Israel Matzav: Turkey: No shortage of volunteers for suicide mission

Turkey: No shortage of volunteers for suicide mission

Let's make this clear. There is no - and I mean no - way that the IDF or the Israeli government is going to let a Mavi Marmara flotilla sail unmolested into Gaza. At the very least, the ships will be stopped, boarded and inspected - and not by a third country. And yet, the New York Times reports, there is no shortage of volunteers for what might be a quite dangerous mission.

At dawn on May 31 last year, Ms. Sonmez stood on the observation deck of the Mavi Marmara, shouting orders as Israeli helicopters hovered overhead and commandos boarded the ship. Her colleague Cevdet Kiliclar, who managed the relief foundation’s Web site, was shot and killed while taking photographs “just three or four steps away from me,” she recounted.

Now Ms. Sonmez, who is on the board of the foundation, plans to embark on the Mavi Marmara once again and will be one of 150 activists making the trip.

Within 48 hours of application forms being posted on the foundation’s Web site last week, some 2,000 people had volunteered to partake in the journey, she said.

Although Israel has warned that it will continue to enforce its Gaza blockade, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation does not expect another raid on its ship, Ms. Sonmez said.

“I don’t think Israel will make the same mistake again,” she said. “I think Israel knows that it has isolated itself.”

Not everyone agrees with her.

“If the ship sails, it will be a disaster,” said Osman Bahadir Dincer, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the International Strategic Research Organization in Ankara. “In this atmosphere in the Middle East, we do not need a provocation,” Mr. Dincer said by telephone this week. “This would absolutely be a provocation.”

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Turkey: No shortage of volunteers for suicide mission