Israel Worries Over Consequences of Flotilla Clash

JERUSALEM (June 1) -- As they scramble to contain the diplomatic fallout from Monday's raid on a Turkish ship carrying aid to Gaza that left at least nine activists dead, Israeli officials are especially concerned about the opinion of one man: President Barack Obama.

"Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden," Meir Dagan, Israel's intelligence chief, said today before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

That statement from such a respected official unsettled not only politicians but also many Israelis aware of their country's enormous dependence on Washington's diplomatic goodwill. It comes amid a storm of international criticism of Israel for its handling of the Gaza flotilla.

Threats of further confrontation grew Tuesday as activists said another ship, the Rachel Corrie, would be dispatched in another attempt to bust the blockade on Gaza. According to The Associated Press, the Israeli military said it had launched an airstrike that killed three militants who had fired rockets into Israel. The military also claimed to have killed two other militants infiltrating into Israel, the AP reported.

Tension in the Gaza Strip was high as Egypt announced it would open a key border crossing to allow aid in, but agencies reported that Hamas security forces were not allowing Palestinians to cross into Egypt.

The U.S. neither abstained from nor vetoed this morning's Security Council statement condemning the deaths at sea and urging Israel to agree to an independent investigation and lift the four-year-old siege of Gaza.

The incident led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a trip to North America, passing up an important meeting with Obama.

Israel detained about 500 activists, most of them Turkish, after it towed the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, to the Israeli port of Ashdod. About 50 were deported and 30 remain in Israeli hospitals. Israel says most of the activists will be freed after they are interrogated.

Israel set up an internal military inquiry to look into the event, but in the past it has been reluctant to cooperate with international investigations.

While the consequences for Israeli-U.S. relations are still unclear, the attack and deaths have sparked a crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey, a large, secular Muslim country. Turkey immediately recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv, and officials said they are considering further action. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was furious as he discussed the incident.

"This bloody massacre by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse," he said. "This attack is on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace."

Erdogan also urged Israel to lift what he called the "inhumane embargo" of Gaza. Tens of thousands demonstrated against Israel in the Turkish capital of Ankara, and the Israeli government warned Israelis not to travel to Turkey, a popular holiday destination just a one-hour flight from Israel. Israelis already in Turkey were told to stay inside.

Israel's foreign minister, Yuval Steinitz, said the crisis could harm the more than $3 billion in trade between Israel and Turkey, which have a free-trade agreement. Turkey also has close military and political ties to Israel and has even mediated indirect talks between Israel and Syria.

The incident has sparked intense debate within Israel. Some said Israel should be proud of its decisions.

"Instead of flat-out dismissing the world's ridiculous claims, everyone here has entered into a frenzy of self-flagellation: How could we have not known, what didn't we do and what will they say," wrote Israel's largest-circulation daily, Yediot Aharonot, in an editorial. "Wouldn't it be more fitting, on such a day, to be proud that the naval commandos overcame the violent individuals who tried to kill them without any loss to our forces? It could be that we need to learn several lessons before the next flotilla. ... But why all the hue and cry instead of national pride of the simplest and most basic kind?"

But there was also criticism.

"No explanation can justify or whitewash the crime committed here, nor is there any excuse for the stupidity with which the government and the army acted," wrote prominent Israeli author David Grossman. "Israel's action was a natural outgrowth of its shameful and prolonged blockade on Gaza, which in turn was a natural outgrowth of the government's aggressive, arrogant approach."

In an editorial, the liberal daily Haaretz wrote that the incident had given Hamas "an outstanding victory without firing a single rocket."

"In this test, Benjamin Netanyahu's government failed completely," the editorial continued. "Israel let its policy of maintaining the siege on Gaza become an existential matter. This policy boomeranged and cost Israel its international legitimacy. The decision makers' negligence is threatening the security of Israelis, and Israel's global status. Someone must be held responsible for this disgraceful failure."

Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. It was deepened after Hamas took over Gaza a year later. Israeli officials insist that there is no humanitarian crisis and that adequate quantities of food, medicine and fuel are reaching the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. But it also has a list of 2,000 items not allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, including cement to rebuild homes destroyed in fighting.