Thank you all who logged on yesterday to post your questions, comments, and concerns. We answered a ton of questions in just over an hour, and we will be putting ALL of our answers up on this blog later this day. In addition, there were a lot of very good questions we simply didn’t have the time to answer, so we’ll be going through and posting answers to the rest as soon as possible.

Once again, thank you for making yesterday’s twitter press conference a success, and stay tuned later this afternoon for a mammoth update!

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Seizure of the Gaza flotilla: Press conference with Deputy FM Danny Ayalon

31 May 2010

Link to video

DEPUTY FM AYALON:  Good morning, everyone. I want to report this morning that the armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas terror organization was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well-known for their ties to Global Jihad, Al-Qaeda and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons that were prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers’ intent was violent, their method was violent, and unfortunately, the results were violent.

Israel regrets any loss of life and did everything to avoid this outcome. We repeatedly called upon the organizers and all those who were associated with them, through diplomatic channels and any other means we could, to stop this provocation.

The so-called humanitarian aid was not for a humanitarian purpose. Had it been for a humanitarian purpose, they would have accepted our offer to deliver all humanitarian supply through the appropriate channels which are used on a daily basis, as we make sure that Gaza will not be in short of humanitarian supplies. On a daily basis, we do that. We ask them to send this through the appropriate channels, whether it’s the U.N., whether it’s the Red Cross, whether it’s our people, but to no avail. continue reading…

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Israel regrets the casualties on both sides of this tragic incident, although responsibility rests solely with Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, and the participants who organized this flotilla. Israel labored intensely to persuade the demonstrators to convey the flotilla’s cargo to Israel where, after proper screening, it would be transferred to responsible parties in Gaza. Unfortunately, the organizers were not interested in providing humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza, but rather in staging a premeditated and highly publicized provocation of Israel.

Each day some 100 trucks, laden with food and medicine, enter Gaza from Israel. Israel has never banned such food and medicine from Gaza, but rather only those items that can assist Hamas in reinforcing its illegal rule, or enabling it to achieve its stated goal of destroying Israel. If Hamas, which has fired more than 7,000 rockets at Israeli civilians, would renounce violence and join the peace process, then Israel would gladly remove all such restrictions.

Israel regrets having to make these tough decisions and run the risk of incurring casualties. In intercepting the flotilla, Israel acted as any state, including the United States, would. But given the option of either running such risks or endangering the lives of its citizens, Israel has no choice.

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Every year, Israel allows over 100,000 tons of humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza through Israel.  Anyone wishing to donate aid to Gaza may do so by receiving proper permission (essentially filling out customs papers).  However, when a group claiming to want to give aid to the Palestinians, but refusing the Israeli offer to dock in Ashdod and have their shipment cleared for delivery, trouble was sure to ensue.

As the flotilla approached, the Israeli navy called for the boat to dock in Ashdod.  These calls were ignored.

Click here to view the video. (http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk#p/a/u/0/qKOmLP4yHb4)

Israel was left with no choice by to react.

Once on board, the Israeli commandos discovered that the passengers on the biggest ship had awaited their arrival with bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The Israelis were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly.  Only after an Israeli soldier sustained serious wounds, did the commandos get the order to use additional force.

Click here to read more about how the events on the boat unfolded. (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3896796,00.html)

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Today is Earth Day, the day when everyone promises to do something good for our planet in the coming year. In Israel, its Earth Day every day!

Companies are constantly working on ways to be greener and more research and development is being invested into finding alternative energies. It is from Israel that the message of electric cars came to make our planet a better place.

When more then hundred years ago, Jews were motivated by the Zionist movement, they decided to redeem and develop their Homeland. Swamps where dried to combat Malaria and trees where planted to give more shade and to help filter the air.

Indeed Israel is the only country in the world where more trees are planted every day then being cut. Almost 300 million of trees have been planted in Israel over the last century to revive the woods.

Today anyone can hike in the nice oak and Terebinth (Pistacia palaestina) forests, like at the time of the biblical King David. Extinguished animal species were reintroduced; a new ecosystem was created, reintroducing biblical wildlife.

An ambitious program by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority has reintroduced several of the herbivore mammal species that were extirpated in the region. Reintroduction is carried out worldwide in order to increase the range and the likelihood of survival of endangered species.

Moreover, reintroduction also raises public awareness about the importance of nature preservation. Finally, in addition to rescuing the wildlife itself, reintroduction is also an effective way to preserve natural habitats.

David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of the State of Israel affirmed in an interview on CBS (5 October 1956): “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.”

So let us believe in miracles flourish the desert, develop green energies and make our region greener for the benefit of all its inhabitants.

To learn more about “Green Israel,” watch CNBC Thursday, April 22 at 8 pm EST.

