Questions Arise About the UN Investigation into Israel's Action Regarding Flotilla

Obama administration assurances prove empty.


Anne Bayefsky
The Weekly Standard
06 August '10

Only days after Israel took the unprecedented step of agreeing to participate in a UN investigation on the Gaza flotilla incident, assurances given by the Obama administration have proven to be empty. The episode paints a disturbing picture of the administration's actions in pushing for this investigation, and suggests that Israel’s decision to participate should be revisited.

The incident at the end of May left nine dead on one of six boats attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. It was the only boat on which Turkish-backed pro-Hamas extremists preferred to attack the Israeli military rather than cooperate with Israel’s offer to deliver the goods overland after inspection.

Twenty-four hours later, at breakneck speed for the UN and at odds with its usual pattern of ignoring civilian deaths by the thousands anywhere else, the Security Council issued a presidential statement. With the approval of the Obama administration, the Council called for "a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards." A day later, the UN Human Rights Council established an allegedly “independent international fact finding mission” with a mandate to report on what it had already declared was Israel’s “outrageous attack.”

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