{"id":69937,"date":"2013-04-24T12:56:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T09:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=69937"},"modified":"2014-01-08T11:32:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T09:32:54","slug":"kerry-compares-boston-and-mavi-marmara-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/24\/kerry-compares-boston-and-mavi-marmara-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry compares Boston and Mavi Marmara victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0<\/span>TOVAH LAZAROFF<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>GIL HOFFMAN<\/span><\/h1>\n

US Secretary of State compares the 2 tragedies saying he has “deep feelings when violence happens”; MK Shaked: Kerry should go to Chechnya.<\/h2>\n
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People comfort each other after deadly twin blasts at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013.\u00a0Photo: Reuters<\/div>\n
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US Secretary of State John Kerry compared the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing to the nine Turkish activists killed by the IDF as they tried to break Gaza\u2019s naval blockade, at a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s an emotional issue with some people,\u201d Kerry said of the Mavi Marmara deaths. \u201cI particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident: We understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then added, \u201cAnd nobody \u2013 I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country,\u201d Kerry said. \u201cWe\u2019re very sensitive to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, and Deputy Foreign Minister Ze\u2019ev Elkin all made a point of not responding to Kerry\u2019s comparison on Monday.<\/p>\n

High-ranking diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said they believed Kerry was misunderstood and he was really only trying to show empathy with the people of Turkey on a national level. The officials accused the press of deliberately trying to twist what Kerry had said.<\/p>\n

But Knesset members from across the political spectrum condemned Kerry\u2019s comparison and said they found it extremely offensive.<\/p>\n

Since the 2010 raid, Israel has released video footage showing activists beating the soldiers with metal sticks and chairs as they descended onto the boat. The IDF said that metal rods, improvised sharp metal objects, sticks and clubs, 5 kg. hammers, firebombs and gas masks were found on board the boat.<\/p>\n

It said that these weapons were used against the naval soldiers and that seven soldiers were injured. It added that activists had also taken two pistols from the soldiers.<\/p>\n

The relatives of the nine Turkish activists, including one dual American citizen, have argued that their loved ones were killed in cold blood as they sailed to offer humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The three victims of the bombing in Boston were killed last week after two brothers with ties to Chechnya exploded two bombs at the finish line of the America\u2019s oldest marathon. The victims had gone to watch a race that attracts athletes from across the United States and around the globe. Among the 176 people injured were runners who used the marathon to raise money for humanitarian causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe completely distorted reality and turned white into black and black into white,\u201d said Labor MK Nachman Shai. \u201cHow can he make such a comparison? In Boston, terrorists killed civilians. On the Mavi Marmara ship, terrorists were killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked went further, saying that Kerry mixed up the assailants and the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to what Kerry said, he should fly now to Chechnya to pay a condolence call to the parents of the poor terrorists in Boston,\u201d Shaked said.<\/p>\n

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, who in the past would have been the first to slam the Obama administration, continued his trend of more measured responses since he was appointed to his new post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is never helpful when a moral equivalency is made confusing terrorists with their victims,\u201d Danon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our American friends were made all too aware once again last week, the only way to deal with the evils of terrorism it to wage an unrelenting war against its perpetrators wherever they may be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0TOVAH LAZAROFF,\u00a0GIL HOFFMAN US Secretary of State compares the 2 tragedies saying he has “deep feelings when violence happens”; MK Shaked: Kerry should go to Chechnya. People comfort each other after deadly twin blasts at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013.\u00a0Photo: Reuters US Secretary of State John Kerry compared the victims of the Boston Marathon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":69938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,34],"tags":[9029,4211,3044],"class_list":["post-69937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-usa","tag-boston","tag-kerry","tag-mavi-marmara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}