updated.
Netanyahu: Gaza flotilla probe will show the world Israel acted lawfully
Israeli cabinet approves inquiry commission into raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla in unanimous vote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Monday's cabinet meeting that the main goal of the Gaza flotilla probe is to prove to the world that the Israel Navy operation on the Gaza-bound aid ship was appropriate and met international standards.
"The government decision will make it clear to the world that Israel is acting legally, responsibly, and with complete transparency," said Netanyahu.
The cabinet approved the inquiry commission into the Gaza flotilla events in a unanimous vote. "It is not ideal, but the other options are less good,"
Read the rest at Haaretz.com here.
My question is how could the murder suspects appoint themselves as investigator, judge and jury.
I think a nuclear bomb capable Israel with its arrogance and refusal to listen to the advise of its allies and friends is a danger to Middle East stability in particular and the world in General.
update:
This is a superb article by Mr. Uri Avnery, founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) who has long advocated for a Palestinian state along side Israel:
Who Is Afraid of a Real Inquiry?
This is a superb article by Mr. Uri Avnery, founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) who has long advocated for a Palestinian state along side Israel:
Who Is Afraid of a Real Inquiry?
by Uri Avnery, June 14, 2010
If a real commission of inquiry had been set up (instead of the pathetic excuse for a commission), here are some of the questions it should have addressed:
1. What is the real aim of the Gaza Strip blockade?
2. If the aim is to prevent the flow of arms into the Strip, why are only 100 products allowed in (as compared to the more than 12,000 products in an average Israeli supermarket)?
3. Why is it forbidden to bring in chocolate, toys, writing material, and many kinds of fruits and vegetables (and why cinnamon but not coriander)?
4. What is the connection between the decision to forbid the import of construction materials for the replacement or repair of the thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged during the Cast Lead operation and the argument that they may serve Hamas for building bunkers – when more than enough materials for this purpose are brought into the Strip through the tunnels?
5. Is the real aim of the blockade to turn the lives of the 1.5 million human beings in the Strip into hell, in the hope of inducing them to overthrow the Hamas regime?
Since this has not happened, but – on the contrary – Hamas has become stronger during the three years of the blockade, did the government ever entertain second thoughts on this matter?
6. Has the blockade been imposed in the hope of freeing the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit?
7. If so, has the blockade contributed anything to the realization of this aim, or has it been counterproductive?
8. Why does the Israeli government refuse to exchange Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, when Hamas agrees to such a deal?
9. Is it true that the U.S. government has imposed a veto on the exchange of prisoners, on the grounds that it would strengthen Hamas?
10. Has there been any discussion in our government about fulfilling its undertaking in the Oslo agreement – to enable and encourage the development of the Gaza port – in a way that would prevent the passage of arms?
12. Why does the Israeli government declare again and again that the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip are part of Israel’s own territorial waters, and that ships entering them “infringe on Israeli sovereignty,” contrary to the fact that the Gaza Strip was never annexed to Israel and that Israel officially announced in 2006 that it had “separated” itself from it?
13. Why has the attorney general’s office declared that the peace activists captured on the high seas, who had no intention whatsoever of entering Israel, had “tried to enter Israel illegally,” and brought them before a judge for the extension of their arrest under the law that concerns “illegal entry into Israel”?
For the balance of 67 penetrating questions asked by Mr. Avnery read here.
If a real commission of inquiry had been set up (instead of the pathetic excuse for a commission), here are some of the questions it should have addressed:
1. What is the real aim of the Gaza Strip blockade?
2. If the aim is to prevent the flow of arms into the Strip, why are only 100 products allowed in (as compared to the more than 12,000 products in an average Israeli supermarket)?
3. Why is it forbidden to bring in chocolate, toys, writing material, and many kinds of fruits and vegetables (and why cinnamon but not coriander)?
4. What is the connection between the decision to forbid the import of construction materials for the replacement or repair of the thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged during the Cast Lead operation and the argument that they may serve Hamas for building bunkers – when more than enough materials for this purpose are brought into the Strip through the tunnels?
5. Is the real aim of the blockade to turn the lives of the 1.5 million human beings in the Strip into hell, in the hope of inducing them to overthrow the Hamas regime?
Since this has not happened, but – on the contrary – Hamas has become stronger during the three years of the blockade, did the government ever entertain second thoughts on this matter?
6. Has the blockade been imposed in the hope of freeing the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit?
7. If so, has the blockade contributed anything to the realization of this aim, or has it been counterproductive?
8. Why does the Israeli government refuse to exchange Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, when Hamas agrees to such a deal?
9. Is it true that the U.S. government has imposed a veto on the exchange of prisoners, on the grounds that it would strengthen Hamas?
10. Has there been any discussion in our government about fulfilling its undertaking in the Oslo agreement – to enable and encourage the development of the Gaza port – in a way that would prevent the passage of arms?
12. Why does the Israeli government declare again and again that the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip are part of Israel’s own territorial waters, and that ships entering them “infringe on Israeli sovereignty,” contrary to the fact that the Gaza Strip was never annexed to Israel and that Israel officially announced in 2006 that it had “separated” itself from it?
13. Why has the attorney general’s office declared that the peace activists captured on the high seas, who had no intention whatsoever of entering Israel, had “tried to enter Israel illegally,” and brought them before a judge for the extension of their arrest under the law that concerns “illegal entry into Israel”?
For the balance of 67 penetrating questions asked by Mr. Avnery read here.
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