[THS] Editorial: Guardian 7 June 2010 - The Israeli Commando Raid

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

Editorial

The Guardian, Monday 7 June 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/07/israel-gaza

When sovereign states make mistakes, they promise impartial inquiries, they express
remorse to the families of the bereaved, they apologise. Not Binyamin Netanyahu's
government. Almost as appalling as the commando raid itself, in which nine pro-
Palestinian activists were killed on an aid convoy bound for Gaza, has been Israel's
official reaction to it. The policy was to shoot first and discredit the victims later. On a
video posted online by the Jerusalem Post, Mr Netanyahu said: "This wasn't a love
boat. This was a hate boat. These weren't pacifists, they weren't peace activists,
these were violent supporters of terrorism." The government press office emailed f
oreign journalists a satirical clip entitled "Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World",
before withdrawing it and saying the film's content did not reflect the official stance
of Israel. To cap it all, the Israeli prime minister yesterday rejected calls for an
international inquiry.

The format of the inquiry proposed by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon would
have favoured Israel, because Israeli and US representatives would have sat
alongside Turkish ones, whose nationals were the commando raid's principal victims.
The proposed chairman of the inquiry would have been the former prime minister of
New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on maritime law. No Richard Goldstone he.
But even this proposal was too much for Mr Netanyahu, who along with his defence
minister Ehud Barak, refused point blank to allow any foreigner to interrogate Israeli
officers and soldiers.

As the Winograd commission showed in its investigation into the 2006 Lebanese war,
Israeli judges are more than capable of bringing their politicians and military to book.
But this is not an internal Israeli matter. The commando raid was carried out in
international waters, 77 miles off the coast of Gaza, where Israel has no legal
entitlement. Its fatal victims were eight Turkish and one US national, and 30 other
nationalities were involved as well.

There are real questions to answer, such as testimony that shots were fired before
the commandos hit the deck of the Mavi Marmara, that the victims had multiple
gunshot wounds to the head, apparently contradicting the claim that commandos
only fired in self-defence. There is also testimony that backs the claim that soldiers
were seized and stripped of their weapons before others stormed aboard. This
evidence is unlikely to be tested by an Israeli inquiry and the rest of the world,
particularly the Muslim one, will conclude that it is because Israeli commanders have
something to hide.

Turkey is unlikely to take the shooting of its citizens lying down. Even less so, now
that the Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has branded the Turkish prime
minister Reccep Erdogan an Islamic extremist. This week Istanbul will host a Eurasian
security summit, attended by eight presidents, which will rapidly turn into an
international forum for condemning Israel and its illegal siege of Gaza. Alienating not
only 72 million Turks, but the only Muslim member of Nato, will have repercussions
for Israel that spread far and wide. Day by day, Israel is isolating itself both from
international law and world opinion.

The cost of underwriting the self-destructive behaviour of its strategic partner in the
Middle East is starting to mount exponentially in Washington. Both Barack Obama
and General David Petraeus have adversely linked the Arab-Israeli conflict to
America's own security interests. First came Mr Netanyahu's refusal to stop
construction in Arab East Jerusalem; now Israel has picked a fight with a key Muslim
ally. Israel's refusal to accept an international inquiry will only add weight to the view
that it has become a strategic liability to the interests of the country that guarantees
its survival. Mr Netanyahu would be foolish to assume that Mr Obama is not drawing
the same conclusion.