Hows that Siege going? New Hospital completed in Gaza

The newly constructed Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital will be Gaza's largest when it becomes fully operational in 2017. Funded by the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), this is the second hospital to open in Gaza since the 2014 war with Israel

Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital

According to Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) which funded the project, the $40 million dollar facility will include cancer and heart research and treatment departments as well as a prayer room and library.

From Tika_Turkey 

A Qatar funded hospital is also expected to open later this year.

The construction of this state of the art hospital in Gaza is yet another manifestation of the brutal Israel siege and incremental genocide that we hear so much about in the mainstream media.

Israeli gives up dream to scale Everest to save Turkish climber

A traffic jam on Mount Everest turned deadly last weekend, with reports of seven climbers perishing on the mountain. Weeks of bad weather had prevented climbers from summit attempts until Saturday. When the weather cleared, an estimated 150 people rushed to reach the peak.

But still, there were stories from Everest that showed the triumph of the human spirit.

A 24 year old law student from Israel, Nadav Ben-Yehuda was just 300 meters from the summit of Everest when he noticed a Turkish climber Aydin Irmak lying unconscious on the ground.

From YNET
"People passed him by and didn’t do a thing.... All I thought about is that I can save this person – and that’s what I did," Ben-Yehuda noted.

He continued:

"I attached him to my harness, and we started the descent. It was very hard to carry him because he was heavy. At times he would gain consciousness, but then faint again. When he woke up he would scream in pain, which made it even more difficult."

It took nearly 10 hours until they arrived at the closest base, located at an altitude of 7,900 meters.

"Expressing his gratitude, Irmak, 46, told Yedioth Ahronoth, "If Nadav wasn't there, I would have died on the mountain. It was a miracle.

"I remember falling down. I woke up with Nadav standing over me and shouting my name. Nadav did a great thing. He built a bridge between Turkey and Israel, and our leaders can learn a lot from him. Politics doesn’t matter much, what matters is human nature.



"I may have missed the summit, but I gained a new brother. Who knows, maybe one day we'll climb the Everest together," Irmak noted.

Meanwhile, in their living room in Rehovot, Nadav's parents – Yoram and Dorit – are bursting with pride. "He did the right thing, no doubt," said Yoram. "This is the education he received not only at home but also from his military service in Golani – a friend in need comes first."

I've been wondering how the Turkish papers are framing the incident. Perhaps something along the lines of "Israeli prevents Turkish climber from reaching Everest summit" ?

Western and Jewish interests targetted in Turkey

'Unit 400', a top-secret ‘special ops’ unit within the elite overseas wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Al-Quds Brigade is planning on carrying out attacks against Jewish, Israeli and Western targets in Turkey. Sadly, we realize that "Jewish interests" includes young children going to school. That is the nature of terror.

From Arutz Sheva:

"Intelligence agencies have reportedly discovered an underground Iranian terrorist group sending members to Turkey to attack Jews, Israelis and Western targets. The organization, known as ‘Unit 400,’ is said to be part of the Al Quds Brigade.

Sky News reported an intelligence source who said that the unit "has been developing in the last few months a standing operating procedure for carrying out an attack in Turkey against western targets as well as Israeli and Jewish. It is our firm assessment that these procedures are in a very advanced stage, and that the intention is to act on the plans very soon."

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei is said to control the Quds Force through his close ally Qassem Suleiman.

"He runs the whole thing - directly. [Mahmoud] Ahmedinajad [the Iranian president] makes all the noise and gets the attention but it's the Supreme Leader who is in charge of what is going on especially when it comes to international operations," said a senior intelligence official.

“It is our firm assessment that these procedures are in a very advanced stage, and that the intention is to act on the plans very soon,” the source added.

A secret study conducted by a foreign intelligence agency explained, "Unit 400 is a top-secret ‘special ops’ unit within the elite overseas wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF). It plans and carries out terror attacks on external targets, and provides material support to foreign militia groups, at the direct behest of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This is in accordance with the regime's core strategic considerations about how best to challenge perceived enemies in Israel and the west - through asymmetric warfare - and to cope with mounting international pressure over its nuclear programme."

According to the report, the sources cited evidence showing that Unit 400 was given instructions to carry out more frequent and more daring attacks around the world as a demonstration of ‘Iran's asymmetric power,’ Zee News reported."

"A Jewish Boy Is Going To Represent Turkey!"

This nice young man is Can Bonomo. His family has lived in Turkey for 540 years, and now he's going to represent that nation at Eurovision this year. Oh, yeah, and he's Jewish.

Naturally, there's an element in town that objects:

Turkey’s Jews are pleased as can be that for the first time, a Jew will be representing their country at the Eurovision song contest.

But the singer, Can Bonomo, isn’t exactly trumpeting his accomplishment -- at least not the Jewish part.

“We would like to inform that Mr. Can Bonomo is bound to refuse answering all the questions about his religious beliefs, anti-Semitism and political subjects,” Bonomo’s spokesman, Ece Kahraman, wrote in a statement to JTA.

Bonomo has taken pains to tell fans that he will be participating in Eurovision as a Turk, not as a Jew.

“My family came from Spain 540 years ago,” Bonomo said in an interview on the "Aksam" news show in a video posted Jan. 11 that has gone viral. “I am Turkish and I am representing Turkey, I will go out there with the Turkish flag and represent Turkey. I am an artist, a musician. That’s all that everybody needs to know.”

Prior to his appearance on "Aksam," radical right-wing papers had accused Bonomo of being a tool of Zionists and Freemasons.

The way in which the anchor framed her question in the interview probably didn’t put him at ease.

“People might say you were chosen because Turkey wants to ingratiate itself with Israeli lobby groups,” she said. “I would like to get your comments.”


