Hundreds rally in support of Israeli raid on flotilla at L.A. Turkish Consulate

About 1,000 people were protesting in front of the Turkish Consulate in Mid-Wilshire on Tuesday evening in support of Israel's deadly raid of a protest flotilla that tried to break through a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The L.A. activists, members of StandWithUs and other groups, said that the vessel boarded by Israeli commandos was carrying weapons intended for members of Hamas. They said the ship was flying under a Turkish flag.

"We're very concerned about Hamas and weapons coming to Hamas," Roz Rothstein, chief executive of StandWithUs, said in a telephone interview. "What you saw was Israel trying to protect its citizens."

She said "hundreds and hundreds" of people had gathered in front of the consulate in the 6300 block of Wilshire Boulevard. Los Angeles police estimated the crowd size at about 1,000 protesters.

The raid prompted a firestorm of international condemnation of Israel's actions against the flotilla, which reportedly was trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

A spokesman for the consulate was not immediately available.

-- Robert J. Lopez and Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Protesters gather at the Turkish Consulate. Credit: Peter Halmagyi.

Comments

[BadTurk]

Do these folks read anything other than Jerusalem Post? Can they really gather 1000 people with this lie?

"The L.A. activists, members of StandWithUs and other groups, said that the vessel boarded by Israeli commandos was carrying weapons intended for members of Hamas. "

Two words "Google news"

[Monisha Nayar]

The support by some Jews for the Israeli raid is consistent with their belief that they are the 'chosen people' of this world and therefore exempted from any kind of legal jurisdiction of behavior, whether it has a national or international consequence. This sort of thinking will fuel cynicism towards them as more and more people become disenchanted with the Jewish lobbying power and its capacity to sway public opinion while refusing to acknowledge the criminal actions of the Israeli government (note the Israeli government's lying and stealing of passports in connection with the Dubai assassination of a Hamas operative, their killing of thousands of Palestinians with comparatively far lesser loss of life on their side and of course this recent raid on civilians which clearly shows their defiance of international law) but it will also tarnish America's image in the world. It is time that organizations stand up and take notice before another horrendous calamity occurs. Israel should be held accountable for what it does and organizations here must have the courage to examine the facts clearly and objectively before passing judgement.

[GoodTurk]

If one does as you say, reads multiple stories from Google News, then the individuals would find that members on the "aid" flotilla had clubs and knives. While clubs and knives may not be guns or bombs, they are still weapons. Do your research before you tell others to do theirs.

[SAS]

I have no problems with Zionist zealots protesting outside of embassies as long as they do not use violence. But Israel's image is beyond repair at this stage, of that there is no doubt.

[Onboard skeptic]

And I would challenge any one of these demonstrators to produce ONE scintilla of evidence to support this absurd claim that anyone on board the flotilla was carrying arms to help out Hamas.

[my dark materials]

disgusting. I can hardly believe anyone could condone Israel's vile and despicable behavior over the past 18 months... President Obama and Sec of State Clinton, PLEASE DO SOMETHING!! we do NOT need Israel as an ally.

[OnlyTruth]

This is not surprising, considering L.A. is literally overflowing with fanatical extremist Zionists who literally have their eyes wide shut to the truth. These are a bunch of people who will literally say and do anything to prove that Israel can never, ever commit any errors. They use the latent social hostility towards Muslims as ammunition to back up their claims that Muslim nations - including Turkey, a long-standing ally of Israel - are involved in a dark conspiracy against Israel.

When they have to resort to flagrant and despicable lies to push their agenda by claiming that a humanitarian mission to Gaza was actually just a cover to smuggle weapons to Hamas, you have really got to shake your head and wonder how these people sleep at night and how they can live with themselves.

The people at that demonstration, every single one of them comes from a wealthy and upper class background - these are people who own large mansions and luxury homes in premium Israeli resort areas. You will never find any poverty-stricken or working class people of Israeli background at ANY of these kinds of demonstrations, because poor Israelis literally do anything to escape from their country to come here, since they have absolutely no chance for a successful life in the country of their birth.

Why don't these fanatical Zionists ever demonstrate against the Israeli government's own prejudicial policies against its own Jewish citizens? Why don't they condemn the Israeli government for favoring the upper class elites and providing them with all manner of benefits and perks, while dumping on ordinary Israelis who can barely afford their own rent and taxing them to death?

