A Turkish Internet group carried out a cyber attack against an Israeli Web site Tuesday afternoon, hitting the Likudnik web site, apparently in response to Israel's success in heading off the attempt by Turkey to isolate Israel in the United Nations.
The unofficial home site of the Likud party, Likudnik displayed on Tuesday afternoon a large, dark photo of what appeared to be a wounded man on a stretcher carried by IDF soldiers, with a knife sticking out of his chest. Curses against Israel in English and Turkish were printed in bright green and red lettering, and the Turkish and Palestinian Authority flags flanked the page, along with the words, “1923 Turk Grup.” At the bottom of the page was written in bright red lettering, “JOAK GRUP KOMUTANLIGI.” A loud, ominous music bed with Arabic lyrics sung in a deep male voice accompanied the image.
Despite a report by the Istanbul-based Today's Zayman boasting that the Turkish hacker group had simultaneously struck other web sites in Israel as well, including "state, company and bank web sites," a quick check around the Internet by Israel National News made it clear that either the Likudnik had been the sole target, or had been the only site affected.
The hackers condemned Israel in a statement posted on the site and vowed to continue their attacks.
The 1923 Turk Group is an Internet organization that specializes in hacking Israeli government and other local Web sites, as well as those of organizations and countries that support the Jewish State. The group also hacks other sites that it deems socially or morally inappropriate, according to the Internet hackers' forum “Hack This Site,” which adds that the group is a “cyber army of Turkia (Turkey) and all Turks” who are allegedly sworn to “protect the Turkish flag in this cyber world.”
The Today's Zayman site also reported that Turkey sent three air ambulances to Israel to pick up its citizens that participated in the flotilla. One of the first to be released reportedly was a mother, Nilufer Cetin, and her one-year-old baby. Cetin told reporters she agreed to be extradited after being told jail conditions would be “too harsh” for the baby.
The “activists” were arrested after Muslim extremists attacked Israeli soldiers who boarded vessels in the flotilla as it was on the way to carry out its expressed goal of violating an embargo of Israel's territorial waters around Gaza.
The Turkish government was one of the main sponsors of the six-vessel flotilla, along with the radical Islamic organization, IHH, also based in Turkey.
Although various self-styled “peace activists” from several countries rode on five of the ships, the sixth -- the Mavi Marmara -- was packed with armed Muslim militants who planned an attack on Israeli naval personnel.
When the ships were stopped and boarded after ignoring numerous warnings to halt, the Israeli soldiers were ambushed by militants wielding metal rods, daggers, and long, sharp knives. Several grabbed guns from the soldiers and shot them, seriously wounding two. A third soldier was stabbed in the stomach, and several were thrown overboard. Soldiers also reported live gunfire coming from below deck as well.
Turkey, together with other members of the Arab bloc, called for a resolution on Monday condemning the Jewish State. However, due to video evidence of the events filmed by a helicopter hovering over the vessels and that of a cameraman in an Israel Navy ship alongside, the U.S. and Israel managed to deflect the attempt. Instead, the U.N. passed a watered-down version of the resolution, which called for a "partial investigation" of the incident.