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INSTEAD OF ANOTHER IGNORED REPORT
By Akiva Eldar
Ha'aretz
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/instead-of-another-ignored-report-1.294596
June 7 2010
Israel
It would be best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel's
policy governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of
the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In the same week the diplomatic tsunami caused by the fatal raid of
the Mavi Marmara left those trying to steer Israel's ship of state
high and dry, two leaders of other countries, one in the Far East
and one in the West, both resigned their posts.
In Germany, Horst Koehler stepped down as president, penalizing himself
for saying that German military deployments abroad serve the country's
economic interests. And Yukio Hatoyama resigned as prime minister of
Japan after breaking a promise to move an American military base off
the island of Okinawa.
In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak are evading responsibility for the disastrous
thinking that led to the flotilla raid, and using their purported
faith in the commandos who carried it out as a way of keeping that
disastrous thinking under wraps.
Netanyahu and Barak are right: There is no need for an inquiry. It's
clear that their risk-reward assessment was faulty, since Netanyahu
was getting ready to head to the White House as the commandos were
firing on the passengers of the aid ship.
No political or military official who was involved in the decision
to mount a forcible takeover of the ships says that any option was
considered other than the vessels either being captured or reaching
the Gaza port.
Two dozen cabinet members - who are collectively responsible for the
crisis - say they first heard about the incident on the radio.
Not only is it unnecessary to appoint an inquiry committee to examine
the problematic takeover of the Mavi Marmara, but doing so is likely
to detract attention from the far-reaching strategic ramifications
of the Gaza blockade and its implementation.
Syrian President Bashar Assad wasn't exaggerating when he described
the flotilla as a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, by which
he presumably meant that the incident dragged the Israeli government
into the losing sphere of ethics and human rights.
In this assymetric struggle between the occupier and the occupied,
military supremacy not only fails to ensure victory, but easily
becomes a hindrance.
In the absence of a genuine peace process, the flotilla saga caused
the moderate Arab center, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to lose what
momentum it had. Now the momentum is with the radical Islamists on
the fringes, led by Iran.
There's no need to bother a retired judge just so he can rule that
the decision-makers should have been aware of the race for Middle
East supremacy.
And there's nothing that any expert in maritime law has to say
that will prevent the Arab-speaking public from pressuring Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak to open the Rafah crossing.
We don't need an inquiry committee to know that the blockade keeping
cilantro and cement out of Gaza has turned Tehran's deniers of the
Jewish genocide and Ankara's deniers of the Armenian genocide into
standard-bearers for assistance to the unfortunate children of Gaza.
At the same time, Hamas is laughing all the way from the smuggling
tunnels to the bank. The blockade has transformed Hamas, which the
United States and Europe classify as a terror organization, into a
victim of Israeli aggression.
You don't have to be an expert on the Middle East to realize that
every day in which Israel drags its feet on peace talks with the
Palestinians bolsters Hamas' position in Gaza. All you had to do was
see Iran's ally to Israel's north licking its lips in pleasure in
order to realize the price of the standstill on the Syrian track.
Even the best of Israel's friends in the world have a hard time
understanding the Netanyahu-Barak government, not to mention justifying
its actions. Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank in
Washington, wrote in an article last week that "the depth of America's
moral commitment does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli
government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when
it should remain an asset."
Cordesman, who previously served as director of intelligence assessment
in the Pentagon, also said America's commitment to Israel "does
not mean that the United States should extend support to an Israeli
government when that government fails to credibly pursue peace with
its neighbors."
Instead of just shoving one more report in the drawer, it would be
best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel's policy
governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of the West
Bank and East Jerusalem.
Floating along in the direction we've been going will just get us
into hot water.
From: A. Papazian
By Akiva Eldar
Ha'aretz
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/instead-of-another-ignored-report-1.294596
June 7 2010
Israel
It would be best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel's
policy governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of
the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In the same week the diplomatic tsunami caused by the fatal raid of
the Mavi Marmara left those trying to steer Israel's ship of state
high and dry, two leaders of other countries, one in the Far East
and one in the West, both resigned their posts.
In Germany, Horst Koehler stepped down as president, penalizing himself
for saying that German military deployments abroad serve the country's
economic interests. And Yukio Hatoyama resigned as prime minister of
Japan after breaking a promise to move an American military base off
the island of Okinawa.
In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak are evading responsibility for the disastrous
thinking that led to the flotilla raid, and using their purported
faith in the commandos who carried it out as a way of keeping that
disastrous thinking under wraps.
Netanyahu and Barak are right: There is no need for an inquiry. It's
clear that their risk-reward assessment was faulty, since Netanyahu
was getting ready to head to the White House as the commandos were
firing on the passengers of the aid ship.
No political or military official who was involved in the decision
to mount a forcible takeover of the ships says that any option was
considered other than the vessels either being captured or reaching
the Gaza port.
Two dozen cabinet members - who are collectively responsible for the
crisis - say they first heard about the incident on the radio.
Not only is it unnecessary to appoint an inquiry committee to examine
the problematic takeover of the Mavi Marmara, but doing so is likely
to detract attention from the far-reaching strategic ramifications
of the Gaza blockade and its implementation.
Syrian President Bashar Assad wasn't exaggerating when he described
the flotilla as a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, by which
he presumably meant that the incident dragged the Israeli government
into the losing sphere of ethics and human rights.
In this assymetric struggle between the occupier and the occupied,
military supremacy not only fails to ensure victory, but easily
becomes a hindrance.
In the absence of a genuine peace process, the flotilla saga caused
the moderate Arab center, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to lose what
momentum it had. Now the momentum is with the radical Islamists on
the fringes, led by Iran.
There's no need to bother a retired judge just so he can rule that
the decision-makers should have been aware of the race for Middle
East supremacy.
And there's nothing that any expert in maritime law has to say
that will prevent the Arab-speaking public from pressuring Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak to open the Rafah crossing.
We don't need an inquiry committee to know that the blockade keeping
cilantro and cement out of Gaza has turned Tehran's deniers of the
Jewish genocide and Ankara's deniers of the Armenian genocide into
standard-bearers for assistance to the unfortunate children of Gaza.
At the same time, Hamas is laughing all the way from the smuggling
tunnels to the bank. The blockade has transformed Hamas, which the
United States and Europe classify as a terror organization, into a
victim of Israeli aggression.
You don't have to be an expert on the Middle East to realize that
every day in which Israel drags its feet on peace talks with the
Palestinians bolsters Hamas' position in Gaza. All you had to do was
see Iran's ally to Israel's north licking its lips in pleasure in
order to realize the price of the standstill on the Syrian track.
Even the best of Israel's friends in the world have a hard time
understanding the Netanyahu-Barak government, not to mention justifying
its actions. Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank in
Washington, wrote in an article last week that "the depth of America's
moral commitment does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli
government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when
it should remain an asset."
Cordesman, who previously served as director of intelligence assessment
in the Pentagon, also said America's commitment to Israel "does
not mean that the United States should extend support to an Israeli
government when that government fails to credibly pursue peace with
its neighbors."
Instead of just shoving one more report in the drawer, it would be
best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel's policy
governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of the West
Bank and East Jerusalem.
Floating along in the direction we've been going will just get us
into hot water.
From: A. Papazian