(Ynet News) Zvi Mazel - In the so-called "peace flotilla" episode, Israel behaved with the utmost transparency. But nobody knows exactly what went on in Turkey - how the operation was planned and what part the Turkish government played in its implementation. After the IHH, a militant Turkish organization, announced its intention to send several vessels to breach the Gaza blockade and embarrass Israel, Israel immediately contacted the Turkish government, since the operation was planned from that country, but Turkey refused to act. According to reports in the Turkish press, some terrorists on the Marmara had declared before setting out that they intended to become "martyrs." Two of them even filmed a video clip according to the well-known tradition of Islamist extremists. There is indeed an urgent need to set up an international commission of inquiry to determine the role of Turkey in planning and facilitating the event. According to the CIA, IHH is a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda and Hamas. The commission of inquiry should investigate why Turkey let the IHH operate openly on its soil and why it did not arrest its leaders. It will have to check the nature of the relationship between the Turkish government and IHH, especially while that organization was reinforcing its links with Hamas. It will have to clarify what Turkey did in recent months to assist IHH in planning and carrying out the operation. Also to be scrutinized is the way IHH secured its funding. Was the Turkish government one of the contributors? The writer, a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is Israel's former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.
2010-06-11 09:15:40Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive