"Toothless in Gaza?"

Commenting on the setting up of an internal enquiry into the attack on the aid flotilla Paul Wood, the BBC Newscorrespondent in Jerusalem wrote

"An experienced politician like Benjamin Netanyahu knows that getting the outcome you want from a public inquiry is all about the right terms of reference and who you appoint to sit on the inquiry.

So, the commissions' remit does not include looking at the process of government decision making which led to Israeli commando raid. It will instead focus on questions of international law.

And the two foreign observers who have been appointed are seen as friends of Israel.

Turkey - and others critical of Israel - want a fully independent UN commission of inquiry. This demand has now been deflected with the appointment of credible (but not unfriendly) international figures as non-voting observers."

(In fact Mr Trimble is one of the prominent co-founders of the pro-Israel, Paris-based advocacy group "Friends of Israel")

Even the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had reservations about the enquiry

"The government's efforts to avoid a thorough and credible investigation of the flotilla affair seem more and more like a farce.

The conclusions of an ostensible probe are intended to justify retroactively the decision to blockade Gaza, to forcibly stop the Turkish aid flotilla in international waters and to use deadly force on the deck of the Mavi Marmara.

To make the costume seem credible, the Prime Minister's Bureau asked a retired Supreme Court justice, Yaakov Tirkel, to chair the committee. Alongside him will sit foreign observers in order to legitimize the conclusions in international public opinion"


The panel consists of Shabtai Rosen, a 93-year-old British-born professor and former diplomat, and Amos Horev, an 86-year-old retired army major general and a former president of an Israeli university at 75, Yaakov Tirkel is the youngest.

HOWEVER - as Paul Wood again reports on BBC News, Jerusalem 30 June

"People don't like being made fun of and old people are more sensitive to this than others - so said one Israeli newspaper explaining why, in its view, the Tirkel commission had turned on the Israeli government and demanded new powers.
Certainly there was a lot of criticism in the Israeli press at the commission:
It was too old. The average age was 84.
It was toothless.
It was a mere fig leaf for the Israeli government, a commission intended solely for foreign export."

It is reported by Israeli media that Mr Tirkel has demanded that the panel be recognised as a state commission of inquiry with the power to subpoena witnesses and recommend sanctions and would resign if this was not met

Although 'sources close to the inquiry' have denied the reports, the prime minister issued a statement on Tuesday saying the cabinet was ready to grant the commission's request to allow it to subpoena witnesses and have them testify under oath.

Nevertheless,
it specified that the extended mandate would not allow the panel to question any of the commandos involved in the flotilla raid, citing security considerations and will rely instead on summaries of the army's internal investigation

The scope of the investigation is still limited to examining the conformity of the naval blockade with the rules of international law; the conformity of the actions during the raid to principles of international law; and the actions taken by those who organized and participated in the flotilla, and their identities

It does as Haaretz criticizes (13.06.10)

'not intend to probe the decision-making process that preceded the takeover of the ship and the shortcomings that were uncovered.

Netanyahu's panel will have no powers, not even those of a government probe, and its proposed chairman does not believe in such a panel. In an interview to Army Radio, Tirkel said there is no choice but to establish a state committee of inquiry. He opposed bringing in foreign observers and made clear that he is not a devotee of drawing conclusions about individuals and dismissing those responsible for failures.
When a Haaretz reporter confronted Tirkel about these remarks, the former justice evaded the question saying, "I don't remember what I said." '