Why am I not surprised. We already knew that the flotilla was sponsored by Turkey — looking to become a dominant player in the Islamic, anti-Israeli world — and that the ships involved belonged to a designated terror group. Now we discover that the participants themselves were jihadists.

Part One:

Israel’s investigation has revealed some 100 people infiltrated the peace and humanitarian aid activists making their way to Gaza, with the explicit design to attack Israeli soldiers using cold arms.

Some among that group are believed to have ties with World Jihad groups, mainly al-Qaeda.

The majority of suspects are Turks, but some are Yemenites and Indonesian. One Yemenite Islamist was photographed with a dagger in his belt prior to the raid…

Some of the suspects were found to be carrying large sums of money. Others had Kevlar vests and gas masks; and all were found to be carrying weapons such as knives, metal clubs and slingshots.

The video clearly shows the “peace” activists beating the bloody hell out of the Israeli commandos with a variety of weapons. One of the commandos is then thrown over the side, falling about 30 feet and being knocked unconscious.

Now for Part Deux. From Egypt comes jihadists:

The Egyptian flotilla delegation included two members of the Muslim Brotherhood bloc in the Egyptian parliament: Muhammad Al-Baltaji and Hazem Farouq.

Al-Baltaji, who is deputy secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc in Egypt, said at a March 2010 conference, “A nation that excels at dying will be blessed by Allah with a life of dignity and with eternal paradise.” He also said that his movement “will never recognize Israel and will never abandon the resistance,” and that “resistance is the only road map that can save Jerusalem, restore the Arab honor, and prevent Palestine from becoming a second Andalusia.

From Lebanon comes jihadists:

The Lebanese flotilla delegation, with six members, was headed by attorney Dr. Hani Suleiman, who also participated in a February 2009 Gaza flotilla. He was pro-bono attorney to Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto.[2] In 2006, he signed a communiqué supporting armed resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq.[3]

Three other members of the Lebanese delegation are Al-Jazeera TV correspondents.[4] One, ‘Abbas Nasser, worked for Hizbullah’s Al-Manar TV from 1997 through 2003; he has said that he enjoyed working there because he felt like part of a family, and because the channel “embraced his religious and political orientation.” In 2003, he also worked for Iran’s Al-’Alam TV.[5]

Another delegation member, Hussein Shaker, is known as “Abu Al-Shuhada” (“Father of the Martyrs”). He has reportedly expressed a desire to meet “his martyrs” (i.e. relatives killed during the 2006 Lebanon war), and has called his participation in the flotilla revenge for their deaths.

From Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain…came jihadists. The participants acknowledged beforehand that they were willing to die if it meant defeating the Israeli blockade. They referred to themselves as martyrs looking to harm Israel. They even wrote their wills.

The father of one of the participants — a Kuwaiti — has said that he was told by his son that morale in the flotilla was high and that the participants were proud to “sacrifice themselves for the sake of Allah”.

Basically, this was a flotilla of jihadists willing to die in pursuit of creating a major PR disaster for Israel. They weren’t “peace” activists; on the contrary, they had links to terrorism. They were solely on a mission to harm Israel. That was the end goal.