Thursday, June 03, 2010

06/03/10

* 'We face international hypocrisy' "Israel won't apologize for defending itself," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday night, as he urged the international community to stop condemning the IDF for its Monday raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.

* Helsinki Principles: Israel Was in the Right A perusal of The Helsinki Principles on the Law of Maritime Neutrality, a basis for international law on the subject, shows that Israel was well within its prescriptions in forcibly stopping the Gaza-bound flotilla.

* Emotion high as Turkey buries its Gaza flotilla dead Emotions are running high in Turkey at funerals for nine activists, all Turkish or of Turkish orgin, killed in Israel's raid on the Gaza aid flotilla.

* Biden: Israel right to search ships The Obama administration said Wednesday that it had warned Israel's government repeatedly to use "caution and restraint" with half a dozen aid boats bound for the Gaza Strip before Israeli commandos raided the flotilla.

* Erdogan to Obama: Israel risks losing its best friend in Middle East Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told U.S. President Barack Obama that Israel is on the verge of losing its best friend in the Middle East due to its deadly raid on a humanitarian aid headed to the Gaza Strip earlier this week.

* French bid for euro zone "government" gains ground The move raised pressure on Germany, Europe's biggest economy and chief crusader for tougher budget discipline, to accept a new political forum to coordinate economic policy.

* 75% of Israelis: No Large-Scale Destruction of Jewish Towns Poll results to be presented today at the 20th Annual Judea/Samaria Research Convention at the Ariel University Center in Samaria show strong ongoing support for the settlement enterprise.

* Secretive Bilderberg Club ready for protests Splash! Could that be the sound of Lord Mandelson hitting one of the Dolce hotel’s four pools?

* Mitchell: Flotilla affair must not derail talks US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said Thursday a lethal Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship must not undermine indirect negotiations he is mediating between Israel and the Palestinians.

* U.S. to Join South Korean Military Exercise Off North Korea Coast The U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate in a joint naval exercise with South Korea next week in the Yellow Sea, the same waters west of the Korean peninsula where North Korea is accused of sinking a South Korean warship last March.