WASHINGTON, June 2, (Agencies): The United States declined Tuesday to condemn Israel for its raid on a humanitarian flotilla headed for Gaza, but said the incident showed Middle East peace talks were needed “more than ever.”
The White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did describe the situation in Gaza as “untenable” and “unacceptable,” but Washington’s reaction to the raid did not match the explicit rebukes of Israel of some of its allies.
As diplomatic fallout multiplied, and threatened to derail a laborious bid to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, President Barack Obama also called key regional power broker, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs was earlier asked directly whether his boss would condemn Israel over the drama in international waters in which nine people were killed by Israeli commandos.
Speaking carefully, Gibbs stuck to the language of a UN Security Council statement issued late Sunday on the raid.
The statement condemned “those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded,” but did not specifically say whether the Israeli raid or actions of pro-Palestinian supporters caused the violence.
It also called for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent” probe into the incident conforming to international standards, Gibbs noted.
“We’re obviously supportive of that.”
Clinton said Washington supported an “Israeli investigation that meets those criteria. We are open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation, including international participation.”
Independent
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley explained why Washington thought Israel should carry out the investigation rather than an independent international body.
“These were Israeli forces that carried out this action and we think they’re in the best position to investigate what instructions were given to these forces, how was the situation when they approached the flotilla, and what transpired onboard that ship.”
Clinton also criticized the humanitarian situation in Hamas-ruled Gaza under an Israeli blockade, calling it “unsustainable and unacceptable” while Gibbs said the incident showed a Middle East peace plan was needed “more than ever.”
The deadly maritime confrontation threatens to stymie US peace moves again at a time when the Obama administration has just restarted “proximity” peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
But Gibbs said that he did not think the incident, which triggered global fury, would have “a great impact” on Washington’s ties with the Muslim world, despite staunch US support for Israel.
Israel has blamed activists on a Turkish vessel, Mavi Marmara, for the confrontation, saying its troops were attacked as they boarded the ship and that nine passengers were killed in the ensuing fight.
But passengers disputed that version of events, saying that those on board were not armed with anything more threatening than a few wooden batons.
The showdown provoked a crisis in Israel’s relations with Turkey — once its closest Muslim ally — as diplomatic sources in Ankara confirmed at least four of the dead were Turkish.
It also provoked another diplomatic headache for Washington, as Obama had expended considerable effort trying to maintain good relations with Turkey, a rising regional power which is also key in the confrontation with Iran.
In his call with Erdogan, who earlier branded the raid a “bloody massacre” Obama expressed his “deep condolences for the loss of life and injuries resulting from the Israeli military operation against the Turkish-flagged ship bound for Gaza,” the White House said.
Affirmed
“The President affirmed the importance of finding better ways to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza without undermining Israel’s security.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been due at the White House on Tuesday for talks seen as an effort to move on from recent and rare public disagreements with Obama.
But he cancelled the visit to return home to deal with the crisis. The White House said that Obama’s talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas next week here were still on as scheduled.
In a sign of domestic political pressure on Obama over Israel, a top Republican lawmaker Eric Cantor called on him to veto any “biased UN resolutions reining in Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Clinton supported a UN Security Council statement that condemned the “acts” that cost the lives of nine pro-Palestinian activists off the Gaza coast. But US officials refused to say whether they held Israel or the activists responsible for the bloodshed.
The administration is in a bind, caught between pressing Israel to permit an easing of harsh conditions in the Gaza Strip while accepting the need to stop the smuggling of arms into Gaza that could be used to attack Israel.
At stake is the Obama administration’s struggle to revive the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a difficult task in the best of times. To achieve this, the United States is trying to keep both sides focused on the goal of restarting talks, with the eventual promise of peace for Israel and a homeland for the Palestinians.
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the raid has complicated US efforts to reassure Israel about its security concerns while pushing for a comprehensive Middle East peace deal.
“It’s hard to imagine any set of actions which would have played more into the hands of Israel’s enemies,” he said in a telephone interview.
“This seems to be a perfect storm of negative outcomes at a time when the United States wants to do something quite different, which is reassure Israelis, re-engage on negotiations and try to resolve the underlying issues once and for all.”
President Barack Obama is to meet at the White House next week with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and he sent his Middle East peace envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, back to the region for meetings Wednesday with Palestinian officials.
Alejandro Wolff, deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, suggested to reporters in New York that some of the activists aboard the raided vessels may have sought to provoke the Israelis into a harsh response.
“This sort of incident when you have statements coming from some of the participants in the flotilla, suggesting that maybe it was not solely to provide humanitarian assistance, but it may have been intended to provoke — not that everyone on that flotilla had that intention — give pause,” Wolff said.
Israel and the United States have said the blockade was intended to discourage the smuggling of weapons into the narrow strip, controlled by the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas. But the policy also has deepened poverty among the 1.5 million Palestinians there.
Clinton said Israel’s legitimate security needs must be taken into account, and the ultimate answer to the conflict is for Israel and the Palestinians to resume talks toward a final peace settlement.
Clinton spoke after a private meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who told reporters earlier Tuesday that the Israeli raid was a criminal act that should be condemned by Washington.
Both Clinton and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the United States is open to international participation in an Israeli investigation of the incident.
Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel who is director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution think tank, said there remains considerable international support for efforts by Israel, Egypt and others to limit the smuggling of weapons into Gaza for use against Israel by Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Even so, Monday’s episode undermines those seeking peace and strengthens Hamas, Indyk said.
He also believes it makes it harder for Abbas, the Palestinian president, to move into direct peace talks with Israel, “because he has to show sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza,” even though Abbas is Hamas’ main rival for Palestinian leadership.