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By Joel Lion

On Monday, April 12, the State of Israel stood for two minutes in silence remembering the victims of the Holocaust, paying tribute to the 6 million Jews, 1.5 million of them young children, killed by Nazi Germany on a systematic and industrial way just because they were a part of the Jewish people. No difference was made between Orthodox and secular Jew, between liberal and conservative, between poor and rich, between celebrities and blue collars, all were killed.

But the Germans were not alone in their diabolic work, collaborators from other European nations were an active part of the killings.

In 1941, my mother’s grandparents were arrested by the Hungarian police. At that time, Hungary was a free country.  However, my great-grandparents were killed in Kamianets-Podilsky by German SS assisted by Ukrainian and Hungarian Platoons.  My other great-grandfather was arrested by the French Police , in the free French State of Vichy.  He was then transferred to the French camp of Drancy and was then sent on the French railway on Convoy 51 to the death camp of Sobibór, where he was killed.

In both cases, my family was killed because the ideology and the power of the Nazis  that gave a carte blanche to all European anti-Semites.

I ask myself if the world has learned lessons from the Holocaust.

What if Iran reaches its goal and gets nuclear weapons? The civilized world as we know it would be in danger.  As in the first half of this century in Europe, the power and the ideology of the actual Iranian regime will give carte blanche to all the extremists of this world.

The warnings of Israel or the Jews shouldn’t resonate alone this time, every lover of freedom and democracy should shout loud against the Iranian regime and its nuclear ambitions.

That should be a lesson learned from the Holocaust.

Joel Lion is the Spokesperson and Consul for Media Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York

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Kassam rocket strikes hothouses in Netiv Haasara (Photo: Edi Israel)

A Qassam rocket launched from Gaza hit a greenhouse to the north, killing 30 year old Manee Singueanphon, a Thai foreign worker employed in Israel. While a warning alarm known as a “Color Red” alert was sounded, Mr. Singueanphon was killed before he could make it to the community shelter. This was the third rocket barrage fired by Hamas in the last 24 hours, coming at a time when Israeli leadership is preparing for proximity talks with the Palestinians under U.S mediation.

“While Israel continues to extend its hand in peace, the other side not only refuses to come to the negotiating table, but continues to incite recklessly against Israel,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon

After years of bloodshed and tragic deaths on both sides, the time has come to negotiate a peace. Hamas, which took control of Gaza following Israel’s withdrawal in 2005, is making it quite clear who the real war criminals are. In contrast to Israel’s tactics for a solution to the conflict which include negotiations without preconditions, the other side chooses random, indiscriminate attacks whose goal is solely to claim innocent lives.

Officials in Israel are pointing their finger at the Goldstone Report, which by condemning Israel sent a message of support to the terrorists whose rockets torment the south of Israel. “The Goldstone Report provides legitimacy and propulsion for terrorism and is immoral and unprofessional. With or without the report, Israel will continue to defend its citizens,” said Ayalon.

With that said, Israel will continue to stand strong in the face of terror and will not allow Hamas to stand as a wedge between the Israeli and Palestinian hopes for a two state solution. Hamas’ stranglehold in Gaza is bolstered by the conflict, and it is in its leaders intentions to prolong it.  Hamas’ actions are still the voice of the minority, and Israel will not them drown out the voices of those who wish for a lasting peace.

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Sometimes, friends disagree.  By no means does that disagreement mean an end of a friendship or an increase in tension.

Photo: GPO

As Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, stated in his op-ed in the New York Times on March 18, 2010, “Israel and America enjoy a deep and multi-layered friendship, but even the closest allies can sometimes disagree. Such a disagreement began last week during Vice President Joseph Biden’s visit to Israel, when a mid-level official in the Interior Ministry announced an interim planning phase in the expansion of Ramat Shlomo, a northern Jerusalem neighborhood. While this discord was unfortunate, it was not a historic low point in United States-Israel relations.”

To read Ambassador Oren’s complete op-ed, click here.

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Israeli minister of Defense Ehud Barak says that U.S and Israeli administrations are on the same page regarding putting new sanctions on Iran. In an interview to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Minister Barak stated that evidence is piling up regarding Iranian intentions to produce nuclear warheads: “that will threaten not only Israel but Paris and Moscow as well. Iran is not just a challenge for Israel. I believe it is a challenge for the whole world, I can hardly think of a stable world order with a nuclear Iran.”

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Education, Not Settlements, is the Key to Peace

By Asaf Shariv, Consul General of Israel in New York

All too often, a freeze in Israel’s West Bank settlement construction is characterized as the crucial step to bringing peace to the Middle East. Settlements can disappear, as they did from Gaza four years ago. But education is the key to create a true and lasting peace between neighbors. continue reading…

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