Israel agrees to U.N. investigation of Gaza flotilla raid

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations' determined effort to form an international board of inquiry into the Israeli raid on a Turkish-based "humanitarian flotilla" trying to run the Gaza blockade in May has broken Jerusalem's resistance to the investigation.

Earlier, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told WND, "The [international] board of inquiry is very much on the table." 

But today WND learned that Israel has agreed to let the U.N. investigation go forward.

The official announcement, which could come yet this weekend, would contain Israeli and Turkish elements and likely be chaired by New Zealand, say U.N. sources.

Gaza has been under an Israeli naval blockade since June 2007, after the terrorist group Hamas assumed power in Gaza and kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit in mid-2006. Shalit remains captive 4 years later.

In the Israeli commando flotilla raid on May 30 – "Operation Sea Breeze–Sky Winds" – nine people were killed, leading to a rupture in relations between Israel and Turkey.

Ankara has insisted on a public apology by Jerusalem. Israel insists "it has nothing to apologize for."

Jerusalem did, however, decide to form its own independent panel to review the incident. Preliminary findings concluded that the commando group had been "ill prepared" for the operation.

The United Nations, under U.S. and Israeli pressure, had slowed down repeated Arab Group requests to form its own commission of inquiry. Washington and Jerusalem suspect that such an "inquiry" could set the ground for a wider action, such as involvement by the International Criminal Court.

As such, in an unusual strategy, the U.N. has been repeatedly visited by a series of high-level Israeli leaders since the May conflict to press its case.

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Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to discuss a variety of issues.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, now in New York City capping a weeklong U.S. visit, has seen Ban three times since the flotilla incident. Barak met Ban for almost an hour yesterday, and at one point both dismissed their staffs for a highly unusual "private conversation," says a U.N. source.

Shortly afterwards, Barak avoided reporters, secretly leaving the U.N. compound through an underground garage.

It was at that meeting that Barak told Ban Jerusalem would allow a U.N. investigation to go forward, say U.N. sources.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman headed a high-level but low-keyed visit to New York City in June, whereupon senior officials quietly met U.N. staff on the flotilla attack.

At the same time, foreign ministry sources tell WND that Lieberman also convened a meeting of all senior Israeli diplomats in North America to "strategize" on policy pertaining to the flotilla incident.

Visits to the U.N. by top-level Israelis may normally amount to just three or four a year, but since the flotilla incident, 5 visits by senior Israeli officials to the world organization's headquarters have been made in just two months.

Diplomats tell WND the "unusual" number of Israeli consultations shows just how "serious" the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is taking the U.N.'s insistence on forming its own international review panel.

The current tug-of-war will test Ban Ki-moon's ability to walk a tightrope, hoping to assuage conflicting pressures from Washington, Jerusalem and the U.N.'s Arab bloc.

Coincidentally, Ban recently unofficially circulated his decision to seek a second term as secretary-general. His current five-year term expires in Dec. 2011.

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