Ben Yishay on the Turkel Committee Report

Most of you must have heard about the Flotilla incident, which has left 9 members of the terrorist tied organization, IHH.

To avoid rush international condemnation as happened with the infamous Goldstone report, Israel set up a committee to investigate the events thoroughly. The committee is headed by Israeli judge Turkel, and includes two external members, one from Germany and one from the UK who act as objective experts on international conflict laws.

This, ben Yishay points out (I would bet the English version will appear in a couple of days), was an excellent strategic move on the side of the government of Israel. All Israel cannot ignore a few crucial details about this report:

- It addresses all serious allegations that surfaced after the incident.

- The committee includes some international law heavy weights.

- It addresses carefully issues arising from the blockade.

Moreover, the report clears the IDF from any wrongdoing and asserts the legality of the blockade on Gaza, as well as Israel's right to enforce it. Now, Turkey will have a tough time to maintain their boneheaded stance. Additionally, any UN investigation will not be able to ignore the findings of this very detailed and well reasoned. Another thing that will be hard to ignore, is that the report contains some pretty compelling first hand accounts of Israeli commandos, and lacks testimony of IHH members and the ship's captain, who declined their invitation to testify.

I guess this why some Israel bashers such as those in the BBC (h/t Elder) are now quickly trying to label this very well researched document as a 'whitewash'.

-QP