I could go on and on. But the more I hear about these fanatics, the sicker I get because it's incredible how these racist elitists will do and say anything to "prove" Israel was right to commit war crimes and atrocities. Not even the Bush Administration was ever this arrogant or disgusting.

[Sena]

These people are supporting Israeli state sponsored terrorism. Israel is a lunatic state that attacked humanitarians on international waters in the dark of the night. The Israeli military was worried about sticks, so they brought out their navy. Shame on those supporting the murder of innocent lives. Shame on you Israel.

[Sam]

Well done. A story about some good people who 'get it' and are not full of hate and rage.

[OTIS]

How can we as a people stand by and do nothing,,,,,,,!

[laistoosmoggy]

Bad Turk,
i think the reference was made to the previous incident where almost 200 tons of weapons were being shipped to Gaza under the Turkish flag.

[Realitycheck]

"the vessel boarded by Israeli commandos was carrying weapons intended for members of Hamas"

What weapons were they carrying? Nuclear bombs? Ak47's? Mortars? Missiles?

uh... no, pipes and lawnchairs.

If they are the chosen people, they certainly weren't chosen on planet earth.

[JusticeWONK]

Hamas in Gaza has declared war on Israel. Israel has a right to defend itself and blockade Gaza. These 'peace activists' planned the confrontation and attacked the Israeli blockaders (commandos) when they ligitimately enforced the blockade. Hamas, the 'peace activists' and Turkey are the aggressors here and anyone who says different is WRONG, and most likely a radical islamist sympathizer. End discussion.

[ET]

I want to see what will happened to any person that will try to break through a blockade by the US, Turkish, Egypt or any other country army...........................

[Jsmith]

What a bunch of losers. Don't have anything better to do?

[TheBigPicture]

Why all of the protest...This has nothing to do with the US....This is a Israeli/Palestinian mess...They can work it out on their own...one way or another...

These people have been fighting each other for centuries....One group will eventually win out....And the US will do business with the survivor....

[George]

What we have here is a large crowd of very scared people who know what Israel did was a massacre, an act of war and just plain wrong..

These people are protesting because they are in a panic over the wrong doing and possible back lash. This is typical Israeli/Jewish protection mode.

Protest in large numbers to hopefully intimidate those who disagree and would possibly harm them.

It is disgusting and pathetic that anyone could or would fall for a tactic such as this.

This is like OJ suing the browns after he murdered their daughter, As if that would sway the masses into sympathy and allow them to simply just forget.

These people are terrified at the possible consequences, So they hold Mock protests ON A MOMENTS NOTICE?? how did organize such numbers at the drop of a time?. and notice No police Harassment? No permits?

Imagine what would happen if Ordinary AMERICANS Were protesting over the wrong that Israel has done in this case.

[Eli G]

Unfortunately most of the comments here are based on misinformation.

The flotilla was a provocation by the Turkish priminister that is dragging Turkey into Islamic extremism, against the Turkish constitution.

No nation can allow such a blatant violation of it's sovereignty. The Turkish army would have handle this situation much harsher then Israel if faced with such challenge as they do when fighting with the Kurdish rebels but no one in the world would condemn them. Such hypocrisy!

Sending a bunch of knife carrying terrorists mixed with misguided "peace activists" and some "humanitarian supply" which eventually was loaded into 25 trucks and sent to Gaza by Israel (Israel sends to Gaza over 100 trucks of food and supply daily) caused a damage to Israel's image in the world and thus was very successful no doubt, but Israel will prevail!

[Israel Israeli]

Thank you, thank you and thank you again.
We fight for our lives against the Islamic terror and we need all the moral support you can provide us

[nathan F]

Question is how come 5 of the 6 ships cooperated? Can't be that the 6th ship was carrying anything illegal? NOOOOOO Wake up and smell the coffee. Israel is under constant attack. PS the US needs their intelligence, being surrounded by terrorist gives them their knowledge.

[Schmendric]

It's pretty obvious the intercepted flotilla was intended to cause a P.R. nightmare for Israel. And in that it succeeded. Note that Israel issued fair warning that it would only permit the flotilla to birth at a certain port. It was ignored, because the purpose was not a peaceful one.
Given these circumstances, I find it difficult to place any blame on that little country. I wish Israel the very best in its fight to exist.

[howardx]

just another brick in the wall...

[rodney zaman]

long live israel