Israeli Gen. threatens to drown Erdogan

[ensho]

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=129514§ionid=351020204


A retired senior commander in the Israeli army says that any move by Turkey and its premier to protect aid convoys to Gaza would be considered an act of war and Israel should sink such ships.

"If the Turkish prime minister joins such a flotilla," Dayan said "we should make clear beforehand this would be an act of war, and we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it," former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan told Israel's army radio on Monday.

"We need to draw a clear line and say that whoever crosses it will not be boarded but sunk," al-Jazeerah news website quoted Dayan as saying.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan had told close associates about a plan to visit Gaza to "break the Israeli blockade."

The paper said Erdogan was considering traveling aboard a Turkish Navy vessel in support of aid convoys to Gaza.
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[Taverner]

1. Someone should drown that Israeli General

[damntexdem]

2. Protecting one's country's ships against piracy is a country's right.

On the other hand, sinking ships that are protecting against piracy IS an act of war. The U.S. needs to recognize that Israel is acting like a rogue, terrorist state.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Whatever happened it was not piracy...its was state action

And that makes considerable difference in international law

[Fumesucker]

3. Turkey is not the pushover militarily that Israel's opponents have been in the past..

They have a good air force with F-16's and AWAC's and NATO level training..

Israel might bite off more than it could comfortably chew if it decides to go to war with Turkey.

[Tesha]

5. If Israel decides to take another, more-overt act of war against Turkey, both...

...we and Israel might find Turkey's membership in NATO
leads to some rather-difficult political problems for both the
United States and Israel.

We can only go so far in sweeping under the rug acts of war
against a fellow NATO signatory without fatally fracturing the
whole Atlantic alliance.

Tesha

[Fumesucker]

6. That's a political point..and I think a pretty good one..

My comment was really just directed strictly at the military matchup between the two countries..

Consider that Turkish troops were very fierce in Korea, I don't think Israel really would be well advised to go to war with Turkey, never mind the NATO implications.

It's also interesting that Turkey has roughly ten times the population of Israel and probably much deeper reserves of manpower in the event of war.

[qazplm]

7. eh

I agree Turkey isn't a push-over, but the plain fact of the matter is, they have almost zero combat experience, and the Israelis have a ton of combat experience.

When you have two relatively equally matched foes tech wise, but two disparately matched foes experience wise, it's pretty easy to see who'd prevail.

[Fumesucker]

8. The Israelis haven't done all that well in combat lately..

And in the last matchup their opponents were nowhere nearly as well equipped as Turkey.

The individual Israeli troops are no doubt very good but their leadership has been suffering for a while from the curse of believing their own propaganda.

[azurnoir]

9. Israel's combat experience is against those with relatively primative weapons

even Hezbollah which is by far the most well armed proved able to hold its own against IDF.

[proteus_lives]

10. 1948, 1967, 1973.

[Recursion]

13. 62, 43, and 37 years ago, respectively NT

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Self delete.

[Wizard777]

12. If they sink the ships that would violate international law.

Drowning Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan would not provide for the safety of the passengers on a ship from a neutral state as required by the San Remo Manual.