The blockade-running jihadis recognize that they have an ally in Obama. "'The Audacity of Hope' to set sail," by Adam Chandler in the Jerusalem Post, July 26 (thanks to Choi):
An initiative is under way to add an American ship to the effort to break the IDF blockade of Gaza.The vessel, to be named The Audacity of Hope after US President Barack Obama's best-selling book, is being organized by an American group called "US Boat to Gaza." It is expected to sail in the fall.
The links to Obama do not end there. Prof. Rashid Khalidi, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and a friend from Obama's time in Chicago, is among the supporters of an appeal launched by the group last week.
"We must raise at least $370,000 in the next month," a statement on US Boat to Gaza's Web site read.
"These funds will be used to purchase a boat large enough for 40-60 people, secure a crew, and cover the licensing and registering of the boat...
together we will contribute to the great effort to end the blockade of Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine."
The Lebanese-Saudi Arabian- Palestinian-American Khalidi, an outspoken critic of Israel, garnered attention in 2008 when his friendship with Obama became a point of controversy during the US presidential campaign. Sen.
John McCain, Obama's opponent, portrayed Khalidi as a Hamas sympathizer.
Khalidi's involvement in this new project is already a popular topic among rightwing bloggers and media personalities in America.
"Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian arm.
Rashid Khalidi has now signed an appeal for funds to outfit another ship like the peace flotilla that would try to break Israeli's blockage of Gaza, the territory controlled by Hamas," American pundit Glenn Beck said on his syndicated radio show last week.
"Rashid Khalidi, a good friend of the president. The name of the ship: The Audacity of Hope."
Others supporters of US Boat to Gaza include author Alice Walker, activist Angela Davis, and Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an IDF bulldozer in Rafah in 2003....
i am hp
ing that this is not being somehow looped to obama
Don't be naive, Miriam. Why to you think they chose this name for the ship?
I wonder if Rashid Khalidi will also sign an appeal for funds to buy Playstations and I phones, for the starving Gazan citizens. That new mall must be low on supplies by now, and they may not have the latest games. My son would agree that that's inhuman treatment.
The boat should be named the Provocation.
"Others supporters of US Boat to Gaza include author Alice Walker, activist Angela Davis, and Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an IDF bulldozer in Rafah in 2003...."
IF Chandler were to write TRUTH it would read:
"...Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE by CHALLENGING an IDF bulldozer which was DEFENDING Israel, in Rafah"
By choosing this name for the ship, the Palestinians undoubtedly think they can put Obama in a box. I can fairly hear their gleeful chuckles at the imagined prospect of Israeli warships sinking "The Audacity of Hope." Probably there are those on this side who would relish the idea, too, but there are some larger issues at stake that make this a bad idea.
I hope Obama is smart enough to understand the game of manipulation the Palestinians are playing and that he needs to avoid this trap they are setting. At the very least he needs to find ways to prevent this ship from ever being christened (oops, isn't that a Christian term?) "The Audacity of Hope." But more generally, the whole Gaza flotilla organization needs to be broken up and scattered.
The Audacity of Hype
As a naif, Barack Obama was taken advantage of by the cunning PLO propagandist Rashid Khalidi, who wooed and won Obama and presented him with the Arab-Muslim narrative about a "Palestinian" people who had been tilling the soil since time immemorial, and of course expressed his sympathy and understanding for "the Jews" (crocodile tears, or their equivalent, aplenty) but then when into his "two states for two peoples" business, and Obama swallowed all of it. But that was then, in his untutored days in Chicago.
He has learned a little bit more, or should have, in the last year since that appalling Cairo speech. Perhaps he's even begun to realize -- I don't know -- that Islam is an ideology that offers a Complete Explanation of the Universe and a Total Regulation of Life, and perhaps too, he -- Obama -- has had some glimmer of the basic division of humanity that Muslims deeply believe in, that between Believer and Unbeliever, Muslim and Infidel. It's unclear if he really believes some of the nonsense he spoke in Cairo, or if he thinks that Brennan was right to publicly so misconstrue -- it appears to be genuine ignorance, not machiavellian calculation gone terribly wrong -- Jihad.
