Israel Rejects Demands for International Probe of Gaza Aid Flotilla Raid

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

JewBerg News reporting... with JewTard B*tches gone wild...
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Israel Rejects Demands for International Probe of Gaza Aid Flotilla Raid
By Jonathan Ferziger and Gwen Ackerman - Jun 6, 2010

Israeli forces dismantle the Atarot checkpoint in the West Bank on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Photographer: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel rejected calls for an external probe of its raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that left nine dead, saying it was discussing how to conduct its own inquiry with the U.S.

"Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board," Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. said, speaking on "Fox News Sunday." "I don't think the United States would want an international inquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan, for example."

Demands for an outside probe began after nine Turks were killed when Israeli commandos raided their boat, one of six in a flotilla attempting to breach Israel's three-year blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel refused to participate in the United Nations report on the 2008 Gaza war, an inquiry its leaders rejected as one-sided.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said any probe of the May 31 raid, which sparked calls for the lifting of the blockade, must be conducted by Israelis though it may include international observers. Israel says the embargo is necessary to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza.

"It has to be an Israeli committee," Lieberman said yesterday on Army Radio. "There is no problem with high level, well-known international observers serving as partners in the process."

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on June 5 discussed with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "options for moving forward with the investigation," a statement on the UN website said.

UN Probe

That proposed commission would have members from Turkey and Israel as well as others appointed by the UN and would be headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, an aide to Erdogan said in a telephone interview yesterday from the western city of Bursa, speaking on the usual condition of anonymity. Palmer didn't reply to a voicemail message left on his cellphone in New Zealand.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy held talks with Netanyahu and asked him to accept a UN inquiry, Sarkozy's office said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Oren said Israel was "discussing with the Obama administration the way in which our inquiry will take place."

Israel is refusing to agree to an international probe because similar investigations in the past have been biased, Avi Bell, a law professor at Bar-Ilan University, said. "The track record of international inquiries on Israel is that they are excessively political, the results are known in advance and Israel never gets a fair shake," he said.

Goldstone Report

Israel refused to participate in a UN panel led by former UN prosecutor and South African judge Richard Goldstone that investigated the 2008 Gaza war. Goldstone's panel accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and called on them to investigate the charges.

Israeli President Shimon Peres called the Goldstone inquiry a "mockery of history" and said it failed "to distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self defense."

Israel said its military operation in Gaza was aimed at stopping the firing of rockets into its territory. Some 330 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since the end of Israel's offensive, killing one foreign worker last March, the Israeli army said.

International Criticism

If a UN probe is established, it should have "a significant Israeli component" to ensure it is viewed as "legitimate here in Israel," said Moshe Hirsch, a professor in the Faculty of Law's Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Israel's benchmark TA-25 stock index fell 1.9 percent yesterday in Tel Aviv.

Israel has faced international criticism over the raid. The U.S. has declined to specifically criticize Israeli actions, while backing a June 1 UN Security Council resolution that condemned the violence that led to the deaths of the aid activists and calling for an impartial inquiry.

Turkey, which along with South Africa withdrew its ambassador from Israel over the incident, says an Israeli investigation wouldn't meet that criterion.

Criticism within Israel of the flotilla operation has focused largely on the execution of the raid and not the blockade. A survey of Israeli Jews published in the Maariv daily on June 2 showed 94.8 percent agreeing that it was necessary to stop the boats, with 62.7 percent saying it should have been handled in a different manner. Only 8.1 percent thought Netanyahu should resign. The pollsters interviewed a representative sample of 400 Israeli Jews and the results had a 4.9 percent margin of error.

Knives and Clubs

Israeli State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will participate today in a parliamentary committee discussion on the government's handling of the incident.

"There is a real need to examine ourselves and the quality of the decision-making process before and after the operation," said Yoel Hasson, head of the state comptroller committee in parliament.

Israel says that on May 31 its soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs and seven were wounded, including by gunfire after people aboard one of the ships managed to grab Israeli firearms. Activists have said they threw the firearms into the sea and that the Israelis instigated the violence.

Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper yesterday published photos showing what it said were bloodied Israeli commandos and activists holding what appeared to be iron bars.

More Ships

Israel has said it issued numerous warnings to the Gaza- bound flotilla asking it to change course for the port of Ashdod and unload there, before it seized the vessels.

The other five vessels, as well as a separate boat that arrived June 5, were taken over peacefully.

The Free Gaza movement, which organized the attempts to breach the blockade by sailing ships to Gaza laden with supplies, said they are planning another flotilla in two months.

"We are getting a huge amount of donations, about 2,000 euros a day," said spokeswoman Audrey Bomse. "We will have no problem getting ships."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the situation in Gaza is "unsustainable" and Netanyahu told top ministers yesterday Israel was considering ways to change how the blockade on Gaza is implemented.

The European Union, Russia and Turkey have called on Israel to end the blockade.

Blockade Policy

Israel has imposed restrictions on Gaza since Hamas ousted forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group and seized full control in 2007 after winning Palestinian parliamentary elections the previous year. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

Hamas's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Hamas leaders say they will renounce violence when Israel withdraws from territory occupied in 1967 and allows Palestinians to return to areas in Israel from which they fled in 1948.

Israel says its blockade is legal because it is in "a state of armed conflict" with Hamas. Some countries, such as Turkey, dispute the legality of the blockade.

Palestinians say the restrictions on food imports and construction materials have created a humanitarian crisis. Israel says it restricts imports because building materials and even some foods can be used to build rockets, bunkers or bombs.

"The time has come to lift the closure and find an appropriate alternative," Israeli Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, a member of the Labor Party, said on Army Radio.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at gackerman@bloomberg.net

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010- ... -raid.html

[scorpio]

yeah,  let the Israelis investigate themselves. That is the same logic as having the fox guard the hen house.
I just love how they keep saying that it was "the Turks", and "Jihadist terrorists", when in reality, it was peace activists from all over the world.
No mention of why one of the boats was named 'The Rachael Corrie"  :shh:  :shh:  :shh:
That would be an 'inconvenient truth'.
Their lies are actually starting to work in our favor....