Bonomo is choosing to deal with this simply by emphasizing that he's going to Eurovision as a Turkish singer. That's probably for the best, and I can understand why a 24-year-old Turkish hipster musician doesn't want to wade deeper into the morass that is anti-Semitism and paranoia about Israel, not when he's on his way to Baku. (Yes, seriously, it's in Baku this year. A town I can never hear the name of without beginning to quote the opening lines of a poem by Zelda Knizhnik that begins (in Yiddish), "My husband's in America, a son is in Baku...")


It's worth noting, though, the ways in which anti-Israel and anti-Semitic threads are so casually drawn around a kid who's entirely apolitical, singing Turkish hipster music. This, the fact that this kid, whose family has lived in Turkey for over five hundred years has to be asked to prove that he's not a Zionist front man, this illustrates perfectly how foolish it is to imagine that anti-Zionism exists without anti-Semitism.

On a lighter note, here's Can singing "Mezcup". I have no idea what this song is about, but he's got some style. And he's just adorable.

'Erdogan helps Palestine, but not his own people'

From YNET

Two days after its devastating earthquake, Ankara submited a request to Jerusalem for the transfer of mobile homes to disaster-stricken area. Meanwhile, quake survivors directed their anger at Erdogan, saying the 'prime minister almost goes to war with Israel for sake of Palestinians, but doesn't move a muscle for us'

The Turkish Foreign Ministry submitted an official request with Jerusalem for the transfer of mobile housing units. The request was transferred from the Turkish Foreign Ministry to the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, which immediately notified the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed the Ministry's Director-General Rafael Barak to transfer the necessary equipment as soon as possible.

The death toll has reached 432, with 1,352 people injured in Sunday's quake.

Turkey hit by Quake. Israel offers aid

A strong earthquake has hit Turkey and up to 1,000 are feared dead. Dozens of buildings have collapsed and phone and power lines are down in the southeast of the country, near Turkey's border with Iran.

And Israel has offered aid.

From J Post:
"Following initial reports of the earthquake, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel will offer Turkey "any assistance required" to deal with the aftermath of the natural disaster.

Barak ordered the Defense Ministry's head of the political-diplomatic bureau to transmit Israel's offer of help to Turkey.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel was willing to provide "anything from food, medicine, medical staff and equipment and search-and-rescue teams" to Turkey. Palmor said Israel was awaiting Ankara's reply."

Examining One's Own Bigotry

A friend posts to her Facebook account: I've often wondered why people are so much more concerned w/ the Palestinian/Israeli conflict than this. After all Turkey doesn't exactly have a stellar history when it comes to how it treats others. Think: Armenians.

I added: There's a degree of--emotional involvement and assumption of malicious intent, I guess--that seems to go along with how people see Palestinian/Israeli tension. It does not get applied situations involving the Kurds and Turkey, or India and Pakistan in Kashmir. I have some theories about why, but none of them are especially nice.

And another poster adds: Two wrongs make a right? Sorry, but the "he did it, too" never worked when I was five and it doesn't work now.

This is, of course, meant to shut off any complaints about Israel being unfairly treated. "If you did something wrong, you're gonna get criticized," the line runs, "and don't try to get out of it by complaining about context."

Of course, as a teacher, I've given the 'we're not talking about him, we're talking about you' speech many times. But as a teacher, I have also been asked, throughout my career, to keep a close and watchful eye on whether I critize or punish behavior in a discriminatory manner. Do boys and girls alike get in trouble for the same behavior? Are African-American students, African-American boys in particular, often punished or removed from the classroom for behavior that would not get children of another race into trouble? We're asked to keep an eye on this, and be mindful about it, because research does in fact indicate that this happens in classrooms, that some children, usually on a gender or racial basis, are penalized for things that draw no criticism in a different child.

So, if a child says, "He did it too," you may tell him "We're not talking about him, we're talking about you."

But if your school counselor says, "Why is every child you send out of your room an African-American boy? You sent Bobby to me for chewing gum, but when Susie was chewing gum, you just made her spit it out," it's time to listen, because otherwise you are asserting that your right to be unconsciously racist is more important than your student's right to justice.

So, if your answer to "Why is Israel being criticized for X when Turkey has done worse?" is "Because we're talking about what Israel did," that may be reasonable.

But when the question is "Why doesn't Turkey ever seem to end up in the Indymedia equivalent of the principal's office? Why isn't Turkey the object of BDS campaigns? Why aren't ladies with signs standing every week all over Berkeley talking about Turkey? Why isn't the Turkish flag being burned at demonstrations?" and the answer is "Because we're talking about what Israel did"...you just might be a bigot fighting not to give up your privilege.

Ah, They're Just Afraid of Getting Their Behinds Kicked, As In 1967

At YNet: Israelis Banned From Turkish Race

Now, this is not QUITE as drastic as it sounds. My first guess was that if you were an Israeli citizen they were officially banning you from being a Turk. Not quite. It's a bicycle race.

A group of Israeli cyclists was banned last weekend from the 2011 Cycling Tour of Isparta in Turkey, after the Syrian and Iraqi teams threatened to withdraw from the competition.

The Turkish cycling association is organizing this year a series of international tours to promote its cyclists in Europe and win a ticket to the Olympic Games.

Israel participated in the first tour, the Cycling Tour of Turkey, but the Syrian team avoided facing the Israelis and the Iraqi team withdrew after the first stage, after learning of the Israeli participation.

Some people might have said that if Syria and Iraq wanted to take their bikes and go home, it would have been reasonable to let them, rather than ban the team that wanted to compete, and were willing to ride with people of all nations. But that would just be silly.