But now that Rashid Khalidi has chosen so crudely and transparently to take advantage of his, Obama's, book's title -- was it the one in which he roundly declared, at a time when he knew nothing about Islam save what some fond childish memories of school life in Jakarta, some forty years ago, might have left him with, that he would if Muslims were under assault "stand with the Muslims" (he might have thought that had a noble ring but, especially in retrospect, it looks sillier -- because based on obvious ignorance -- every day), perhaps as part of the Re-Education of Barack Obama, he could look into a few things, starting with the actual demographic and cadastral history of the area that became Mandatory Palestine. He could learn all kinds of things, including the express provisions that show that the Mandate for Palestine was not to establish "two states for two peoples" but to carve out, from the vast territories of the former Ottoman Empire, a number of states for non-Arab or non-Muslim peoples, and the Jews, quite rightly, were assigned "Palestine" or, as it turned out, because the British made their own unilateral decision to lop off all of Eastern Palestine, the 22% of the territory that had been given to the British originally for Mandatory Palestine.
Yes, Barack Obama should read, say, Joan Peters' "Since Time Immemorial." It's not perfect, but it has a lot of quotations, a lot of facts, that once learned, cannot be unlearned and always makes, on those who are not permanently hostile to Israel, a deep impression.
And he should add to that -- it's summer, time for Summer Reading -- Bat Ye'or's "The Dhimmi" and "Islam and Dhimmitude."
That's a small start. That's a way to get back at the sweetly-sinister propagandist and former friend Rashid Khalidi, and perhaps to let him know, and others too, that the days of being led astray by the likes of Rashid Khalidi are over, and forever.
I have a better name for the boat. "The Audacity of Dopes"
It sort of makes you wonder what is on that videotape that the Los Angeles Times REFUSED to release before the election. Rashid Khalidi and Barack Obama were both at the meeting. Wonder why the Times can't release it now?
Notice they say 40-60 people, no mention of the "supplies" they are sending. In fact they are probably sending no supplies.
This time sink the bastards!
Ah, Angela Davis, indicted in the murder of a judge; international traveler in support of Marxist regimes that oppressed their people; not allowed entrance to Wounded Knee because even AIM found her "undesirable"; a crusader to destroy a system that allows her freedom to flourish.
The international community itself is getting tired of these charades and realize them now for what they are: Tired but provocative publicity stunts.
The Israeli navy will just keep interdicting the boats, and transfer material to Gaza via the Ashdod port.
Has anyone claimed the Mavi Marmara yet? The docking fees are gonna be a b@tch!
"Rachel Corrie, WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE by CHALLENGING an IDF bulldozer which was DEFENDING Israel"
PC Idiot. No sympathy whatsoever.
If they go with my suggestion of naming the next ship Community Organizer-In-Chief for Islam, I'll throw 5 bucks their way and provide a non-alcholic bottle of champagne for it's christening. I'd come along but I'm sure a meeting for the model railroad club I chair would pose a conflict. As the Prez knows all too well, priorities come first.
What we will never know is if she was one of those Palie hanger-ons that was raped by a visitor who was social-sexually confused at an openly Western, gender mixing flop house. Either you shut-up for fear of besmirching the cause, or take the easy way out and snuff your own candle. That a young woman would rationalize that she could no better way serve this cause, she had a lifetime ahead of her, and chose this an the ultimate defining act of her short life.
Maybe they can persuade Obama to join the floatilla?
Mike, how right you are. And, it seems, Angela Davis got off the murder rap on technicalities.
Sympathy?
PC?YOU call ME an Idiot?hahaha
Where's YOUR sympathy for Israel and Israelis UNDER ATTACK from HAMAS whom Rachel Corrie was there to help in their JIHAD AGAINST ISRAEL's EXISTENCE?
PC?!LOLOL
PC? Yeah Umm Hmm
To Lefties like you,Wrong is PC and the Right thing is not.
