Israel Matzav

Obama lied, Susan Rice messed up again

On Wednesday, I reported that the US ambassador to Turkey had been summoned to receive a protest of remarks made by the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, regarding the United Nations commission on the flotilla fiasco to which Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed.

Anne Bayefsky reports that it was the US charge d'affairs who was summoned by Ankara, and that's just a small part with the problems over the new commission. Bayefsky urges Prime Minister Netanyahu to reconsider Israel's participation in what seems likely to become a witch hunt.

So on August 2, Ban launched his investigation, which got off the ground only because the U.S. pressed Israel to agree, and Israel took American assurances seriously. U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice spelled some of them out: “The United States expects that the Panel will…obviate the need for any overlapping international inquiries.” The overlapping inquiry of the Human Rights Council, she claimed, would go away.

At exactly the same time, however, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released a statement in which he made no reference to the Human Rights Council, and no commitment to seek the dissolution of the Council’s investigation.

Two days later the president of the Human Rights Council, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, called Rice’s bluff. He told UN radio that “it was crucial that the Council investigate,” and said to reporters in Geneva “I feel very strongly that we have to proceed.”

Ambassador Rice made other promises. She described the purpose of the panel this way: “[I]t would receive and review the [Turkish and Israeli] reports of each…national investigation…and make recommendations as to how to avoid such incidents in the future. This Panel is not a substitute for those national investigations…The focus of the Panel is appropriately on the future.” In other words, the UN inquiry would not supersede Israel’s own efforts or launch a new investigation since that would mean focusing on the past.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz added that the Israeli government believed it had received assurances that “the review panel will not have the authority to subpoena witnesses, including Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers.”

Once again, Rice’s story was immediately challenged. The American charge d’affaires in Ankara was reportedly reprimanded by the Turkish foreign ministry because of Rice’s remarks. Turkey directly repudiated Rice’s characterization of the inquiry’s scope. In the words of a senior official speaking on Tuesday to the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News, “saying ‘the probe is not a substitute for national investigations’ is misleading.”

The secretary general’s spokesperson also contradicted Rice’s account. He told a press briefing on Monday that the panel has been “tasked with making findings about the facts and circumstances and context of the incident... and one assumes that it will be necessary to ask…for more information…It isn’t just receiving and reviewing the reports…” In response to a question about whether the panel could interview witnesses, including members of the Israel Defense Forces, the spokesperson responded, “It’s for them [the panel] to decide whether to ask.” And on Thursday, the spokesperson disputed the notion that the focus of the panel was on the future. He said, the “Panel of Inquiry…is looking back at that incident and…it’s looking into the facts.”

At bottom, it appears that the mandate of the panel is actually still up in the air. On Monday the secretary general’s spokesperson said, “it will be for the panel to decide exactly how they will operate and decide on what steps may need to be taken in order to obtain…information from the national authorities.” The secretary general’s office has refused to release a copy of the panel’s mandate, despite requests from states, NGOs, and members of the press. And on Thursday, a senior official in Ban’s Office said that there are no “terms of reference” for the panel yet because “nothing is finalized or agreed.” He added, “at this point, there might be different drafts of possible terms of reference”. The panel will have four members, only one will be Israeli, and will operate by consensus “where possible.” So if the terms of reference are really undecided, or Israel has been misled as to their content, their definition has now slipped beyond Israel’s control.

Read the whole thing. And then tell Bibi to get out of it while we still can.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:40 AM