According to Aviation Week the US Navy blocked the Israeli Navy from seizing the Cypriot flagged Iranian weapons ship en route to Hamas forces in Gaza. The Aviation Week report claims that the US feared the an Israeli seziure of the ship would endanger US naval forces around Iran. Instead, they asked the Cypriot Navy to seize the ship and it is now at the Port of Limassol. As it stands, Israel is demanding that the Cypriots board the ship and seize its weapons and Iran is demanding that Cyprus let the ship sail.
I'm betting the Iranians end up getting their way. If Iran can intimidate the Obama Navy, what chance is there that the Cypriots will stand up to the mullahs?
I suppose this is the great international cooperation that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was referring to when she applauded her diplomatic skills in signing that bizarre Memorandum of Understanding with Condoleezza Rice on the latter's last day in office.
Well what did you expect from a weak and timid president and administration?
First of all the U.S. Navy should have, if anything assisted the Israel Navy in this situation. That in fact would be a show of our solidarity with our utmost friend Israel.
What better message could have been sent to the Hitler regime?
Here we are with another Jimmy Carter in the White House.
Haven’t we learned you can’t back away from confrontation with the enemy?
Does anyone in the White House have backbone?
Are you surprised ?
Did you think the U.S. was really looking out for Israel ?
You can be sure that with the amoral republic ,Adm Mullins will quickly consult his boss in Washington to throw Israel over the side to keep the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf ‘safe’
Haven’t you figured it out yet Israel,
YOU ARE EXPENDABLE.Their big picture does not have any room in it for non moslems in this neighborhood.
To prove my assumption is correct ,watch for more pressure from the U.S. against Israel to end all settlment’s and to retreat from more land and no real pressure on Hamas or Fatah.
What’s it going to take for Israel’s leaders to stop drinking their ‘friends’ Kool-Aid ?
The main reason the US Navy stopped the Israeli Naval ship is that the Obama Administration is scared to confront Iran. The US Navy has enough firepower in the Persian Gulf to send Iran back to the Pre-Industrial Age. There should be no timidity for allowing the Israeli Navy to interdict Iranian weapons headed for Gaza. And the message President Obama conveyed is that fighting terrorism is a criminal matter, not a military one.
Tick, tick, tick….we will begin to see many more “little” incidents like this until the great boom is heard and 6 million Israelis are incinerated.
I’m sure Obama will feel very sorry about that and the UN will issue a strong resolution condeming the Iranian sneak attack.
Meanwhile, another season of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars resumes…
I interpret this as an indication that Obama will choose Damascus to give his speech to the Arab World … or to the Persian World … or to the Muslim World … whatever the case may be.
Who knows, he may even give it in Farsi.
I know that as an American Obama is “my president”. In the defense industry we call Aviation Week, Aviation Leak, so I suspect that they got the story right. I am embarassed by the weakness and the spirit of appeasement shown by my president. If anything the US Navy should have assisted in keeping weapons of terror out of the hands of Hamas.
If this was done by the Bush administration via Condolessa Rice I’m even more enraged. These people KNOW better.
First we essentially enabled the Ayatolah Khomeini come to power in 1979 thanks to Jimmy Carter. I really expected more from a Naval Academy Graduate. Now we are appeasing them as an “outreach to the Muslim world”. If we are not careful it will truly become a Muslim world en total.
My father was a B-17 pilot in WW-II; he must be turning over in his grave upon hearing this. He believed that his contribution to the war, 35 Missions over Europe in some small way helped defeat Germany and end the Holocaust.
Caroline thanks for reporting the Aviation Week story. Hopefully this will now be seen by a wider audience.
In his quest to emulate past Presidents, Obama may even take up the line of John F. Kennedy in the notorious 1963 speech “Ich bin ein Berliner”, by going to Damascus and declare: “Ich bin ein Persian” …
‘ Residents of Rafiah and Khan Younis in Gaza reported Sunday evening that they received recorded phone messages from the IDF
Ynet reported that Hamas evacuated its personnel from all government offices Sunday.’
Israel is more interested in worthless PR than defeating Hamas.It’s no wonder there is no deterrence with the nice clowns of Kadima and Labor.
Their tough talk is even cause for laughing oneself to sleep.
How did Israel sink so low ?