I assure you FALSE PC MATTERS NOT.
Choi, I understood that comment from Courreges differently. I thought it meant that Corrie was a "PC idiot" and he had no sympathy for her.
Just my 2 cents.
Choi, I agree with when*pigs*fly, that the PC Idiot comment was directed at Rachel Corrie and not yourself.
2 cents more
Know Islam, Know Violence
No Islam, No Violence
Sink it.
No warnings, no negotiation. Just a loud BOOM! and a little burning flotsam on the surface.
How about " Yes we can!"
This has turned into an evil game, and one supported by virtually the entire free world.
Israel must capitulate and allow the 'aid' ship through the blockade, to be the first of literally dozens and another shove toward her demise both morally and physically.
Or, she should issue a single warning then sink it.
Buraq
you suggested this thing should be renamed 'The Audacity of Hype'.
ROFLMAO.
Buraq
I should have added - have you thought of contacting the folks at 'Latma'? You know, the people who satirised the first flotilla so deliciously, and then followed up with 'the three terrors' satire?
I think they could have a lot of fun making a clip starring a wanna-be checkpoint-runner called 'the audacity of hype'.
The Israel government has decided to return the Marmara and 3 other ships to Turkey in yet another depressingly sad attempt to appease the Islamist beast.
You guys are a just plain weird. The blockade is Israel's self defense. Rachel Corrie committed suicide. You'd make good lawyers. Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman tried to damage OJ's knife by throwing their bodies at it. OJ's poor knife got dirty and needs to be cleaned now. If Nicole and Ron were alive today we'd sue them and make them pay damages.
When Egypt formally committed to closing off Israel's access to the Straits of Tiran (though in reality the blockade was not enforced, and despite that Israel had plenty of other access routes) Israel launched a war. Gaza has no outside access. Gazan's can't even get their fishing boats any significant distance away from the sea in order to fish as they are driven in by Israeli gunboats (partially due to the oil deposits found in that region, which Israel wants despite the fact that they are in Palestinian territory.) Gazan's need a minimum of 400 trucks of food every day to sustain above starvation levels of food due to the destruction caused by Israel. They really need access to the world more than Israel needed access to the Straits of Tiran. Why don't they have a legitimate claim to the resort to violence? If Israel did in 1967 why don't Gazan's today have the same rights?
Amnesty International calls the blockade "a flagrant violation of international law." Of course they're all biased and evil. That's what all the dictatorial and repressive governments say of Amnesty International as they carry out atrocities.
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela proclaimed not too long ago that he himself would be on one of the ships of the Gaza "humanitarian" flotillas, but his recent spat with Colombia may have delayed that.
However, I've been seeing on the internet that Chavez has offered to deploy VENEZUELAN MARINES onboard any and all of the Gaza "peace" flotilla ships, to "deter and to defend against" any boarding actions by IDF Navy commandos.
Chavez has offered as well, to deploy Venezuelan military forces into the border areas of Arab nations bordering Israel.
With his allies (Syria, Libya, Iran, Hizbollah, et al), of which he's a full partner, his desire seems to be that of actual military confrontation with Israel. It seems President Chavez wants to emulate Fidel Castro when he sent Cuban troops to fight in Angola back in the 1970's.
We need to watch these Gaza flotillas closely, as a battle between IDF Navy commandos and Venezuelan Marines may provide Chavez with the excuse he needs to become fully involved militarily in the war against Israel.
It was good to see the Jihad Flotilla, Rashid Khalidi, and the links to Obama—as well as the Lockerbie bomber release and the Ground Zero mosque—covered on Sean Hannity's show last night by guests Andrew McCarthy (author of "The Grand Jihad") and Pamela Geller (co-author with Robert Spencer of "The Post-American Presidency").
As is often the case on television, they didn't have time to cover any of the issues in-depth, but were still able to make a number of important points. Good to see *any* coverage of these issue in the main-stream media.
The Israelis need to take the same tack the French did with the Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" that was interfering with French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Sink it while it is docked in a harbor with frogmen using limpet mines.