Asia

Home page

Asia

Ehud Barak accepts responsibility for Gaza flotilla raid

10 August 2010 20:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israelâ€™s defence minister Ehud Barak today said he took "overall" responsibility for the deadly raid on the Gaza aid flotilla which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish activists. However, he pointed the finger of blame at the military for the execution of the internationally condemned operation, APA reports quoting guardian.co.uk website.
Giving evidence on the second day of hearings held by the Turkel commission, the state-appointed panel investigating the operation, Barak said: "I carry overall responsibility for everything that took place in the systems under my command. I carry responsibility for the orders given on the political level."
However, he drew a distinction between political responsibility and the execution of the operation. "The politicians determined the ’what’ and the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] worked out the ’how’ â€“ and the IDF carried out the operation."
The military did not inform politicians about the details of the operational plan, said Barak. "They said, ’It will be difficult to do it, but we will do it.’ They did not say how it should be done, and rightfully so. They said there would be distressing images but they did not say it couldn’t be done, and they even said the opposite."
He added: "If the decision was right, then the gap between what we wanted and what happened is the execution."
Barak, who has a long record of military service, told the hearing he had spent most of his life in operations. "The difference between success and complications is as thin as a strand of hair. Here, the goal of stopping the sail was achieved."
Barak said Israel’s inner cabinet had considered the military aspects of the operation. This was in contrast to prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s testimony yesterday, in which he said his inner cabinet, known as the group of seven, had only discussed public relations issues.
According to Barak, the group, which met in the days running up to the flotilla’s arrival in international waters off the coast of Gaza, examined the overall situation and the dilemmas, "not only with the media aspects â€¦ but also with the military aspects."
A draft of the operational plan was presented to the seven senior ministers. It covered intelligence assessments and a range of possible outcomes, including "extreme scenarios", according to Barak.
"A question was raised of what should be done in case of serious violence and shooting of RPG [rocket-propelled grenades] and machine guns and firing on our forces in the sea. We didn’t reach that discussion," he said.
The five-strong Turkel commission will hear evidence from Israel’s chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, tomorrow.
Many commentators in the Israeli press were critical of Netanyahu’s performance at the hearings yesterday, accusing him of lack of leadership.
Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, said the prime minister had shrugged off his responsibility. "[Netanyahu’s] responsibility should have been shouldered fully and that should have been flaunted publicly â€¦ Leadership should have been shown."