It’s as if Israel’s defeatist leaders have picked up a book from the alter ego of von Clausewitz on ‘How to Lose a War in 3 Easy Steps’
Why is it that Israel warns Hamas leaders that it is time to hide and when they do surface do not make a move agianst them ?
Instead of defeating Hamas Israel plays at losing to gain funerary respect and long winded eulogies from her useless allies .
The need to be accepted by the mad nations has driven Israel insane.
Barak and the whole leadership are good example’s of those who read at least a chapter a night of How to Lose a War and a Nation because they follows the recepie for defeat religiously. I see never again happening all over again because of a leadership committed to the tactics of defeat.
Tough times are ahead on the horizon. Americans elected a rock star for president. Axel Grease did a fine job and now we are going to pay the price. We needed a president and we got a speech writer without substance. Here is where you learn talk is cheap.
Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, where are you when we need you. Why did you leave us when the scoundrels of the world started coming out?
Surrounded himself with a number of Clinton rejects and he believes he can talk to Iran and win them over. He also believes in the tooth fairy.
This is not about the Iranians as a whole, its all about the Iranian president (little Hitler) and the mullahs who pull the strings. They have a goal in mind, to dominate the Arab world with the ambition to wipe out Israel along with the U.S. If for one minute Obama even thinks he can sway them from this goal, he is mistaken. Another disillusioned Jimmy Carter. Carter still thinks Hamas is merle a political group. Good grief.
By the way we all know that Iran has a few buddies, Egypt , Saudi Arabia, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, just to name a few.
So where do we stand? First of all we are stuck with Obama and company for 4 years.
We don’t have to support is wacky ideas. What we need is public support to force Washington to get back in the fight to stop terrorism. Yes we do need help from our allies.
In the U.S., we need the American Jews to stand up and be counted. First they have to shed their liberal left attitude. They have enough influence and can certainly muster help from non-Jews to join them in this fight. They need to convince Washington to provide unconditional support to Israel against the terrorist governments and groups that threaten their existence.
Please, I call on Israelis to communicate with family and friends in the U.S. to join in writing to their representatives in Washington that Israel needs their help including military and intelligence assistance. Trust me it’s a start. The entire lobbyist put together do not have the power equal to the people who elect those in Washington. Remember that, it’s called people power.
We begin, as Christians and Jews to pray for God’s Blessing and success.
It would be hard to find someone more unhappy with Obama than me, but….
I have to point out that this story broke on Debka quite awhile ago, and the US reluctance to take any firm action against the Iranian ship antedated the inauguration. The Aviation Week story confirms that. It could have been towed to Diego Garcia, for example, or perhaps to another port for inspection of the alleged (and probably correctly alleged) hull compartments. That was all before it went through the Suez. And all under Bush.
I remember this well because I remember sharing my disappointment with others on Twitter while it was happening.
I wish you well, don’t care if you publish this letter or not (because we are on the same side and I am not trying to attack you), but before you ride this horse too far you might want to consider what I am pointing out.
If Obama has any sense (and he might), he will bring the US closer to Iran, patch up differences, and soft-pedal the alliance with Israel. It happened with China and Taiwan.
Bigger question is why didn’t the Israeli Navy simply disregard everything the US Navy was saying, or doing, and simply blown the ship skyhigh.
Sure, the USN’s behavior was political, pusillanimous.
That’s par for the course with this Reverend Wright acolyte in The White House.
But why did the Israeli Navy allow the situation to be taken out of their hands. They were “blocked,” would their missiles unleashed been similarly “blocked.”
EVEN NOW, slip in some Flotilla 13 chaps, and blow the damn ship skyhigh.
Hey boys and girls, I just can’t wait to see how much we cave in once Iran says they’ve got nuclear suitcases placed in American or European cities.
Israel has submarines I believe. Israel would be entirely within its rights to use them.
i’d like to see israel just seize the damn ship. to hell with anyone else. seize it and say “so what?” it was intended to harm us so we are taking what’s aboard. period.
‘why did the Israeli Navy allow the situation to be taken out of their hands.’
It seems that Israel like to be told by other what she can do and not do.
Israel has gotten used to being pushed around and seems to love this low life status ?
Fearful of angering their slave master they make good slaves and always obey religiously.
They surrendered their independence to their cheif idol long ago.
