Freedom Fleet

It is difficult to accept that Israel, who is not a NATO member, can attack a NATO member ship as well as a ship of a strong allay of the U.S. in the Middle East without having a green-light from the U.S. The recent Security Council resolution and the pressure put by the U.S. to exclude any clear condemnation of the massacre; supports this argument and exposes the US-Israeli collusion in the Freedom Fleet case.

There are sufficient grounds to believe that the publicity of, and the time taken to prepare for the Freedom Fleet campaign has allowed the U.S. and Israel enough time for consultation and preparation for this operation. It was not a coincidence that the Turkish ship was the target of this bloody attack, and that the majority of those who killed were Turks, while others, even the Arabs and the Palestinians on board, were not considerably hurt. The objective was to deliver a strong message to Turkey. The ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey, Hamas in Gaza and the Muslim Brothers in Egypt share similar ideological backgrounds. The United States does not want the rapprochement between these powers developing into a close cooperation on the ground. This would conflict with its interests, disrupts its plans in the Middle East as well as threatens Israel. The United States has always encouraged Turkey to aspire to become a member of the European Union in order to distance it from the Arab world, which was, for many centuries, part of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, it is very unlikely that the Middle Eastern policies of Erdogan, in recent times, and his defiance of Israel to break the siege on Gaza is welcomed by the U.S. The sheer optimism and hope that these policies created in the Arab World, would pose a serious threat to the U.S. interests in the region. The U.S. had to slap Turkey on the face to put an end to its ambitions though it remained modest so far. As usual, this dirty task was entrusted to Israel by the U.S and Israel, as usual, was more than happy to accomplish it.

Yusra Al Ayoubi

Damascus, 2 June 2010