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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Obama Can’t Decide Whether to Stand with Israel

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
26 June '10

Josh Rogin reports: “The Obama administration is still not saying what it will do if and when the U.N. calls for another international investigation into the Gaza flotilla incident.” You see, Obama is supportive of the Israeli investigation; he just won’t say whether he’ll defend Israel’s right to conduct its own investigation and rebuff UN attempts to set up an international kangaroo court. Rogin tells us:

The uncertainty is whether the Obama administration is willing to actively oppose a new investigation. This uncertainty is compounded by the mixed messages coming from senior officials like Jones, as well as the Obama team’s apparent unwillingness to brush Secretary-General Ban off the plate.

This lack of resolve and maddening squishiness should no longer shock us. While other American presidents would leave no “uncertainty” and would make clear that the U.S. would not countenance such an action from the UN, this president is different (to use Michal Oren’s description). His attitude toward the U.S.-Israel relationship is unlike his predecessor’s. For Obama, the highest foreign-policy priorities are getting along with the “international community,” accommodating our foes (i.e., “engagement”), and reorienting the U.S. toward the “Muslim World.” If those aims come in conflict with Israel’s security needs (which they inevitably do) and its efforts to hold back the assaults on the Jewish state’s legitimacy, Israel may well have to fend for itself.

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Critic, investigate thyself

Soccer Dad
16 June '10

The PA's Abbas isn't happy that Israel chose to investigate its actions regarding the attack on Israeli commandos by terrorists on the Mavi Marmara.

"We totally agreed with the inquiring commission that was mentioned in the final declaration by the Security Council ... The proposal that Israel took today does not correspond with the requirements of the Security Council," Abbas said at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace.

According to the Security Council's proposal on June 1, the Israeli authority should launch "a transparent, credible, impartial and rapid inquiry, in line with international criteria," for the incident.

Of course transparency in government is not something Abbas, whose sons own a valuable stake in the Palestinian cellular company, would necessarily understand.

Funny thing is that, despite the double standards, Israel does indeed investigate itself. And it just issued a report.

The report, which examined efforts by the government to resettle the 9,000 people removed from 21 communities in the Gaza Strip and four in northern Samaria, documented how the state had failed to properly compensate the evacuees, resulting in a bevy of social problems for those forced to relocate.

"Five years after the evacuation, an examination of the results discloses an extremely dismal picture: Most of the evacuees are still living in temporary caravan sites; the construction of most of the permanent housing has not yet commenced; the decisive majority of the public structures in the evacuees' new settlements have not yet been built; the rate of unemployment among the evacuees is double the rate of unemployment in the general population; the economic state of some of the evacuees is very bad, and there are more than a few among them in need of assistance from the welfare entities... it was therefore found that the work of rehabilitating the evacuees is far from completed," the report states.

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