Why did Israel allow outsiders to divide their land for a counterfeit peace ?
Why is Israel content to be a vassal state appendage of a dubious,treacherous, crumbling,deceitful,corrupt empire ?
Why is Israel so willing and easy to return to slave status again ,a repeat of Egypt, with the latest superpower ?
Why ? It’s because they ignore Hamsem and serve and obey false idols.
Hey Dan, You make a good point.
Remember how the Iranian “navy” made the Brits look like a bunch of pussies?
I’m sure the Israeli Navy could humiliate the USA in the same manner. I’d love to see Obama explaining to his Jewish contributors why it was necessary to fire on an Isareli ship which was in the process of interdicting weapons being smuggled be terrorists.
The ship was COMING from Iran, but it is OWNED by Russia
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5882
“He did not identify the cargo, but Cyprus state radio reported the vessel was Russian-owned and may have been traveling from Iran to Syria with weapons destined for Hamas.”
http://babbazeesbrain.blogspot.com/
The United States Navy has become increasingly impotent and incompetent. First, they have repeatedly failed to intercept and interdict Somali pirates who have been thumbing their noses at the West regularly. Second, the U.S. decision not to allow the Israeli Navy to intercept the Iranian arms vessels has more to do with President Obama’s “negotiations” with Iran, rather than a desire to disrupt Iranian arms shipments to Hamas. In the long run, I believe that the United States will be attacked because President Obama and the U.S. will abandon Israel in the interests of “world peace” Obama at heart is anti-Israel, has always been anti-Israel, and will always be anti-Israel.
I am an American not an Israeli.
This is a non story to the former, but of course not the latter. Sorry Israeli’s, but the safety of American ships in the Persian gulf is more important to me then you folks getting to kill/interdict a few more useless kasaam rockets or score political points prior to your elections.
I am not willing to endanger countless American lives so that religious freaks (orthandox on the Jewish side or Islamists on the Muslim side) can score points with one another. You folks will have to come to an accomodation with the Palestinians sooner or later, unless you think being a state in perpetual war is sustainable.
Caroline, I think you’re giving Teh One too much credit to suggest that there was ever any question that there was any course of action other than to kiss Dinnerjacket’s knob.
The other person in the US administration who has been conspicuously silent about all of this is the SoS. Funny how the Jews don’t matter so much when she’s not the Senator from NY any more.
Rick made an interesting point.
Israel is aware of the shipments of weaponry, but occasionally, Israel will chose to intercept a shipment.
THE TIMING OF THIS INTERCEPTION makes it look TREMENDOUSLY political, and makes it look like the whole purpose wasn’t really to intercept weaponry, which otherwise is entering Gaza, been entering Gaza, and Israel’s behavior being what it is, will continue to enter Gaza. No the real purpose looks to be a political gimmick to burnish the national security bona fides of an incredibly feckless Israeli government.
But that presumes that a political assessment was made by the Obama administration, when they denied the Israeli Navy permission to seize the vessel.
It’s possible.
Nonetheless, the whole procedure of Israel running military measures past the United States for approval before Israel takes action has got to STOP.
IT’S GOT TO COME TO AN END.
It’s not healthy for Israel.
It’s not healthy for The United States.
Stop asking for permission to do what sovereign powers already are empowered to do.
Bypass Washington, and take your case directly to the American people.
The State Department is eager to sell you down the river so as to purchase “peace” with the mohammedan. But the American people would not.
Israel must NOT allow herself to become another Czechoslovakia, handed over to today’s Nazis in order to proclaim “Peace for our time”.
Obama is at best another Chamberlain, at worst another Mussolini. Damn him and his ilk all to hell, I say….
Ok, I’m confused.
We can’t stop Somali Pirates from boarding ships, taking the crew hostage, and selling off the cargo because they’re pirates.
But we can stop Israel cold when they want to board a ship filled with weapons that will be used to kill more Israelis.
Seems the answer is pretty clear. The Israeli ship should hoist the Somali flag, seize the ship, sell/burn the cargo, and nobody will be able to do a darned thing.
What I don’t understand is why could not the ship have a small mishap that would cause it to join the long lost treasures at the bottom of the Mediterranean?
Obama is both tremendously stupid and malignantly narcissistic. He is a very dangerous man- which is why I did not vote for him. Israel and America are both in my prayers.