Facts to use in talking points:
-The Gaza Terrorist Flotilla was organized by the Turkish Islamic Group Islan Haklary Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi (or I.H.H.), which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda.
-The Objective was to aid and abet HAMAS, the Palestinian terrorist group that runs Gaza , and that has launched thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians in the course of its ongoing war against Israel. Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of all Jews (Hamas Charter, articles 15 & 7).
-As a result of the hostilities with Hamas, Israel has declared a Naval Blockade on materials entering Gaza by sea, and this flotilla purposely and unlawfully sought to avoid the legitimate inspection of its cargo.
-International law recognizes the embargo of goods to countries at war and requires neutral shipping to follow the directions of ships enforcing a blockade.
-Israel routinely allows humanitarian cargo to enter Gaza overland and, despite active propaganda to the contrary, there is no humanitarian crisis there. The flotilla was offered the chance to dock at an Israeli port to unload their cargo for delivery overland to Gaza. This offer was rejected out of hand by the flotilla organizers. In addition, Hamas has denied the inspected goods entry into Gaza to make a political point.
The stated aim of the flotilla was to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The terrorist fighters on board the Mavi Marmara vessel, one of six in the flotilla, were determined to accomplish this through violence and martyrdom; they prepared a violent ambush for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The other five ships in the flotilla did not initiate violence, and so were entirely unharmed.
The IDF approached the vessels with maximum restraint, armed with paint-ball guns for crowd dispersal. Force was a defensive last resort necessitated by violent aggression against the IDF soldiers; the use of lethal force is a direct consequence of the dozens of terrorist fighters savagely attempting to murder the IDF soldiers.