Israel Matzav

Israel's Foreign Ministry casts a finger of blame

A story in Haaretz claims that Israel's Foreign Ministry warned against attempting to board the flotilla of fools in international waters last week, claiming that such a move would 'hamper' Israel on the diplomatic and public relations fronts.

An Israel Defense Forces internal probe of the flotilla raid is already underway. The head of the investigation, General (res. ) Giora Eiland, will soon begin to compile the findings of the probe into a report. In discussions that preceded the flotilla's arrival and forcible takeover, legal experts with the Military Advocate General's Corps and the Foreign Ministry offered similar opinions which stated that there was no legal impediment to stopping a ship whose operators have already announced an intention to trespass a blockade, even if the takeover is done in international waters.

The legal opinions were based on precedent-setting cases involving the American and British navies as well as citations of the San Remo international law manual of 1994.

Nonetheless, Foreign Ministry officials cautioned representatives of the defense establishment that it would be difficult to justify a military operation outside of Israel's territorial waters from both a political and public relations standpoint.

Thus, according to senior figures familiar with the details of the discussions, the Foreign Ministry urged defense officials to launch their operations to stop the flotilla only after the ships had crossed Gaza's maritime boundaries. The ministry's diplomats repeated this request on more than one occasion.

"If somebody breaks into your home and you shoot him after he enters the doorway, there's no problem in justifying this action in court," said a senior ministry official. "But if you attack the burglar while he is on his way to your house at a distance of two blocks away, then you have a problem."

"It was made clear that we can ultimately prove that we acted according to international law, but this will be very complicated and we will absorb many denunciations along the way," the official said.

Senior figures involved in the planning of the operation praised the improved cooperation between the defense establishment and the Foreign Ministry. While the diplomats' warnings were understood, their recommendation was not accepted due to "operational reasons."

"The navy expressed concern that it would not be able to stop the flotilla once the ships reached within 20 miles of the coast," said an official who had a hand in the planning of the operation. "The IDF was fearful that the naval forces would not have adequate time to complete the operation. The army wanted to overtake the ships gradually and at a relatively great distance from the coast."

Substantively, I disagree with the Foreign Ministry's assessment. The World isn't outraged that the IDF took over the ships in international waters. It's outraged that we prevented the 'humanitarians' from reaching Gaza and it's outraged that we are imposing a blockade on Gaza at all. That would have been the case if we had boarded those ships 20 miles or 200 miles off the coast. Therefore, the IDF's planning concerns ought to have (and did) take precedence.

And as the title of this post and the picture at the top (Boston Consul General Nadav Tamir with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick) imply, I am also still suspicious of much of the Foreign Ministry's bureaucracy, and suspect strongly that this story was planted by someone at the Foreign Ministry who was doing some CYA work.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:10 PM