pretty creative numbers. Let's have a look, shall we?

At the end of 2009, 93 percent of the wells were found to be polluted with high quantities of chloride and nitrates, far in excess of the World Health Organization’s recommended levels. The water supply is defective, and thousands of residents are not even connected to the water grid.

93% of the water is polluted water, and there's no typhus epidemic? No malaria outbreak? I man, contaminating the water supply is the first rule in siege warfare, true, but where's the obvious end result to that? Right, let's move on.

The prohibition on bringing in raw materials and on exports has led to the closing of 95 percent of the factories and workshops in the area.

95% of factories are closed. So that means if there are 100 factories, only five are open. Now, according to the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce, the last statistic we have to work with is from 1998, where there were 412 carpentry workshops employing 1002 workers (2.4 workers per 'factory'). Please note that they tout Israeli training as a benefit for investment consideration. OK, now let's take a look at that percentage, shall we? There are now, supposedly, only 20ish carpentry factories still open, employing 48 people. Hmm.. does that have to do with Israel's 'siege', or does that have to do with a glut in the market, overreported numbers, and every three people counting as a 'factory'?

As a result of Israel’s policy, 98 percent of Gaza residents suffer from planned blackouts lasting up to eight or ten hours a day.

The last time there was an Israeli 'blackout' in Gaza, tens of thousands of people took to the streets with candles, and the world decried Israel's 'collective punishment'. But now, blackouts last ten hours a DAY and there's nothing in the news? Really?


Forty percent unemployment, huh? I suppose I should feel bad about it, but then I remember that the people elected these leaders.

More that 70% rely on humanitarian aid? Guess they get it in the market (note the source of the website).

It's all a numbers game.

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Hearst Corporation Magazines

If you subscribe to any of these magazines, you pay for Helen Thomas' salary:

Cosmopolitan
Country Living
Esquire
Food Network Magazine
Good Housekeeping
House Beautiful
Harper's Bazaar
Marie Claire
O, The Oprah Magazine
Popular Mechanics
Redbook
Seventeen
Town&Country
Veranda

Be honest now, do you really need the next issue of O, The Oprah Magazine cluttering the box next to the toilet?

Call the subscription desk. Ask to speak to a manager. Put them on notice that if Helen Thomas retains her position, you will be canceling your subscription within thirty days. It's as simple as that.

Goldstone's Skeletons Have Come Home to Roost

Oh, that's not the only metaphor I'm going to mangle today, readers. First, the obvious question: who the fuck does Richard Goldstone think he is? I mean, seriously, did he forget that he hung 26 black men in apartheid South Africa? Because the families of the hanged men sure as hell didn't. Did he think that those records would be lost to the ages? People who live in ivory towers...

Did it never occur to him to recuse himself from judging in a case where one of the parties is repeatedly (if not accurately) accused of apartheid policies?

Was this an axe to grind or a bone to pick? Was this just plain old stupidity, or he just plain old?

He went against Israel. Forget selling out his own people; that's God's issue to take up with him. Goldstone went up against a nation of seven million yentas, who show an amazing aptitude of circling the wagons in the face of adversity. Oh, and this is also the country that spawned, you know, The Mossad. What chance did this information have staying a secret? About a snowball's chance...

So now news gets out Richie Goldstone is a hangin' judge. When confronted with this, his response was that "he had to respect the laws of the state." Yes, we've all heard that one before. Nuremberg, wasn't it? He vas only followink orrrders. By the way, he also sentenced black men to lashes, because he was against the death penalty. Except for those twelve times. But wait, he didn't have to be a judge, did he?

So, to sum it all up, the UN commissioner tasked with identifying Israeli war crimes and Israeli crimes against humanity was, only a short while ago, responsible for the enforcement of apartheid laws, corporal punishment and capital punishment. Not only did he fail in his task at the UN, he failed to excise the ghosts of those twelve black men who were sent to their deaths by his own apartheid-stained, blood-soaked hands.

Folks, if THAT's not a hypocrite, I'll eat my hat.